clonefan80

I did a research on the top 20 laser printers. The guy at the store really liked the Okiedata and the quality was great, the replacement catridges were less expensive. I also liked the HP 2600N and mind you i was looking at the cost and these were for your money comparable and the less expensive color models. The difference, when you replace the catridges for the HP you were also replacing the drum, in the Okiedata you were not and eventually if you ran a lot of copies the drum would also have to be replaced. That kinda sold me right then. I was lucky to get the 2600N on sale for $299 with full sets of ink. Yes you can run 5 sheets and not have to watch them and even though my labels are still off a slight bit, its nothing compared to how off the mark they were with my inkjet. It is so slight that i'm sure i'm the only one who notices it. I buy my label paper from Planetlabel, no problems. And yes the quality is like night and day, my labels have a gloss finish to them and my paper is matte. Took me 3 years to move up to this investment but i'm so glad i did. I always felt like my labels were the one thing that i needed to work on and this has fixed that issue. Purchasing preprinted labels was not an option for me as I am constantly adding new scents and also do private labeling and I wanted that control. Hope this has helped...

about two years. I started off slow, word of mouth, selling to people here and there. I finally made the decision to do wholesale and I started doing the research for moving in that direction. Getting a booth plan (display wise). Yup it can be expensive but its marketing and you gotta get out there and theres that old adage it takes money to make money. I have only just began to advertise in a few magazines that are my target market, and thats another thing, know your market...who you are marketing to. Not everyone will want your line of candles. Initially i did trade shows that were regional, ie Dallas and KC but i am venturing out to the Denver show in Jan. It all takes time and everything i do is in steps. When you leap to fast you might not be ready and thats when failure ensures. The last market i did was by far my best and my orders and reorders have been huge but i've been able to make the adjustments and growth at a pace that has not sunk me. I do know the time for a new workshop and part time employee is not far off but... until then i'm content growing at this pace.. One case in point, one order i received was so large that it needed to be shipped by truck. I don't have a dock so i had to research and set up an account with a local truck lines on how to get my stuff to them and palletize it at their dock, because if they do it your gonna get charged. Those are the steps i'm talking about, things we don't think about when we are shipping 4 and 5 cases at a time.

Food for thought here.....if you print lots of labels it might be more cost effective to purchase a Laser printer. I do print lots of labels and i was going thru ink jet catridges about every 6 weeks at an average of $60 a pop. Then i started researching the Laser printers and the quality of my label was like night and day, i was hooked. But when I saw how much ($$) the replacement catridges were it made me back away....for a minute...lol. Doing some research I found the Laser printer that I choose prints 2000 sheets before replacing the catridges which by the way come to $300. But so far i've had my Laser printer 3 months and have maybe printed 600 sheets. Cost wise it was a smart move and quality wise it was the best decision I have made. I still use my inkjet, i have both printers hooked up to my computer and i use the inkjet for invoices and such and only use the Laser for my labels.

Yup barncart is right. I do trade shows and i have accounts that only reorder at the show. Also I may write up 20 orders at the show with maybe only 4 consistently reordering. Some go out of business while others go on and try something new. Thats the tricky thing about wholesale, it seems only a handful reorder. Some only reorder every 3-4 months while others order more often. It really depends on how large a store they are and how much they are selling. I have one account in Colorado that will order at a March show that I do for the whole year. She likes her order shipped out in installments. If i don't hear from them in about 3 months I will give them a call and see if they need anything. One thing I have noticed is it sometimes takes awile for them to get a following for your candles, before they reorder they want to make sure there are customers out there that buy them. Anywhoo i hope this makes sense. Ya just gotta keep pluggin' away and finding new ways to market your product. Good luck..

i third that...KY

I'm not following the DBA thing. Are you talking about registering your business with the Secretary of State? In Oklahoma if your Sole Prop you just register your name with the county clerk ($12.50), you can register your name with the SOS for $50 (here) but its not necessary. I would think your tax id (sales tax id) is enough but I could be wrong here. I do have another small business that I have a Federal Tax ID for and that one I did register with the SOS but it is a service industry business, no sales involved.

don't know if your a subscriber to the new magazine www.createthedream.com but they had a good article about private labeling.

www.createthedream.com

I subscribed as well and received the magazine earlier this week. They had an article in their about the gift bags at the celebrity award shows that I found interesting. I found it to be worth the price.

WSP has a great London for Men (Burberry)

trust me as the QUEEN of renaming scents don't try and match the scent to the name, just find one that you really like and name it. Now just for fun name a couple of the candles the regular name if you like and watch peoples opinions.....

I only use this oil for her shop only and she only orders them in votives so thats they best I can help you. I don't do B&B but maybe someone could chime in here who does and help you out. Maybe a warm vanilla sugar would be a better choice for everything instead of a wedding cake scent but thats just me, couldn't see myself putting wedding cake scent lotion on.

BCS...i have a wholesale bridal account that calls this scent the N'awlins Wedding Cake scent......

Keep 'em coming, I'm going to edit this and resubmit it to Sara to be pinned. Yes there is a supplier here in OK, they sell a super Vanilla Bean from what I've heard. Maybe the store owner will chime in? Oh... that would be me.....I'm new but growing and adding new scents every month. www.wildfire-creations.com I've been around awhile, must of you know me by linda k

Here's what i do with my wick pins for pillars. Since mine were never center either i turn them upside down and use a pair of needle nose pliers to center and hold the pin in place. When removing the pillar from the mold i pull the wick pin out first and then the pillar slides right out. There are several different ways people use to wick pillars...HTH

i probably should clarify the 10 case thing before someone jumps in here, i actually ship 2 cases of 16oz apoth in a (22x15x15) box, so actually 20 cases are going out, and your right the local retailers or even ones who are only a state over would end up paying more for shipping, and don't we all watch shipping costs....

Probably not i'm sure they also factor the cost of shipping into their retail product. I set up at Trade Shows (Dallas, KC) and buyers will ask whats the wholesale cost. Not one person has asked me if shipping is included, in fact we never even discuss shipping because its a known fact that it will be added to the order when its shipped. Now given that, i'm not one of the giants who can afford to offer those perks and possibly they realize that. If we were selling T-shirts and could ship 250 in a case, absorbing that cost would be minimal but a case of candles is heavy. I'm shipping out 10 cases today (22x15x15 avg wt 45lbs) and the total for UPS is $277. This is the 2nd of 3 shipments to this store would wanted their order split up like that. They ordered a total of 56 cases and I could of shipped all of it by Truck for close to the one time charge but its their choice. Do I have a dock, No, the cheapest way would of been for me to take the cases to the trucking company with a pallet, unload them there and palletize them myself then they would be able to load them with a forklift onto the truck. Could they have done this, yup for a charge. Could they have picked them up at my shop, yup, liftgate was $125 extra here and $125 extra at the store (they didn't have a dock either). All i'm saying is can we as the small guy absorb all the extra charges incurred in shipping, I can't just yet, maybe someday. And yes I buy all my stuff in bulk/pallet... oils, wax, jars but i'm still buying my jars from a supplier not direct from China, when i'm able to purchase them by the container then i will have a lower cost and be able to absorb more. Have i looked at purchasing glassware in the states, yup, believe it or not i have two glass plants in my town and can still get a cheaper price ordering from China and having it shipped over here........go figure. I want to compete with the big guys but i don't want to go out of business doing it.

I am wholesale only and do not include the price of shipping into the candle. For one the retailers want to know THEIR cost of the candle. Retailers are used to paying for shipping, they know thats part of business. Plus in close regions to you those shipping costs may work but shipping to the west coast is much higher (as I just found out) plus if your shipping UPS you will probably get hit with a surcharge (AFTER) the candles have been shipped and delivered. This happens quite often. I double box with peanuts so I buy that packaging also and that is factored into their shipping costs. Just some FYI..

why not go with a summer type scent then like Mango Papaya or another citrus type scent, that way both sexes will enjoy the candle.

i tested a sample of sweet pea and vanilla from a mfg and it was pretty good, might give it a shot.

like island girl i put them back in the box and label it with the scent for them to divy out but....i do not deliver them, they pick up the candles....

Oh hell no........its kinda like the diaper commercial, in the beginning you heat your jars and then you get smart....and bert23 if you never have wet spots then ya better market them candles now....

try www.savingsinc.com

I use the white color block from ICS and no problems here..

Bruce is right on the 20% so in reality you don't have to carry a huge inventory to the scents that are selling here and there. One thing to keep in mind is all scents don't sell all year round, some are seasonal.