GingerKay

CinnOBuns Spiced Oranges Christmas Memories These have been used in soy/j223 mix, j223, j50 and IGI4625 and throw well in all of those waxes.

Try a 51-32-18 Zinc

I feel for you on the flooding. I will spare all the details on the hows, but our basement flooded for the third time since we have been here. The first time was a broken water filter under the sink so both floors flooded and we have a finished basement so the carpet, drywall ceiling, etc were affected. This time only a sump so all the water stayed on the carpet. We are so sick of this that we are putting in ceramic tile this weekend instead of carpet so everything is being put in the garage tomorrow. The basement is where my "factory" is so I will be out of commission for a few days. Sorry to hijack-bummer on the burned fingers. Sometimes I wonder if my fingerprints have changed since starting this business.

Let them take up space like mine do. When I sell on classys I offer to put a few in their box if they want to try them out.

You would want to use a paraffin blend made for containers like J223, not the wax used for pillars.

Any other business (Walmart, Sears, whoever) would require the product back before replacement-you should be no different. If he won't return it, he doesn't get a replacement.

I order from them and this statement probably hits the nail on the head. I order two types of jars from them and I order in pallet qty so all they have to do is put the pallet(s) on the truck just the way they are. There is no packing, counting, extra wrapping supplies, etc. They have great service, fast shipments, always follow my special instructions like having the truck driver give me a call first so I can be ready, and the one time I had breakage they took care of it quickly and without my having to jump through hoops. In the wholesale business, $40 is reasonable and like someone mentioned, you'll be stocked up and you will save in the long run by paying your shipping once, not several times for the same number of jars.

Half up front is reasonable but my policy is that if I am making something I cannot sell to anyone else (like initials or special colors/scents) I get the full amount up front. At least make sure that you get enough to cover the cost of your supplies.

If you get the coupon from Michaels and Hobby Lobby you can get pour pots at really good prices. I have a workshop set up in my basement and don't have an oven down there. I have a water jacketed melter and set the temp about 5 degrees higher than I used to when I heated my pots. By the time the hot wax goes in, I stir in FO and dye, it is just the right temp. I figure I must be saving money vs the days when my oven was on all day while pouring.

My husband works for State Farm and when I checked into it, they didn't offer product liability for the chandler as a manufacturer of candles. If I purchase products from another company, like Mia Bella or Home Interiors, they would cover the product if it are damaged at a show, during a natural disaster that occurs in my home, etc but only to replace the product. It is up to Mia Bella and their insurance to cover any damages incurred by a defective candle. That is why I don't have SF insurance. I hope that makes sense. The insurance business is ever-changing so I don't know if they have changed their coverage or not. Even though he works there, we get our home, auto and business insurance through another company because we feel that the left hand needs to know what the right hand is doing. If we had business insurance with one company and home with another, they might both find some way to try to pin the payment on the other and tie up our money. We are planning to reevaluate our insurance and if SF will cover our manufacturing business we would like to support the insurer that provided my husband's employment.

Like any other business it looks like the problem is with the person, not the company. All of my delivery people are great. UPS and Fed Ex will bring my items in the garage or in my home if they are heavy and USPS never leaves a package at the mailbox even though it is just across the street. Some of the deliverers even try to hide the boxes with my door mat even though the bushes would probably disguise it anyway. Must be a regional thing on shipping prices because FedEx is much cheaper than UPS here for any package that is too heavy to justify using USPS. A really good example--a guitar sent to CA from IL. UPS quoted $90 something, USPS wouldn't even ship parcel post because of size and FedEx was $28. Guess who I chose? I went to UPS store to drop off the toner cartridges for recycling-minolta puts a prepaid label in each box. They said they were not taped well enough and would take care of that for $2 per box. What a croc..a piece of tape for $2, I can buy a roll for that.

Are the jars from TVG? If not, I won't go into my long explanation. If they are, stay tuned............

Some people want unscented for big occasions so the fragrance doesn't overwhelm a room. I had to make 150 unscented pillars for a wedding and another order of 200 for a church. The spray didn't work for me either-they stuck so bad I had to melt them to get the wax out. I read about mineral oil and also about veg oil-same thing 1/2 oz per pound.

Ditto on this...same jar, same wax, same fo, same everything except wick. You really have to trim these low, like 1/8 inch to keep them from smoking. It could be using a soy blend because I use one too. What wicks did you end up using with your blend?

I pay my help $10 per hour. They can take it in cash or product. This is only hired help, not my sales girls-they get a percent of their sales.

I designed my own in a Word Document and then had a printer print them. They are 2 copy carbonless. Check your local printer.

My 2 cents... I don't do parties anymore except for very close friends. However, I have 6 salesgirls who do them. Here are some tips that we have found helpful: **No more structured parties. People are too busy. Make it an open house, around 2 hours or so. We have so many comments from people who are happy they can come and go as they please. Plan to stay about 15 minutes after to wrap up the later orders and tear down, so if you spend 15 minutes setting up that is 2 1/2 hours for the whole thing. **Give an incentive for having more guests. I give a free $7 candle as a door prize-if more than 10 guests show up, I give two. **Hostess gets one free $15 candle for a party over $100. Nothing for less than that. As their totals grow, so do their earnings. **Encourage outside orders ahead of time. Anyone who has a party gets a small kit-order forms, catalogs, sample scents, a party instruction sheet, etc. They can take these around ahead of time to either take orders from people who cannot attend or to entice people to come and see what else we offer. **I agree sales are slow in July and August but the last three parties they turned in were very large, so it is the start of prime selling season. We try to have our fall catalog published by mid August to pump up our summer sales-people want to be the first ones to have our new fall fragrances! That is all I can think of for now-good luck!

Not going to comment on the business at hand. This all reminded me of a copyright story. About 15 years or so ago, a company in a very small rural town near me called themselves "M & M Resale Store" or something very similar. The owners names began with Ms and that was the inspiration for the name. They were a resale shop of some kind and I think they may have carried a few new items. They were served with a cease and desist letter from M&M Mars company (who had a plant about 30 minutes away-probably how they found out about this tiny store). I am quite certain that they were not taking away business from that company since they didn't sell chocolate. I don't know if they took it to court or not, but I know that during my travels, I saw that they had changed their name. Their name wasn't even exact, they were not selling the same product, M&M just figured it was their name, they had rights to it and they didn't want someone else using it. I am not interested in this topic enough to look it up, but I think copyright would protect more than just loss of sales. Otherwise, it is very overrated.

Great start One thing to change on the soy info page: Soy candles are give off very little soot....

SKS, but there are several places that sell them.

These are cool, but would you make every card a winner? Or do like some of the bigger companies and have 1 out of 10 a winner? If every one was a winner, the "prize" would have to be much smaller than if you had a nice size prize with a 1 in 10 chance of winning.

This is very similar to what I do. The differences are: I have a 12 page catalog that I made on MS Word that changes three times a year (spring/summer, fall, winter/Christmas), my incentive program is different and my samples are poured into the .25oz clear lip balm pots. I will put everything into a nice little gift bag and they have samples, invoices, catalogs and complete directions on how to handle their party. As Brenda states, very good business. Very little labor in the selling dept and I get lots of repeat sales.

I can get three 12 pk cases in an 18x18x18 box. That is just under 70 pounds (Fed Ex limit before the shipping is almost double for excessive weight). For the shipping question: my contract states that they are responsible for shipping.

I won't be there Friday night for the Chinese auction, but I have to ask what it is..........

Amazing what some companies will do for a buck.