Tiring22 Posted February 16, 2018 Share Posted February 16, 2018 If you are a candle maker - and you work alone - how do you pay yourself? Do you pay yourself a percentage for every candle you sell? Also, how many time do you pay yourself in a month. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jcandleattic Posted February 16, 2018 Share Posted February 16, 2018 I pay myself xx amount an hour for production - and then work that figure into the cost of my candle, and I get paid when my product(s) get sold. However, I have to be very meticulous about this, and make sure I am calculating my time precisely because different functions are different rates. R&D because is a different rate, but I calculate it the same. My shows are a different rate as well, but I calculate my pay differently - for shows, I pay myself xx amount an hour, and then take that out of my profit margin. IMO you have to value your time and experience. You wouldn't go to a job outside the home working for someone else and expect to not get paid. Same goes for working for yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forrest Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 On 2/16/2018 at 8:21 AM, Jcandleattic said: I pay myself xx amount an hour for production - and then work that figure into the cost of my candle, and I get paid when my product(s) get sold. However, I have to be very meticulous about this, and make sure I am calculating my time precisely because different functions are different rates. R&D because is a different rate, but I calculate it the same. My shows are a different rate as well, but I calculate my pay differently - for shows, I pay myself xx amount an hour, and then take that out of my profit margin. IMO you have to value your time and experience. You wouldn't go to a job outside the home working for someone else and expect to not get paid. Same goes for working for yourself. If you don't mind me asking, about how much time does it take per candle for production? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flicker Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 This is a smart a$$ comment... LOL I pay myself with my real job. I am an addict with a need to fuel my addiction with candle making. 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jcandleattic Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 On 20/02/2018 at 7:34 AM, Forrest said: If you don't mind me asking, about how much time does it take per candle for production? Depends on what I'm making, but when I did a large production candle run of container candles, from start to finish (and large for me was about 100 candles) and doing 3-4 scents, it will take me about 4-5 hours if I remember correctly. This will include wicking the containers, weighing out the wax, melting/scenting/dying/pouring the wax, and then finally labelling. I don't count the cool down phase. Now just to be clear, I NEVER do runs that big anymore, or at least I haven't in several years, and didn't do them often when I did do them. So now for me, it takes me much longer to do much less, however, I sell less also because I just don't need that big of a production anymore. Hope this makes sense. If you want production numbers, talk to @TallTayl - I don't know if she still does, but I know she had a pretty decent operation going on a pretty large scale that would blow my production numbers away. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trappeur Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 1 hour ago, Jcandleattic said: Depends on what I'm making, but when I did a large production candle run of container candles, from start to finish (and large for me was about 100 candles) and doing 3-4 scents, it will take me about 4-5 hours if I remember correctly. This will include wicking the containers, weighing out the wax, melting/scenting/dying/pouring the wax, and then finally labelling. I don't count the cool down phase. Now just to be clear, I NEVER do runs that big anymore, or at least I haven't in several years, and didn't do them often when I did do them. So now for me, it takes me much longer to do much less, however, I sell less also because I just don't need that big of a production anymore. Hope this makes sense. If you want production numbers, talk to @TallTayl - I don't know if she still does, but I know she had a pretty decent operation going on a pretty large scale that would blow my production numbers away. Holy crap Jane You could make 100 candles in 5 hours? You have got to be kidding!! I need to hire you! My runs are like that all the time, and no way can I do a 100 candles in that length of time.....Takes me 3 days to do that.....oh my gosh.....God love ya.... Trappeuyr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jcandleattic Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 10 minutes ago, Trappeur said: Holy crap Jane You could make 100 candles in 5 hours? You have got to be kidding!! I need to hire you! My runs are like that all the time, and no way can I do a 100 candles in that length of time.....Takes me 3 days to do that.....oh my gosh.....God love ya.... Trappeuyr That was several years ago, when I had the time, motivation, and would just get up super early in the morning and get started. It may have taken a bit longer, but never more than an 6-8 hours. But also like I said, that was just the actual labor portion, that did not include the time I had to wait for the wax to solidify. Wicking the jars, and labelling the finished product took the most time. Actual pouring took no time at all. You also have to remember, I use paraffin, so I didn't have to wait for my wax to get to a slushy stage before pouring either. Basically as soon as the wax was melted, I'd add my color, scent and pour. I would have my turkey roaster full at the time and it would hold 20lbs of wax at a time (I think, if I remember right could have been a bit less), and I had 2 of them. Because I was doing production I could color and scent the whole 20lbs at one time, and not worry about it or look back. As soon as I emptied the one roaster, I'd refill it and go on to the next one, and rotate them until I was done with that production run. and so on and so forth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forrest Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 17 hours ago, Trappeur said: Holy crap Jane You could make 100 candles in 5 hours? You have got to be kidding!! I need to hire you! My runs are like that all the time, and no way can I do a 100 candles in that length of time.....Takes me 3 days to do that.....oh my gosh.....God love ya.... Trappeuyr So I should be able to make 100 candles in somewhere between 5 and 24 hours This is what I love about candle making, nothing is black and white, it is all shades of grey and trial and error, I need that in my life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quentin Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 On 2/15/2018 at 8:42 PM, Tiring22 said: If you are a candle maker - and you work alone - how do you pay yourself? Do you pay yourself a percentage for every candle you sell? Also, how many time do you pay yourself in a month. Thank you. I had a similar discussion with my father who ran a manufacturing plant for many years. My question was, what hourly rate should I put down in my cost of materials template if I haven't even made or sold a single candle yet? I'm still in the testing stage and I'm doing all the work myself so how can I put a labor cost to the product? I'm still not very fast, but getting faster and more streamlined. He said that my time was worth something and I needed to enter some sort of figure. So I entered $10.00 per hour. It calculated my entry and the candle ended up with some ridiculous, astronomical, never gonna work retail price. I dropped it to $1.00/hour and it was still a crazy retail price. That's because the number of minutes to make one candle was very high. I finally decided to pay myself $0.00 and that's where it stands now. Right or wrong? Q Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forrest Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 11 hours ago, Quentin said: I had a similar discussion with my father who ran a manufacturing plant for many years. My question was, what hourly rate should I put down in my cost of materials template if I haven't even made or sold a single candle yet? I'm still in the testing stage and I'm doing all the work myself so how can I put a labor cost to the product? I'm still not very fast, but getting faster and more streamlined. He said that my time was worth something and I needed to enter some sort of figure. So I entered $10.00 per hour. It calculated my entry and the candle ended up with some ridiculous, astronomical, never gonna work retail price. I dropped it to $1.00/hour and it was still a crazy retail price. That's because the number of minutes to make one candle was very high. I finally decided to pay myself $0.00 and that's where it stands now. Right or wrong? Q If you haven't made a candle yet all of your cost should be considered your initial investment and once your business starts making money you should be trying to get a return on that investment plus pay yourself a reasonable wage. Normally in a new business you would not expect any return on your investment for a couple of years, and you would be lucky if you can pay yourself during that time. 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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