How long did it take to get started in the candle business?

[Trappeur]

I thought it would be interesting in knowing how long it took you to get started in business selling candles or soap/bath items.

I've posted a few questions here pertaining to this subject.

1.  How long did it take you after realizing you wanted to make a business out of it to actually sell wholesale or retail?

     Was it a good choice for you?

2.  You spend lots of dollars?

3.  Do you sell wholesale?

4.  How do you get your business meaning how do you secure accounts?

5.  Is this a full time job or do it for the fun.?  Do you have a job besides this?

6.  Do you do craft shows?

7.  Do you sell on Etsy or Amazon?

8.  Do you have employees?

9.  Do you have a storefront?

10. Do you print your own labels?

11. Where do you create your products ....in the kitchen or have a certain area area in your home or separate workshop?

12.  What advice can you give to someone who wants to make a business out of this?  Do you do all your own testings and what is the projected time you could tell someone they could be ready to sell?  Can a person really know all about this subject and expect to start up in a month or 2?   What are the pros and cons? 

 

Trappeur

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 2, 2019 by Trappeur

[Quentin]

1. Do sales to my sister count?

2. Oh yeah! Lots. At least the part I remember.

3. I'd sell wholesale, partsale, anysale.

4. Well... I have a checking account. At least I did before I got in the candle "bidness".

5. Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. Depends on the day.

6. Does always PLANNING on doing them count?

7. YES! I do have an Etsy Shop. Nobody buys anything though. @MilosCandles is getting all the business. As far as Amazon, I mostly just send them money.

8. Should I count myself?

9. I don't even have a storeback.

10. Yes. I'm looking at a trash can full of them right now.

11. Mostly I just think about creating them.

12. I wish I hadn't taken my advice. No--- I don't do anything myself. The guy that works for me does all my testing (see answer 8). "Can a person really know all about this subject and expect to start up in a month or 2?"  Hey, I did it. Right?

 

[chevcher]

1. I started out in my mom's booth at an indoor flea market. I had been making candles for years as a hobby, so it made sense to get serious when I went on maternity leave and needed to supplement my income.
Within the first 2 years I was approached for wholesale and consignment, 2 of the 3 customers I'm still with currently. The 3rd lady was a bit shifty, so I got out before things got worse. 

2.  My initial startup was $200 back in '96 ... An acquaintance had a soapmaking business,  sometimes dabbling in candles .
She decided not to pursue and offered everything to me for a song.

3.  Yes

4. Word of mouth 

5.  Full time

6.  I do fall / Christmas festivals

7.  I had an Etsy shop for a minute, just didn't have the time to focus on it. I'm currently looking into getting a website and only doing 3 shows per year...I'm getting older & tired  

8.  I'm a one woman show most of the time, occasionally my daughters & hubby helps out with wicking , heavy lifting and show setups..again,getting older.

9. I did for a year w/ my mother-in-law. It was in our local Arts District...unfortunately, there wasn't enough foot traffic to keep us going so I came back home.

10. I do all of my own printing. Who knew that my graphic arts background would come in handy ? 

11. I started in the kitchen & dining area, now I rule the basement of our home...still not enough room during busy season , but I make it work.

12.  My advice- Ask yourself..."Am I disciplined enough to be my own boss ?", " Can I handle the demands of this business ?", " How will this affect my family's current lifestyle ?"
Do as much research as possible and then do some more. Realize that this is a HUGE investment of time, hard work and money, NOT a get rich overnight job like the internet portrays at times.
13. I do a 3-step testing method, meaning that I have a list of things that I look for during the process. I then pass that particular candle on to each of my daughters with the list to have them do their own seperate tests,we compare notes at the end.
I wouldn't suggest anyone start selling in under a year or two without any experience, it's too risky. There's way too much to learn and too much bad information on the internet to sort through.  I personally did all of my research before the computer age...by hands on training and hitting the books.

 

Edited February 22, 2019 by chevcher

[Jcandleattic]

1.  How long did it take you after realizing you wanted to make a business out of it to actually sell wholesale or retail? For candles about 3 years from making/testing to selling. For soaps, about 18 months - probably could have done so much earlier with the soaps as soapmaking was a much easier learning curve for me, but I kept thinking I was missing something because candles took so long for me to master. 

     Was it a good choice for you? Yes, very much so

2.  You spend lots of dollars? Yes, hundreds if not thousands of start up costs

3.  Do you sell wholesale? I used to have several wholesale accounts, but it just became such a hassle with my customers trying to always circumvent the T&C's of the contract, or wanting to change things when contracts came up for renegotiation that I quit wholesaling and have been much happier since. 

4.  How do you get your business meaning how do you secure accounts?  - n/a

5.  Is this a full time job or do it for the fun.?  Do you have a job besides this? This is very much a business for me, and yes I also do it for fun, and I also work a full time job outside of my craft business

6.  Do you do craft shows? Yes

7.  Do you sell on Etsy or Amazon? no

8.  Do you have employees? Not paid employees, but my family helps out much more than any paid employee ever could

9.  Do you have a storefront? No, I have a website, and social media

10. Do you print your own labels? half/half. Some I print at home some I have outsourced by a print shop

11. Where do you create your products ....in the kitchen or have a certain area area in your home or separate workshop? For legal purposes I have a separate area in my home that gets inspected anytime the city/county/state feels necessary

12.  What advice can you give to someone who wants to make a business out of this?  Do your research and learn as much as you can about the craft you are creating. Do you do all your own testings and what is the projected time you could tell someone they could be ready to sell? This is too subjective for an easy answer Can a person really know all about this subject and expect to start up in a month or 2? In my opinion, no. Not in a month. Maybe 6-8 months, or longer, everyone learns at different rates, but I have been doing this for 20+ years, and I still don't know EVERYTHING there is to know about this subject  What are the pros and cons? Another question that is too subjective for a quick/easy answer. 

[Paintguru]

1.  Still working on it...I just need to jump in and stop over-analyzing everything!!

[Laura C]

9 hours ago, Paintguru said:

1.  Still working on it...I just need to jump in and stop over-analyzing everything!!

 

It is so easy to do that but don't think you're alone, I'm right there with you. LOL

[Laura C]

@Quentin you are cracking me up, LOL 

[Trappeur]

Really!

 

Trappeur

[Paintguru]

4 hours ago, Laura C said:

 

It is so easy to do that but don't think you're alone, I'm right there with you. LOL

 

Between getting candles I'm happy with and setting up websites, insurance, business stuff, etc. it is overwhelming, and I'm not even selling anything yet!!  

[Laura C]

9 minutes ago, Paintguru said:

 

Between getting candles I'm happy with and setting up websites, insurance, business stuff, etc. it is overwhelming, and I'm not even selling anything yet!!  

 

I know, me too. I could use about 2 assistants but I wouldn't be able to pay them. Too bad my kids and grandkids live in another state. LOL

[Quentin]

22 hours ago, chevcher said:

I personally did all of my research before the computer age...by hands on training and hitting the books.

I don't want to take us off the subject but you touched on something here. I can't find any good scholarly books on the subject of candle making. The books I've seen so far are nothing but a lot of fluff. Typically, they start out with a brief history candle making, then some safety rules. Next thing they have is some very scanty general directions on "how to make a candle", some recipes, and then the rest of the book will give you some creative ideas about special technique candles. Where are the good technical books on candle making? Are they all out of print?

[Quentin]

4 hours ago, Laura C said:

@Quentin you are cracking me up, LOL 

Well, I try. 

[Laura C]

19 minutes ago, Quentin said:

I don't want to take us off the subject but you touched on something here. I can't find any good scholarly books on the subject of candle making...

 

Where are the good technical books on candle making? Are they all out of print?

 

I will post some book info over here under this link you had previously started on this subject. Check it out.

 

[chevcher]

On 2/23/2019 at 12:32 PM, Quentin said:

I don't want to take us off the subject but you touched on something here. I can't find any good scholarly books on the subject of candle making. The books I've seen so far are nothing but a lot of fluff. Typically, they start out with a brief history candle making, then some safety rules. Next thing they have is some very scanty general directions on "how to make a candle", some recipes, and then the rest of the book will give you some creative ideas about special technique candles. Where are the good technical books on candle making? Are they all out of print?

Oh yes, I've recieved some of those fluff books as gifts. The books I found were at the library years ago, very basic but informative. If I can track down the title, I will let you know. It covered the history and the old school techniques. They may be out of print now, which is a bummer 😞

Edited February 26, 2019 by chevcher

[Quentin]

11 minutes ago, chevcher said:

Oh yes, I've recieved some of those fluff books as gifts. The books I found were at the library years ago, very basic but informative. If I can track down the title, I will let you know. It covered the history and the old school techniques. They may be out of print now, which is a bummer 😞

If they're out of print, I can still buy used copies on Amazon and Ebay. I'm interested in anything you can come up with. 

[chevcher]

4 minutes ago, Quentin said:

If they're out of print, I can still buy used copies on Amazon and Ebay. I'm interested in anything you can come up with. 

I will have to do some sleuthing around for a title, my memory ain't what it used to be 😁

[chevcher]

@QuentinThis was one of them...  Candle Making Terence McLaughin
Pretty much anything from the 1970's on back was what I used fro reference

Edited February 26, 2019 by chevcher

[kandlekrazy]

1.  It was just under a year when we started our first website and began to sell (other than friends & family who started as testers and wanted to buy).  Yes it was a good choice, in the beginning it supported the purchases and when I started doing markets and wholesale I made decent $. I also made decent $ in the past 2-3 yrs since I quit all my wholesale accts and just sold in my stores.    

2.  Yes & No, started small with fo, think I had 6 scents,  1 wax, 1 jar, 1 tin  and grew with the business $.

3.  Yes, most of my client base came from my wholesale accts (my email was on every label.)

4.  I personally walked into every resale site I wanted to wholesale to and provided them a sample melt and or candle.

5.  I've pretty much always worked outside of candles, so my fun (zen) job was candles.

6.  I did many when I was younger, not in the past 10 years since owning the antique malls.

7.  Tried Etsy for a bit but I really wanted to sell gift sets on there and did a few only.  That was back when everything offered on Etsy had to be handmade so I couldn't include a warmer.

8.  Started as a partner with my niece, she got too busy for it all 10 years ago.

9.  Never a candle storefront, but sold in both my antique malls.

10. Yes

11. Area in my home that has been designated a workshop (last house had a studio apt below us that I used, this house has an added on section that I was using.

12.  This is so subjective to wax, time etc.  Someone with 6 scents & 1 jar  or just melts who dedicates a whole lot of time to candles could possibly be ready in 2 months.  Most people start with way more scents and want multiple containers and begin to try new waxes with the first that fails them in any way.  The only advice I can give here is to pick a wax and work thru the issues to make a good, safe candle.  Once you're in business if you want to start testing other waxes on the side, that's great.  Unless you're rich you'll waste a whole lot of time and $ testing multiple waxes at once.

 

[Quentin]

On 2/26/2019 at 9:21 AM, chevcher said:

@QuentinThis was one of them...  Candle Making Terence McLaughin
Pretty much anything from the 1970's on back was what I used fro reference

Thanks. There are used copies on Amazon. I otdered one.😃