Question for those that make candles for profit...

[BrySC]

How long did you "play" with candle making before you started actually selling them? I just started with candle making a few weeks ago, and am getting better at it. I do have a goal of one day making money with this, but just curious how long y'all practiced before starting a business. I know I'm not ready to sell my candles, but I can tell from my candles that I'm gaining some good knowledge about this craft. I also saw a post from someone that said they played with candle making as a hobby for years before making money. I certainly don't want to wait that long to try to sell some.

[Candle Makin Momma]

I believe it was 5 months. I only have 9 scents, so I perfected them in the one type of jar.

I got into this to make it a business, so I have been going at it strong.

[Trish]

We're supposed to MAKE money at this?

Seems as my sales increase, so does my buying! LOL

To answer your question, I can't remember how long before I started selling. It was 6 months or so...probably a little longer. Then I went and switched waxes and had to start all over again.

[Grumpy Girl]

Wow, you mean the supplies will be paid for out of something other than my paycheck eventually?

I just started selling officially this week. I've been going at it for about 6-8 months. I would have sold sooner, but I couldn't make up my mind on my jars and went through one wicking nightmare after another.

[SheilaW]

How long did you "play" with candle making before you started actually selling them? I just started with candle making a few weeks ago, and am getting better at it. I do have a goal of one day making money with this, but just curious how long y'all practiced before starting a business. I know I'm not ready to sell my candles, but I can tell from my candles that I'm gaining some good knowledge about this craft. I also saw a post from someone that said they played with candle making as a hobby for years before making money. I certainly don't want to wait that long to try to sell some.

I think the amount of time between " playing" and selling varies with different people. If you work full time, have responsibilities at home etc. then it may take a lot longer to produce a good quality candle that you are ready to sell.

If you are able to devote a lot of time to it and thoroughly test then you'll be able to sell in a much shorter time. I'm one of those that still consider this as a very expensive hobby because I haven't actively pursued making a business out of it. All of my sales come from word of mouth and the bulk of my sales are gift baskets. I have a full time job and 2 teens at home so I'm not really interested in eating up all of my free time with trying to have a successful business. There are a lot of people on here that are able to " do it all" The important thing is knowing that you have a safe, good burning candle before you sell whether it takes you 3 months or 3 years.

[Fire and Ice]

It was nearly a year for me because I started with parafin and switched to soy. I also didn't have the internet at the time. But I can tell you that you will be looking a a great deal of money and testing to be sure your candles are safe before selling. But when I did sell, I knew my containers, wicks, scents and wax like the back of my hand and customers really appreciated that. I could answer their questions and show my product in great detail. I was well prepaired.

[ScentsandMore]

It was right at a year and hundreds of dollars in supplies before we started selling. Since then there were problems with the wicks and soy wax can be a pain at times to the point that I have thought about quitting a couple of times. But here I am still going on. As for profit, I am small time and guess you could say I do it just because I like to because there sure isn't that much profit in it for me and what little there is goes right back into buying supplies. Good luck.

[enchantedflorest]

I havent started selling yet but am supposed to be the 1st of next month. I have had 4 shops patiently waiting for my candles for about 3 months. I have been making candles for about 6 months. I have been pushing the shops off every month they ask as I dont want to sell something I am not comfortable with. I am a stay at home mom for the most part (odd jobs a couple days a week) so I have been trying real hard to concentrate on candles. This month was going to be my - get it all together and finalized month, but....... now with an almost 3 year old and finding out Im prego my attitude has went back to wondering if my candles are good enough to sell. Safety I would say is the biggest thing to me when getting ready to sell. I have test burned way over 100 candles so far and am confident they are safe if burned correctly - Im just worried about those people that marathon burn the candle from start to finish with out trimming one wick.

[shi9829]

I started making candles I believe in January. I had been reading up on it for about a year before and then I finally just decided to get a starter kit. From that starter kit it has taken off. I started making money right away lik I started playing in Jan, Feb I was selling. Yesterday was my first time selling at a flea market. I'm still learning as I go along but I started selling them out the gate. I don't think I intended to start selling as soon as I did but I took some candles to work just to show off my new craft and my co-workers were asking to buy them so I was sort of rushed into it but it worked out for me. My starter kit was paraffin wax and I jumped right into soy. I haven't had any complaints from my repeat customers and they love 'em. So my suggestion is, it is generally up to you. Whenever you feel ready and comfortable go for it.

[RobinInOR]

I spent 40 hours a week for 3 months before I sold 3 scents in votives during the holidays. That was after my regular day job. Probably sold $20-$30 worth of votives and spent a couple hundred $ , if not more, doing it. But I stuck to 1 wax that wax pretty much local and kept at it until I tamed it (it was a difficult wax to work with). I added 4-5 scents/month in votives.

Votives went faster - you can fully burn them in a couple of days, get a really good test in a week with all different kinds of burns. If I had been doing containers it would have been a lot slower.

Business profit took 3 years.

[CraftyChris]

I was at it about 4-5 months before I sold to family (a little tinny bit above cost) to help with the testing, and just pay for supplies. I started craft shows about a year after I started, deciding to try and make extra money. Year 2 I did 28 shows, even more on year 3, with added fundraisers, and a few wholesale accounts.

It was year 4 I decided this was what I wanted to "do". I quit my job (I was a retail store ass. manager in a mall) and open my store.

Now we are year 10!!!!! I have 5 employees, we have over 200 wholesale accounts ( 1 is a chain account) and do about 40 fundraisers a year.

I took a big leap again this year, and hired a team of fundraising reps. I have 11, they are all over the province (I'm Canadian) and they book fundraisers. That's all they do, and they keep a % of the net sale. So far this year, I have had a school handing in every other week, till he end of this month. I have the holiday 2006 program done, and the reps are out pre-booking schools, and the numbers look very good-scary to me anyways!! I'll be hiring again in July, 2 more people.

[Scented]

You gotta get those M's perfect before selling J/K! Take it easy here and don't rush to try to get your $ back.

Really should test every scent out that you offer.

It probably took about eight months to get around to selling again, but I've been doing this on and off for awhile. Lot of testing and lot of sampling and lot of learning along the way. And I always call candlemaking playing around, otherwise I think it loses its creativity. But I switched waxes three times, toyed with samples of others and thought nah don't want it and accumulated an awful lot of wicking that I probably never will use again lol! Got a lot of colors, molds and scents too, but I'm more inclined to use those.

So how are those M's burning?

[rascal418]

It took me @6 months testing to get to the point I was confident enough to sell. In hindsight though research, development & testing were the fun part. Theres more involved in starting a business than just putting together a great product. When I got closer to my finished product I met with a cpa, registered with the state, insurance, business plan etc because this is a business. Take advantage of all the breaks you can. College business & marketing courses were a big help as was SCORE. SCORE is a valuable resource in business building, product pricing & networking. If theres a group near you, check em out.

Still making a profit is tough when you're competing with like crafters that are hell bent to sell at a loss. imho Pricing too low looks suspicious, a lot of folks reason higher price = better quality. It helps tremendously to only sell your tried & true best products & know your stuff inside out. I'm small time compared to some of the folks here but I broke even my first year in business & it's been a slow but steady climb. That first year I think I put almost every dollar made back into more supplies to grow my business.

Good thing I love doing this

edited to move the smiley LOL

[plook]

I've Been Testing For 6 Months Now And Just Today I Got My Wicks,wax And Fo's To Work Together. Now I'll Concentrate On The Businees Side. At First I Drove Myself Nuts Trying To Do Everything At Once And Was About To Cut My Loses And Move On. I Decided To Do One Step At A Time And That Seems To Help Alot. I Often Give My Felled Testers To Family And Friends To Put On Candle Warners. They Really Push Me To Get It Right So They Can Start Selling But I Refuse To Sell Something That I Don't Believe Is Safe And Of The Best Quality. Patience And Lots Of Testing Is A Must Imo.

[Common Scents]

Well for me it was about 5 months of research and testing before I sold the basics during the holidays that year. But you could probably double the time I spent testing and get the amount of time that I spent reading & researching. What you need to know that it is an ENDLESS process! Don't go into it thinking you'll be making a profit for a while. Last year was my first full year as a business and even though I "TECHINICALLY" turned a profit (and it was a very small amount), all of that money goes right back into the business. I look at this as a hobby that supports itself and it took a really long time to get it to that point. I'm not in this to make money, I'm in it because I enjoy doing it and other people enjoy my products. When it stops being fun, I'll stop doing it, no matter how much $$$ it makes! So make sure its your passion before you take the big plunge of becoming a business!