Thinking of setting up my own business

[mrblobby1990]

Hi there, not sure weather to post this here or not but here the thing.

Im thinking about setting up my own business in the UK selling candle making supplies, i decided to do this becuase i started making candles and found the prices on candle making equipment to be very high and noticed that in the US the prices are alot lower ( in some cases over 50% lower)

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice in starting up my business etc.

I know there are different laws in the us than the Uk but im sure someone can give me a little bit of help with this idea.

Thanks alot. Blobby.

[CC on Maui]

Aloha,

I would think you'll get the best advice from someone in your own country and/or jurisdiction.

If it were me, I think I would contact the candlemakers in my area (the ones I would be setting this business up to sell to) and see if they could head me in the right direction. No doubt, they already been through the process in setting up their own businesses, KWIM?

Good luck!

[NattyCat]

Hi there, not sure weather to post this here or not but here the thing.

Im thinking about setting up my own business in the UK selling candle making supplies, i decided to do this becuase i started making candles and found the prices on candle making equipment to be very high and noticed that in the US the prices are alot lower ( in some cases over 50% lower)

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice in starting up my business etc.

I know there are different laws in the us than the Uk but im sure someone can give me a little bit of help with this idea.

Thanks alot. Blobby.

I do hope you have bottomless pockets. All the good candle making supplies come from the USA, so you need to ship the stuff over in container loads. you will need thousands of pounds just to get a reasonable amount of stock in the first instance - and then you'll get customs and VAT on those products coming in to the UK. If you are not already an established business, and are just a hobby candle maker, don't even think that you'll have any sort of supply business going within a year unless you have tons of money to throw at it and lots of time.

To start with, to become a reputable supplier, you need a LARGE variety of fragrance oils and you can't just buy them from Gemlite or other cheap suppliers then re-sell them here, as you will lose customers due to quality issues. So, let's say 200 fragrances is a good start. You need at least 5kgs of each fragrance for those professional candle and soap makers that buy in 1lb+ lots, you can't NOT store large amounts as once again you will lose custom due to limited supply. You can't just get the fragrance though - you need full MSDS for every single one. on average, 1lb of GOOD fragrance costs £20 all in which includes shipping, vat and customs duty.

So your first expense for a reasonable range of fragrance at 5kg per fragrance (and that's only 10lbs per fo, which is minimal to say the least) would be:

10 x £20 = £200 per fragrance. Stock 100 fragrances = £20,000. Stock 200 fragrances = £40,000. Even if you only stocked 50 fragrances which is probably a minimum if you want to be a serious supplier, that would be £10,000 on fragrance oil alone.

Then you need to stock wicks, jars, wax, tins, dyes, moulds, additives by the hundreds. Some of these items can be purchased in the UK in bulk, but do you have enough buying power to make these products cheap enough so that when you sell, you can sell at a competitive rate to all the other UK candle supply companies? You need to buy big, to sell low, so for arguments sake, let's say you stocked at any one time 1000 assorted jars, 5000 wicks (there are so many varieties, you need at least 500 of each) 500 moulds (again, different shapes and sizes) etc etc. The cash outlay for this lot would be at least another £10,000. Halve the amount you buy, and that's £5,000.

So, a small stock of Fragrance Oil (50 varieties), 500 wicks, 200 jars, 200 moulds and a selection of the absolutely critical items that you must stock if you want to be considered a Candle Supply Company will cost you between £15,000 and £20,000.

Of course, you can stock tiny amounts of product, or sub-standard quality products which you have had to buy at a higher price because you bought so little - but then, at the prices you would have to charge to make a profit - why would people buy from you when they can get it cheaper at candle cauldron, sensory perfection and ukcandlesupplies?

Sorry to be a bummer, but it really is a serious business that you need to consider fully. I am an established candlemaker, and I sell a few of my OWN oils that I don't want by word of mouth, but to give you some idea - I have 250 different varieties of fragrance oil and stock a minimum of 1lb per oil, and pay between £15 to £20 per oil and I'm just one candle maker. If I came to your store in the UK, would you be able to meet my demand for oil and would you be able to supply me with 500 kilos of wax at a time? I'm just one person - imagine you had 5 customers with the same demand as me at the same time. That would be 2,500 kilos of wax and a few hundred pounds of oil for a start - could you honestly say you could afford to stock that much product or risk losing large customers? If you can't stock that much product, then how can you compete with the already established businesses in the UK?

I am talking from my own point of view. I would love there to be a UK candle supplier as I NEVER buy my products from the UK as the cost is too high. I ship all my products in from the USA and it's STILL cheaper - and I know several other candle makers in the UK who do the same thing. How will you be able to persuade us to buy from you in large quantities if it's cheaper for us to go direct?

All of the above is based on you being able to supply the serious candle makers, ie the candle makers who run successful businesses. If you have limited resources, you can aim to supply the hobby-maker which would greatly reduce your cash out lay and stock needs, but you WOULD be in direct competitition with the other UK suppliers I mentioned above.

I do hope this information helps,

Natasha

[Mona]

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[mrblobby1990]

I must firstly give a big thank you to everyone who has helped me with this.

I was mostly thinking about the hobbyist candlemaker and the kind of things they would need.

I decided to place an order over at candlescience and will have a little test run to see how everything goes and i will report back on this.

Thanks again for all of your help and i take your comments on board.

Blobby.

[chauntelle]

I would love a supplier in the uk that i could go and look around and smell samples ect as it's so hard to know exactly wot you are buying when looking on the internet and ordering for the first time so where would you be based and would this be possible??

I say good luck to you. I have my own business and bank with barclays they r wonderful and have made so many decisions a whole lot easier we were introduced to a great accountant and have had lots of advice from them. I would start by visiting business link ful of endless suggestions and information

and the princes trust may be able to help with a grant/low intrest loan ~depending on your age! Make sure you have the right insurance and shop around it's so easy to just go with the first quote for convenience.

All the best on this venture.

[Guest amynleebishop]

Hi there, not sure weather to post this here or not but here the thing.

Im thinking about setting up my own business in the UK selling candle making supplies, i decided to do this becuase i started making candles and found the prices on candle making equipment to be very high and noticed that in the US the prices are alot lower ( in some cases over 50% lower)

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice in starting up my business etc.

I know there are different laws in the us than the Uk but im sure someone can give me a little bit of help with this idea.

Thanks alot. Blobby.

I think that is a great idea!!!!

I have thought about that myself since there are no suppliers in VA and there are a lot of candle makers that live in this State that pay a fortune in shipping. Let me know how you would go about it. My thing is where do our suppliers get their supplies??? Can we bite the hand that feeds us and go directly to that source?

[NattyCat]

I must firstly give a big thank you to everyone who has helped me with this.

I was mostly thinking about the hobbyist candlemaker and the kind of things they would need.

I decided to place an order over at candlescience and will have a little test run to see how everything goes and i will report back on this.

Thanks again for all of your help and i take your comments on board.

Blobby.

candlescience are a great company, very reasonably priced. However, they ONLY ship via UPS and UPS ALWAYS put a customs charge on products being bought into the UK - they do it on behalf of the customs and excise department, EVEN IF CUSTOMS AND EXCISE DONT CHARGE YOU.

See, how it works is this, if you parcel is worth more than £30 - including shipping, then customs will charge you VAT and Import Duty. Then your carrier (parcel force, UPS, Fedex etc) will charge you an "administration fee" on top, which is anything between £8 and £15. So, UPS have the policy to charge a customs fees on almost all parcels coming into the UK, whether they pass through customs at the airport or not. That way, they make their "admin fee" regardless of whether you were going to be caught out by customs or not.

Because candle science will only ship via UPS, this presents two problems - one, UPS is MUCH more expensive that USPS and two, you are 8 times out of 10 going to get a customs fee AND UPS admin fee on top.

Just food for thought - there are several other companies in the USA who WILL ship usps if you ask them - in fact, most of them do. Candle Science is the only one who has refused so far.

Nat

[NattyCat]

I think that is a great idea!!!!

I have thought about that myself since there are no suppliers in VA and there are a lot of candle makers that live in this State that pay a fortune in shipping. Let me know how you would go about it. My thing is where do our suppliers get their supplies??? Can we bite the hand that feeds us and go directly to that source?

Your life is much easier as you are in the USA where supplies are readily available. MrB is in the UK and would have to ship most of his supplies in from the USA, which is where the problem lies.

Nat