Wholesale/Fundraiser

[southern.scents]

Hey everyone. After being asked numerous times to do fundraisers, I have finally decided to do so. I also decided to do wholesale too. I sat down and have spent two days working on my brochure and its packaging. I think I have it done. It looks fantastic. I was going to post pictures but, I couldn't find the cord to either of my digital cameras so..... I am going to post the text of my brochure so you all can tell me what I need to change. the front says:

Thanks for showing interest in our

wondeful products.We would like to

begin by introducing ourselves.We are

a small business that makes handmade

candles, soap, lotion and so much more

that was started, and to this day

continues to be ran straight out of our

kitchen. For this reason, we can closely

monitor and inspect each and every

product before it leaves our doors.

Customer satisfaction, quality, and

safety are our number one priorities.

We only use the highest quality of uncut

fragrance oils in our products. We also

try to make our products as natural and

environmentally friendly as possible. To

keep our products safe, we stick with the

same suppliers and the same recipes

for all our prodcuts and furthermore, test

each batch. We also try to keep our

containers and labels looking as nice,

neat, and unique as possible. We

hope that our products will become the

great new item in your store or a

great way to raise funds for your

organiztion.

The inside show my four main products and gives descriptions of them. It also list my other ten products which I just added, lol, after working this past week to formulate and test them all.

The back says:

We offer all, or most of our products in

over 300 scents. The candles can also be

made in 40 different colors which can be

mixed to form millions of colors. Our

bath and body products can be made in

seven colors which can also be mixed.

The lip balm can also be flavored with

one of our flavors at no extra charge.

The list of fragrances, colors, and

flavors is included along with an order

form. If you would like to order please

call us and we will pick up the order and

go over it with you. Please call us with

any questions.

Terms

You must order at least $200 per order.

Your order will be custom made and your

money will not be due until the proucts

are delivered (money is due at the time

an order is placed for fundraisers). We

guarenee delivery in 17 days (typical

delivery will be in less than two weeks.)

Brochures and order forms will be

provided for fundraisers. Please call for

more info.

Candles, Bath Salts, and Reed Diffusers

should be ordered in mulitples of three.

Multi Freshener, Carpet Freshener,

Hand Sanitizer, Liquid Soap, and Shower

Gel/Shampoo should be ordered in

multiples of four.

Bars of Soap, Car Fresheners, and Lotion Bars

should be ordered in multiples of eight.

Lip Balm should be ordered in multiples

of twenty-five.

Sachet should be ordered in multiples of

sixteen.

All this info is in a trifold type brochure. It comes along with three pages of scents that I carry, a page that has the colors and flavors on it and an order form. All the information is tucked into s small rectangular bag that has my business name on the front with my logo and all that jizz. The bag also contains a sample of my airfreshener or my hand sanitizer.

As soon as I locate a camera cord I will post some pics. You can be sure that I will because I am eager to show it off. I think it looks amazing. I have mapped out the places I will visit and I hope to go and hand them out Monday morning. Wish me luck.

[southern.scents]

Please tell me what you think of my wholesale prices also.

8 oz Soy Candle 4.85

4 oz bar of soap 1.60

4 oz multi frehener 3.50

4 oz lotion 3.10

" shower gel/ shampoo 3.10

" liquid hand soap 3.10

1 oz sachet 1.65

6 oz reed diffuser 8.05

fragrance bead type car freshener 2.00

8 oz bath salt 3.55

.15 oz lip balm 1.00

.5 oz lotion stick 2.25

4 oz hand sanitizer 2.70

I offer carpet freshener but im still working on the price

[mizbizzyb]

you have organization spelled wrong

boy time goes by quick it just seemed like a few months ago when you were just getting started making candles. now you have more than 300 scents....

And nobody can tell you if your prices are okay but you...it is your work put into making the candles.

My 2 cents.

[southern.scents]

Thanks for the heads up on organization. Glad you caught that before I made a ton of these. The program I am using is great, so great I bought two versions. The newer one has spell check and of course that would be the one I would lose.

boy time goes by quick it just seemed like a few months ago when you were just getting started making candles. now you have more than 300 scents....

I know!!! I have worked my butt off. Testing constantly and looking into new products. I don't wanna move too fast but I think that this was the step that I needed to take to continue growing. 329 scents 40 candle colors 8 skin safe colors and 14 flavors.

[LynnS]

Personally I think alot of wordage. Way to much IMO. Condense that down alot and just the facts.I don't see why you have to say we make them in the kitchen and so much more needs to be taken off. Mention the fragrance part and also envirmomentally safe/natural.Made as ordered.A brochure shows pics, prices, and just some company info. I think most fold it 3 ways. Mainly company name, address, phone and maybe site(if you have one) goes on the front page. Might say Soy candlemaking company. Inside pics and prices and other info.300 scents and candles can be mixed to make millions of colors.Go with basic colors or natural UNLESS they want a Pink Country Clothesline. Personally I like my watermelon to be RED. Also for the carpet freshener "Might say it is being tested and will be offered soon". Don't say working on a price. Please don't take this badly.I just want to help and make it a little more professional,and more reasonable and less for people to read.ON A brochure anyway.How can you find space to put all you have Unless small letters.A brochure is plain, simple and within reason. LynnS

[LynnS]

I like your website.Very bright and colorful but did see you only offer 10 scents for candles. So you are keeping it simple and not overwhelming but on another page you do have a very nice list of bunches and bunches of scents and description. That is nice. On your brochure you say "we offer over 300 fragrances". On my website I do offer almost 50-60 scents.I tested some and also friends and I still find once in awhile a couple I need to wick up. So on my site I list my scents I offer for candles BUT on my HOME page I mention if you are looking for a certain scent we are sure we can get it for you. Sorry all this runs together but not sure how to fix it. Not real literate on the computer.LynnS

[debscent]

There are a few typos that I saw (wonderful, products, guarantee, multiples). I would consider shortening your information, it's a bit of information overload and it sounds like you are talking to your friend in your kitchen, not a prospective client.

[ah-soy]

After looking it over, I would like to offer some advice intended only as a constructive critique to help you improve.

First, as others have stated, it is quite wordy. I feel you can condense the text quite a bit and still say what's important. You may also want to have it proofed by an expert in grammar and of course use spell check to correct those errors.

Last but not least, I'm not sure the bit about 'made in our own kitchen' is a plus. I know a lot of folks make body care products in their kitchens, but they also cook things like chicken and other raw meats and I would want to be darn sure that the highest level of sanitary requirements are followed. Yes, I am anal

Best of luck with your new ventures!

[barncat]

My advice,like some of the other have mentioned, you are offering too many fragracnes and color combinations. Have a set list of frances to offer maybe around 20-30. It gives the customer an easier deciding point. Pick your top sellers and color combos and thats it. LAst thing a wholeasle cuystomer wants is to spend hours tryign to figure out what to order and what colors. And reordering they will not remember, was it lt brown, dk brown,cream etc in cinn bun? I cant remember. Too much info for them. You could nmention you have 200+ other scents availbale though. You have 10 seconds to determine of the customer wants to continue to look at your product. Your making them read about 1min worth. Short and sweet, fo rthemost part they really don't care, over time they will learn to care, and you could alwys have a seperatepage that says "about us",or go to your website to learn more.

Terms

Minimum Order $200

Put here you payments accepteed, and info regarded returns, NSF checks etc, I would omit the rest

Candles, Bath Salts, and Reed Diffusers

should be ordered in mulitples of three.

Multi Freshener, Carpet Freshener,

Hand Sanitizer, Liquid Soap, and Shower

Gel/Shampoo should be ordered in

multiples of four.

Bars of Soap, Car Fresheners, and Lotion Bars

should be ordered in multiples of eight.

Lip Balm should be ordered in multiples

of twenty-five.

Sachet should be ordered in multiples of

sixteen. Combine all this with your prices

[thesoapbox]

For fundraising I would shorten the list of scents even more. Too many scents listed really overwhelms people and if it is a decent size fundraiser you don't want to take forever getting the products done and out simply because of the amount of scents. Definitely shorten all the wording, seems like a huge chunk to read and I wouldn't put anything about making it in your kitchen for fundraising. Lots of people deal with bigger company fundraising and might worry if you could handle a decent fundraiser load from your kitchen.

My thoughts are on the fundraising side if you are wanting to venture out into that as well. Most companies I have seen that are into fundraising are going to offer 50% of sales to the organization and only offer a couple scents on items if even that. Some only offer only a handful of items at one scent. You can get away with smaller percentages for smaller groups but I know that if you are going to try anything with schools and fundraising, they won't even look at it unless they are getting at least 50% (coming from being on PTA boards for 10 years now).

You may want to create a brochure for your wholesaling and then a totally different brochure for your fundraising.

Angi

[southern.scents]

Ok i am doing the trifold type brochure and I have all the business info(name address, phone number etc etc) on the back. The front is a little wordy so I will cut that down. The inside has my four main products pictured with descriptions. I then have a place that says your price_______

your retail_______

your profit_______

I fill in their price and then they fill in everything else. For the other ten products, it just has the name of the product and the your price, your retail, your profit. On the carpet freshener it does not say that we are still working on the price, i just said that on here. I have the forty colors listed so that if they want to color their own way they can. I though i had written that we could pick the colors for them. I have extra room. i acually had to make things larger to fill it in. I only have the candles listed on my website that I have some left of. I had sold most of what I had by the time I adde that list.

The fragrance list is just to show what I have to offer. Fundraisers are told that they will probably want to choose a couple fragrances, we can even pick out the bestsellers for them.I also tell them that they need to pick just a few prodcuts. The order in mulitiples won't fit with my prices.

Thanks for the help.

[LynnS]

OK so working on a carpet freshener and a price for it was for us who was to get a idea but NOT on your brochure wholesale price list. I made a mistake. All fundraisers I know of only offer between 10-12 scents.If you give people a choice of ALL scents you listed OMG you will have hundreds of bottles of FO's and the buying would be out of site.I say on my website that I will choose the most popular for the season or they may choose the scents they prefer. I offer 10 and that way I can stock up on those certain scents before orders come in. I think the wholesale and fundraiser brochures need to be entirely different. You also need contracts and a introductory letter short and sweet. Payment plans etc. like some others say. Good LuckLynnS

[BLSoaps]

Everyone here made some awesome points. The one thing that jumped out at me as potentially terrifying was your 17 day guarantee. I would reword that. If you have several large wholesale orders come in at the same time, can you still do it? If you have one monstrously huge wholesale order come in (several thousand), can you still get it done in 17 days? If you don't, what happens? Is their entire order free? That's what your guarantee sounds like.

Also, if your suppliers are out of wax, or FO, or any other ingredient you need, what are you going to do? That can play absolute havoc on your time line.

I'd recommend trying something like this...

"Most of our orders are filled within 2 weeks or less (honestly, the 17 days is a little odd... how did you come up with that specific number?). Larger orders, or orders placed during busy times (such as holidays) may take longer. If your order is expected to take longer than 2 weeks, we will contact you with an approximate delivery date within 48 hours of your order.

Setting delivery times is important, but adding guarantees, well, that's asking for trouble in my opinion. If I were an unscrupulous vendor, I'd be tempted to order tons from you in the hopes you wouldn't be able to fill it in time, and then make you stick to your guarantee. It's just asking for trouble in my opinion.

There also was one line in your opening paragraph that I had to read 3 times to catch the intended flow of the sentence. "We are a small business that makes handmade candles, soap, lotion and so much more *** that was started, and to this day continues to be ran straight out of our kitchen." I lost the flow of the sentence where I stuck in the ***. It may be that I read it before I was fully awake this morning (I had a late night), but I've done enough writing over the years that I just don't think it flows the way it should. I also agree that stating you're making everything in your kitchen, well, even though most of us are, it's not really a selling point in vendor's eyes. Just state you're a small business and leave it at that.

I know I always get upset when some of the people on this forum jump all over others for moving into business too fast (before all proper testing is done), but I just want to ask for clarification on this one line. You wrote, "It also list my other ten products which I just added, lol, after working this past week to formulate and test them all." Please tell me that I misread this. I read that a week ago, you had never made these products, and that now you're selling them. Because you stated that you formulated them, I'm assuming you aren't using bases from another company, but making them yourself from scratch. I know the list of products contain things that really aren't very complicated, but a week isn't enough time to truly formulate, test, and come up with finalized formulations. Even though some of these products aren't hard to make (like lotion bars), testing different oil combos, etc, that's what makes for a great final product. If I had stayed with my original formulations, instead of testing new blends, new formulas, I wouldn't have the client base that I do. If you're moving into wholesale, you want your formulas perfected, not just good. You're approaching a client base that you will most likely never interact with, and form any kind of personal relationship with. If they don't like it, they won't give you another chance. If they don't keep buying, then your wholesale contracts are more likely to drop you. And the chances of ever getting back in with them down the road are slim to none.

If I read that statement wrong, I apologize profusely. If I didn't, and you truly are planning on selling products that you developed only last week, then I beg you to please create some kind of testing group (friends and family are great for this!), and get some honest feedback besides your own about the product. So much needs to be covered, the actual product, the packaging, the labels.... Just make sure you're ready to move into wholesale before you actually do. It's a wonderful goal, but it's also something you need to be ready for. Good luck! I hope it goes well!!!

[Penny]

I agree with a lot of the other posts and would also like to add that you check the grammar and punctuation. There are a lot of run-on sentences in your text which makes it hard to read. Your brochure is going to be the face of your company to perspective clients.

Whenever I log onto a site, the first thing that hits me is the way the information is presented. If there are typos or grammatical errors, I don't buy from them. Lack of attention to details conveys a lack of attention to running the business and transalates into a lack of attention in producing a quality product.

[southern.scents]

Hey everyone . Thanks for the ongoing help. I am using bases. By formulate, I mean, determine how much fragrance/ flavor and dye and that sort of thing. I would never come up with my own formula and sell it the next week. I have been working on lye soap for 2 months now and I'm still not satisfied with it. I will work on all of the gramatical errors and things like that. Oh yeah, the guarentee should definitely be reworded. I came up with 17 days because thats two and a half weeks. (supplies get here in one week, one week to work and delivery time.

[southern.scents]

OK so working on a carpet freshener and a price for it was for us who was to get a idea but NOT on your brochure wholesale price list. I made a mistake. All fundraisers I know of only offer between 10-12 scents.If you give people a choice of ALL scents you listed OMG you will have hundreds of bottles of FO's and the buying would be out of site.I say on my website that I will choose the most popular for the season or they may choose the scents they prefer. I offer 10 and that way I can stock up on those certain scents before orders come in. I think the wholesale and fundraiser brochures need to be entirely different. You also need contracts and a introductory letter short and sweet. Payment plans etc. like some others say. Good LuckLynnS

Yeah, I plan to offer at most 10 scents per fundraiser and probably at most 7 products. Yeah, I am getting my contract written up.

[Fire and Ice]

Yeah, I plan to offer at most 10 scents per fundraiser and probably at most 7 products. Yeah, I am getting my contract written up.

NOT that I have done them, but you might wnat to limit the scents that you do for a fund raiser to just six or eight of your best selling scents at that time of year! To off 100+ scents or even half that amount will kill a customer and the kids who have to take the samples for the orders.

If you limit your choices, you will be able to control things better once the fund raiser is turned into you for production!

The same goes with the coloring of the products! You will be pulling your hair out and going crazy when it comes time to pour a fund raiser because you offered too many choices! Limit the choices to the best sellers only!

I personally would never try to combine a wholesale and fund raising materials in one brochure. It IS very confusing to everyone!

What happens of you have several large wholsale orders to get out as well as a huge fund raiser to do all at the same time? How is your workspace setup? Do you have a large melter for the wax? If you don't, and your just using two presto pots, lookout!!!

You have to have the proper professional equipment to do any sort of mass production! If you don't have it, don't attempt to do wholesale and fundraisers without it because you will work yourself into the ground!

How much research have you done on doing fund raisers? It's good to know what you are stepping into.

Do you have the capital in advance to buy a pallet of jars and have them shipped? How about 1/2 pallet of lotion base? You need to have to supplies there before starting the fund raiser. What if they turn in a fund raiser for 2000 candles, you call for the jars and they are out????? YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE JARS BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO POUR!

JMO~ Until you have fully researched and know what there is to know about fund raisers~ don't do them. You only get one chance to make a first impression!

The people around me are begging me to do fund raiser topo but I won't do them because I don't have the capital to buy pallets of jars, wax, and F/O. I KNOW my limits and though they are growing, I will continue to work well within my boundries.

JMO and 0.2 cents.

Fire:lipsrseal

[southern.scents]

Here is a pic of the package. Its super blury but I'm too busy to retake it. I have got twenty of these to make and it takes forever to make just one. There is lots to cut out and even more folding. So far I have gone through three printers just to get that one to work right. The first too were lexmarks that cost a ton and they both messed up. I finally just ran to walmart and bought the one that printed the fastest, suprisingly the cheapest one. I ran throught the sample cartridge in less that three pages lol. I think they look great. what do yall think?

[SherriLynn]

I think it will depend on your part of the country what the sales percentages would be. In our neck of the woods there are many people doing magazine funds raisers, and jewelry fundraisers. that are only give a 25 - 35% back to the organization but offer gift cards and prizes to the top sellers. Several of the fundraisers my children have participated in (high school), offer no prizes or gifts to sellers, but offer from 30 - 40% back to the organization.

I live rural, and in our small towns the big fundraising companies dont' even consider us because at least 500 items or more must be sold for a 30% profit to the organization. The cheapest item being $6.00 That's about $3000 for groups that are only about 12 -15 members and we know how those groups work,, some will participate and some won't.. so the amounts needing to be sold are pretty big.

Now I think in larger populated areas, you can give back more to the organization,,, like 45 - 50%. If you have 100 kids participating in a fund raiser and your prices are set right, it can be very, very profitable for both parties.

I don't know how to set up a survery,, but I think it would be interesting to see what is offered for percentages in different parts of the country for fundraising.

As far as the brochure.... just my thoughts, but way too many scents offered. We offer a variety of products on our fundraisers, however usually not more than top 6 or 7 candles FO's and only in 2 sizes, a mason jar. or votives. An yes,, I agree,, very very wordy. Many of those who will purchase, skim for something that catches their eye but dont' have time to read the rest.

I think you'll need to figure out which market your going to target. I work with smaller school and fundraisers,, very profitable, and usually doesnt' require alot of up front expenses. I also have to target fundraisers between my usual selling at large shows. It's alot to juggle at first, so it will take time until you can find your niche'.

Good luck.. and happy fundraising... !!

[so-soy]

Everyone here has given you great feedback, but the one thing I would like to ask you is about this one week turnaround on those B&B products. You said you use bases and you made these new products and had them for sale in one weeks time, now how do you get long term testing results if you made them and sell them so fast? Do you know if the fragrance oil you put in it will work? By that I mean, could the oil seperate from the base? Does the scent hold up after time? Does the oil discolor the base after a while? Did you add to much oil? These are all questions that can only be answered by testing products with time! As others have said, you have one shot at customers liking your products, wouldn't you want to know for certain the product they are judging is the best you can produce? All seems a bit to fast for me!

[thesoapbox]

Everyone here has given you great feedback, but the one thing I would like to ask you is about this one week turnaround on those B&B products. You said you use bases and you made these new products and had them for sale in one weeks time, now how do you get long term testing results if you made them and sell them so fast? Do you know if the fragrance oil you put in it will work? By that I mean, could the oil seperate from the base? Does the scent hold up after time? Does the oil discolor the base after a while? Did you add to much oil? These are all questions that can only be answered by testing products with time! As others have said, you have one shot at customers liking your products, wouldn't you want to know for certain the product they are judging is the best you can produce? All seems a bit to fast for me!

This is an assumption that she has only used the base with fo once. For all anyone knows she has been using certain bases with certain fragrances for a long time and already knows how her products hold up. Once you have that type of info then it is feasible to get the item out in the time she has listed. I see this alot with this board, the assumptions that individuals have not done the proper testing with their products or that because they are new to the board and haven't posted much that they are moving too fast for product sales.

I am sure she has tested as much as she sees fit for her business and feels comfortable with the results she has to be able to put out the info she does on her products and her time frames.

Angi

[so-soy]

This is an assumption that she has only used the base with fo once. For all anyone knows she has been using certain bases with certain fragrances for a long time and already knows how her products hold up. Once you have that type of info then it is feasible to get the item out in the time she has listed. I see this alot with this board, the assumptions that individuals have not done the proper testing with their products or that because they are new to the board and haven't posted much that they are moving too fast for product sales.

I am sure she has tested as much as she sees fit for her business and feels comfortable with the results she has to be able to put out the info she does on her products and her time frames.

Angi

The 'assumption' is going off of her words - "It also list my other ten products which I just added, lol, after working this past week to formulate and test them all." With the words formulate, test and week all in the same sentence it leads one to believe this is exactly what she did! Make and test lotions etc in ONE week! IMO that isn't long enough time even if you are using bases! Also are you familiar with this person? Are you aware of the past postings by her etc??

[thesoapbox]

The 'assumption' is going off of her words - "It also list my other ten products which I just added, lol, after working this past week to formulate and test them all." With the words formulate, test and week all in the same sentence it leads one to believe this is exactly what she did! Make and test lotions etc in ONE week! IMO that isn't long enough time even if you are using bases! Also are you familiar with this person? Are you aware of the past postings by her etc??

Yes dammit LOL, I have been reading quite a bit after I posted that! I was just going off of that she knew what she was doing and wouldn't think of putting something out that she didn't test like mad! But I am still reading and now see why you said what you did:grin2: .

Angi

[southern.scents]

Some of the products that I listed, I have been doing and working on forever. The main thing I meant by the past week thing was I kicked it into high gear. I already new the basics of the products but this last week I started actually making bunches of them and passing them out. I am terrbile with words, I prove it time and time again.:embarasse

[thesoapbox]

Some of the products that I listed, I have been doing and working on forever. The main thing I meant by the past week thing was I kicked it into high gear. I already new the basics of the products but this last week I started actually making bunches of them and passing them out. I am terrbile with words, I prove it time and time again.:embarasse

It happens to the best of us! If you are comfortable with the testing you have done on your products and you are comfortable with what you are offering and the time limits you have in place then you are doing fine. Only you know exactly what you have done so far and only you know exactly how you want your business to go.

I think with the way you post things at times causes confusion with others and I know that sometimes some members can come off as being harsh (I take it that way sometimes simply from reading) but I know they only have your best interest in mind as they are posting.

Angi