For those who stuck out the year ...

[Scented]

How'd it go? I ask that as if it's over, but show season is for me lol.

Did/do you find sales are picking up now? Any surprises on what has moved? Do you think you're close to where you were last year? Doing better than? Or not at all? Considering anything for next year as far as new products?

For us, I think we're glad we picked up a farmer's market, a wholesale acct. and few quickie shows to help with funds coming in. I was chained by the throat when I went looking for ingredients (OK fragrances, but I haven't been restrained to stop buying lately ... ha!)

Preliminary opinion is we're glad we hung through the year so far and we've been surprised by the amount of soap and some B&B stuff that has moved.

The checkbook says we have more cash in the acct. than we did at this time last year (might be because I haven't been on buying sprees.)

Always looking for something in the coming year to do and I think that's going to finally be something we should have been making ... wickless!

Edited December 8, 2009 by Scented

[Judy, USMC]

Did one less craft fair than last year ... and made the same $ amount as last year. So those sales were favorable.

Store sales are going strong on the small oval and clamshell melts. Waxed dipped Bear sales are the same as last year. Will definitely have to do an inventory/re-stock before the 24th. Last year there were al lot of after Christmas buyers.

Had to get more wax but I was using up what I had rather than buying FO's. That move alone has increased the profit margin ... but if many others have held back on purchases ... it may be why so many suppliers have closed.

[barncat]

I havent pulled up my numbers for the year yet, but as of last quarter, even though sales were down, profit was up! Which means I'm being smarter busienss wise. I've picked up a few new accounts and lost a few due to closure. Over all we are stillawamped and have a long lead time, so thats what I would like to change.

Our wholesale co-op we are at seems to be going better than ever. Our sales were trmendous there, if only I could have kept up...oh my I would have had made so much more $.

New next year, I will slim down my jar line from 3 types to just 1. Add new sizes in pillars, which my sales testing have already proved they will go over well.

My main goal for next year is to maximize creative displays for my trade shows and catalog and do more customer relations....oh and put my competitors out of business

[NewOrleansLady]

Sales were up this year....dropped votives and added oil warmers/oils.

[Brenda (OH)]

Sales are up for me this year A couple new wholesale and private labels accounts, a couple more big fundraisers plus web orders are up !! And I had to turn down brochure parties for the holiday due to timing. Hoping the sales continue and January fares better than last year too . .

[Scented]

Great to read these posts! Congrats!

Judy, basically I had overstocked on previous years with fragrances, so I trimmed that down and bought mostly those I needed to reorder ... I did a few new ones, tried a couple of new suppliers, but I have a lot of FO that has to get used before I lose it. (I so am ignoring I said that ha!) Actually I think a lot of people may have streamlined what they offered. We didn't. We actually expanded to give more choices, because we're always test marketing what has more appeal than other things we offer if that makes sense.

[FarmerJill]

Sales were definitely up. And based on our sales for the last few months we've decided tart melters must be the new "in" appliance this Christmas. I was afraid I had way overstocked on them but sold so many we had to do a quick reorder, just barely getting them in time for this past Saturday's show. So that was a surprise. Hand in hand, our tarts in the 1 oz portion cups were huge sellers.

By contrast, jar candle sales were down and pillars held about the same or maybe slightly down. For people who were shopping for gifts rather than for themselves, no doubt the melter and a cute little bag of tarts looks like a more substantial gift than a candle.

New for next year? I dunno. I keep thinking I want to switch to a different jar. My sisters say I'm crazy. However, I do know I want to finally join the ranks of you soapers and when January rolls around will be mixing up my first batch of CP soap.

[bugtussle]

Sales have definitely been down for 2009. Fundraisers down about 20%. I expected it to be worse and am pleased that customers are still buying. Our store is open this Saturday and we hope to have a good day.

Thank God DH is working 40 hrs at his job. Our candles and soaps just couldn't be our only income. We have cut down on supplies on-hand and don't carry a lot of inventory. Web sales are really sad. Let's hope for a more prosperous 2010! Carole

[LynnS]

Same as last year for me but with the economy I understand.I have been lucky as all my orders and craft shows I was stocked with FO's.Had to buy just a few fo's this year(if I ran out).Always seemed to be out of wax though.

My one wholesaler over doubled her candles. But the order was small for now(just her main sellers/requests).She is so busy now but did say she was ordering more. Last year it was over 100 candles but if she orders more it should be over 200. Then springtime orders.

My consignment with a group is doing fair.They even called me to do a show.I wasn't able to do it but they did the show for me. The director really wanted my candles. She wanted more stock and wanted to sell for me at the show. I need to check on that. Lots going on since Thanksgiving.

With the people who did buy this year and those who came back and brag about my candles I feel good.I will be doing this even if I break even. I did get a new customer but only because I have the candles she was looking for this holiday season.I had 2 scents she had a request for. Not sure if she will order again.

I have a customer wanting hoiday candles so will call her if she is interested. I have the Christmas Tree down pat now(only some leftover wax at the very end). She will be fine with that IF she burns them.She will probably buy 10 of them to put in every window in the front of her house.She displayed the pumpkin jars.

In this area consignment would probably work the best. Not sure about upfront sales for wholesale but stores might be willing to do consignment. Not the big time stores but the small ones.Also approach some non profits to bring in a few bucks to help both of us.

By far as every year it is candles as a BIG sale. Scented is starting wickless.I did wickless but no sales at all. Three years ago people wondered what they were. A few kinda seemed put back on the wasted wax.Like what do you do with the leftover.Throw away. With many being enviromental now they were questioned. I ditched them fast but some areas they are sellers. Still the same with sales on everything else.Depends on where you live.

Like one person said they put other candlemakers out of business.I didn't do that but many did quit.When you see one year 35 candlemakers at a show and now see maybe 10 they are dwindling.

I am hanging in there. People want me to open a shop.But seems something always happens.I have a small building behind my house that could be fixed up cute. Someday maybe??? I live on a state route which helps.

LynnS

[adillenal]

I do soap and lotion etc (no candles) and the last two shows have been the best I have ever done. One more to go.

I have noticed that at several shows there were no candles at all and Sunday's show only had one. Of course Scentsy seems to be everywhere I go.

I did 3 large expensive shows and lost money but the small local shows are doing great. Taught me that large isn't always best.

[Rockin]

Always looking for something in the coming year to do and I think that's going to finally be something we should have been making ... wickless!

Oh Lordy. What Julie meant to say was Rob....you need to find additional space in the booth cause you ain't busy enough.

Yes we did watch our P's & Q's this year but the previous year or 2 we bought some things in bulk and anticipated that they would move and for the most part they have. So that is a good thing and as always we appreciate surviving another year.

Now comes the fun part....Paperwork...Yee haw...

Rockin

[evesorto]

I think that I will end up just slightly under last year (5%), unless last minute shoppers call me for Christmas items. Craft shows were down about 25% across the board. I skipped a few shows and booked parties instead. The parties were up and customers were repeat customers. I did a small fundraiser and I believe this made up for the 25% that was lost at craft shows. I shyed (sp?) away from expensive shows and stuck to shows that ran me anywhere from $25-40. I only did three shows that cost $60 or more. I had excellent return on table fees with only one being under 10x.

Scented, I believe it was you, who posted earlier this year that if we could stick it out, this year would be a good measuring stick. If this year was as bad as it gets, that's nice to know. Hopefully, we have nowhere to go but up.

Eve

[bugtussle]

Sales have definitely been down for 2009. Fundraisers down about 20%. I expected it to be worse and am pleased that customers are still buying. Our store is open this Saturday and we hope to have a good day.

Thank God DH is working 40 hrs at his job. Our candles and soaps just couldn't be our only income. We have cut down on supplies on-hand and don't carry a lot of inventory. Web sales are really sad. Let's hope for a more prosperous 2010! Carole

Just a brief update on "store open" yesterday. Our sales were the highest we have had in 8 yrs. Not just candles, but lots of cp soap, frostings and scrubs. Elec tart warmers and clamshells sold well! We are very blessed to have lots of customers that did their Christmas shopping with us. Now it's time to relax and enjoy the holidays. Bug

[adillenal]

My small Christmas shows have been great and sales way over last year. That is until my last monthly market. I did a fourth of what I did last year. Turned out cold and drizzling rain off an on all day. I was disappointed but all in all I did well. I have alot of product left though because I signed up for 3 major huge expensive shows that did not do very well. I guess everyone and their dog on my Christmas list will get a soap and lotion gift sack.

[HeavenScentU]

I made less this year as expected, but I was hoping I would still make a profit. So far I did make about $2000.00 less than last year but that is ok. I changed my product line so my costs weren't so much. I am happy I made money at all my shows. Now I can pay off my credit cards. Yesterday was my last show and alot of people didn't make any money, but their prices were high. People didn't want to spend alot of money this year and they proved it by not buying from vendors that had high priced items. It is tough out there....

[LovelyLathers]

I had a great year. I opened my own store and did a few festivals. Sales were up about 15% at the festivals. The store was slow to begin with but sales have sky rocketed beyond what I could have excepted. The past 3 weekend have been very good to me! I have only 3 batches of soap on the rack curing as the customers coming in continuously have prevented me from making any. Orders for gift baskets have been crazy. One was a corporate order for 50 baskets. I am thrilled with holding on to my dream this year!

[Scented]

Scented, I believe it was you, who posted earlier this year that if we could stick it out, this year would be a good measuring stick. If this year was as bad as it gets, that's nice to know. Hopefully, we have nowhere to go but up.

Eve

We found early on that sales were down, but had no idea how far down things would get, but Rockin has a strong sales background and is the eternal optimist (good thing). We found other avenues to get a few more sales, which helped in our bottom line and web sales have increased as compared to a year ago (but then about 1 1/2 years ago we were hacked and struggled to get back up with a sensible website. We lost a lot of customers and half a year, but still plugged through.)

I said something about sticking it out because a business needs to keep its name a product out there for those who are looking, because customers aren't always faithful. If you have a customer base built up, don't lose it if you can keep from doing so. I'm certainly glad we stuck it out, just to know that we could and what the year would bring. Tests, like those we faced with the economy this year, were good to learn from, to be stronger. We didn't add to our lines this year, which I wish we would have, but I couldn't get enough solid test results back to go in a particular direction and then I learned a lot along the way that kept us from going forward with a few ideas that could have landed us in some trouble. So even though things looked a little grim early on, they got better. Surprisingly, when we came indoors for shows we didn't do too bad either. I think we'll still see cautious buying into next year, because people aren't becoming employed fast enough and when they do find work, they aren't going to whip around the cash that quickly. A lot of people have much to recover from, but I feel being a little more diverse in the products we offer has helped keep us in the arena so to speak. I still think we'll become stronger business people as we move through these times.

[3bees~1flower]

2009 has been great for my biz, i never felt the sting of recession. in fact, my biz has grown nearly 100% from last year. looking forward to what 2010 has in store!

[LuminousBoutique]

I only did one show, in July.. due to scheduling (my husband got switched to weekends and I have nobody to help with my toddlers) but it was 40% down from 2008. I'm hoping this summer will be better.

[Candybee]

My overall sales were up from last year which surprised me due to a couple of really poor craft shows. But my repeat customers are probably the reason for my increase in sales this year.

Website sales are still slow but up from last year also.

I also spent less money this year on supplies and vendor fees and sold off a lot of discontinued stock that I had laying around. Plus I used up some FOs that have also been laying around so I don't lose money or waste space storing them.

What I have learned is to simplify my stock and work habits to get more out of what I use. I now strive to sell mostly my truly best selling items and knock out the ones that don't sell. This still allows me to be creative and continue to improve the current products I carry while trying out a few new ones each year.

Its still been a rough year but I am glad I have seen better sales and an improvement in my marketing strategy.

[Maggie]

I didn't do any craft shows this year. I normally do one in March, May, October and November. I tell everyone I was too busy...and then say..okay lazy. My best one is the one in October but we had torrential rain and high winds for 3 days. I called the woman in charge and she said that 23 people had already cancelled...and many more called to see if it was still going on. The craft show is held outside...part of our towns 5 day Farmer's Fair which brings in tons of people. It's been going on for over 100 years. Anyway...my hubby drove by the school around 9AM...where it is held on the playground...he saw exactly 3 "tents" set up. Someone told me that before noon they told the people to go home. When I talked with the lady in charge she said that they are looking for an alternative indoor site in case of bad weather. It's on the school playground for God's sake...I said...ask the school district if it can be held IN the school. This woman is a lawyer...all brains and no common sense...lol.

Anyway...my sales are down because I didn't do the shows. But...my Christmas Open House last weekend surpassed every one I have ever done. 4 years I set up at my Mary Kay rep's home...she invited other people...Tastefully Simple, Weekender clothing, a jewelry person and of course her Mary Kay line. 3 years ago I decided to go solo at my house...I was tired of lugging all of my stuff to her house. I told her she could set up here...she didn't want to lug all of her stuff...hmmmmm.

Anyway...I held it 2 days for a total of 10 hours and with sales from people who could not attend I am about $250. higher in sales over 2007. Last year was down...which I expected.

I curbed my spending this year...I mean it was bare bones.

After Christmas I am going to take a hard look at all of the "stuff" I have accumulated over 9 years and get busy using what I have...containers, fragrances, molds etc. My workshop looks like I should be a supplier.

[Jokerjen]

Sales are up for me and I am opening a store in January. I have been busy the last few weeks doing renovations in the store and going over my purchasing.

I have added bath and body products in the store, as well as gifts and will have a room set up just for wedding items.

I'm so excited!

[adillenal]

Sales are up for me and I am opening a store in January. I have been busy the last few weeks doing renovations in the store and going over my purchasing.

I have added bath and body products in the store, as well as gifts and will have a room set up just for wedding items.

I'm so excited!

How exciting for you!!! Good luck and I hope you are successful.

[Scented]

Great to hear Jen! Good luck to you and I hope we get a visual tour!!

[Jokerjen]

Thanks..once I get all the reno's done and the store stocked, I will post before and afters.