My BLUEPRINT For Starting a New Candle Business in 2024!

[Music] [Music] [Music] yeah [Music] everyone loves to toss around the phrase you need a business plan unfortunately that's just five words that mean absolutely nothing on their own telling an aspiring entrepreneur that they need a business plan is like telling a Football player that they need to run some plays in order to get in the end zone or telling a singer that they need some songs in order to write an album or have a concert it's mostly Common Sense the key is What place should a football team run in order to score what should their

strategy be and what songs should a singer write or sing for that matter in order to have a concert and what price should the concert tickets even be when it comes to starting a candle Business or any business it's more than just knowing that you need a business plan the question is how what things should you be thinking about what sets you apart different from others what types of products to make and for what price where to get supplies where and how to Market your products to get more business and for someone just starting what

does that timeline even look like I could go on and on and on so today my plan is to help you with your plan I Hope you stay tuned and if you have to pause go back rewind and watch it all again go ahead take notes it's free all right so let's start with what we're going to talk about and how it fits into starting and growing your candle business and there's this great quote about starting a business and you got to forgive me I'm not sure who said it I'll try to find out but

the quotee is if you like your first product you probably waited too long to start in other words Don't strive for Perfection right off the bat just get started now with that being said let's talk about some of the major benefits to starting a candle business yes even today first of all there's a low barrier to entry when it comes to starting this kind of business why because it's relatively inexpensive to start compared to large businesses large corporations right you can start it at home in your kitchen in a basement there there's a lot of

options when it Comes to starting this type of business there's a lot of places you can purchase supplies both online and locally there's also a ton of resources out there such as this YouTube channel and several other resources out there as well where you can learn how to do this craft from scratch but not just do the craft also turn it into a business it's also very scalable business meaning you can start off small and grow kind of at whatever Pace or rate you're comfortable with the Sky truly is the limit the candle industry is

a multi-billion dollar industry so you can be as small as you want and comfortable and cozy or you can grow and grow and grow and scale this to your heart desires you can grow this into a large business you can keep it a small business or you can just do this on the side as a part-time hustle and we're going to talk about all that here in just a little bit it's also a very profitable business as I mentioned it's A multibillion dollar industry regardless of the size that you want to take your business there's

plenty to go around and finally and probably most importantly it's fun it's a craft you're making a product yourself selling something that you made and you get a lot of satisfaction out of doing that especially when you pair it with starting and growing your own business but if you're watching this video I probably don't have to oversell you on The benefits advantages and reasons to start a candle business you're already here you're already interested so let's talk about actually how to create this business plan and some different ways to go about it one of the

best ways that I like to illustrate the process of starting your business from scratch starting at the very beginning is to actually do this on a timeline when I'm doing my one one consultations I like to talk about this concept because a lot of Kandle makers and those interested in turning it into a business are often confused on where to start and which things to do at what point do I start making candles first do I worry about the business side first should when should I do testing when should I work on my marketing materials

when do I need to get registered as a business uh when do I need insurance uh how do I work on my website there's so many things that when you think about it it's like a Scatter chart there's just all these things all over the place and it's like which one do I choose because when you're first getting started it's so overwhelming it's like a kid in a candy store there's just so many things that grab your attention and it can be hard to just focus on one thing so the reason I like to do

this on a timeline is because in truth you actually should be doing both parts of the timeline the candle production side and the candle Business side at the same time you're just going to do them in different stages across the timeline and yeah there'll be some overlap that will help you stay focused and obtaining each one of your Milestones by doing different different things at different stages and I promise you it will make it seem much less overwhelming when you take all these pieces and put it into a plan so across the top of this

timeline we're going to talk about the production side So everything when it comes to making and testing your products product development from start to finish on the bottom part of the timeline we're going to be talking about the business aspects this is your legal matters your administrative things business side of running a candle business right so you got your candle business think of it that way now as IAL about these I will overlay the timeline and show you kind of where they stagger now I should say This is very flexible this is one example and

this is how if I were starting a candle business I would basically create my timeline it's flexible though you can change it up as you need to it might differ for everyone depending on the type of business you're starting what your ultimate goal is how large you want to grow your business you might need to focus a different areas at a different time or for a longer period of time but for me this is generally a Pretty good timeline that I would recommend to most people so the first thing I think you should do which

is going to surprise many of you is not on the candle side it's actually on the business side and that is figuring out your first initial budget because if you don't know a budget to start with you don't even know how to get started or how much you can spend to start this craft before you even make your first candle you have to have an idea of how Much you are willing to invest to get started because you're going to need some supplies you're going to need things to get you going so you have to

have an idea of your budget can your budget change of course as your business grows your budget's going to change take some time sit down and figure out how much money can I commit to this new craft this new project even if I were to assume it didn't work out how much money can I commit to get started is it a Couple hundred is it $1,000 is it $5,000 whatever you want to set aside to get yourself going and earmark those funds strictly for this project for this endeavor so that is Step number one and

I think that should be step number one for everyone step number two is on the production side and this is basically getting started now that you're aware of your budget you want to sample some products so get a few sample waxes some basic supplies purchase a a candle kit If you would like to the point is is you want to spend a little bit of money getting a little bit of supplies to see if you even like this a little bit if you don't then you're get the rest of your budget back and you can

find something else to try but you have to find out if this is something you're actually going to enjoy from the very beginning personally I found candle making much more enjoyable after I got out of the sampling testing kit phase But either way you can get a rough idea is this something I even enjoy a little bit and when it comes to supplies we're talking about you know pouring pitches uh heat guns ways to stir Wick wax jars um even little Wick tools uh to help place the Wicks and keep your Wick straight during the

cooling process the ones I recommend by the way um I'm sure you've heard it before is nordon Candle supply they sell fantastic Wick Setters and Wick Clips uh to help you with Candle making and I've got a couple videos talking about them one is a video that kind of overviews their products in general they are awesome that's actually what's being used behind me so you can see this just holds the wick in place and they fit the jars that you're using perfectly so these ones fit this jar but no matter what jar you're using you

can go to the website and get the one specifically for your jar it's awesome and then here's the wick Setter I don't Have a wick on me right now but you would place the wick in here and I don't know if you can see this you'll put this on top and then you'll plunge the wick in and pull it back out and the wick will be dead center it's awesome so again check out the video that goes over that fantastic products I make hundreds thousands of candles at a time and uh I they're just they're

amazing they're amazing so I'd highly recommend them they've got other products too by the Way they've got a label guide and it helps you make sure it label is going straight every single time so check that out as well really cool anyways when I talk about supplies that's a kind of things I'm talking about there's so many tools gadgets supplies materials uh to help you get started candle making and the more you grow in scale the more of these tools and supplies you might end up using or you might change them out for other things

whatever suits your Needs and by the way throughout this video I'll be referring to a lot lot of steps uh throughout this process including even the previous one I mentioned getting some uh basic waxes and supplies getting some kits anything I talk about like that I obviously can't go into Super depth in this overview video but I'm going to be outlining the timeline the things you should be thinking about the the goals the milestones for specific details on some Of these I have a variety of topics I'm sorry I have a variety of videos on

all of the topics we're going to cover so go to my channel hit subscribe if you're not already and then go to the videos you can see all the different videos that I have covering all these topics in different playlists as well so anyways if any of these topics come up and you're like well okay he says to get supplies but where do I do that what supplies do I need I've got videos on That so don't worry just go to those look for those details all right so after you get out of this getting

started feeling an outstage you're going to flip back to the business side of the timeline and here is where you really should make a decision and you can change your decision but at least at this point think about is this something I want to just make a part time thing maybe a little side hustle or is this something I really want to commit to and Grow this into a full business why do you run a think about that this early on well it's going to help kind of steer the direction of the rest of these

steps it will also guide your budget a little bit because if you're going to take it a little bit more seriously you're going to spend more time in some of these stages or phases than you would if you're just going to kind of do it on the side you've got time to figure it out just get an idea at this point Though and if you really aren't sure at this point CU it is very early on you've only done a a few test candles if you're still not sure that's okay take this and plug it

into various parts of the timeline and just keep asking yourself that question as you move throughout the next thing is still on the business side of the timeline and that is deciding or thinking about what you want for your brand your Niche or your theme your target market in other words so do you Plan to just make some kind of generic candles and Mass Appeal or are you looking for a specific theme to your candles maybe like Carrie you've seen in some videos has a haunted theme or or villain type theme or check out Matt

from dude candles or Matt from history candles there's a lot of themed based candle businesses out there and they are fantastic because if you know your audience you know your Market it's much easier to sell to that market because You're making products specifically for them not for everyone it will also guide the rest of your choices along the timeline for example your packaging your presentation the scents you choose the type of vessel the color anything that the names of your candles right so at this point try to identify is there a niche or a theme

that you want to attach to your brand to your business the earlier you can figure this out the better because you're going to spend a Lot of time on this part of starting your business and really scaling your business throughout can you change it of course like pretty much anything on this timeline you have the right to change your mind about anything but the earlier you can lock this in the more you can go full bore on it and the better off you'll be so am I suggesting you need a niche or theme no do

I recommend it for most yes but that doesn't NE necessarily mean it has to be super specific for Example you don't have to have a sport theme you don't have to have a a villain theme right but try to have something consistent about your brand that kind of ties everything together it makes it a lot easier for brand consistency and brand loyalty to do that now one thing I also want to mention because everyone always asks about Trends still today by far the number one thing factor that customers care about when it comes to candles

is the fragrance part they care More about fragrance than anything else however commercial use of candles has increased significantly as well because of of spa and massage typee candles Aroma theapy type candles so there's a lot of candles being used not just for home fragrance but for the experience as well it heightens your senses it can be relaxing it can be calming as well as more and more every year customers are buying candles for home decor for the Aesthetics to fit in their modern or Contemporary household or their Farm household or whatever the case may

be they do purchase it as Decor not just for home fragrance so again the point is there's a lot of opportunity here so find your Market find your Niche find your theme and go for it it also at this point if you have decided on a brand and a theme and you already have an idea of the the business name or what you want to call your candle company this is also a great time to go ahead and research to See if that domain name is available and if it is purchase it you can purchase

it from Google domains you can purchase it from from GoDaddy and so on and if you're not sure what a domain is uh my domain is black Tai barn.com so if you have something in mind that you want first of all try to make sure it's available and if it is snatch it up if it's not available you can try a few variations of it or you might have to scrap it and go for something else but You do want something that is unique to you and you want to make sure it's available before you

overcommit all your branding and your marketing to uh to a name you can't really use all right so now that you have a little bit better idea of your brand your identity your Niche your theme or whatever the direction you want to take your business let's get back on the production side of the timeline at this point you've got your feet wet a little bit you've made Some uh candles from some kits you've sampled or tested some different waxes at this point it's really time to start deciding and again you can change later if you

want but at this point it's a good good idea idea to start deciding on what wax you want to start with what wax are you going to commit to going forward at least for the foreseeable future one of the most popular questions everyone sees in Facebook groups YouTube channels uh and my consultations is what is the Best wax well there is no best wax all waxes have pros and cons and what's important to one person is not going to be the same uh to another person so knowing what you're looking for and knowing what you

care the most about and experience and sampling these waxes is the only way to really tell you what wax you're going to like the best now there are three I would say primary factors I tell people to consider when they're choosing a wax the first is as I Mentioned what do you care the most about is it the hot throw so how strong the the wax throws the fragrance is it how easy the wax is to work with um maybe pouring um or wicking uh do you want to avoid sink holes do you prefer a

certain color basically what's the most important factor to you right the other thing to consider is your Niche your theme your target market they might might demand you use a particular type if your entire brand is to be kind of Organic and earthy and you preach uh natural and all your scents are based off like woods and mountains or something like that then you're going to probably want to use something like a soy or a soy coconut or you might go towards beeswax or you might have a candle Community or customer base that is so

focused on the craziest hot throw possible then you might want to go with paraffin or a par of soy blend right so there your Market your your target your Theme is going to Al sometimes guide your wax decision not always but sometimes and then the third and FAL category is the product type meaning if you're going to make pillar or votive candles that stand alone those need to be a harder wax generally than a soft wax you would use in a container so you would use a pillar wax if you're only going to make container

candles you don't want to use a hard pillar wax you want to use a soft container wax and so That one's a little bit more obvious but it is a main factor so those are the three main factors what do you care the most about personally what is your customer based care sh the most about and what type of products are you making and again I have videos talking about some of the waxes that I've tested and tried and some recommendations I have I'll link that video below and if you have any questions um feel

free to leave a you know a question in the comment or Comment one of your favorite waxes use so people that are here for the first time have an idea of the variety out there and uh what a lot of people are recommending also on the production side you got to choose Your Vessel right your container if you're making container candles and again this is why we talked about deciding on your Niche or your theme earlier because that will help guide the look of your products now that you have an idea of that you can

choose Your vessels your containers your jars right so they have different shapes they have different sizes they certainly have different colors you can go with concrete you can go with glass you can go with porcelain you can go with uh tin there's a lot of options out there and they all have different looks as well so this is a time to start choosing that are you going to add different vessels at some point yeah probably you might change them entirely you might add new Collections but find something to start with that you like and also

fits your brand or your your theme if you already have one and then we'll talk about how to test all this later and then one more thing here on the production side at the moment is your scent options so what type of fragrance do you want your candles to put off and again this ties back to why it's important to already have an idea of your theme one because certain themes are going to have certain Fragrances that make sense for that theme but also the names that you're going to choose for your candles or your

scents are going to be reflective of your theme or your niche as well so this is a time to start experimenting with scent options if you already know what your brand identity is going to be then this is going to be easier for you cuz you know what you're looking for at the very least when you sample fragrances you'll say yep that'll work or nope has Nothing to do with what I'm trying to do if you do not know yet what you want to do with your brand and the direction you want to take it

I have a suggestion that I like to offer everyone that is getting started because another popular question is what sense should I choose well I said if you've got a theme or a brand I would definitely have that guide you first first and foremost but if you don't and you're curious I like to take take fragrances uh one from like every Major category that way you offer a variety to customers so that you can get you can appeal to different tastes so for example you're going to want one bakery or gouron fragrance you're going to

want a fresh and aromatic fragrance you'll want a woody fragrance an earthy fragrance fruity a floral and then a classic like uh maybe like a lavender or a vanilla or a lavender lemon or really do some research on classic fragrances and you'll get a bunch of suggestions I'm probably not giving great ones uh and then after that I like to reserve the eighth through 10th spot for fragrances that you just absolutely love and are unique to you so if I got my math right on that that is Bakery fresh floral fruity earthy Woody classic and

then something unique that's eight and I like to tell people to start between 8 and 12 so throw in a few more if you want and just see how you like them you're going to probably take Some fragrances away over time and add to them you'll have new collections this is going to be something that's constantly changing that's a good list to kind of get started with now we're going to hop back down to the business side of the timeline in fact I'm going to put on my business hat for this this next one is

something that no one likes to talk about but it is important especially for the rest of the stages coming up and that is about insurance Business insurance there's two things that I think are important when you're considering Insurance one is that you have at least General business liability insurance and two try to get product Insurance specific to candle making that means when you go to your insurance broker or insurance company and would start locally first make sure you're transparent to them what type of products you're making what type of business you have because some of

them Will not cover candle making and you want to make sure that whatever policy you have will cover you if you ever need it if you cannot find a local company that works for you then look online for uh insurance companies that will cover candle making or other crafts and again I will leave links and videos below that go into this topic a little bit more detail so why is it important to have insurance well whether you are a full business or not if anyone is going to be Test testing or burning any of your

products that you made you want to be protected yes you have warning labels on candles warning labels are just requirement than anything they do not protect you if you make a candle that uh causes harm or is improperly made or is negligent there there's reasons you need insurance just put it that way insurance is there in case something happens at the very least it's peace of mind are you likely going to need it no hopefully Not but it's good to have that peace of mind just talked about insurance and this next part is the reason

why we're going to flip up to the production side again of the timeline at this point I like to start creating my test group of customers and I call these my first adopters as well because these customers will stay around with you for a long time often they test your new products they give you feedback they help your business grow and in fact I call them Early adopters as well because I will keep them around with a perpetual discount because they helped me so anyone that becomes part of my pilot my test group my early

adopters they're going to get 25% off for life of all my products for example you can use whatever you want but that encourages a them to give you real valuable feedback because otherwise you're not going to keep them around but two they want to be part of something something that's new Something that's growing and then of course you're thanking them by helping you do that I have a fairly recent video about how to make the best products best candles possible and that is all about creating these test groups and how I go about doing it

so uh I would watch that video again a lot of these videos I mentioned are going to be linked below some of them if I remember I'll link up above in a little card that pops at the top of the video if you click that it Will add it to like a future playlist all right so after we've identified this test group we're going to start making your first round of candles right now you're you're going to be in this stage for a long time this entire product development stage is going to be the largest

but don't worry you're going to be doing other things at the same time uh but while you're in this stage you're going to be creating your first sets of products first second third sets of Products and you're going to be having other people test them for you and give you feedback that's the point of the test groups and you're going to be asking for specific feedback like what do you think of the fragrance how strong was the candle how did the wick perform how did the candle burn in general what did you think about the

jar I chose what did you think about the colors or the labels or whatever you want feedback on this is why it's very very important Because this sets you up for future success so now that you've identified who is going to help you for product development let's start the development and what you're going to start with is Wick testing and Wick selection everyone's favorite thing just kidding it's not at this stage which is actually what I'm doing back behind me I'm testing a series of different fragrances and different Wicks and this is timely it is

it's timec consuming sometimes It's frustrating but I promise you it gets easier once you are confident you have a lot of experience with your vessels and your wax and your Wicks you have a good starting Foundation a solid starting point and it gets much easier to repeat good product so this timeline really gets cut down uh the longer you're making candles but at first it's frustrating um if you have any questions or need help again I have consultations uh you can find that link below you go To the website for help you can ask others

in the community I've got a Facebook group this YouTube Channel anywhere ask questions not just myself but others will help you along the way as well it's a great Community by Wick testing what do I mean well you're going to pour some candles and you're going to start testing various Wicks to figure out which ones work best now if you're brand new to this craft you're prob wondering what do you mean which Wick Well trust me there are lots of options and not only a lot of options on the type of wick for example there

are Wix called HTP zinc LX uh CD CDN I mean there's so many uh Eco and then Premier 700 Wix are the ones that I use the most um I also sell them on the website they work for a variety of waxes they work best in mini waxes so those Wicks if you are interested I have sample packs as well um on the website but yeah Premier 7 00 is the ones I use the most but There are a variety but here's the catch it's not just choosing the right wick type it's also choosing the

right wick size there are a lot of sizes in each one of these Wick types and that's going to depend the size that you choose is going to depend on the size of your candle the diameter because it each Wick size up is usually a thicker Wick and creating a wider or a hotter flame so you're going to get a larger melt poool so this is why you have to identify the Wax you're going to use and the vessel because that's the combination that you need to know in order to start Wick testing now there

are other variables as well if you're using additives or sometimes color if you use a lot of it the fragrance oil you're using and how much can have an impact on on wicking so that's why it's important to start experimenting start testing as soon as you can pretty much right on this Timeline U if you want to start a little sooner that's that's fine as well but the idea here is to start testing wicks in the products that you want to make so in the earlier stages you've chosen some vessels to start with you've selected

a wax or narrowed it down at least you've selected some fragrance es so you've got everything you need all three components to at least start testing different Wicks now it's important to know that this step is done in tandem with the Next step and vice versa you need to be testing your Wix and every time that you change fragrance oils because fragrance can impact the wick uh for example the jars behind me in the wax I use often most of the time use a premier 730 or 735 Wick but depending on the fragrance oil I

might need to go all the way down to a 720 or 725 or up to a 740 or 745 fragrances have different densities different viscosity to them and so that can affect the wick so have a starting Point but make sure that whenever you are testing each of your fragrances that you're testing a new Wick each time I generally start with the same one that I find works best overall and then adjust it if I need to speaking of which that is the next step in the testing is testing your fragrances and again you're doing

this in tandem while you're testing Wick so when you're doing a test candle you're looking for is the wick burning correctly but also how is the Fragrance performing a do you like it oh it's not no this is not B is it strong enough if not you either need to adjust the wick sometimes or the fragrance oil you've got your test products going you're working on your product development so while this is happening and by that I mean it takes some time after you make a candle to let them sit and cool give them depending

on the wax you're using it might need to sit for a few days up to week or so before you can Start testing them and then when you do test them you burn them for 4 hours at a time uh then you got to let them cool again then you burn them another four hours so the testing process depending on how many fragrances uh and candles that you're making can take weeks right months so depending on how long that's taking let's be efficient and let's get some other stuff done at the same time so while

that's happening on the production side back underneath the Timeline on the business side there are a few things you can be doing in the meantime first is locking in that brand identity we talked about it earlier you were thinking about it now it's time to really commit this is when you're going to start working on that brand identity if you haven't chose a name yet make sure you choose one if you haven't picked a look and a feel that you're really locked in go ahead and do it you've already chosen some vessels if You're going

to change again this is the time to do it if not make sure you're deciding on colors make sure you're deciding on Lids make make sure you're deciding on anything that is really about your brand identity what do you want people to think about when they see your brand and if you didn't purchase your domain earlier this is the time to do it also this is a great time to start thinking about if this is going to be a full-time thing really even if it's a Part-time thing do you want to be a s Proprietor

in other words you're doing business as yourself and then you just register a fictitious name for example if I was a soul proprietor I would be Wade Thomas doing business as black Tai Barn you're still technically a business but you're not really doing it with a business structure and that's just how a lot of people start out especially if they're not sure how serious they want to take it or how far they want to take It and The Next Step Up would be an LLC which is a limited liability company and you would most likely

be a single member LLC which is sort of like a sole proprietor just with a few other advantages if you're doing this as a partnership then you will be a partnership probably goes without saying and after you've kind of settled on a business structure you would work on getting any local and state licenses so your business license a seller's permit Um any other kind of business registrations you might need it will vary by state City local so I can't tell you exactly where you're at what they're going to require but if you just go to

your local business office or your local Secretary of State they can help you kind of tell you what you need and to get you started it is going to differ everywhere so that is going to require some leg work but it's really not as bad as it sounds there's almost always some Kind of local business office that will has some kind of checklist it makes a little easier for you to get going but if all of this seems overwhelming and you're not sure okay he said so proprietorship he said domain he said LLC Insurance business

licenses all this stuff I've got a video it's one of the First videos I ever put on this channel a couple years ago um and it was about how to go about the legal side of starting a candle business check that Out it's a pretty good overview video again there are some particulars that vary by your location but it gives you a pretty good kind of checklist of what you need to be thinking about when it comes to the legal side of things all right so after you've kind of got that ball rolling right uh

let's start also thinking about your selling platform you're making some products that you intend to sell and make some money well what's the best way to do that starting Out I recommend everyone to try to do some local craft shows um or some popups holiday shows if it's around that kind of season and the reason is severalfold one it's good exposure so if you're a new company people see you in your local community or nearby communities they now become aware of you in your brand so it's good exposure it also makes you comfortable it gets

you experience if you're new to business new to selling this gets you comfortable with the whole Process you also most importantly in my opinion learn about your products the best so you start answering questions questions that people ask you about your products and you get so much helpful information during this customer feedback in person if you see a lot of people picking up a candle and they don't really like it and they put it back and one is just not selling very much you probably need to swap it out on the other hand if you

got candle one or Two candles that everyone seems to love double down on that one you know you've got a winner there right and you're getting instant feedback at least on the fragrance and the look like what people think first reaction of your products even as you scale and grow and you're doing a lot of like in a store or wholesale or online these shows are a great way to test new products because again you get instant feedback but most of you are probably thinking beyond that Like how can I scale this business a little

bit more right so if we're talking about online like a website you've got a couple really major options you've got Etsy which is a platform that already has a community already has an audience a customer base and they kind of do most of the work for you uh in that regard and you do not have customization you're not creating your own website it's already kind of built for you you're basically just renting Space on their Giant Store e store basically right um or you can go a different route which is starting your own website uh

your own host and you design your entire website yourself customize it sell your product ship you you have full control for the most part over it that's the biggest difference between the two now I have a very very strong opinion that the by far the best option to go longterm is your own website and the one I recommend the most Is Shopify most others will recommend that as well it's featur it's a full platform it's got great SEO uh it's got good customer support you have full there's just any anything you want to do special

down the road with plugins or web development most of them are going to hope you're on Shopify right there's it's just a great platform overall you have a lot more flexibility customization you have more control uh it's easier to Brand your business that Way because you get to design your lo you can put your own logo you can put your own banners and you can do some of that on Etsy as well but you get to pick your colors you you design the website just like you want every aspect of it on the flip side

there's Etsy now as I mentioned Etsy you it's kind of a turnkey solution out of the box you don't really do a lot of customization yes you can title your products add descriptions add product photos and Videos if you want but that's pretty much it you you lose a lot of your branding uh and then another negative of etsy is when you do recommend to people that my Shop's on Etsy right and then you send them to Etsy you're not just sending them to yours you're sending them to a platform that now has them looking

at a bunch of other similar Brands as well so I like a website much better but here's the thing just because I recommend Shopify or your own website Much more over Etsy in general like overall I don't always recommend that it's the best way to start because it does require a lot more work and a lot more time to get started so my general advice to new candle business owners especially one ones that do not have a lot of experience running a website or e-commerce is to start off with Etsy get your feet wet get

products out there start getting some sales right start start the experience and while your SC Shop is running you can slowly be working on building your Shopify site in the background then you can switch it a lot of businesses start that way and then another thing to think about is not just your website or craft shows is wholesale now I wouldn't recommend wholesale right off the bat you're going to want some time to get experienced make sure you're efficient make sure you can scale up for a little bit more volume work out your pricing a

little Bit particularly get your pricing down a little bit um but ultimately if if wholesale high volume is something you enjoy doing uh that's another good Avenue and if you're not familiar with what wholesale is you're basically selling your products for roughly half as much to uh other businesses and then they mark them up and Retail them themselves you're not making your money on high margins you're making your money on high volume so that is a great way to Grow your business and scale as well but but I don't generally recommend starting it right out

of the gate also while you're testing while you got the business ball rolling let's get back on the production side and this is a great time to start deciding on your product and customer experience so what do I mean by that first all I'm going take my hat off maybe not this is a great time to start thinking about your packaging your labeling your presentation uh you Already have products that are in the works being tested you're already working on uh your selling platform right so there's a lot of things already in motion so it's

a great time to start thinking about how to package these products when they go out for shipment for an order um you might keep it simple very cost- effective you might just wrap them up put them in a box and out they go uh but do you want custom branding do you want custom tissue paper do you want Custom boxes do you want custom shipping boxes or product boxes do you want to add any literature inside like something about you and your business um do you want to add a business card do you want to

have a candle care card there's so many examples of things you can include in your packaging depending on your Niche your theme your Market what you're trying to create as far as an experience go goes this is going to differ for everyone have fun with this you might do Very little you might do a lot you do you start working on that during the testing phase as well while you're kind of in tandem working on your website you don't want to always just work on one thing and one thing only like work on your website

for a little bit take a break go make a few test products take a break work on packaging honestly again this is just general timeline advice you can you can really do whatever you want now that you've decided on you know You're packaging your presentation you've picked a selling platform you have an idea of what you're doing from a business side as well let's start the launch prep let's start getting ready to open your business to the public by public I mean like online or really anyone right you're going to start selling Candles now that

you've chosen ETS your website you need to start working on the design the customization the stuff we talked about earlier right Your layout you're going to start working on product pricing if you haven't already done that in order to do that you need to have a good idea of what it cost you to make your product so hopefully by this point you are tracking your expenses you're tracking your inventory um and you have an idea like a per unit cost how much is this costing me to make every candle or batch of candles right if

you make candles in batches of four Divide that by four that's your total cost right but you're going to use that P that that information to help you price your products accordingly I do have some videos on the channel that talk about pricing there are several ways to go about doing it one of my favorites is just a it's kind of a hybrid approach I like to know what my cost is make sure my costs are covered double quadruple whatever makes sense but also you need to make sure that that Pricing works in your industry

works in your Market are your customers going to spend what you're asking them to spend if not then it's pointless right so you got to know your Market you have to have an idea of what they're going to spend so do some research find some other products in your area some other candles out there and figure out what they're pricing see where you kind of nestle in once you figure that out of course you're going to title your products Right and then add descriptions for your products and depending on the platform you choose you're going

to have different amount of characters you can use to do that my advice would be to do some research um on YouTube or just on Google like tips on how to price or I'm sorry tips on how to write product descriptions um product titles you can use some AI tools out there to help you do that as well and again I I know that a lot of your products aren't even ready Yet during this phase right you're still testing products but the more you can start getting these things ready while you're in product development the

easier and faster it will be to come in and fill the gaps once your products are ready because you've already done a lot of the leg work this is the point of a timeline that's why I like to stagger tasks right and Milestones it helps you kind of be productive the whole time without being completely overwhelmed at The end now the next thing I would recommend doing is start to work on a newsletter many of you might be wondering what exactly is a newsletter sounds like it's oldfashioned it's a digital newsletter a marketing list it's

a way to gather emails from current or prospective customers or new customers and that way you have their email to use a digital newsletter a service like MailChimp or convertkit can then use these email addresses to send out um Weekly monthly bi-weekly newsletters talking about your new products uh promotions you're running questions surveys really whatever you want it's a way to engage with your customers and keep them not just engaged but aware of your business and your brand and that you're launching new products it's one of the best ways to convert customers into long-term customers

it's one of the best ways to take firsttime customers and turn them Into repeat buyers so newsletters are very very important the earlier you get started on this the better you might be wondering why I have a newsletter yet if I don't even have a business open I don't have any products well we're going to get to that but you can be using social media at this point or starting social media to start announcing your company is coming and the type of products you're going to have start asking for newsletter signups right away Start getting

email say hey I'll let you know when we open here's the first set of products we're working on right now show them some behind the scenes footage of what you're doing people eat that stuff up they love it I still love it I've been doing this forever it's exciting so engage with your customers the sooner the better start Gathering emails the sooner the better uh we just touched on it the next thing is really working on the marketing there social Media aspect so start an Instagram account start a Tik Tok if you want get a

Facebook business page page all these tools I I wouldn't overwhelm with too many at once like start one make it solid and then start kind of crossposting different things or posting different content on each one and then create some kind of social media plan or strategy in other words like uh this these days a week I'm going to post on Instagram and this day I'm going to do Facebook post and then this is going to be the topic on week one of the month and this is the topic on week two whatever whatever strategy you

want to come up with is fine but try to have one and stick to it and it's a way to really start boosting awareness to your brand and your products and again that's a great way to get newsletter signups as well because you don't have to wait until your store is live you don't have to wait until your products are finished To start getting attention to your brand jump back up to production let's assume that you're out of this initial product testing and development stage it's now time to launch your first set of finished products

maybe launched isn't the right word maybe it's identify your first set of finished products after testing and feedback from your test group your first adopter now that you have your finished products maybe it's eight maybe it's six maybe it's 10 Whatever that number is let's start taking some product photos and you can start off basic you can do it yourself with your smartphone a DSLR camera that you have or you can pay for a service that helps you you can use AI a lot of ways to do product photos but uh I would spend a

lot of time on this I would try to make your product photos the best that you can even if you think they're great get some other opinions have your early adopters your test group have Family friends whoever say you know this is what I think of them but product photos are key because it's online the first impression it's basically the the equivalent of being at a craft show and someone walking up to your booth so you want to be able to Capt capture them with great photos and also you want to look professional now after

you got your product photos done I would start working on the administrative stuff of the business so this is things like Identify the email you're going to use for customer service so instead of you know wait at my candle company.com it's support at myand company.com right so just create an email that you can use as your generic customer support and starting off it might just be yours and that's okay but just identify what it is and uh start making sure you're prepared to handle customer service start working on your return policies whether you're on Etsy

or Shopify they usually offer Some kind of template that you can use and then tweak to your liking so you can change your company name your information um but they or you can Google it you can get rough ideas on how to create a return policy and it's going to differ for everyone some people accept returns for 14 days or 10 days and some don't accept returns at all it just depends um if it's been burned uh lit uh typically people wouldn't accept a return unless it's damaged or just not Burning properly some people if

they just open it and don't like the scent will take it back if it's never been used and some say no that's why you should buy a smaller one first right it I'm not saying it's right or wrong you can do whatever you want but start thinking about your return policy and try to put one together um shipping shipping is uh one that gets people a lot if you've never shipped before you never run a website or e-commerce before It can be overwhelming at first but I promise uh doing it this way and kind of

following this timeline will make it seem less overwhelming but when you get to this stage my advice is to go get a bunch of different box sizes you know 5x5 for small candles um 8X 6X 6 10 x 10 x 10 12 x 12 x 12 just get various sizes and start figuring out how many candles can I fit in each box size that'll give you an idea that when you start getting orders which box to use I promise you This seems tough at first the longer you do this this starts becoming second nature it's

weird at this point I can get any random order of just all and I sell all sorts of different products I sell candles I sell fragrance oils I sell wax melts I sell Wicks like I I could have the craziest order combination ever and I can almost visualize it every time I get an order and I just know what box to use it just comes with experience it gets easier but The key is is there's no way to really answer what to do about shipping until you know what platform you're using are you using Etsy

are you using Shopify or you going to use Shopify shipping or you going to use something like pirate ship to get discounted prices if you're not on Shopify are you using a third party service like ship station or something a lot of options out there my advice is you can always change and improve things later keep it simple at first so if You're running a Shopify website just start off the Shopify shipping if you're using Etsy get a free a free account on pirate ship and get cheaper labels that way point is is don't over

complicate this at first it's going to stress you out so keep it as simple as you possibly can the most important thing is make sure you offer shipping you have a rough idea what it's going to cost you to ship and again experience helps or you can do a bunch of test shipment right you can Put in your address in a bunch of random destinations around the country and get an idea of what it's going to cost to pend on different weights so then you just need to know how to box it up with plenty

of packaging packing peanuts honeycomb wrap whatever you want to use and there's other videos about shipping as well you just start experimenting and see how it goes if you want to make some test packages and send them some friends and family have them tell you how it Arrived right so there's no way to know until you start doing it generally speaking if you package with some bubble wrap some honeycomb wrap packing peanuts or a box within a box you're you're going to be fine um but again just be diligent take your time you'll figure it

out don't stress about it taxes another thing a lot of people stress out about and it is can be overwhelming especially sales tax depending on your state but Shopify helps you out with that Etsy Helps you out with that so um worry about that when you get to it but don't think about it before you do because you're going to get stressed and burned out wait till you get to this point then just focus on this reach out to customer support on Shopify or Etsy and just ask or go to your local business bus office

again and say what I've never done this before be be vulnerable it's okay and say I've never done this before I'm a new business owner I don't know what to Do with taxes uh it it it's going to depend on what platform you're using um but it can be much simpler than people make it out to be so my advice is just don't panic when you get to the stage just ask the appropriate people again Ask Shopify customer support ask an accountant or bookkeeper you have to that you already use ask Etsy support people will

help you and if not there's a ton of resources out there YouTube videos as well that kind of tell you What you need to do when it comes to uh collecting taxes long story short is to sell a product you generally need to collect sales tax depending on your state and you need a seller's permit in order to do it you collect the taxes and then quarterly monthly annually usually for people starting out you send in that tax money it's really not that complicated it's just important to make sure you're doing it and then I

mentioned earlier be tracking your Inventory uh one you need to know when you're low on something you need to reorder wax Wix jars but also it's just good to be organized and have control over your business because it can get out of hand and then that will also cause some overwhelm so just try to be organized stay on top of things expenses inventory all your raw materials everything and you'll be just fine all right guess what last stage of this timeline at least the business aspect For now is you're open for business of course the

business goes on this timeline really is indefinite but for now you're open for business and that is a great feeling so you turn on your website you go to your first craft show you sell your first candle make your first order it's a cool feeling you'll be nervous but it's like nervous anxiety right it's it's it's it's fun it's rewarding it's satisfying and it's almost uneasy that's good that means you Care at this point it's exciting now you just start rolling with the punches you're going to learn a lot over the next weeks months about

your business about your brand about your processes right figuring out things that work better than others you'll figure out little systems and processes to put in place ways to become more efficient ways to do things differently this is all post launch the exciting thing is is you are now a business owner no longer an Aspiring business owner you are a business owner that's super exciting but now I want to give you some postlaunch tips you're open for business but that is not the end and really in many ways it's just the beginning so let's talk

about some things to help you along your way to help you grow your business first is encourage reviews and feedback you can do this with um apps that plug into Shopify for example one is called judge me and that is an automatic service that That goes out after customer places an order they get asked to rate the uh rate the product and leave some feedback I use it it's awesome uh but encourage reviews and feedback even if craft shows all feedback is great negative feedback is even better because you're learning things about your product that

you might need to change don't take it personally it's part of being in business it's okay you're going to learn you're going to change you're going to grow another tip That I would give you is focus on seasons and holidays especially in the candle industry it's nearly a third of your sales of most candle businesses sales come in the winter and Christmas months right that a lot of gift giving a lot of people indoors burning candles so always be thinking ahead to different holidays different seasons and planning different Collections and testing in advance don't wait

till the last minute I do that a lot do as I say not as I do Sometimes but uh it is important to be thinking ahead consider new scent releases periodically as well so maybe every quarter you plan to release um you know three new cents or maybe one a month or whatever um this will change as you get more comfortable in your business longer and longer but to to keep your customers interested engaged it's good to roll out new cents periodically uh on the flip side of that if you have scents that are Not

selling it's good to pull those back right and kind of replace um take one away at another another thing that's a great idea is a loyalty program I talk about this in consults all the all the time as well getting customers is hard once you get them you want to keep them and one of the best ways to keep them is to reward them acknowledge them right so loyalty programs are great way to do that another tip is everyone thinks about product photos all the time but One thing that's not talked about as much is

product videos so it can be a little behind the scenes of you making products for marketing materials like social media post but even on your website and Etsy you can add little videos of your product as well and they don't have to be extravagant videos I'm not saying like dance around and run a full ad but put your product on a on a lazy Susan and just rotate it go around it with the camera so they're just Getting to see a kind of a threedimensional view of your product product um you know have it like

just moving like show it just carrying it as walking by any anything to add a little bit more visual effect than just a still shot can really really help another tip I have is to always be testing something so I know we're out of the testing phase at least that initial testing phase but that was just to launch your first set of products and my advice is to always Be having something testing making a make make a batch of new test candles and once a week be testing a new one just always have something going

something testing in the back so that when you're ready to launch new products you're not scrambling you're not hurrying you've got stuff ready cuz you've been testing all year long and related to that is don't be afraid to have fun and experiment try new things if if you're really ahead of things try Some new waxes if you want experiment with new jars you know try just always be doing something to improve your business or or try to improve your business make you a better candlemaker another tip I have is is to keep your promotions random

and infrequent you don't want to ever get into this kind of habit almost of running a promotion at you know at the end of every month because what are your customers are going to do they're going to wait till The end of every month to make a purchase right so um promotions keep people on their toes they surprise customers which is fun um but also it's a way to give back to customers and keep them engaged and intrigued but not overly consistent where they're just never buying anything and waiting for that habitual promotion mix it

up be random but also don't do it too frequently and then finally honestly I mean this is so so important um I know It's kind of cliche but it's just to keep learning and growing and try not to ever get discouraged again if you love your first product you probably waited too long it's okay that the first several don't turn out very good learning and growing is part of the process it's part of being an entrepreneur it's part of being a a Candle Maker it's part of running a candle business I hope this video helped

some in that way to help you grow and Learn as you go and don't forget to check out the resources below I've got several links to products Material supplies links to other videos link to my consultations my website again we sell Wicks we sell fragrance oils in fact I forgot to mention that earlier we sell fragrance oils now and they are killer they are awesome and we're going to be adding more and more and more of course but uh they great feedback great reviews I'm a Candle Maker myself I run A candle business I'm not

going to sell products that I don't think are great now are all of them my personal favorites no I mean you offer variety I I like some type of sense more than others right but the point is we got a good variety they're very high quality great fragrances so if you haven't tried them out yet give them a shot uh we you can buy samples first see how you like them before you commit to larger bottles but that's been a blast if you haven't Checked out uh the recent video on our fragrance oil launch it

was a lot of fun so check it out uh we've been asked to do that for years and we finally finally decided to go ahead and do it with that being said if you have any questions or feedback please leave it in the comments below please share this video If you enjoyed it please give this video a thumbs up and again if you don't want to miss out on any future videos and you and you love this content be sure to Subscribe to the channel below it is free you just hit subscribe and you'll get

notified whenever I post new videos I will see you all next time and good [Music] luck