Bank Employee Kindles Candle Profits

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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Welcome to Silenceful School, my name is Chris Guillebeau. Today we're gonna talk about candles. Did you know that 90% of candles are purchased by women? I learned that in my research for this episode, along with a bunch of other crazy fun facts that I'll share with you at the end. I guess I'm in the 10% of male candle buyers because I often have one lit on my desk while I'm working, while I'm doing stuff.

Anyway, today I will tell you about a Portland woman who starts her own candle brand. When her favorite candle shop leaves town, she decides to bring it back in her own way. As part of the journey, she learned some lessons about focusing and making an online store. And once she makes some adjustments, her business takes off even more. So stay tuned, here's a sponsor message and then the story.

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Kelsey Arveson's side hustle idea ignited when her favorite neighborhood candle shop closed up. Now, normally it might not be wise to replicate a business that is closed, but in this case, the owner had simply moved out of town. While working full time at an investment bank in Portland, Oregon, Chelsea took the opportunity to fill that gap. She partnered with her sister-in-law to start up their own candle making operation. They loved that shop that had been in their community and first tried to buy the business from the previous owner.

But when that didn't work out, they decided to start from scratch. After work and on weekends, the pair built their brand, Bridge 9 Candle Co., with about $2,000. And those startup costs were mostly for supplies. Chelsea found a base formula for making soy candles online and made her own tweaks from there. She then hand poured the candles using a double boiler system in her sister-in-law's kitchen.

At first, it was an exciting day if they made 200 candles in an eight hour period. Eventually their system improved so they could produce 450 candles in just three hours. In those early days when they were getting started, they spent at least 30 hours a week pouring candles and pounding the pavement to get them in stores. Chelsea knew that strong branding was key to setting her product apart. There are a lot of candles out there, so you need to think about why yours will be different enough to drive purchases.

Before launching, the pair spent about six months coming up with a clean, simple design that would blend with any decor. The logo was designed after the St. John's Bridge, one of the most iconic bridges in Portland. If you look closely at that bridge, the inside is a candle flame, so therefore candle bridge connection. Unlike some of the other candle hustles, we featured Chelsea started selling to local consignment shops.

She had experience selling jewelry on Etsy previously, but found that market too saturated. So to start out, she would visit consignment stores in person or send them samples of the candles. Although signing on with the first shop was an exciting win, Chelsea barely remembers it because she was so concentrated on getting the next one. To win a partnership, she recommends getting the product in the decision maker's hands. If she's going to a shop in person, she'll let them choose a candle from the sample she brings.

If she's emailing back and forth with the shop, she'll offer to send a few samples for free. In her experience, working with those shops was a great way to get her foot in the door because there's low risk on their end, so they're happy to try it. The shop agrees to display the product and typically pays the creator about 60% of the proceeds, but only when they sell. Eventually, however, Chelsea found it was a lot of effort to manage stock and ensure that she got paid properly. So she ended up converting many of those partnerships into wholesale clients.

Today, the candles are sold in over 25 brick and mortar gift shops and boutiques, primarily in Oregon. Most shops set up a wholesale account with Bridge 9 and purchase products at 50% of retail. Chelsea has also built an online store, a move she wishes she had made sooner. A big turning point was when she met with a business strategist. For a while, she took almost no income while reinvesting back into the growth of the company.

But when she sought guidance for her online marketing, things really clicked. She credits that guidance for her light bulb moment. Here's the key thing she learned. She needed to sell a lifestyle, not a product. Previously, she had been pushing the product itself and trying to advertise to too many different people.

Focusing her efforts, she added lifestyle content to her social media feed, featuring topics like decor ideas, ways to style candles, and photogenic tablescape images. She also made sure her social media and website were more cohesive. The month after adjusting her marketing strategy, online sales went from $300 to $1,500. From then on, she saw 20 to 30% growth each year, and this past year's sales were around $100,000. Eventually, Chelsea hopes to leave her full-time job and work solely on Bridge 9 Candle Co.

But meanwhile, she's thankful to be employed while building the side hustle because it means she won't have any debt looming over her business when she makes the transition. It just goes to show when one candle shot flickers out, it might be time to fan a new flame. [Music]

All right, so speaking of candle research, a fair amount of which I did prior to recording this episode, because first of all, candles seem like a tough thing to sell. I mean, I just think, like, how many candle makers do we really need? It does seem like there are a lot of candle sellers out there, but, you know, then again, some of them can make it work.

So Chelsea entered this market, and last year she did $100,000 in sales. So good for her. Now here's some fun stuff. Did you know that you are supposed to burn a candle for at least one hour on its first burn? In fact, some candle authorities even suggest that it's one hour per diameter inch.

So in other words, some first candle burns should be three to five hours. I had no idea about that. Also, there is such a thing as a candle snopper you can purchase. You can buy anything these days, of course, because some of these candle authorities believe that you're not supposed to blow out the candle. Apparently you need to treat your candle more respectfully.

So if you happen to have left all your sets of snoppers at the beach house, you can use the tip of a screwdriver to tuck the wick under the wax, therefore extinguishing the flame and then untuck it with that same screwdriver tip, I believe, so the wax doesn't harden over it. Or I suppose you could just blow it out, you know? So basically what I'm saying is that there are people out there that take candles really, really seriously. And whenever that's the case, of course, it can often be a good market to go into. So congratulations to Chelsea, good work.

And listeners, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/748. That's for episode 748. Thanks for listening. Much more is on the way.

Be sure you're subscribed. My name is Chris Guillebeau This Is Side Hustle School. [Music]