Oncology Nurse Creates Candles During Coronavirus Crisis

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

[Music]

Four days after her physical product went on sale at a store, the retailer had to close its stores due to COVID-19. It's almost like launching a book just as the pandemic was becoming the only thing the media was talking about. But wait, that's my story. Let's go back to that other one, the physical product. That product is candles, organic candles designed and manufactured by an Irish nurse.

Fortunately, she perseveres, changes her approach and finds a flicker of hope. Her lesson, like so many others have said, there's never a good time to start a business. The most important thing is to just start. Her name is Fiona. We're gonna hear about her.

Oncology nurse creates candles during coronavirus crisis. That whole story is coming up after this shout out to our sponsor. Stay tuned. [Music]

Fiona Young ran the oncology ward at a hospital in Waterford, Ireland. But in 2019, an injury kept her off work for six weeks.

The downtime was far from wasted. Fiona loved creative pursuits, a nice break from the intense day job. And she started making small candles in vintage teacups for her friends. While learning about candle making, she realized something. Most candles on the market were made from harmful ingredients like paraffin wax.

She set about making an alternative, a candle that's healthy and natural. Fiona soon returned to work at the hospital, but found time over the next year to experiment. She really felt like she'd found that spark. Her candles were 100% natural soy wax with cotton wicks and essential oils for fragrance. She created three different scents she called morning, zest, and sparkle.

The next step was to try and get stocked in retail stores. To do that, professional design and packaging was essential. Fiona invested around $3,000. That produced 300 candles, 100 of each scent. The boxes were made of recyclable brown paper to keep the entire product eco-friendly, a product which Fiona now called millish, which is Irish for sweet.

Soon, she'd made her first deal. A local homeware store put it in order for 30 candles. And Fiona was proud as a peach scented candle at seeing her product out in the wild on a retailer's shelves. It was the culmination of 14 months hard work. Now was the time to celebrate and wait for customers to arrive like moths being drawn to a flame.

Unfortunately, all of this happened in March, 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the world. Within a few days, the store had shut its doors, along with most retail outlets across the country. Fiona had hoped to go around selling millish to other stores with dreams of building up a solid wholesale base. But with COVID-19 drastically changing the retail and economic landscape, that was no longer an option. The flame had burned out.

Thinking quickly, she shifted her focus into building an e-commerce site. She had an existing network through work, friends, and family. Soon, second-level referrals came in from people that she didn't know. To encourage sales, she offered next-day shipping and took her candles down to the post office every day, maintaining appropriate social distance. However, soon the restrictions were tightened again and she was only permitted out for essential tasks like shopping, exercise, or to care for a loved one.

Unfortunately, that meant no more daily trips to the post office. But fortunately, that post office was right next to the supermarket. Instead of posting candles out every day, she'd batch them up and send them only on the two days of weeks she went grocery shopping. She also pursued other initiatives. For example, an upcoming local market was recently canceled and they've since come up with the concept of a virtual market, which she's hoping to participate in.

What's more, her messaging around millish has changed. She spent much of her outbound messaging talking about other local vendors and stores that could use a helping hand during these difficult times. Meanwhile, she's still working full-time at the hospital and running millish on the side. The plus side is that when she's not at work, she's been isolating at home, which has given her a lot more downtime to develop new scents and products, which she hopes to launch over each season in the coming year. Fiona has already sold over 150 candles, earning just over $3,000, meaning that she's now profitable.

She's continuing to push on with her PR plans and is sending samples to magazines across the country. And once shops are open again, she plans to reintroduce her original retail strategy. [Music]

A big shout out and thank you to all of our healthcare workers out there all around the world who are working tirelessly, who are literally saving lives in many cases. Thank you so much for all you do. Add my voice to the cheers and congratulations that are taking place each evening in many different cities.

And I like what Fiona said with her lesson that I mentioned in the beginning. Like so many others have said, there's never a good time to start a business. The important thing is to just start. So there's never a good time. There's never a good time to launch a book.

When I thought about having the money tree come out right in the midst of the pandemic fully hitting and all the cities going on lockdown and everything changing with my plans and such, there's never a good time, but you just have to do what is within your control. So that's what I was doing and that's what she's done. And I'm so glad that she's been able to regroup and adapt. So check out Milish Candles. We're gonna link that up on the show notes page.

Also, I searched on eBay for organic candles, but it said no matches found. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Those notes for today are at sidehustleschool.com/1233. One, two, three, three. Thank you so much for listening.

Do come back tomorrow. Much more is on the way. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]

From the Onward Project.