A candle business owner shares her daily routine and tips for scaling her business while emphasizing the importance of self-care and utilizing fulfillment and free shipping supplies.
A candle business owner shares her day, including a live event, a giveaway, and managing emails, while emphasizing the importance of self-care and utilizing fulfillment and free shipping supplies.
Jasmine, owner and founder of Blk Sunflower, talks about her day which includes a live event, a 20K giveaway, answering emails, and having one employee coming in later.
Utilizing fulfillment, free shipping supplies, and improving picture quality were game changers for the candle business owner, who recommends creating a schedule and to-do list to manage a hectic day.
Jazz, the owner, and founder of Blk Sunflower, introduces herself and her business that provides luxury sensory experiences.
A candle business owner started her business during the pandemic, had explosive growth, emphasizes the importance of self-care and working out, and starts her day with a shake and checking emails at the shop.
The candle business owner prepares for a live event, makes candles with employees, keeps costs low with part-time and intern workers, plans a giveaway with a partner, and promotes her business on Blk Sunflower Academy and UpFlip.
The speaker shut down their website due to unexpected traffic and is now preparing for a live event while answering emails.
The candle business owner turns on the wax vat, buys wax in bulk to save money, and focuses on making candle flights and nine-inch jars with her employee.
The candle business owner has three employees, one of whom is part-time, and another is an intern through a county workforce program, allowing her to keep costs low and adjust hours based on demand.
The candle business owner is excited about reaching 20K followers and is planning a giveaway with a partner, while also promoting her business tips and tricks on Blk Sunflower Academy and having a surprise visit from the team at UpFlip.
The candle business owner discusses a giveaway prize, tries chocolate, and jokes about proper wick placement with employees.
The candle business owner discusses a giveaway prize, tries some chocolate, and talks with an employee about finishing candle orders.
Proper wick placement is crucial in candle-making, and the speaker jokes about threatening employees who mess it up.
The candle business owner utilizes fulfillment and Shopify to improve processes and scale despite pandemic-related challenges, implements consistent supply chain processes and custom fragrance blends, creates even wicks with foam board templates, sets up individual bins for employees, and empowers them with good wages and potential raises.
Utilizing fulfillment and having a website, specifically Shopify, has allowed the candle business owner to improve their processes and scale their business, despite pandemic-related supply chain challenges.
The candle business owner discusses implementing processes for a consistent supply chain, custom fragrance blends, pre-pouring fragrance oils, and organizing production with racks for wicking, pouring, labeling, and fulfillment.
The candle business owner created a cheap and effective solution for even wicks by cutting out templates from foam boards.
The candle business owner sets up individual bins for employees and looks for potential hires within her own network, emphasizing the importance of treating the business as if it were it’s own.
The candle business owner empowers her employees by paying a good wage starting at $19 an hour and giving reviews every three months for potential raises.
The candle business owner is transitioning to making body butter, delegating candle pouring to employees, emphasizing the importance of quality control and allowing mistakes, and mentioning the need for glue sticks and Dawn.
The candle business owner is going through shea butter and has started making body butter regularly, while also slowly letting go of pouring candles and allowing someone else to do it.
The speaker discusses the importance of allowing employees to make mistakes and implementing processes while overseeing quality control and acknowledging the need for more glue sticks.
The candle business owner checks her emails on her custom mobile desk and mentions her administrative assistant who handles most of her inboxes, while also mentioning the need for glue sticks and Dawn.
The candle business owner shares tips on saving money on shipping and picture backdrops, emphasizes the importance of finding wholesalers and buying in bulk, and plans ahead to avoid last-minute ordering.
The candle business owner discusses her plans to improve international shipping rates and shares tips on how to save money on shipping supplies.
The candle business owner runs errands, shops for props for her business, and shares tips on how to save money on picture backdrops.
Finding wholesalers and buying in bulk is important for a candle business owner, and planning ahead can help avoid last-minute ordering.
The candle business owner prioritizes talent and physical events to keep up with demand, while balancing work and family time, and shares her daily routine and gratitude for viewers.
The speaker has transitioned a lot of their admin work, no longer uses their publicist or business administrator, and has diverted all funds into talent, including starting a business academy due to the demand for business advice.
The candle business owner diverts resources from backend work to physical events to increase exposure and keep up with demand, and then spends time with her son and discusses a pregnant animal.
As a mom and entrepreneur, it’s important to find ways to balance work and spending time with family, even if it’s just watching fish, and the speaker shares her daily routine and gratitude for her viewers.
Spending time with my favorite person before he goes to play Roblox is how I end my day.
Key insights
“The first week I made about $1,500 and then it just exploded from there.”
“I think candles are very personal. People like to have their own scent, their own vibe, their own energy.”
Starting a business during the pandemic can be successful, as evidenced by the candle business owner who made $1,500 in the first week of launching.
Buying wax in bulk can save a lot of money for candle business owners due to high shipping costs for smaller quantities.
Having a website, like Shopify, is essential for scaling a business and having access to important data and analytics.
Setting up systems and processes is crucial for consistency in the candle business.
Paying employees, a good wage and giving regular reviews can empower them and make them feel valued.
“Shipping will make or break a business.”
Finding wholesalers and buying in bulk is crucial for a candle business owner to save money and maximize profits.
Learn how to start and scale a successful candle making business, including tips on marketing, inventory management, and customer service, from a business owner who grew her business from $110 to over $300,000 in 18 months.
Learn how to start a candle making business with $110 and scale it to over $300,000 in 18 months, including tips on building an email list and using a fulfillment center to cut costs and expand marketing.
Learn how to start a candle making business with $110 and scale it to over $300,000 in 18 months, including tips on building an email list and overcoming financial challenges.
The candle business owner plans to hire more employees to expand marketing and manufacturing slowly to maintain good customer service and eventually get into retail and wholesale.
The speaker visits the Blk Sunflower Distribution Center to talk to Jazmin about what takes place inside.
Using a fulfillment center allowed the speaker to focus on their creative work and cut costs by hiring professionals for pick packing and shipping, with a cost of $45 per shelf for inventory storage.
The speaker pays a monthly flat rate of $400 and $5 per order for pick, pack, and ship, including all supplies, and eats the cost of shipping to ensure more people can enjoy their products, and asks the audience to share their experiences with using a fulfillment center.
To start making candles, all you need is wax, a pouring pitcher, a method to heat the wax, fragrance, a thermometer, and a vessel, which can be purchased for around $110.
A candle business owner shares revenue, profit margins, and supply chain issues, using Shopify for their website and making 250-400 candles per week with help from family, while explaining the fragrance process.
A candle business owner discusses revenue, profit margins, and supply chain issues, with a projected revenue of $500,000 and a profit margin of 60% for the next year.
The speaker uses Shopify for their website and was surprised to learn that Shopify offers loans, which they found to be less expensive than traditional loans and paid off based on a small percentage of sales.
Shopify is a trusted e-commerce platform with over 1.7 million small business owners using it to take care of their online needs, and offers a 14-day free trial.
The candle business owner runs the business alone with help from her parents and son, and makes around 250 to 400 candles per week.
The speaker shows how to pour wax flakes into a candle mold and explains that only 20% of the fragrance is actually smelled while the other 80% is burned up.
A candle business owner grew her business off Instagram, targeting high-income cities and demographics, and capturing leads through an email list resulting in up to $37,000 in a month.
The speaker instructs an employee to mix something in a video about a candle business.
The candle business owner grew her entire business off Instagram, with 85% of sales coming from her website and a few locations, and she relies mostly on word of mouth for advertising.
A candle business started by selling various products, but when sales slowed down, the owner pivoted to focus on selling body butter and scrubs, and has made up to $37,000 in a month.
The candle business owner primarily uses Instagram for advertising, targeting high-income cities and demographics, and spends around $3,500 per month on ads.
The candle business captures leads through an email list to ensure customer retention and has built a relationship and trust with their customers by only emailing them important information, resulting in a low unsubscribe rate, with about 5,000 subscribers on their email list and 10,000 on Instagram.
The speaker receives a notification of an order through an app on their phone and the fulfillment center prints off the order and packages the candle in a box.
A candle business owner shares tips on packing and shipping candles, using Shopify and a fulfillment center for inventory management, and communicating with their team through a note system while promoting their podcast for more advice.
The speaker demonstrates how to properly pack a candle in a box to prevent breakage and ensure a positive customer experience.
The speaker demonstrates how to pack candles for shipping and explains that while it may seem simple, as a business owner, they prefer to focus on tasks they enjoy.
The speaker uses Shopify and a fulfillment center to manage inventory, with the ability to create barcodes and transfers, and different administrators can be given access to specific parts of the store.
The speaker discusses how they are able to manage orders and communicate with their team through a system that allows them to send notes to each other, and promotes their podcast for more in-depth advice on building a candle business.
Creating visually appealing and unique candles with dialed-in branding can lead to partnerships and publicity, as demonstrated by a candle business that made $300,000 in 18 months.
To make your product “thumb stoppable” on Instagram, the speaker suggests adding a visual component like marbling candles, but emphasizes the importance of safety measures like wearing gloves.
The video shows how to use candle-based dyes to create colorful candles without any extra preservatives or additives, using a simple process of sticking the dye on the side of the wax and using a gun to create a cool visual effect.
The speaker demonstrates how to make unique marble candles and discusses their popularity as an online product.
The candle business owner discusses her unique candle scents and how her candles burn for 72 hours, making them less expensive than big name brands that only burn for 20-45 minutes.
Creating a visually appealing product with dialed-in branding can lead to publicity and partnerships with other companies, as demonstrated by a candle business that made $300,000 in 18 months.
A candle business made $300,000 in 18 months by hiring a publicist, focusing on marketing, targeting their demographic with quality posts and ads, offering curated boxes with smaller candles in different scents, and knowing their target audience.
The speaker hired a publicist who stumbled upon their Instagram site and was able to give them visibility in places they normally wouldn’t be able to, allowing them to stay in their lane of making candles and running their business.
Looking at website analytics is important to see where customers are coming from, and while getting a publicist can be worth it, it’s better to focus on marketing first before reaching out to a publicist.
The candle business owner only posted seven times on Instagram in her biggest month, but targeted her demographic with quality posts and ads, and did a contest for free marketing, and plans to steadily keep doing what she does until she can service people as fast as they come in.
The speaker discusses the importance of knowing your target audience and shares tips on creating a simple and valuable brand, including offering curated boxes with smaller candles in different scents.
The speaker has curated different scented candles in boxes to give different experiences and has sold over 250 of her newest product.
Black Sunflower candle business makes $300,000 in 18 months by prioritizing exceptional customer service, expanding their body care line, and introducing luxury teas and apparel.
The candles are sold for $49 for all four, with a burn time of 30 hours for a five ounce candle, and the speaker advises customers to consider the value and burn time rather than just the price.
The biggest struggle for small business owners is the supply chain and sourcing products, and for Black Sunflower, their short-term goal is to address the seasonality of candle sales.
The candle business is expanding its body care line due to customer demand and introducing sweats and apparel to provide a luxury sensory experience.
The candle business owner plans to introduce luxury teas and create vessels for other candle companies while prioritizing exceptional customer service by always taking care of customers and quickly resolving issues.
The candle business owner prioritizes taking care of customers, resulting in a large repeat customer base and 150-300 orders per month.
A candle business owner emphasizes the importance of pre-orders, consistency, and drive in entrepreneurship, and started with $110 and is now on track to make half a million dollars by the end of next year.
The speaker started a successful candle business by making 12 candles, taking amazing pictures, doing pre-orders, and reinvesting the money back into the business, emphasizing the importance of pre-orders and not making excuses.
The candle business owner works 12 hour days during the holiday season but tries to keep it to 8 hours during other times, prioritizes family time on weekends, separates candle work from home and answers emails at home, and preps and pours candles while also labeling other candles.
The owner of a successful candle business emphasizes the importance of consistency and drive in entrepreneurship, and advises to remember one’s “why” on difficult days.
The owner of Blk Sunflower started her candle business with $110 and is now on track to make half a million dollars by the end of next year.
Candle Business Strategies and Tactics
Jazmin combines different fragrances to create unique scents for her candles, ensuring that customers won’t find the same scent elsewhere.
Jazmin’s candle business made $300,000 in just 18 months, with 85% of sales coming from her website alone.
The candle business owner was very particular with their ads, focusing on high-income cities and their demographic on Instagram, which resulted in most of their profits.
Building an email list is crucial for business sustainability, as social media platforms can change or disappear at any time.
The business’s success is largely due to being mostly online-based, with visually appealing products like marble candles being a hit with customers.
Knowing your target audience is crucial for success in business: “If you do not know who you’re trying to sell to, you’re throwing money in the trash.”
Taking action and not making excuses is key to success in business, even in difficult times like during COVID.
Customer Service and Satisfaction
The owner eats the cost of shipping to ensure more people can enjoy their products, showing a dedication to customer satisfaction.
The use of black packaging and the creation of a “Blk Sunflower” candle as a unique selling point.
The creator of the candles has a unique approach to scent combinations, creating complimentary bottom notes that allow for two candles to be burned together and create a whole new aroma.
Jazmin’s focus on exceptional customer service, such as quickly resolving issues like lost packages, is a key factor in building customer loyalty and repeat business.
Taking care of customers may cost more upfront, but it leads to repeat business and word-of-mouth referrals that can be “astronomical” in return.
