FOUR KEY ELEMENTS TO START A CANDLE BUSINESS UNDER A BUDGET

Hello dear sunshine, welcome to the world of Cosmos The Magic Candle Store, My name is Mariel Lorenzo and I will be your guru for the next 5 minutes so pay attention and buckle up to take some notes. I am all about productivity and simplicity so you don't have to worry about this blog wasting your time or trying to waste your money. 

Based on my personal experience, these are the most important elements to start a candle business under a budget.

1. Knowing your mission as a brand

2. Knowing your ideal customer

3. Building a brand to honour your mission

4. Building your first collection

 

1. KNOWING YOUR MISSION AS A BRAND.

Let's dive into the first element of our list. A simple way to find the mission of our brand is by understanding the purpose of this one. Think about your brand as a tool that is fulfilling other people's needs or desires. A great way to look at it is by thinking that your brand is your ideal customer's best friend. Your brand is that friend that will offer help in a specific matter when your ideal customer needs it.  Here is an example of a candle business whose mission is "to provide a clean burn" for those who are allergic to synthetic oils. This candle business uses exclusively essential oils and sells 100% organic and eco friendly products. This candle business has a clear mission because it identifies the needs of its ideal customer which means they know exactly the purpose of their existence.

 

KNOWING YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER.

Our next element is completely linked to the first one, now that you have clarity with your mission, you also have an idea of who your ideal customer will be. Let's continue with the example above. The mission of this candle brand is to provide a clean burn with 100% organic and eco friendly products. This is a hint of who we are going to be selling to, our ideal customer in this scenario is a person that is either allergic to synthetic oils or simply prefers the organic path. However, we need to go deeper into this answer, describe this person as if you knew exactly what they like to wear, what their favourite food is, what their age is, how much money they make and spend, do they like vintage, classy, boho, or luxurious candles?. Be specific about your ideal customer because this is who you will be serving and you need to make sure that your product, your brand and your marketing strategy speaks to them as clear as water so they decide to trust you with their money and become a customer of yours.

 

BUILDING A BRAND TO HONOUR YOUR MISSION.

Branding is one of the coolest part of running a small business and here is where chaos can be sneaky and  disguise as "fun". This is why I'm providing you with the most important elements to start creating your candle business under a budget in the order that I found more effective (after many mistakes and unnecessary expenses).

I highly suggest you to start your branding by choosing a name that describes with clarity the mission of your brand. Back to the same example that we have been using; we want to choose a name that speaks to our ideal customer and makes sense to our mission. I would suggest something catchy, unique, easy to pronounce and understand like "Clean Candle Co". Now that we have the perfect name for our brand, we will revolve every single thing we design around our mission, ideal customer and name. For example, the font, the colour scheme, our labels, our thank you cards, business cards, the social media content that we will be sharing, etc... Remember, everything that you design for your branding must make sense to your mission, ideal customer and name.

 

BUILDING YOUR FIRST COLLECTION.

How exciting! If you made it this far, get prepared for the best part (in my opinion). But before, let me give you a pro tip that I wish I knew before I started my candle business: You don't need a huge assortment of products to start, you need to master your first collection if you are under a budget and if you want to sell quality and no quantity. Starting your business with a defined number of collections will keep your budgeting so neat because you will know exactly what supplies to buy instead of purchasing everything on the internet that looks pretty.

I will give you 3 quick steps to create your first collection of candles but if you really want me to make a blog that talks more in depth about creating collections please let me know and I will for sure do that.

1. Choose a vessel that you can use consistently, safely and that matches with your brand. I recommend buying your materials from a regulated candle supplier. Remember that burning candles is a serious matter and we must offer to our customers the safeness they deserve plus having a consistency in our collections show cohesiveness and quality in our brand.

2. Read the wick guide from the candle supplier where you got your vessels and purchase the wick size that they recommend for the diameter of your vessel. I always get 3 to 4 different sizes and types of wicks to have room for testing. The wick guide is just that, a guide, it doesn't guarantee you success. You have to test.

3. The moment of the truth. Choose the fragrances that you will offer in your collection. Keep in mind that a collection is a group of products that have similarities or that make sense to put together in the same group. I would recommend you to start with 4 fragrances so you offer options without breaking your bank account. 

Now you have what I call the staple of a brand, you have a mission, an ideal customer, a cohesive brand and your first collection. What to do next?...There are many avenues that you are about to approach and this is a guide to help you get started so please don't stop here. There are many resources available for you to continue to learn and excel. I promise that I will be back with another guide packed with valuable information and pro tips for my chandler friends and entrepreneur fellows so if you haven't done it yet, please subscribe to Cosmos The Magic Candle Store newsletter and tune in our cosmic world.