In today's video. I'm going to talk about how to start a handmade candle business.
We'll talk about why it's a good idea to start one
what challenges you need to watch out
for as well as your overall business plan that you should follow if you want to see success.
Hi, my name is Mei. And I help makers artists
and designers make a consistent living from the selling their handmade products online.
If you've been thinking about starting a handmade business,
but you aren't sure which products would be great for you to make let me make a case for candles.
I have a ton of other videos in this how to start a business playlist.
So feel free to check that out for other business ideas.
If you decide that candles ultimately aren't for you,
but let's start by looking at the market for candles what?
The solubility for candles
and who buys them so candles are a great gift idea that can suit pretty much any occasion.
Right? Whether it's a therapeutic birthday gift romantic Valentine's Day
treat or a thoughtful Christmas present candles sell all year round this means regular business
and income for you,
which is great plus candles can be easily customized to sell even more during the holidays even
in unusually tough Economic Times like right now with covid-19.
Teen candles retain sales better than some other non-essential products.
This is because the appeal is the comfort that they bring to people
when given as stress relieving gifts sales of candles have risen steadily in recent years
and experts in the industry expect that Trend to continue a huge part of the market
is allocated to send candles rather than novelty ones
or those used as practical lighting a report this year measured the
global scented candle Market at a value of over.
Four billion US Dollars. This is expected to grow over 3.3 billion dollars by 2026.
Obviously a big chunk of that money is generated by major companies like Bath
and Body Works and the Yankee Candle Company,
but it shows that there is a massive market for candles at the moment.
So if you take the time to learn how to build a business online properly and with a decent product,
you can definitely grab some of that money for yourself the other great thing about selling candles.
Is that it Sale often leads to repeat business customers who buy one to start with
may be tempted to try out other scents from your store
or when they find one they like they'll want to reorder
when they've burned through their first candle candles are also
a simple product to understand customers know
what they're getting.
So you shouldn't have to deal with any difficult questions
or too many returns once you know how to make them properly.
They are relatively easy to produce in large numbers as well.
So production is easier than some other crafts having said that it is Not all plain sailing
as with any online handmade business.
There are challenges. You will need to look out
for the first major one being how to make a good candle
and how to make it unique enough to stand out from the crowd.
There are many great websites
and self-made business owners like me who will post free tutorials
and give their experiences online.
So you should definitely do some research
and check out those resources
and learn from people who have already been there and achieve the success that you want.
And definitely familiarize yourself with the online candle-making community before venturing
out on your own Tiana coats posts really useful informational videos online
and one of her recommendations is Standley handcrafted who started out by giving tips on Reddit,
but now posts anything from a candle making tutorials to business insights on YouTube
and on their website Standley handcrafted.com.
I highly recommend checking them out as well as the spacecraft stock car.
When it comes to learning how to make candles and about the materials and supplies,
you'll need to get started. Now. I want you to think about a concept
for your candles that will make them stand out.
Are you going to focus primarily on how they look how they
smell or Market them towards a certain age group or demographic how you brand?
Your product is essential in generating interest
and getting those sales one of the first big choices you'll be faced with is the type of wax.
You will use to make your candles different.
Max types have different properties
and costs which will affect how you price
and Market your product and there are pros and cons to each for example,
you can decide to go down the organic route by using strictly soy or beeswax,
but these can be more expensive
or not carry smells known as throwing sent in the candle business as well as paraffin wax.
Lots of candle makers use a blend of waxes such as soy paraffin other materials and costs.
You will need to consider our fragrance. Oils containers
and molds candle wicks colored eyes and any other little decorative touches,
you might want to add to maximize your profits.
You'll want to buy these in bulk at wholesale prices candle science.com is a go-to
for a candle makers and there are plenty of other sites such
as Candlewick.com where you can buy Wholesale Supplies as well.
You will of course also need equipment to make the candles at home
like a pouring picture thermometer stirring spoon
and We calder's so these are costs to consider as well when you're starting out now.
I'm not going to show you how to actually make candles in this video.
You can go to any of the channels or sites.
I've recommended and they'll be able to help you out with that.
The focus of this video is exploring how you can start a candle business get more traffic
and make more sales when you've done your research thought about a concept Source your supplies
and learn how to manufacture your product.
Well, you're ready to start selling but how How do you go about advertising and selling online?
Well, if you've been following my recent videos,
you'll know that my philosophy is that you should focus on building your own Standalone
website on a site like Shopify focus on sending traffic to your own
site and when you can handle it start adding on selling on Marketplace sites,
like Etsy and Amazon because those sites already have a built-in audience of customers.
Now the reason I don't recommend you focus on
Etsy or Amazon is because it's someone else's platform and Too unstable.
So if you want to build a long-term business, you're not going to have
as much control as you do with your own website.
I have a video here that talks about why Shopify versus Etsy so you can check that out later.
If you want to if you sell on Amazon,
I would take advantage of Amazon Prime and their fulfillment by Amazon service.
You can find more information about Amazon
and their fees and how you can boost your sales on there in my
previous videos the quick version though.
Is that offering I'm makes your products more attractive to millions of potential buyers
and fulfillment by Amazon lets you ship inventory to an Amazon warehouse
and they deal with the delivery and customer service side of things.
All of that Logistics is off your hands.
This gives you more time to focus on making new designs promotion and setting up your online store.
It may be the case as with Tiana coats
and her store that when you start to find some success larger companies could contact you.
To start selling on their websites,
you can negotiate deals with them to do what's known as Drop Shipping.
This is when your items are advertised on a retailer site and sold to their customers,
but the company doesn't actually carry any of your stock you are still responsible
for sending the item to the customer,
but the company may send you stickers
or labels of their brand to add it to an associate with their brand both you
and the retailer will then split the earnings from the sale at around 50 percent.
Percentage similar to drop shipping is selling your products wholesale lots of brick
and mortar gift shops love carrying candles and supporting small independent makers.
What's great about wholesale is the store buyer will usually
make a large order of like 12 to 24 candles
at once at wholesale pricing which is usually 50% of your retail prices.
That means if you sell a candle
for $15 retail to One customer a wholesale buyer would expect that candle to be sold to
them for Rose and 50 cents each it might seem like a big cut.
But you are selling in volume
so its bigger total dollar amount than selling just one
or two candles when it comes to listing your candles on any website or Marketplace.
It is important that you present the candles in the best way possible,
especially with scented candles
because the buyer cannot smell them online you have to accurately describe the scent
and and you relaxing or invigorating qualities.
They may have generally new customers will also want to see between
5 and 10 clear photographs of a product to feel confident enough to make a purchase.
It may take you a little longer to write a decent description and take multiple photos,
but it will definitely pay off in the long run.
I promise be sure to also use any appropriate keywords to describe your candles this way.
They stand a higher chance of being shown on search engines pricing
or items is key to making a sale
as well price or candles too high and most people will just go for a cheaper alternative price.
Too low and you're not likely to make much money at all.
A commonly accepted markup
for handmade candles sellers is about 4 to 5 times the amount it costs to make the candle.
So say for example, you make an 8 ounce candle that cost you three dollars in
total to make you should expect to sell that candle
for around 12 to 15 dollars.
Remember that out of this amount. You will need to pay a referral fee
or Commission of about 15 to 20 percent to a site like it's your Amazon
and any other additional Alfie's but this should still leave you with some profits.
If you're priced correctly
for a relatively cheap product candles have the disadvantage of being quite heavy.
This is going to be your biggest immediate challenge,
but it's actually something very easy to fix.
It's very important that you set your shipping costs at a level where they're not
so high that they scare off customers,
which is what happens to most beginner candle sellers online,
but you don't want to price your shipping too low that the
cost of shipping eats into your Fitz try to
encourage your customers to buy in bulk rather than individual candles you could make variety
gift sets that include a range of different scents
or offer a discount rate for a set of three or five candles.
You can also offer additional services such
as gift wrapping for a small fee so that you can set a lower shipping great,
but recoup some of the loss you can offer free shipping after they fought like five candles.
Another thing you can do is take some of that shipping price and add that to your product.
Pricing just to lower the shipping price a little bit.
This gives the customer the illusion of a lower shipping price,
which is very appealing to buyers. If you're shipping candles within the United States via USPS,
you can use flat rate shipping. If you are sending the three to five candles
or more depending on the size of the candles most handmade candles are sold in either
8 or 16 ounce containers,
but if it's just one to two candles,
then those will almost always be cheaper
when shipped by weight when you're Just starting out focus on media outreach
and email list building all of which you can do for free.
If you're able to do a live event like a craft show or a farmers market.
It's also valuable to get feedback from customers to help you improve your product
when you really feel like you're ready to take on more orders than
maybe think about boosting sales through paid ads,
which can be insanely lucrative. The Temptation
for a lot of beginners is to go really gung-ho from the start
but this can lead to disappointment
when you don't see an immediate flood of orders in reality building a business is a gradual process.
But if you put in enough effort show up every
day and respond to the appropriate
signs and pivot accordingly to those signs then sales will increase
and you'll start to earn a consistent income.
So there is clearly a market for candles.
It's a great space to get into candles are in.
Easy to make product which you can start making it home almost immediately.
You may not become a millionaire overnight by selling them online.
But if you price and advertise them correctly,
then it could be a steady source of Revenue.