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Learning how to establish a candle company from the comfort of your own home is an exciting prospect. Your opportunity to launch a low-cost eCommerce business based on your interest in perfumes has presented itself!
However, like with any company, there are dos and don’ts to follow.
Not to mention the difficulty of starting a company in the first place, which is something that most candlemakers never even try. As a result, if you want to earn a full-time living from your craft, you can’t only depend on Etsy. Later on, though, we’ll come to it.
The point is that there is a tremendous amount of potential in the candle industry.
Even if you don’t have a large budget, the economics of the candle company really make it feasible to earn a full-time income from it. To be honest, it’s an unfair benefit that you don’t get to see in most other types of company strategies.
As a result, understanding how to start a candle company from home is really important.
So let’s have a discussion about it…
Is it possible to make money in the candle-making business?
The most difficult difficulty that the ordinary entrepreneur must overcome is the conflict between passion and profit. You like scents and candles, but is it really possible to make a profit from them?
The answer is that it has the potential to be financially rewarding in the long run.
If you start with a contract manufacturer with really low minimums and then charge extremely cheap pricing on top of that because you are concerned about how many people would purchase, you will not be successful. However, if you begin by developing a craft or luxury brand of homemade candles, it may be possible to succeed.
Because of accounting (I know, it’s tedious! ), I’m writing this post.
The fact is that the difficult part about physical products is the margin and cash flow. The margins for the majority of online businesses will be quite narrow. The result is that any form of paid advertising, which is a fundamental driver of development for the majority of eCommerce businesses, will be difficult to execute. When you do make sales, you’ll have to strike a balance between retaining the money and investing it in new goods.
In other words, if you make the candles yourself, your inventory costs will decrease.
And if you charge more, your profit margins will soar to unprecedented heights.
Even if no company is without flaws and all companies face the possibility of failure, the fact that you are able to combine those two factors already indicates that you have a greater chance of success than the majority of eCommerce entrepreneurs. It also implies that you may take your time and bootstrap your way through the process.
All that is required is product-market fit.
No one is talking about the most significant candle business opportunities available.
“If you build it, they will come” is a statement that everyone has heard at some point. In addition, any entrepreneur who has sought advice on how to start a firm realizes that if all you do is create it, no one will come to visit. As a result, you’ll need to undertake some marketing. However, before you start running Facebook advertisements, collaborating with influencers, or commenting on social media, there is one thing you must do.
You must distinguish your candle brand from the competition.
And it is here that the candle company has a unique potential to shine.
Candles have been sold for hundreds of years, if not thousands of years. That means there are a lot of candles out there, but since there are so few candle companies that are well-marketed, there is also a lot of room for growth. There are no Nikes or Teslas in the world of candles. In reality, the majority of the general public is unable to distinguish between different candle brands. As a result, you must inform them.
Homesick is a fantastic example of this kind of storytelling.
What distinguishes their company is that they create smells that are distinctive to various locations. As a result, you may choose between the New York perfume and the Miami aroma. You now have a compelling incentive to purchase from them, not just because they’re providing you with a perfume that you’re unlikely to get anywhere else, but also because it’s a scent that is based on an emotional link to a particular location.
So why aren’t you able to create a Homesick game, but one that focuses just on Latin American countries?
Scents aren’t the only lucrative business option. The same may be said about marketing.
You may experiment with different packaging to produce candles that are based on a theme. For example, you could do what Liquid Death did for water and make candles that are themed after rocks. There are candles that may be made that are only presented in very high-quality glass that can only be obtained in a few locations.
It boils down to this: you must choose one area to concentrate on and make that your whole brand.
Here are a few suggestions to get you started…
Candles that burn for three times as long as ordinary candles
Candles that smell like a certain category of goods, such as food
Candles presented in very special, high-end packaging
Candles with a specific kind of packaging to match the “look” of your home are available.
Various candle sizes, whether very tall or extremely little
Candles tailored to certain audiences, such as children
Candles produced from a super-rare substance are available.
Candles that are inspired by the fragrances of a rainforest Candles that are created in an unusual location
And much more!
This will be the most important step in learning how to start a candle company from home.
The Marketing Strategy for Candle Manufacturing Companies
As a result, you now have a distinct selling proposition for your company’s products or services.
The next stage is to make everyone aware of it so that they may place an order.
However, the good news is that it does not have to be difficult. All that is required is that you go to where your target audience is located and then show them your work. This is a lot easier said than done, but it is certainly doable in most cases. The most important thing to remember in this situation is to understand your alternatives.
There are three primary methods of marketing a candle company.
Paid Media Earned Media Owned Media Paid Media Earned Media Owned Media
Paid media is a term that refers to advertising in general. For the most part, this will include using Facebook advertising, Instagram ads, YouTube ads, or Google advertisements. You give them a dollar and expect to earn $2 in return.
The beautiful thing about advertisements is that they are quick and more “passive.” All you have to do is set up the advertising, invest some money, and then monitor and tweak the campaign as it progresses. The negative thing about advertisements is that they will drive you to bankruptcy quicker than you can think if you do not grasp the mathematics of obtaining a client, which is particularly true as your business grows. This is perhaps the most difficult step in learning how to start a candle company from home.
Earned media is essentially a slang term for public relations and social media. This entails having your candle highlighted in Vogue, Wired, or any other magazine of your choosing. It may also mean that your company is talked about in the community without you having to do any of the talking yourself.
Credibility and affordability are two of the most appealing aspects of earned media. If you do it yourself, being featured on Vogue and other publications will cost you nothing other than the shipping fees of your goods to journalists. And if someone notices that your business has been featured on Vogue, they will instinctively trust it above the hundreds of other candle companies that do not have the “as seen on” mark.
Owned media is anything that you have control over, such as an email newsletter or a website.
The best aspect of owned media is that you have complete control over it. Because Klaviyo enables you to download your email list at any time, unlike social media, no one can prevent you from sending out your email newsletter. In addition, unlike sponsored advertisements, you do not have to pay to promote to them. Once someone comes to your site organically and registers up for your newsletter, you are free to send them as many emails as you want without fear of consequences, with the exception of email opt-outs. This is why it is wise for most company owners to prefer their owned channels above their paid channels.
So, having stated all of that, which one should you choose?
If you’re serious about learning how to establish a candle company from home, keep reading.
…and you’re looking for a comprehensive marketing plan for candle businesses?
You are responsible for all of them.
It is your goal to generate sales and drive traffic to your owned media via the use of bought and earned media. You may then optimize the value per client by using your website, email marketing, and text message marketing to further increase the value per customer. If you continue to repeat this cycle for the rest of your business’s existence, you will achieve a healthy balance between all of its many marketing channels.
How To Start A Candle Business When You Have A New Brand
You’re looking for a concrete game plan, aren’t you? Cool.
If I were to start a handcrafted candle company today, this is precisely what I would do to get it off the ground in the most effective manner possible.
1/ First and foremost, I would develop an extremely compelling value proposition for a specific audience. In reality, I want to reach the lowest possible audience while yet maintaining a successful brand. Consider the following scenario: I’m looking for a candle brand that is primarily targeted towards “LatinX” or Hispanic millennials. It would be high-end in terms of pricing and packaging, with a strong emphasis on Latin American-inspired smells and packaging.
2/ I would produce the first three or four smells myself since they would be inexpensive to manufacture. It would be sufficient to have only one of each. The goal is to create a minimum viable product so that we can obtain feedback on the concept before investing a lot of money in growing the company. This is one instance in which understanding how to establish a candle company from home is a significant unfair advantage.
3. Establish a Shopify shop under a false brand name, then spend around $300 on sponsored advertisements to direct people to the collections page. 4. The goal is to determine whether or not someone purchases and how much it costs to gain a client. For the most part, if people are purchasing and we’re at least breaking even, it’s worthwhile to keep going. If this is not the case, the process starts again at step one. You are under no obligation to sell any. Simply provide a return to everyone who has made a purchase and inform them that they will be included in the pre-launch list.
4/ Assuming the numbers are correct, it is now time to establish the trademark. This is the stage at which we establish the correct brand. The work entails setting up a Shopify shop using the Turbo theme, photographing and filming products, and writing all of the material that goes with them. I’d also want to make sure I’m capable of handling the packing before anything else since it’s a critical element of the process and one that incurs a financial expense with each purchase.
5/ What we’re lacking right now is credibility, which may be obtained via earned media. Therefore, manufacture some candles and go out to any newspaper that has previously highlighted candles or any other form of aroma. The same is true for influencers, to whom you may provide a free candle in exchange for their endorsement on social media if they like it. All you need is a small number of sales to cover your costs and break even on your investment. True money is made when you are able to say things like, “all of these people enjoy it, you will as well.”
6/ While you are attempting to get publicity, you should be developing your social media networks. For the time being, this refers to TikTok. If it were feasible, I would post twice a day, five days a week. The material will cover all there is to know about scents and issues that individuals who like candles would be interested in learning about. This covers not just what makes a wonderful candle, but also how to use candles to enhance the look of a room’s interior design. It will take six months for both public relations and social media to get momentum, so remain focused.
You want to open up your paid media and owned media machinery after you’ve gained organic traction, which is step seven. If you’re already earning sales, you’ll have a mailing list to promote your products to. This entails sending out one email every week to that list. Then, as your mailing list grows and your product variety expands, you may raise the frequency of your emails to 2-3 emails each week. On the paid side, you want to know how much money you can spend to acquire a client at breakeven before you start spending it. Then begin slowly so that you may gradually expand your budget while still being lucrative.
8/ This is the perfect moment to be nerdy and experiment with new things. For influencer marketing purposes, TikTok is the finest platform right now since anybody can become viral, even if they are brand new. Consequently, I would want to give away 25-50 candles to TikTok influencers on a monthly basis. In order to have your product included as the #1 option on affiliate sites, you may pay to have select affiliate sites advertise your product as the #1 choice. Amazon is also a good option in this situation since, if you get traction, it will direct organic sales to you.
9/ And last, the figures. You now have more than enough information to make very informed selections at this stage. This is where I would look at things like client acquisition expenses, average order value, lifetime value within a 60-day payback window, direct traffic, referral traffic, social media traffic, and other things like that. In addition, I would want to be very exact with my margins and best-selling SKUs. If everything is going well, I would either utilize the data to pivot to what is working best, or if everything is doing well, I would immediately reinvest in expanding the production and marketing operations.
Of course, you are under no obligation to perform any of this yourself. Everyone has their own route to follow in life. In reality, you could skip half of this and simply go on Shark Tank or attempt to expand your business via Amazon FBA instead of reading this. In light of the above, you inquired as to how to start a candle company from home. As a result, I complied!
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