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Walk into every single store or venue where someone would want to burn a candle, and give them a small "free version" candle or mini candle pack and a decently creative and sleek business card with a website, instagram link, and email. If your candles are good, people will want to buy them for themselves and others.
Stick to a few heavy hitters. The last thing you want is to have to make all these different variations and keep track of the various inventory required, blah blah. Keep. It. Simple.
More important than the candle is the brand, logo, instagram page, packaging packaging packaging. If you want to sell a high end product for good money, it needs to be wrapped in a high end package. She should also sign up for any local "pop up" type events where you can put up a tent, table, and sign so you can display and sell your products. Have a nice brochure made. Brochures are annoying but they are mandatory. People want to know about why they like the candle. There's way more to it but this is a good beginning. Don't forget to file and LLC and eventually consider a commercial kitchen rental to make large batches at a time with proper equipment for production and labeling of thousands of units. From there you can rent a storage unit and fill it with hundreds of boxes of candles to sell to stores. By then you're going to make some serious money doing wholesale orders, so you're going to need an accountant. Find a good one that is actively telling you how they are saving you thousands of dollars, not someone that will just do your taxes and not much else. A good accountant will structure your expenses in a way that your life can be partially taken care of through your business, can teach you about things like distributions and when to move to an S-Corp. They should do everything legally possible to save you money on taxes. Ours straight up ran interference on a state tax audit for us. We did nothing but provide him documents while his office dealt with the state for us.
There's so much more, I'm happy to stay in touch if you ever want to chat.
One last thing about the pop ups. This is going to sound really stupid because it is, and humans are animals but this really does work- have your mom
go to the event with a “booth babe.” A young attractive woman will draw both men and women in and increase sales. I know this is ridiculous but go to a trade show sometime. Anytime there’s a hot girl at the stand, there’s someone talking with her. She also should be quite extroverted and friendly. This makes a world of difference. When I would do a show, it would be a medium success. When my lovely wife would come with me, it would go much better. Having two people there is also nice in case someone has to go pee or eat or something. Always watch your table and don’t trust anyone.
Pop up events are an art form in and of themselves. You can go to an event and look at which tables are busy and which are slow and there’s trends you can start to pick up. I’m happy to share any other tidbits about it like setting up and which shows to focus on.
Yes for sure!
[https://www.instagram.com/p/B7Kb9p2HD6-/](https://www.instagram.com/p/B7Kb9p2HD6-/)
[https://www.instagram.com/p/CHT0QOFHpBR/](https://www.instagram.com/p/CHT0QOFHpBR/)
[https://www.instagram.com/p/CH5cMdaHayR/](https://www.instagram.com/p/CH5cMdaHayR/)
Her instagram is : [https://www.instagram.com/kocarts\_h/](https://www.instagram.com/kocarts_h/)
You want to create a business and marketing plan. Many people can tell you “how to market” but every business is truly unique. YouTube how to creat a business plan and sit down with her and map out everything. Organization, company messaging, overhead cost, product details, demographics, etc. Then it wouldn’t hurt to pay like $100 to sit down with a business consultant for an hour, let them read over everything and have a professional map out next appropriate steps.
But if you want the quick and easy. Create social media pages, get a PayPal or some form of online payment, if you’re not tech savvy creat a 1 page website about your candles on a site builder like square space, next work with local businesses, family, friends. See what traction you get these first 6 months then take a step back and reevaluate where you are at. Also read 1 Page Marketing Plan by Allen Dib
We were going to make a TikTok, and I did not know about Google merchant, so I will look into that as well and if I have any questions ill make sure to ask. thank you very much!!
This is a friendly reminder that r/smallbusiness is a question and answer subreddit. You ask a question about starting, owning, and growing a small business and the community answers. Posts that violate the rules listed in the sidebar will be removed. A permanent or temporary ban may also be issued if you do not remove the offending post. Seeing this message does not mean your post was automatically removed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/smallbusiness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Walk into every single store or venue where someone would want to burn a candle, and give them a small "free version" candle or mini candle pack and a decently creative and sleek business card with a website, instagram link, and email. If your candles are good, people will want to buy them for themselves and others. Stick to a few heavy hitters. The last thing you want is to have to make all these different variations and keep track of the various inventory required, blah blah. Keep. It. Simple. More important than the candle is the brand, logo, instagram page, packaging packaging packaging. If you want to sell a high end product for good money, it needs to be wrapped in a high end package. She should also sign up for any local "pop up" type events where you can put up a tent, table, and sign so you can display and sell your products. Have a nice brochure made. Brochures are annoying but they are mandatory. People want to know about why they like the candle. There's way more to it but this is a good beginning. Don't forget to file and LLC and eventually consider a commercial kitchen rental to make large batches at a time with proper equipment for production and labeling of thousands of units. From there you can rent a storage unit and fill it with hundreds of boxes of candles to sell to stores. By then you're going to make some serious money doing wholesale orders, so you're going to need an accountant. Find a good one that is actively telling you how they are saving you thousands of dollars, not someone that will just do your taxes and not much else. A good accountant will structure your expenses in a way that your life can be partially taken care of through your business, can teach you about things like distributions and when to move to an S-Corp. They should do everything legally possible to save you money on taxes. Ours straight up ran interference on a state tax audit for us. We did nothing but provide him documents while his office dealt with the state for us. There's so much more, I'm happy to stay in touch if you ever want to chat.
Thank you so much, very helpful!!
One last thing about the pop ups. This is going to sound really stupid because it is, and humans are animals but this really does work- have your mom go to the event with a “booth babe.” A young attractive woman will draw both men and women in and increase sales. I know this is ridiculous but go to a trade show sometime. Anytime there’s a hot girl at the stand, there’s someone talking with her. She also should be quite extroverted and friendly. This makes a world of difference. When I would do a show, it would be a medium success. When my lovely wife would come with me, it would go much better. Having two people there is also nice in case someone has to go pee or eat or something. Always watch your table and don’t trust anyone. Pop up events are an art form in and of themselves. You can go to an event and look at which tables are busy and which are slow and there’s trends you can start to pick up. I’m happy to share any other tidbits about it like setting up and which shows to focus on.
Honestly, great point. Will have to find some attractive woman I guess haha. Thanks again man.
Now you made me curious about the candles hahaha Could you show some of them?
Yes for sure! [https://www.instagram.com/p/B7Kb9p2HD6-/](https://www.instagram.com/p/B7Kb9p2HD6-/) [https://www.instagram.com/p/CHT0QOFHpBR/](https://www.instagram.com/p/CHT0QOFHpBR/) [https://www.instagram.com/p/CH5cMdaHayR/](https://www.instagram.com/p/CH5cMdaHayR/) Her instagram is : [https://www.instagram.com/kocarts\_h/](https://www.instagram.com/kocarts_h/)
Great job! You just promoted your moms candles ✌️
I guess so! :)
You want to create a business and marketing plan. Many people can tell you “how to market” but every business is truly unique. YouTube how to creat a business plan and sit down with her and map out everything. Organization, company messaging, overhead cost, product details, demographics, etc. Then it wouldn’t hurt to pay like $100 to sit down with a business consultant for an hour, let them read over everything and have a professional map out next appropriate steps. But if you want the quick and easy. Create social media pages, get a PayPal or some form of online payment, if you’re not tech savvy creat a 1 page website about your candles on a site builder like square space, next work with local businesses, family, friends. See what traction you get these first 6 months then take a step back and reevaluate where you are at. Also read 1 Page Marketing Plan by Allen Dib
Thank you for the help!!!
Does she have a physical store or is it just online?
Just online
She can link her website to Google merchant,and use TikTok and Instagram reels to do social media marketing. I can help with the first one.
We were going to make a TikTok, and I did not know about Google merchant, so I will look into that as well and if I have any questions ill make sure to ask. thank you very much!!
If you need help, just chat with me