Shownotes
BUSINESS BUILDING INSIGHTS
- Check that your business name is unique and available to register before you start creating social accounts, etc., even if you don't actually do the paperwork and legal stuff until later.
- If possible, invest with your own money as you grow rather than taking out loans to avoid building up debt.
- Remember that a No from one person doesn't mean you'll get No from others.
- Don't be afraid to get help when you need it.
- Find the courage to reach out to potential sellers, customers, and promo opportunities. When you do, you're taking action that 90% of your competition isn't!
- If you're not willing to push yourself, you’re not going anywhere.
- Give yourself time to grow. Growing slow but steady is the best way to build a stable business.
- Listen in to get all the biz-building insights!
Dasha's Best Tips For Starting A Craft Business
- When developing your product, focus on what *you're doing,* not what others do, so you develop a unique product.
- Get feedback from others to help you improve your products.
- Find a platform that makes accepting payments easy and then build the website around it. If you start with the website first, it can be much harder.
- Pop-up sales are an easy way to start making sales and get feedback from real customers.
- Start slowly and evolve your display table over time - add backdrops, signs, etc. - as you grow.
- Offer product samples to introduce your product to people.
- Don't be afraid to reach out to potential sellers of your product - local shops, etc. - and keep following up over time.
- How to motivate yourself to approach people when you don't like selling? Remember your goals and your why. <-- Tune in for the full conversation on this crucial skill!
- Make sure your products are selling well before investing in more inventory.
- Encourage customers to share their photos of your products with you on social media and tag you. It's a great way to build relationships, get testimonials, AND get good pictures you can use on your website!
- Listen to the full episode for all the tips on how to start a craft business!
Resources Mentioned
- Wave Apps for accounting
Dasha's Contact Links
Website | Facebook | InstagramJoin Our FREE Gift Biz Breeze Facebook Community
Become a Member of Gift Biz Breeze If you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe so you automatically get the next episode downloaded for your convenience. Click on your preferred platform below to get started. Also, if you'd like to do me a huge favor - please leave a review. It helps other creators like you find the show and build their businesses too. You can do so right here: Rate This Podcast Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify Thank you so much! SueKnow someone who needs to hear this episode? Click a button below to share it!
Transcripts
Gift biz unwrapped episode 295.
Speaker:There's really no healthy candle out there.
Speaker:So I was like,
Speaker:let me just try and see if it's something that people
Speaker:would be interested in Attention.
Speaker:Gifters bakers,
Speaker:crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.
Speaker:Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.
Speaker:Now you are in the right place.
Speaker:This is gift to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode,
Speaker:packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources, and the support you need to grow.
Speaker:Your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:Hi there.
Speaker:Welcome To this week's show and full on holiday season.
Speaker:Hanukkah starts Thursday night and Christmas is only 18 days away.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Can you believe it?
Speaker:I know from experience how busy you are.
Speaker:So I personally want to take this time and thank you
Speaker:for all your hard work in managing through making all of
Speaker:your product,
Speaker:the sales,
Speaker:packaging, and shipping,
Speaker:so that we can have a festive season and enjoy all
Speaker:the wonderful gifts that you've made possible for us to give
Speaker:and receive today.
Speaker:I have the perfect product biz that fits right into our
Speaker:season of holidays.
Speaker:And it's one of my favorites.
Speaker:Bet you can guess candles.
Speaker:We get to go behind the scenes to shed light on
Speaker:the startup and growth of a young business.
Speaker:DATIA talks about mindset and how she had to manage her
Speaker:thoughts because they could have prevented her from moving forward.
Speaker:She's now just over two years in business and on a
Speaker:path of salad,
Speaker:development and growth,
Speaker:she takes it from the top and tells us how she
Speaker:identified an opportunity and then step by step.
Speaker:The way she got started brought in her first sales made
Speaker:adjustments through the pandemic and where she's going from here Today.
Speaker:It is my pleasure to introduce you to Dasha Kosovan of
Speaker:wellness by Ari in early 2018,
Speaker:Ari candles began from a desire to create not just a
Speaker:candle, but something that will purify and benefit the atmosphere and
Speaker:air quality of your home.
Speaker:The idea was ignited after burning a candle that was received
Speaker:as a gift and seen black residue in doshas kids' noses
Speaker:after burning the candle.
Speaker:That's when she said never again and began working on creating
Speaker:a candle that would not only be pleasant to burn,
Speaker:but also beneficial.
Speaker:Dasha is now the owner and founder of wellness by Ari.
Speaker:They pour 100% beeswax candles combined with aroma therapy,
Speaker:essential oils,
Speaker:and we are going to get under the whole story of
Speaker:the development of her business right now.
Speaker:Dasha, welcome to the gift biz on wrapped podcast.
Speaker:Thank you Sue for having me.
Speaker:I am so excited and candles.
Speaker:Anyone who has been following me knows that that is my
Speaker:thing so that our listeners can get to know you in
Speaker:a little bit of a different way.
Speaker:If you were to create a candle that was all about
Speaker:you, what would your motivational candle look like?
Speaker:Okay, well,
Speaker:if you look at our candles,
Speaker:you kind of see our candles are yellow,
Speaker:they've got a honeycomb pattern and they're made out of beeswax.
Speaker:And the reason for that is because you wanted the purest
Speaker:ingredients in our candles.
Speaker:We were just fed up with all the toxins and all
Speaker:the nasty stuff that we found in candles.
Speaker:And we wanted to create something that was natural and pure.
Speaker:And that's what the yellow beeswax is for.
Speaker:We wanted to just get something that's clean for the ear.
Speaker:And for the family created with our candle.
Speaker:Do you have a motivational quote that would go on your
Speaker:candle? We actually have Bible verse that's on our candle.
Speaker:We did Romans five eight on our candle and it says,
Speaker:but God shows his love for us.
Speaker:And that while we were sinners,
Speaker:he died for us.
Speaker:And that's a quote,
Speaker:that's very personal to me and my family.
Speaker:And so we wanted to include that on our candles.
Speaker:Beautiful. And do You actually include that on your candles?
Speaker:We do.
Speaker:We put it on the bottom of our label and also
Speaker:on our postcards.
Speaker:Oh, wow.
Speaker:So not only are your candles yellow because that's my favorite
Speaker:color and my brand color of it also candles,
Speaker:which is a product I love.
Speaker:And you have a motivational quote.
Speaker:We are like already linked together perfectly.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So your business is still relatively new.
Speaker:I am so excited to talk about that because so often
Speaker:we're talking to people whose businesses are much further along and
Speaker:they have to go back and really reflect.
Speaker:And I'm feeling Dasha like your still in the middle of
Speaker:growing the business,
Speaker:but you've done so well.
Speaker:So far talk to us a little bit.
Speaker:And so it's just a couple of years ago,
Speaker:I guess you're saying,
Speaker:but how did you get this idea apart from what I
Speaker:said in the intro?
Speaker:Like what built up to you starting your own business?
Speaker:The more research I did about wax and just the ingredients
Speaker:that are going to candles,
Speaker:the more I fell in love with beeswax,
Speaker:the goal was just to create something for me and my
Speaker:family to burn in the house so that I could feel
Speaker:a hundred percent confident and okay with burning something in the
Speaker:house. And then the more research I did and the more
Speaker:I dug in deeper,
Speaker:the more I was encouraged to create something that I could
Speaker:offer to the world as well.
Speaker:Just the more that I played around with it,
Speaker:the more I was like,
Speaker:okay, I really want to get it out there so that
Speaker:people can burn these candles in their houses as well.
Speaker:And just enjoy them as much as we do.
Speaker:So you were doing this on the side.
Speaker:Were you working somewhere else at the time?
Speaker:No. So I was a stay-at-home mom.
Speaker:I have three kids at the time.
Speaker:I had two kids,
Speaker:three year old and a newborn.
Speaker:Okay. This is where,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:young children,
Speaker:their bodies are still developing and all of a sudden you
Speaker:see black in their noses from that you were burning.
Speaker:I wouldn't even say it was as much a hobby as
Speaker:you were just deciding this is not going to do for
Speaker:my family.
Speaker:Yeah. And so you started testing and experimenting for your own
Speaker:use. Would you call it a hobby or was it a
Speaker:necessity? Cause you just have to live with candles.
Speaker:Like I do Both,
Speaker:so we didn't burn candles for a while.
Speaker:And then we actually had a power outage and we didn't
Speaker:have flashlights for some reason or candles.
Speaker:So we had no light like sip,
Speaker:like our phone lights.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:Oh, this sucks.
Speaker:So I was like,
Speaker:let me just create something.
Speaker:Some kind of candle for us.
Speaker:I actually started with like oil candles,
Speaker:just pure oil candle,
Speaker:but that created way too much smoke.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:no. So that's when I started doing the beeswax candles,
Speaker:just because for that reason,
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:we don't have anything to burn in case of an emergency
Speaker:And look at what this grew into from there.
Speaker:That's crazy when you were identifying the beeswax that would work
Speaker:and actually how to make a candle.
Speaker:Cause it sounds like you'd never even done that before.
Speaker:So you're going through and it's really easy and calm because
Speaker:you're doing it as a hobby.
Speaker:We'll just call it a hobby.
Speaker:How long did it take you until you actually landed on
Speaker:what you felt was your perfect formula for your family candles?
Speaker:It probably was like in the experiment for over a year
Speaker:because beeswax is really hard to work with and there's just
Speaker:so much out there.
Speaker:I was zero when I started,
Speaker:like, I had no knowledge about candles,
Speaker:about things that were in it.
Speaker:Like nothing.
Speaker:When I just started,
Speaker:I started from wax.
Speaker:What should I use when I first made a candle that
Speaker:was made out of like oil,
Speaker:just like a lamp oil,
Speaker:first thing I ever did.
Speaker:And then I read about that and I was like,
Speaker:okay, I actually don't want to burn this in the house.
Speaker:It was a slow process because I was just doing it
Speaker:for us.
Speaker:So there was no rush.
Speaker:So I narrowed it down to,
Speaker:I don't want paraffin cause I know that's really bad.
Speaker:It was between soy and beeswax.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:just from more research,
Speaker:I landed on beeswax because it's more friendly to the environment
Speaker:and it's safer and it's natural.
Speaker:I mean the bees man,
Speaker:Well, and it's not just the wax.
Speaker:You also have the whip to look at or you have
Speaker:a couple of things going on and I like that you
Speaker:say, well,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I didn't know.
Speaker:I started from the beginning and you just started educating yourself
Speaker:and experimenting and seeing what you liked and creating from scratch,
Speaker:where you feeling like you had to look at what other
Speaker:people were doing or did you stay just self-focused on what
Speaker:you were doing with your Results?
Speaker:I was just focusing on what I was doing because I
Speaker:had no idea that I would be selling them.
Speaker:So I just wanted to find the purest ingredients for this
Speaker:so that when I would burn out,
Speaker:I knew it was safe for my kid.
Speaker:I was hoping that you would say that because I think
Speaker:a lot of times people who want to start creating something
Speaker:feel like there's only one way to do it.
Speaker:And so the way to do it is to look at
Speaker:others and then you get a similar product to what other
Speaker:people already have versus creating something that obviously there are lots
Speaker:of different types of candles,
Speaker:but yours is very unique because you created it without taking
Speaker:any influence from anybody else.
Speaker:I do have to ask you that point.
Speaker:You had two children at home.
Speaker:Yes. Where'd you find the time to do this experimentation And
Speaker:when they slept,
Speaker:I still actually work early mornings,
Speaker:like three or four is when I wake up to work.
Speaker:I had to do it when they were sleeping,
Speaker:because that's when I want it to be fully into it.
Speaker:Not like sidetracked or anything.
Speaker:I wanted to just dig in on my own time with
Speaker:no interruptions.
Speaker:And I still do that.
Speaker:Did You say three or 4:00 AM to start working?
Speaker:Yeah, that's when I wake up is three or 4:00 AM
Speaker:to work.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Well give his listeners,
Speaker:we are not interviewing at three or 4:00 AM.
Speaker:I will tell you that it's a little bit later in
Speaker:the morning.
Speaker:My kids are at the park right now,
Speaker:so. Okay.
Speaker:So you found something that you liked it and you must
Speaker:have liked just the whole process of creating candles then to
Speaker:even start thinking about it,
Speaker:being a business.
Speaker:Talk to us a little bit about that transition.
Speaker:Cause you were just doing it for your family and then
Speaker:what made you start thinking differently and expanding the candle line?
Speaker:So once I narrowed it down to like the wax I
Speaker:wanted and how I wanted to send them,
Speaker:I loved them.
Speaker:And then I started sharing it with some more of our
Speaker:family and friends and they loved it too.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:maybe I should try to sell these at that time.
Speaker:I couldn't find any beeswax candles that were scented with essential
Speaker:oils. So I was like,
Speaker:there's really no healthy candle out there.
Speaker:So I was like,
Speaker:let me just try and see if it's something that people
Speaker:would be interested in.
Speaker:And so that's when I was like,
Speaker:okay, well let's just try it.
Speaker:And so by trying it,
Speaker:you were sharing it also with friends and family to get
Speaker:their reaction.
Speaker:Yeah. I had a lot of friends.
Speaker:I just give it to them and I'm like,
Speaker:try it and just give me your honest opinion.
Speaker:If it sucks,
Speaker:like telling me,
Speaker:Hey, that sucks.
Speaker:Like I don't really like it,
Speaker:but the feedback I got was very positive.
Speaker:A lot of people loved it and everybody was just happy
Speaker:with the fact that they know exactly what's in the candle
Speaker:and they were confident that if it's safe and it's good
Speaker:for them to burn it in their house.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:And the point that when you blow it out,
Speaker:cause you're done with it for the time it doesn't smoke
Speaker:up. It still gives a little smoke when you blow it
Speaker:out. But it doesn't release any so as it burns.
Speaker:Okay. Okay.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:Your friends and family are saying,
Speaker:yeah, Dasha,
Speaker:these are great candles.
Speaker:Make me a hundred.
Speaker:So what was the first step then to formally starting your
Speaker:business? And it started as Ari candles,
Speaker:right? Yes.
Speaker:It started as Ari candles and it was named after my
Speaker:daughter and my daughter's name is Ariela.
Speaker:Okay. Well,
Speaker:if I open up a business,
Speaker:I only have one daughter still.
Speaker:I have two boys and a daughter and I was like,
Speaker:I want to have something where as the kids go,
Speaker:they could kind of take over possibly in the future if
Speaker:they wanted to.
Speaker:So I was like,
Speaker:I want to name it after her.
Speaker:That way,
Speaker:as she gets older,
Speaker:I can give her the business and she can take over.
Speaker:So that's how he came up with the name is just
Speaker:naming it after her.
Speaker:We wanted it to just be Ari candles,
Speaker:but there's so many different construction companies with the name Ari.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:that's kind of weird.
Speaker:So we can't just have like already on there.
Speaker:So then we just did wellness by Ari.
Speaker:Okay. So did you change it before you actually even formally
Speaker:registered the business?
Speaker:Yeah, because you have to go through the process of seeing
Speaker:if the name's available and all that stuff.
Speaker:And so we had to change that before we started all
Speaker:the paperwork and all the legal stuff.
Speaker:Excellent point here,
Speaker:because had you just gone with Ari candles and just said,
Speaker:okay, maybe you're not going to do the legal part quite
Speaker:yet, but you're going to go and get your Facebook page
Speaker:or your Instagram page.
Speaker:Like whatever.
Speaker:It's better to make sure that you can get the formal
Speaker:name and check out everything all at once and then put
Speaker:it all together right away.
Speaker:Yeah. That's a big thing.
Speaker:Like if you're starting something before you create a Facebook page,
Speaker:a label,
Speaker:anything like you have to make sure that it's not taken.
Speaker:Cause then it's so much more work and finances.
Speaker:Like you have to spend so much cheddar redo everything that
Speaker:you're doing.
Speaker:And it's really confusing for people too.
Speaker:So if you were to start,
Speaker:let's just call it wellness by Ari.
Speaker:So you register your name,
Speaker:but then you're not able to get the Facebook page or
Speaker:the Instagram page or any of that.
Speaker:It gets confusing for people too,
Speaker:to be able to find you.
Speaker:It's so much easier when you can just say we're wellness
Speaker:by Ari,
Speaker:everywhere. So much easier give as listeners.
Speaker:If any of you are in this situation where you have
Speaker:social media sites that are different from your name,
Speaker:because you've changed your business along the way,
Speaker:you can go back and change Facebook pages.
Speaker:As long as the page is available.
Speaker:Just a little side note there.
Speaker:What entity did you register wellness by RA?
Speaker:Just an LLC.
Speaker:An LLC.
Speaker:Perfect. I always suggest that just because of the coverage that
Speaker:you got protection with an LLC.
Speaker:So that's awesome.
Speaker:Yeah. Okay.
Speaker:So you formalize the whole business.
Speaker:Now you have to go find customers and talk us through
Speaker:that. Everything was such a slow process.
Speaker:It was all so new to me.
Speaker:I had no idea what I was doing Like everybody though.
Speaker:How did you feel at that time,
Speaker:not knowing what you were doing.
Speaker:Did you just decide,
Speaker:what were you saying to yourself?
Speaker:I'll just figure it out.
Speaker:Or I hope this works going Then when I just started,
Speaker:I wanted to start debt-free before I put any more money
Speaker:into it.
Speaker:I was doing side jobs to save up,
Speaker:to pay along the way,
Speaker:because I didn't want any debt because I was like,
Speaker:if anything happens where it's not successful,
Speaker:I don't want to lose money and I didn't want to
Speaker:lose money.
Speaker:Then my husband's bringing into the house.
Speaker:I'm going to work side jobs and save up slowly.
Speaker:So as I go,
Speaker:I can have everything covered that way.
Speaker:I'm not starting out in the negative.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:The same thing.
Speaker:I've had three of my own businesses.
Speaker:Two of them are still up and running and I did
Speaker:it the same way.
Speaker:If I didn't have the money already,
Speaker:I might have grown a little bit slower,
Speaker:but I was never in debt and never have been at
Speaker:all. And I just feel like it's so much easier and
Speaker:less stressful because growing a business is already stressful.
Speaker:If you can just eliminate one of the,
Speaker:especially the financial,
Speaker:which could be the most stressful,
Speaker:it's so much better.
Speaker:Yeah. I love hearing that.
Speaker:You did it the same way.
Speaker:Would you say that it made you grow slower?
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I couldn't afford to buy all this stuff at once.
Speaker:So I had to take it like,
Speaker:as I got paid as when I would invest in equipment
Speaker:and invest in like beeswax and everything else,
Speaker:it was just really slowly as I worked,
Speaker:then I bought and then it was much slower than if
Speaker:I just had a sum of money that I got a
Speaker:loan for and got everything all at once.
Speaker:But it was also a good thing because I took it
Speaker:slow. I was able to do more research.
Speaker:I didn't rush into anything.
Speaker:Well, you're two years in.
Speaker:Yeah. Or a little over two years in.
Speaker:So it's not like it's a decade of waiting to be
Speaker:able to finance something.
Speaker:What types of things can you share with us?
Speaker:What were the first purchases that you made to start growing
Speaker:the business?
Speaker:And how did that balance with the inventory you needed to
Speaker:make? The product First largest purchase I made was the jars
Speaker:and the woods.
Speaker:And then the beeswax,
Speaker:those were the most expensive things I got that I spent
Speaker:on. Well,
Speaker:I'm the essential oils.
Speaker:Those things are really expensive as well,
Speaker:but those were the first large purchases that I made and
Speaker:invested in.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:I'm not buying any more until all of them are sold.
Speaker:This is another place where I see people putting all of
Speaker:their money into inventory before they actually see that what they're
Speaker:making is going to continue moving.
Speaker:You got validation already with your family and friends,
Speaker:but now you have to get validation with strangers.
Speaker:Okay. So you did that.
Speaker:And then what about equipment or things like websites and all
Speaker:that Websites.
Speaker:We actually started creating the website or selves.
Speaker:My husband helped me.
Speaker:And then when we got stuck at one point,
Speaker:I think right before we launched the business,
Speaker:December of 2018,
Speaker:we're like,
Speaker:okay, well we have no idea how to get payments through
Speaker:or any of that.
Speaker:Then I had to reach out to somebody to kind of
Speaker:help finalize that.
Speaker:So we opened the business December,
Speaker:2018 is when it finally launched prior to that was all
Speaker:starting it like before we launched everything,
Speaker:we had to make sure that we could receive payments and
Speaker:shipping and all of that stuff was figured out as well.
Speaker:Cause You were only online at that point.
Speaker:Yeah. We didn't have anybody carrying our candles.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:And so tell us a little bit more about your website.
Speaker:What platform is it on First we did WordPress and then
Speaker:we got our payments through Shopify and then we just transitioned
Speaker:everything to Shopify.
Speaker:One thing that I would actually encourage listeners to do,
Speaker:if you're starting a business is find a platform where are
Speaker:you going to go through with payments and then do your
Speaker:website? Cause I had to redo a lot of my website
Speaker:stuff to fit into Shopify.
Speaker:Versus if I just started from blank,
Speaker:it would have been so much easier to just go ahead
Speaker:and do it all there at once.
Speaker:Well, WordPress,
Speaker:as you saw can be a beast.
Speaker:I have one business on WordPress and one business on Shopify.
Speaker:I think Shopify definitely is the way to go for product
Speaker:based business.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:Yeah. And they have all the integrations that you need with
Speaker:shopping carts and shipping and all of that.
Speaker:So you reached out for help when you just couldn't figure
Speaker:it out anymore.
Speaker:Another good thing.
Speaker:I think,
Speaker:especially because we're makers,
Speaker:we want to figure everything out by ourself and then you
Speaker:get stuck and then you don't do anything.
Speaker:Yeah. So you reached out,
Speaker:was it somebody that you already knew or how did you
Speaker:find someone to help you?
Speaker:No, I didn't.
Speaker:I looked and it was so expensive to find somebody that
Speaker:would do the website for me.
Speaker:And then I found a friend who does photography and she
Speaker:had a website and I asked her,
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:Hey, can you recommend anybody?
Speaker:And she actually recommended me a person who was in the
Speaker:United Kingdom.
Speaker:And I reached out to him and he did everything for
Speaker:me. Perfect.
Speaker:And it's up and running it.
Speaker:It's beautiful.
Speaker:And give this listeners,
Speaker:you can see it over in the show notes.
Speaker:There are two different ways I would say to get started
Speaker:at this point when you were formally created your business and
Speaker:you're ready to go out and sell and is face to
Speaker:face with craft shows.
Speaker:And I don't know if you knew something we didn't know
Speaker:by going online right away.
Speaker:Obviously now with the pandemic,
Speaker:a lot of people had to create online platforms.
Speaker:If they didn't have them already,
Speaker:you decided right away to go e-commerce versus showing locally at
Speaker:craft shows,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:Why did you make that decision?
Speaker:If I went to somebody and I was like,
Speaker:Hey, I'm making these candles.
Speaker:Would you be interested in carrying them in your shop for
Speaker:them to be able to go to my website and read
Speaker:about us and look at our candles.
Speaker:I wanted something where people could go and look at it
Speaker:for themselves and their own time.
Speaker:So I wanted to have that,
Speaker:if anything,
Speaker:I wanted to have a professional email and a website.
Speaker:That way somebody always had something to go back to and
Speaker:look at versus just having my business card.
Speaker:Yeah. And it establishes a certain level of credibility.
Speaker:I'd say too,
Speaker:as well as people being able to buy directly off the
Speaker:site. Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So the website goes up,
Speaker:you jumped over that hurdle,
Speaker:found someone to help you.
Speaker:You got the website up,
Speaker:so everything is set to go.
Speaker:How did you start finding your first customer?
Speaker:I started doing a lot of pop-up shows.
Speaker:I just went on Facebook on Instagram.
Speaker:And then that's when I started looking at other businesses.
Speaker:People, makers like earrings,
Speaker:other candle makers,
Speaker:just all kinds of different makers.
Speaker:And I started kind of looking where they do pop-ups because
Speaker:I knew I had to meet people face to face.
Speaker:So I started following different makers and just kind of educating
Speaker:myself on what's out there and what's available.
Speaker:So that's when I got some ideas where to apply for
Speaker:pop-ups. So the first year of our business was strictly pop-ups.
Speaker:That's where I made most of my sales.
Speaker:I made video little sales online.
Speaker:Majority of the sales I made were in person on pop-ups.
Speaker:And then those people that found me on popups,
Speaker:they were the ones that were coming back and purchasing through
Speaker:the website.
Speaker:Okay. Okay.
Speaker:Wonderful. And those are quicker sales too.
Speaker:They see you.
Speaker:They're able to look at the candle.
Speaker:You're able to get feedback from them in terms of what
Speaker:their observations are,
Speaker:which sizes are going faster or like the pillars versus jars,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:whatever, if you could close your eyes or we could close
Speaker:our eyes.
Speaker:Can you describe to us what your pop-up looked like in
Speaker:terms of how you displayed your candle?
Speaker:Yes, my very first pop-up it was just a table.
Speaker:It was me and my daughter.
Speaker:It was in November.
Speaker:Right before we launched the online store,
Speaker:we found a pop up.
Speaker:My sister-in-law mentioned to me and it was like November,
Speaker:right before Thanksgiving.
Speaker:It was just a table.
Speaker:We had just some little shelving things we put on the
Speaker:table to kind of display the candles,
Speaker:business cards,
Speaker:boxes, and just me and my daughter's sitting there.
Speaker:And that's it.
Speaker:Nothing intense,
Speaker:no tent,
Speaker:nothing was our very first pop-up.
Speaker:Well, it had to be so fun for Ari to be
Speaker:there and watch.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:And be part of it.
Speaker:Given that,
Speaker:her name,
Speaker:she inspired the whole name of the business.
Speaker:Can you still see your first sale?
Speaker:The very first stranger that actually bought a candle.
Speaker:Yeah. I remember we were sitting down and like a lot
Speaker:of people will pass by and then the first customer that
Speaker:came and they were sniffing and they were giving us feedback,
Speaker:like would they think about smells and stuff?
Speaker:And the first transaction we did the person left and were
Speaker:like high-fiving and hiking and like almost crying from excitement.
Speaker:Like we made our first ever sale,
Speaker:like celebrating it's so exciting,
Speaker:isn't it?
Speaker:Yeah. We were both very,
Speaker:very excited and that we had a great day.
Speaker:It was funny because she was like four and she was
Speaker:like, Oh,
Speaker:why didn't this person buy it?
Speaker:Or they said,
Speaker:they're going to come back and they didn't come back.
Speaker:And I'm like,
Speaker:that's okay.
Speaker:Like we're just out here to meet people.
Speaker:We went in anticipating not to have any sales that way
Speaker:we don't have any disappointments.
Speaker:Like we went in and we're like,
Speaker:even if we don't make any sales,
Speaker:so we got our business card out there.
Speaker:We got our name out there.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:How excited and what a treasure.
Speaker:Being able to share this experience with her too.
Speaker:She's learning the business from a young age.
Speaker:It's so great.
Speaker:I want to point out that you were head of table
Speaker:only that didn't stop you.
Speaker:You didn't have this big display created yet.
Speaker:It was just the table.
Speaker:And you still saw success.
Speaker:Did you sell more than just one candle at that?
Speaker:Pop-up Yeah,
Speaker:I think we sold like 30 candles,
Speaker:which was huge for us.
Speaker:That was our first ever.
Speaker:And so how did your pop-up experience continue to evolve?
Speaker:As I saw pop-up opportunities come up,
Speaker:I just started falling a lot of pop-up places.
Speaker:And as they were like opening up applications for the pop-ups,
Speaker:I was just applying everywhere.
Speaker:A lot of them,
Speaker:you have to pay for the application and pay for the
Speaker:spot and that's an investment I had to do as well.
Speaker:What were the ranges you were seeing?
Speaker:The cheapest one was the $20 they think.
Speaker:And the most expensive one I did was girl TRIBE.
Speaker:I think that one was like 200 bucks,
Speaker:but worth it.
Speaker:It's still not bad.
Speaker:Yeah. Not bad.
Speaker:Not bad.
Speaker:Nope. It's definitely worth it.
Speaker:Yeah. And how did your display evolve?
Speaker:I would slowly as I had income coming in,
Speaker:I would slowly purchase more things and I purchased a tent.
Speaker:Then I am invested in getting a backdrop of all of
Speaker:the information about our candles.
Speaker:Whereas people are looking to kind of have something behind us
Speaker:to read as well,
Speaker:suggest slowly buying more stuff to add to the table and
Speaker:give it a nice design and look to attract people.
Speaker:And that's where you're at today.
Speaker:Yeah. Like we have a backdrop,
Speaker:we have tablecloth with our logo on there.
Speaker:We have a bunch of signs and we have everything for
Speaker:a successful tent.
Speaker:And do you think you'll continue that once you're able to,
Speaker:again, possibly Our sales this year has been an incredible year
Speaker:with online sales.
Speaker:We have done no,
Speaker:pop-up starting January 1st and it's been a great year because
Speaker:I have little ones.
Speaker:I don't know if I'll do pop-ups next year.
Speaker:Either. Maybe a couple,
Speaker:but we'll see Pop-ups now,
Speaker:unfortunately, some people are still doing craft shows,
Speaker:but let's just say for you,
Speaker:as you just mentioned popups,
Speaker:aren't something that you're doing at this point.
Speaker:How are you getting sales now from January forward?
Speaker:How have you seen sales coming in?
Speaker:Is it one-to-one consumer purchases?
Speaker:I also created an Etsy account.
Speaker:Okay. After I created a website,
Speaker:it didn't have sales for a long time,
Speaker:but I didn't really do anything special to it.
Speaker:I just put up listings and that's it.
Speaker:And I had to learn how Etsy works as well.
Speaker:Everything about it.
Speaker:I had to learn.
Speaker:So I slowly was growing my Etsy shop as well as
Speaker:trying to get sales on there.
Speaker:And I was going to local.
Speaker:I was going to,
Speaker:as many as I could find,
Speaker:just bringing them a sample candle and saying,
Speaker:Hey, would you mind carrying a candles in your store and
Speaker:doing consignment or wholesale?
Speaker:Whatever. I would try to go to as many local stores
Speaker:as well to try to get our stuff in there.
Speaker:Okay. So let's talk a little bit more about that.
Speaker:Your business model then was both direct to consumer.
Speaker:And then if you're able to sell wholesale,
Speaker:then other people can be stocking your candles as well.
Speaker:Yep. Okay.
Speaker:So mindset about going in to a business that you don't
Speaker:know with your candles,
Speaker:what did you do and how did it go?
Speaker:I was a nervous wreck.
Speaker:I hate sales,
Speaker:which is hilarious because I started a business.
Speaker:But you did it.
Speaker:What did you say to yourself?
Speaker:Because I think this is such a stalling point for people.
Speaker:What did you say to yourself to get yourself,
Speaker:to actually take action and do it?
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:This is a point where I could see so many of
Speaker:you who are listening,
Speaker:say, Nope,
Speaker:I'm not going this route.
Speaker:I'm not going to do it.
Speaker:So I'm really excited for you to hear what Dasha did
Speaker:to push herself,
Speaker:to go into those stores,
Speaker:to get wholesale placement.
Speaker:You already heard,
Speaker:she doesn't like to sell her way of managing.
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Speaker:It was like,
Speaker:okay, well there's no going back.
Speaker:I already invested money and time into this business.
Speaker:I've always looked at it as there's no going back.
Speaker:Like you're not quitting ever.
Speaker:You started it.
Speaker:You're continuing.
Speaker:And so I just had to keep pushing myself.
Speaker:Okay. I want to go the business online sales aren't happening
Speaker:right now.
Speaker:So I was only doing popups and I'm like,
Speaker:I want to get into stores.
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:well, as much as you don't want to meet people and
Speaker:talk to them about your stuff,
Speaker:you have to do it.
Speaker:So I was like,
Speaker:okay, well,
Speaker:I'm going to bring a sample to them because most people
Speaker:they're going to like it.
Speaker:If you bring them sample to try.
Speaker:So they know exactly what they're going to be selling.
Speaker:So I would take them a sample and email them,
Speaker:call them,
Speaker:harass them a little.
Speaker:Sometimes I would write them in that Gail,
Speaker:we'll get back to you.
Speaker:And I'm like,
Speaker:okay, it's been like two weeks.
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:Hey. Cause I need to see.
Speaker:So I kept calling them like trying to get my foot
Speaker:in the door.
Speaker:Good for you.
Speaker:Because most people won't do that.
Speaker:Good for you for following up in that way.
Speaker:Yeah. There's some companies I had to reach out like four
Speaker:or five times and I was like,
Speaker:I am so harassing them,
Speaker:but I really want them to carry my stuff.
Speaker:So I just kept reaching out,
Speaker:reaching out,
Speaker:reaching out and then they're like,
Speaker:okay, like,
Speaker:come on in.
Speaker:And then I would come in and meet him.
Speaker:Some people were like,
Speaker:no, this is just not something that we think would sell
Speaker:in the store.
Speaker:Things like that.
Speaker:And I'm like,
Speaker:okay, well that's perfectly fine.
Speaker:And then I would meet with other places that are like,
Speaker:yeah, let's give it a try.
Speaker:There's so many opportunities.
Speaker:I didn't have an idea of where the company was going
Speaker:to go.
Speaker:If I'm going to only do online sales or so in
Speaker:store their wholesale.
Speaker:So I just had all of those open.
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:I'm just going to try everything and see what happens.
Speaker:Glad that you brought up the fact that there were some
Speaker:people who just said,
Speaker:no, I don't know how you felt,
Speaker:but I appreciate knows if it's a true note.
Speaker:Cause sometimes people say no on the surface,
Speaker:but if you've contacted them a couple of times,
Speaker:they've seen it.
Speaker:They've just decided it's not going to be a fit.
Speaker:They don't.
Speaker:And maybe they like it.
Speaker:They just don't have the space right now either.
Speaker:But I know then means,
Speaker:okay, now I'm going to go look for another opportunity elsewhere.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:it doesn't mean a know that every single store will never
Speaker:want your candle.
Speaker:It just means the one.
Speaker:So I'm glad that this here,
Speaker:that you did experience some people who took a pass on
Speaker:the product and then you just went and found others.
Speaker:Yeah. How did you think through your pricing before you went
Speaker:in to tacos?
Speaker:That's something that I reached out to some people,
Speaker:because I didn't really know much about wholesale.
Speaker:I had a few people that I knew that worked in
Speaker:sales and I just reached out to them.
Speaker:I told them,
Speaker:listen, this is how much it costs me to make this
Speaker:item. This is how much I'm selling it.
Speaker:I have no idea of anything about wholesale.
Speaker:I did a little research.
Speaker:I still was not understanding it.
Speaker:And that's something that people should feel free about is don't
Speaker:be scared to reach out to people for help.
Speaker:I reached out to a bunch of people and I'm like,
Speaker:Hey, I need help.
Speaker:I have no idea about wholesale.
Speaker:What would you suggest?
Speaker:This is how much it costs.
Speaker:This is how much I sell.
Speaker:Like what would you suggest the price be?
Speaker:And they would tell me how much it would be and
Speaker:why? I mean,
Speaker:I got like four or five different opinions from people and
Speaker:that's how I came up with my wholesale price.
Speaker:Okay. And how is it all working for you?
Speaker:It's working Out great.
Speaker:We don't have too many wholesale accounts,
Speaker:but we have at least four or five,
Speaker:which is great for a company that's only going to be
Speaker:turning two in December.
Speaker:Well, not only,
Speaker:Yeah. There are a lot of retailers who aren't open or
Speaker:they're limited in terms of being open.
Speaker:So the potential to buy more or pick up more aligns.
Speaker:They're probably saying let's wait and see how our,
Speaker:all of this plays out before we take on more.
Speaker:Yeah. Even with co-sign meant same thing.
Speaker:And so it's a whole different ball game wholesale.
Speaker:Yeah. Right.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:It's so much better.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:they buy your stuff and you're done.
Speaker:You get paid,
Speaker:you're done with it.
Speaker:Are they paying you upfront or are they interns?
Speaker:They're paying upfront.
Speaker:Wonderful. And you've set it up that way.
Speaker:Yeah. If you're buying wholesale,
Speaker:then you pay up front and you have the inventory and
Speaker:you do with it.
Speaker:I see.
Speaker:Please. You sell it for everyone.
Speaker:My, to please with consignment,
Speaker:I bring my stuff in and I constantly restock and I
Speaker:get paid us.
Speaker:They sell.
Speaker:Okay. Talk to us a little bit about the production end
Speaker:because now you've got consistent purchases coming in,
Speaker:especially because you have wholesale because they're going to have to
Speaker:restock their orders.
Speaker:So they continue having product in the store.
Speaker:You do have people buying online as well,
Speaker:right? Yes.
Speaker:How are you balancing now production with the rest of your
Speaker:life? Three children.
Speaker:One of the biggest challenges was learning to find time for
Speaker:family and find time for business.
Speaker:Because at first I was like trying to do everything at
Speaker:once and I felt like I was going to go crazy
Speaker:because I wasn't like giving any time to my children.
Speaker:And I'm like,
Speaker:okay, my children are my priority.
Speaker:This is a side thing.
Speaker:And I had to constantly remind myself that because as I
Speaker:initially tried to sell,
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:okay, my priority is on my children because I stay at
Speaker:home finally a few months after like trying to just scramble
Speaker:everything at once.
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:I have to do this when they're sleeping.
Speaker:So I would either do it when the kids go to
Speaker:sleep is when I would work for two or three hours,
Speaker:whether that's at night or whether that's early morning.
Speaker:And that's what I've had to keep doing is working as
Speaker:just making separate time to work Have specific times or because
Speaker:we know children's schedules start to change as they continue to
Speaker:grow and all that.
Speaker:How many hours a day are you putting into your business?
Speaker:The four hours a day.
Speaker:That's all.
Speaker:Yeah. Wow.
Speaker:Good for you.
Speaker:Are you,
Speaker:are you at all getting to a point where you're considering
Speaker:bringing somebody in to help?
Speaker:Yeah. I'm actually at the point where I asked somebody to
Speaker:help me with a small thing,
Speaker:so they could take a home like prepping the wicks and
Speaker:stuff like that.
Speaker:Getting to the point where I'm like,
Speaker:I either have to wake up even earlier,
Speaker:but which is not an option.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I have to get sleep.
Speaker:So I'm like,
Speaker:I'm going to have to get some help.
Speaker:Especially during this holiday season,
Speaker:I might have to have somebody come in and either help
Speaker:package up orders or something.
Speaker:So I am at the point where I'm going to have
Speaker:to get one helper.
Speaker:Good for you.
Speaker:And you're already thinking of what the tasks are that they
Speaker:can do,
Speaker:which is perfect.
Speaker:Yeah. Because you don't want to get to the point.
Speaker:Like what if someone has a huge wholesale order for you?
Speaker:Yeah. You want to make sure that you'll be able to
Speaker:do it.
Speaker:So that's wonderful.
Speaker:What about the back of the shop stuff in terms of
Speaker:bookkeeping and all that fun stuff?
Speaker:That's been a very easy thing for me,
Speaker:probably because I've always loved keeping track of finances and stuff.
Speaker:I don't know why,
Speaker:but that's always been an interest of mine,
Speaker:but I use an app that's been wonderful and it's free.
Speaker:It's called wave wave apps.
Speaker:It's kind of like QuickBooks similar,
Speaker:but it's free.
Speaker:It's got an app.
Speaker:You take pictures of your receipts and put everything in and
Speaker:it kind of keep track of everything for you,
Speaker:which has been a huge help for both of our,
Speaker:like my husband's business and my business.
Speaker:That's been a huge help.
Speaker:That's what I use for accounting and everything else.
Speaker:Is that it?
Speaker:Wonderful. I'm going to connect that up in the show notes.
Speaker:So it's called wave apps,
Speaker:wave apps.
Speaker:Okay. And so you take a picture and then do you
Speaker:have to choose a category in terms of what this is?
Speaker:You can customize it.
Speaker:Like if they don't have the,
Speaker:let's say like merchant services or like shipping labels or something,
Speaker:you can always input a category for whatever you need it
Speaker:to be.
Speaker:And then my husband's stuff and my business is stuff.
Speaker:So we have three different accounts for them.
Speaker:It's all one account,
Speaker:but like,
Speaker:you can have three different,
Speaker:I don't know what you want.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:You're right.
Speaker:Your account.
Speaker:But it's broken into three different sections for three different types
Speaker:of income analysis,
Speaker:if you will.
Speaker:And it takes into account all of the finances of your
Speaker:business. So also when you're doing shipping on product and when
Speaker:you're buying promotional stuff or ingredients,
Speaker:of course,
Speaker:all of that.
Speaker:Yeah. It's a very helpful tool.
Speaker:Are there any other apps that you're using to run the
Speaker:business or systems that you would recommend for our accounting?
Speaker:Just that let's talk a little bit about photography because I
Speaker:have taken a look at your site and your photos are
Speaker:beautiful. Thank you.
Speaker:Tell me you're taking them from your phone.
Speaker:Okay, good.
Speaker:Yes. I want to say the ones that look least professional
Speaker:are the ones that I take.
Speaker:I'm not a good,
Speaker:now Give yourself a little more credit than That.
Speaker:Before I launched the website,
Speaker:I found a girl who took some pictures for me because
Speaker:I tried to take some pictures and I'm like,
Speaker:these just don't look too good.
Speaker:I did find a girl who took some pictures of like
Speaker:just the basic ones you see up front are the ones
Speaker:that I had professionally done.
Speaker:A girl did it for me before we launched the website.
Speaker:And then as we went,
Speaker:I take pictures on my phone.
Speaker:I don't have a camera or anything.
Speaker:Just the phone.
Speaker:I just use the phone for all the other pictures.
Speaker:And I think we can,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it's so exciting these days because the phone camera resolution can
Speaker:result in beautiful pictures and all the editing capabilities that are
Speaker:available, all of that,
Speaker:you really don't need a camera.
Speaker:And I often encouraged our customers to share pictures with us
Speaker:too. So I was able to use their pictures like,
Speaker:Hey, thanks,
Speaker:blah, blah,
Speaker:blah, for sharing this picture with us.
Speaker:And I was able to use our customer's pictures as well.
Speaker:Wonderful. Let's dive into that a little bit.
Speaker:How were you asking them to share through social media or
Speaker:tell us System at pop-ups if they made an order?
Speaker:I would always tell them like,
Speaker:Hey, we love to hear back from you.
Speaker:So if you could take a picture and share it with
Speaker:us on social media and tag us,
Speaker:I would tell them that.
Speaker:Or if like we had an order come in through the
Speaker:website, I always write a personal note,
Speaker:which is a huge thing for people.
Speaker:I love personal notes,
Speaker:write their name and thank them for supporting our small business.
Speaker:And then I would encourage them to leave us a review
Speaker:and to share pictures with us and to tag us,
Speaker:to try to get as much interaction with our customers as
Speaker:we can.
Speaker:And so were you doing a personal note through a message
Speaker:or actually writing a note and sending it to Both?
Speaker:I would send a message after the order came through,
Speaker:just thanking them.
Speaker:Like I just came up with a message thanking them and
Speaker:blah, blah,
Speaker:blah. And then I would write a note on the packing
Speaker:order slip as well.
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:Perfect. So to include with the product when you ship the
Speaker:product out.
Speaker:Yeah. Okay.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:The holidays are approaching as of air date right now.
Speaker:If you're listening live,
Speaker:the holidays are only a few weeks away.
Speaker:What types of things have you planned to attract customers and
Speaker:have them purchase as holiday gifts?
Speaker:We're about to release her Christmas sense and then we are
Speaker:creating two more Christmas sense.
Speaker:And I'm going to be making,
Speaker:I guess you would say like a little gift box.
Speaker:So if people wanted to buy gifts,
Speaker:it would come package it up in a gift box and
Speaker:very nicely placed inside.
Speaker:And we're going to be doing a kit for a little
Speaker:candle as well.
Speaker:They we're going to be introducing for the holidays.
Speaker:So just try to get as much like gift ideas for
Speaker:customers as we can.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:Okay. So while people are listening here,
Speaker:this is the first week of December.
Speaker:So can you share with us what those holiday scents are?
Speaker:The new sense?
Speaker:Right now we have Christmas tree and frozen forest available.
Speaker:We're also gonna introduce possibly eggnog and gingerbread,
Speaker:but still working on the sense.
Speaker:We're still sniffing them,
Speaker:but we have probably six or seven to narrow down to
Speaker:two, but they're all like wintery Christmas tree type sense that
Speaker:we're going to introduce,
Speaker:not sure of the names yet,
Speaker:but there's a couple of that smell.
Speaker:I'm closing my eyes and smelling them right now.
Speaker:Yeah. Cause Christmas morning.
Speaker:Yeah. Like holidays.
Speaker:Sure. Like all about candles.
Speaker:Well, I'm all about candles year round.
Speaker:So are they going to be yellow also is everything Yellow.
Speaker:Everything is always yellow.
Speaker:We don't buy bleached.
Speaker:Beeswax comes from beekeepers in the U S we don't buy
Speaker:any from outside of us.
Speaker:So all of our,
Speaker:these bucks comes from the U S and they're all just
Speaker:pure yellow.
Speaker:You can naturally get it lighter by putting it in the
Speaker:sun. It won't be fully white,
Speaker:but it'll be like a beige color,
Speaker:but we don't do that.
Speaker:We love the yellow.
Speaker:It's just beautiful.
Speaker:And it smells just like kindness.
Speaker:We keep it as pure and natural as we can.
Speaker:Did you have any trouble sourcing that?
Speaker:At first I did.
Speaker:When I was still looking the experimenting stage,
Speaker:I actually ordered some beeswax from online.
Speaker:I don't even look where it came from.
Speaker:I just ordered it.
Speaker:And when I got I'm like,
Speaker:this doesn't even smell like Connie.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:what? In the world?
Speaker:So I did some research and I realized a lot of
Speaker:it was bleached.
Speaker:And I'm like,
Speaker:well, that sucks.
Speaker:I want to take benefit of what beeswax does for us.
Speaker:So then I started looking on Etsy,
Speaker:trying to find local.
Speaker:And it was so hard to find somebody in North Carolina.
Speaker:And I still can't find anybody in North Carolina to produce
Speaker:enough wax for me.
Speaker:So I found a beekeeper in Florida and she sent me
Speaker:some wax and it was just beautiful.
Speaker:And it smelled like you opened up a jar of honey.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:that is a huge difference.
Speaker:So that's when I was like,
Speaker:okay, I'm only buying from like local.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:that's not local local,
Speaker:but it's still in the U S it was huge a
Speaker:difference. So a lot of places I've looked even now,
Speaker:like, you'll see beeswax candles and there's so much cheaper.
Speaker:And I'm like,
Speaker:wow, how can they get this price?
Speaker:But I mean,
Speaker:they source their beeswax from out of nowhere,
Speaker:China, or Africa,
Speaker:or somewhere where you can buy it super cheap,
Speaker:but it's just not the same quality.
Speaker:Talk about this in your promotion materials,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:the quality of the beeswax and how it's,
Speaker:some can be different from another.
Speaker:And how standards that you require for your beeswax.
Speaker:Not too much,
Speaker:I'm going to have to modify it.
Speaker:I do put in the,
Speaker:we only use fusebox from beekeepers in the U S but
Speaker:I haven't put that in there.
Speaker:That's something that I've been learning along the way is that
Speaker:a lot of people use beeswax.
Speaker:That's just cheap.
Speaker:The quality is not the same.
Speaker:And I haven't had the time to put that in the
Speaker:website, but I am going to have to put that in.
Speaker:So customers are aware,
Speaker:so they're like,
Speaker:Oh, why is the you're so expensive?
Speaker:And these are so cheap because there is a huge quality
Speaker:difference. That would Be interesting.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:like, why are candles always yellow?
Speaker:Yeah. Things like that.
Speaker:There's so many things you could do with that.
Speaker:Okay. I am jumping back to the holiday.
Speaker:Cause something that you said really sparked my curiosity here.
Speaker:And that was your DIY box for the holiday.
Speaker:What is that?
Speaker:Yeah, It's something that,
Speaker:I don't know how it got the idea,
Speaker:but I was just saying,
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:that would be,
Speaker:cause I had a few people ask like,
Speaker:well, our kids would love to see how candles are made
Speaker:and I'm like,
Speaker:yeah, but I can't have you bring in your kids.
Speaker:I'm like watching.
Speaker:Cause it's just not safe.
Speaker:And so I was just thinking about that.
Speaker:Like our kids help because I'm there.
Speaker:But I was like,
Speaker:what can I do to so people could make their own,
Speaker:I got the idea of to buy like a little votive
Speaker:holder. It's like a little round bubble looking holder.
Speaker:And I was going to put a wick in there and
Speaker:then send these vacs pellet.
Speaker:So they're a little tiny piece of beeswax,
Speaker:like round little piece of the visa.
Speaker:X people would just literally stick the wick inside themselves,
Speaker:fill it up with the pellets and light the candle.
Speaker:And it'll melt it.
Speaker:You have yourself,
Speaker:your own made candle pretty much Within seconds.
Speaker:Yep. You almost,
Speaker:aren't making,
Speaker:you're just putting it all together.
Speaker:Kind of sizing it.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:And you've now turned this into a little gift box type
Speaker:thing. Yup.
Speaker:We're finishing up the design and we're gonna order the boxes
Speaker:soon. So we have it ready for the holidays and people
Speaker:can start learning it.
Speaker:Ooh. I love that.
Speaker:Very cool.
Speaker:As we've start to wind down here,
Speaker:what would you say to somebody who's considering starting a business?
Speaker:So take yourself back just two years.
Speaker:And I kept asking you,
Speaker:you recall through those whole conversation,
Speaker:like, what was your mindset or what did you say to
Speaker:yourself to keep going forward?
Speaker:And you've made the comment that you just said,
Speaker:I've come this far.
Speaker:There was no going back,
Speaker:but what would you say to someone who keeps stopping themselves?
Speaker:They're their own worst enemy.
Speaker:If you will,
Speaker:what would you say to them?
Speaker:If you don't push yourself,
Speaker:you're not going to go anywhere.
Speaker:Nobody's going to do anything for you.
Speaker:You represent your product.
Speaker:Like I created the candles and I represent it.
Speaker:And if I don't work for it,
Speaker:nobody's going to do it for me.
Speaker:And you're only going to have as much success as the
Speaker:amount of work you put in and don't be afraid to
Speaker:reach out.
Speaker:I reached out to you.
Speaker:I've just been reaching out to everyone and everywhere I can
Speaker:get my foot into is what I've been doing.
Speaker:So just keep reaching out.
Speaker:Don't be shy.
Speaker:It's embarrassing and intimidating,
Speaker:but Hey do it.
Speaker:Nobody's going to say,
Speaker:Oh, you suck for doing this.
Speaker:Or, you know,
Speaker:like, nobody's going to look down on you,
Speaker:but just go out there and don't be scared and just
Speaker:knock on doors.
Speaker:I agree a hundred percent when I say this,
Speaker:you'll understand what I'm saying,
Speaker:but I'm kind of glad it's hard and intimidating because that
Speaker:means a lot of people won't do it.
Speaker:So if you can just fight that urge to say,
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I'm afraid I'm going to embarrass myself.
Speaker:Or like,
Speaker:whatever, if you just put that aside and actually take the
Speaker:action, like for you Dasha going into the stores or doing
Speaker:the pop-ups,
Speaker:most people won't do it.
Speaker:They'll talk about it and they won't do it.
Speaker:So if you take the action,
Speaker:which is meaning gift biz listeners,
Speaker:you are making more progress than 99 of the people out
Speaker:there. And Dasha,
Speaker:you're a perfect example of that.
Speaker:You've come so far in two years.
Speaker:It is so impressive.
Speaker:And you keep going,
Speaker:like you said,
Speaker:you reached out to me because you're looking to get more
Speaker:visibility. Right?
Speaker:You want your candles known.
Speaker:Yeah. Fabulous.
Speaker:What do you see coming in the next couple of years?
Speaker:I definitely want to have a candle workshop.
Speaker:That's like a dream to have a physical workshop.
Speaker:Yeah. Ooh.
Speaker:Like a physical candle workshop.
Speaker:There is definitely been a lot of growth to where I'm
Speaker:getting limited to what I can do,
Speaker:but there's so many ideas that I have that I'm like,
Speaker:I just want to do them all at once.
Speaker:And it's so hard to control yourself and like,
Speaker:no, you have to take it a step at a time.
Speaker:Yeah. There's a lot of growth that can be done.
Speaker:Like I want to introduce a lot more sense and a
Speaker:lot of different products,
Speaker:but I have to just take it a step at a
Speaker:time, hopefully in the next couple of years that can have
Speaker:a candle,
Speaker:Meaning that there'll be other people who are helping you out.
Speaker:Yeah. It'll be outside of your house at that point.
Speaker:Yeah. And look,
Speaker:you have so much ahead of you.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:as the kids continue to grow,
Speaker:at some point they'll be in school,
Speaker:you'll have a different availability of your hours.
Speaker:Yeah. You don't have to do it all.
Speaker:Something that I had to learn to like take easy because
Speaker:at first I was like,
Speaker:Oh, I'm doing it all at the house.
Speaker:And like,
Speaker:I really want to have a workshop or an area for
Speaker:all this stuff.
Speaker:But then it's like,
Speaker:can you afford it?
Speaker:Like right now,
Speaker:even though we're growing so much,
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:I can't allow myself to have that yet.
Speaker:You have to have enough growth to be able to have
Speaker:something like that.
Speaker:And it's okay to do it from the house and grow,
Speaker:give yourself time to grow Completely.
Speaker:Okay. I've seen this a bunch of times where people grow
Speaker:too fast.
Speaker:Like they see that something is really moving.
Speaker:Their product is going and they rent out a retail shop
Speaker:and the overhead and the expense of the retail shop is
Speaker:just too much.
Speaker:And they crumble under that.
Speaker:Yeah. I think that there is a lot to be said
Speaker:for growing slower and steady and pacing.
Speaker:And then it also continues to add excitement to your business.
Speaker:Yeah. People who continue to buy your candles and support you.
Speaker:Then they find out that you're developing a workshop and you're
Speaker:adding more sense or,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:whatever else the workshop is going to bring also helps the
Speaker:longevity of your business,
Speaker:if you will.
Speaker:Stability and longevity.
Speaker:Yeah. So Dasha,
Speaker:if you wanted to direct our listeners to one place online
Speaker:where they can learn more about you see all the candles
Speaker:continue following you into the future,
Speaker:where would that be?
Speaker:That would be on her website at www dot wellness,
Speaker:by ari.com
Speaker:or our Etsy page,
Speaker:which is also wellness by Ari.
Speaker:Right now we're introducing a lot more stuff on the Etsy
Speaker:page first versus our website,
Speaker:just because that's where we get our most traffic.
Speaker:So if you want to get the newest releases,
Speaker:that would be on our Etsy shop,
Speaker:Ooh. To an insider tip for us.
Speaker:Perfect. Thank you so much,
Speaker:Dasha. It has been so much fun talking to you.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I already love your product by color,
Speaker:by what it is like the whole thing.
Speaker:And it has been such a joy getting to know your
Speaker:story and uncovering it.
Speaker:And so many of the things that you're doing are great,
Speaker:great examples for our listeners.
Speaker:So I appreciate you reaching out.
Speaker:I appreciate your taking the time this morning.
Speaker:I also appreciate that it's not at three in the morning.
Speaker:Thank you so so much for being on the show.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:So shortly after DATIA and I recorded this interview,
Speaker:present, arrived in the mail.
Speaker:It was a beautiful yellow frozen forest scented candle.
Speaker:I got to tell you it was everything I could do
Speaker:not to open it and burn it right away.
Speaker:But I decided to save it until tomorrow and light it
Speaker:as a special treat on my birthday.
Speaker:Now, I mean,
Speaker:I already know it's going to be amazing cause I've lifted
Speaker:the lid and have smelled it.
Speaker:But if you want to see a photo and hear my
Speaker:experience with Dash's candle,
Speaker:I'll be posting it up to my Instagram account at gift
Speaker:biz unwrapped tomorrow.
Speaker:Make sure to go check it out next week.
Speaker:We're covering something.
Speaker:You probably have a lot of right now overwhelm,
Speaker:but the truth is it isn't just during the holidays that
Speaker:we're challenged to focus on the million and one things we
Speaker:have going on.
Speaker:So I've got an expert coming to our rescue.
Speaker:Thanks so much for spending time with me today.
Speaker:And if you'd like to show support for the podcast and
Speaker:as maybe a little birthday gift,
Speaker:please leave a rating and review.
Speaker:That means so much to me and it helps the show
Speaker:get seen by more makers.
Speaker:So it's a great way to pay it forward and now
Speaker:be safe and well go back and work on all those
Speaker:holiday orders.
Speaker:And I'll see you next week on the gift biz on-ramp
Speaker:Podcast. I want to make sure you're familiar with my free
Speaker:Facebook group called gift is breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and our community to
Speaker:support each other.
Speaker:Got a really fun post in there.
Speaker:That's my favorite of the week.
Speaker:I have to say where I invite all of you to
Speaker:share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,
Speaker:to show what you're working on for the week to get
Speaker:reaction from other people and just for fun,
Speaker:because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody
Speaker:in the community is making my favorite post every single week,
Speaker:without doubt.
Speaker:Wait, what,
Speaker:aren't you part of the group already,
Speaker:if not make sure to jump over to Facebook and search
Speaker:for the group gift biz breeze don't delay.
