Do You Need to Own Your Own Business to Sell Your Own Art

If yous're an entrepreneur who is eager to burn down the midnight oil with a new business concern venture, we've got a potential business idea for yous: selling bootleg candles.

When it comes to creating a product that'southward practical and hot (literally and figuratively), learning how to brand candles is a skillset that's useful even for the hesitant DIYer.

So, if you're curious about how to make homemade candles and first a candle business, let'south look at how you tin brand coin online with this trending product.

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Why brand and sell homemade candles?

Bootleg candles have become an essential habitation decor item—an industry expected to achieve $5 billion past 2026, co-ordinate to MarketWatch. In by years, the commercial use of candles has seen a precipitous increase, with spa and massage using scented candles for soothing effects, and restaurants creating aromatic environments for customers.

Consumers too purchase candles every bit a focus betoken for their home decor, also as for aromatherapy similar relaxation and stress reduction, according to the National Candle Association. Taking a quick await on Google Trends shows us that global interest for homemade candles is consistent:

And while candles may be used for diverse purposes across the globe, nearly of the searches for homemade candles are concentrated around North America, the U.k., and Australia. This is peachy intel for candlemakers looking to find a marketplace for their DIY products:

Next, Google Trends demonstrates plenty of involvement in specific types of candles—from scented to soy and everything in between. Shoppers' interest in candles is not only strong, only runs the gamut.

So, when an eager entrepreneur is making decisions almost what kind of products to create, this knowledge is a powerful insight to assist y'all build a collection that resonates with potential customers.

In add-on to the popularity of this hot production, candles offer business owners a number of other benefits, including:

• Low cost entry. Granted, some homemade candle varieties require pricier materials than others, but in general, candlemakers can create their wares with very little cash up front.
• Easy to sell anywhere. Want to sell your home decor items at arts and crafts fairs and local markets? Bootleg candles travel well, so you can sell them both online and offline.
• Scalable craft to learn. Whether you're a DIY master or a crafting newbie, the base recipe for basic candles is piece of cake to follow. As you'll observe from our handy infographic below, the formula is simple.
• Easy to customize. With so many types of candles, it's piece of cake to personalize your products and differentiate yourself from direct competitors.

From the standpoint of a DIY business, learning how to brand candles is a skill that tin be transformed into a viable income stream. But before nosotros tackle the topic of creating homemade candles of your own, allow's take a look at the pop types that are piquing shoppers' interest.

Types of homemade candles

One of the big advantages when it comes to making candles for your business organization is the variety—there'south likely a type of candle out in that location that will grab the center of any potential customer.

Not sure where to outset? Here are some of the elevation types of homemade candles you can explore when planning your candle business opportunities.

Soy candles

One of the hottest candle varieties on the marketplace today, soy candles are fabricated from a base of soy wax. This wax is derived from soybeans and, therefore, is made from vegetables (opposed to regular oil- or alkane series-based candles). The soy wax segment is expected to abound at a compound annual growth rate of viii.5% from 2019 to 2025, according to Chiliad View Research.

New York City soy candle by homesick

Not but are soy candles fabricated from a renewable resource, they also fire cleanly and for longer. That way, customers become more bang for their buck when it comes to getting a longer-lasting candle.

Scented or aromatherapy candles

This is i of the most common varieties of candles. Scented or aromatherapy candles offer a spectrum of scents for customers looking to spruce upwardly their homes with pleasant smells.

Whether they're meant to mask a normal household stench or simply create a unique scentscape, these candles come in dozens of scents—and then there'south a smell that will appeal to almost everyone.

KUSH scented candle by Boy Smells

Aromatherapy candles makers market place their products as offering specific benefits that correlate to certain scents. Generally, the recipes for these candles use essential oils that are meant to enhance physical or mental well-being. For example, lavender scents are often associated with relaxation.

Vegan candles

There's a growing segment of shoppers that are concerned with the materials businesses use to make their products—particularly whatever animal ingredients. Basic candles often contain animal byproducts like beeswax, which isn't desirable for some consumers.

Vegan candle by Brooklyn Candle Studio

But hither comes vegan candles to the rescue! Vegan candles use modified formulas with ingredients similar soy wax, institute-based waxes, fragrance oils, and natural fragrances.

Decorative candles

When entering a homeware shop, you've likely noticed candles that come in many colors, shapes, and sizes. Some candles are fabricated purely for decorative purposes—they aren't necessarily scented and aren't made from special ingredients. They merely add a certain something to a space in your abode.

Decorative Candle past Amara

Decorative candles ofttimes come up in complicated shapes, characteristic accessories, and employ complicated designs.

How to start a candle business

Follow this pace-by-step guide to create your own candle business today:

1. Do market inquiry
2. Build your brand
3. Create a candle business concern name
4. Write a business organisation plan
5. Make candles to sell
6. Build your online store
7. Create a marketing programme

Practice market inquiry

Your target market are the people you desire to reach with your marketing efforts. These are the buyers who will be well-nigh interested in your products and most likely to convert to customers. In the candle industry, target markets are cleaved down into three categories:

• Prestige. Luxury candles are a new and rapidly growing segment of the candle market. Pricing may vary. The average prestige candle can sell for between xxx and 80 dollars, but can run equally high as $185, similar the Louis Vuitton perfumed scented candle. Prestige candles are known for their premium packaging, fragrances, and emphasis on brand storytelling.

• Mid-market. These mid-tier candles take broad entreatment. You'll probable observe them in retail outlets similar Target. Mid-market candles typically have unique scenes like rose h2o, grapefruit, or basil, and cost around $x per candle.

• Mass market. These candles are the most affordable on the market. Brands like Yankee Candle and Bed Bath and Beyond take up near of this segment. You'll find standard scents like vanilla or bounding main breeze, and will cost around $5 to $8 per candle.

Decide on which market yous'll become subsequently. Do you want to get into retail stores like Nordstrom or Macy's? Then mid-marketplace may be the best route. Want to only sell through your own website and other online boutiques? Prestige candles may exist your calling.

Choosing your market will help with everything from sourcing materials to building your brand and packaging. Once you have a segment in mind, you'll desire to decide on the types of candles y'all'll create.

While doing your enquiry, note what kind of candles customers are buying. Are eco-friendly, vegan candles best suited for your market? Or are potential customers OK with paraffin wax candles, despite their impact on the environment.

The candles you choose to sell will determine the type of brand you create.

Build your make

The 2nd step in starting a candle making business is building a brand. A brand helps you build an audience, influences your marketing efforts, and makes it easier to create better products for your customers.

A skilful make is crucial for candle businesses in particular. The industry has grown so significantly over the by decade that it can feel impossible to break in.

Permit's look at iii ways yous can stand out in the saturated candle marketplace.

Unique and interesting fragrance blends

Fragrance is the nigh important buying factor for consumers today. Research by the National Candle Clan shows that three-fourths of candle buyers say it is "extremely important" or "very important" in their selection of a candle.

One manner to stand out from the competition is with interesting fragrances. Developing a new blend immediately carves a place in the market for you. Rather than offer standard floral and woodsy scents, opt for more complex and sophisticated smells buyers can't find elsewhere: scents that make people think or remember something or feel a sense of mystery and intrigue.

Brand story

A make story is the fastest fashion to connect with buyers. It'due south a narrative that shapes and communicates your brand to people. It's the foundation on which your mission, message, and vocalization is built.

Brand stories, especially in the candle business, are captivating, human, and honest. It should make people experience something, which then drives them to take action—whether information technology's a signup, buy, donation, etc.

Take Keap Candles story for instance. The founders, Harry Doull and Stephen Tracy, were unhappy with their jobs in tech. They want to practice something more meaningful and inspiring with their work and turned to candle making.

To notice your story, ask yourself:

• Why am I making candles?
• Who am I making candles for?
• What affect do I want to have on them?
• What impact exercise I want to brand on the world?

Free Worksheet: Brand Storytelling

Apply this handy exercise as a guide to help yous arts and crafts a compelling brand story and build a loyal audition through the power of storytelling.

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Visual identity

Your visual identity (which includes your logo, photography, website, social media, and packaging) is the most direct way to influence how people experience about your candle business.

When information technology comes to your candle brand, yous want to pay close attention to the aesthetic of your products. Customers will use your candles for their scents and a dwelling decor complement, and so you want to pattern products in-line with your audience.

For example, Boy Smells brand is all near elevating your intimate globe. They are bright, sensual, and attainable to all genders.

The brand'southward visual identity embraces both masculine and femininity in a simple, straightforward way, empowering people from all walks of life, wherever they find strength. Information technology adds this identity into all its marketing assets, from website to social media, as well as to over 300 retail locations worldwide.

One time yous interact with Boy Smells, chances are you won't forget it. That'due south the power of strong visual identity.

Create a candle business name

At this indicate your candle business organisation is shaping upwardly nicely. You've probably come up with a few business organisation names along the way, and now'southward the time to determine on one.

Exist certain to keep your candle business proper noun ideas short and simple. That'll arrive memorable and easy for buyers to pronounce. If your proper name is too hard to call up, yous'll miss out on free word-of-mouth marketing.

If you're nonetheless stuck on a business name, utilise Shopify'south business proper name generator to stir up fresh ideas. All yous have to do is enter a keyword, click Generate Names, and then browse thousands of automobile-generated proper noun ideas for your visitor.

Write a business concern plan

A business organisation programme guides your unabridged performance when creating a candle concern. It helps define your strategy, pinpoint challenges, understand what resource yous need, and clarify your business thought earlier launch.

Ask yourself: What is the end goal for my brand? Who are my direct competitors? Exercise I desire to exist sold in retail outlets like Target or Nordstrom? Or do I want to start an ecommerce shop and sell directly to my customers?

Place your concern goals and keep them in mind equally y'all build out your candle making make.

Free: Business Program Template

Business organization planning is often used to secure funding, but plenty of business owners detect writing a plan valuable, even if they never work with an investor. That'southward why we put together a free business plan template to help you go started.

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Make candles to sell

As we've demonstrated, there are plenty of candle types you lot can create in your own kitchen. Here, we'll show you how to brand a basic soy candle. You can take the same basic ingredients, tweak them slightly, and create your own customized recipe.

Gather your materials

For this bootleg soy candle recipe, you'll need:

• Soy wax
• Wicks (preferably cotton)
• Super gum
• Essential oil of your choice
• Spatula
• Double boiler
• Thermometer
• Mason jar
• Pen or pencil

While you likely take some of these items sitting around your house, you can hands procure the rest without busting your budget. You can discover soy wax in majority on sites like AliExpress or Bulk Apothecary for around $iv per pound.

Merchants looking to source jars or other glass containers can expect on AliExpress for a variety of bulk-buying options, or check their local thrift shop or dollar shop for inexpensive containers.

Run across our guide on Aliexpress!

Essential oils are bachelor at your local craft store or on Etsy or Amazon. The remainder of the ingredients can exist found at nearly any grocery shop.

Prep your wax and container

Now, let's prep your materials to get your candle wax gear up. Accept your soy wax and put information technology into your double banality on your kitchen stove to melt. Fill the lesser pot with h2o and the top with the soy wax and turn the burner to medium heat. Stir the wax with your spatula, making sure you break up whatsoever chunks.

While the wax is melting, take your wick and glue the stop to the bottom of your glass container. Allow glue to dry, which volition keep your wick in identify every bit yous pour your wax.

Customize your candle mixture

Once your wax melts, take your preferred essential oil and stir into your mixture at a ratio of one ounce per pound of wax. If yous'd like to change upwards the colour of your candle wax, stir in chunks of not-toxic crayons.

Once your ingredients are melted and mixed, allow information technology cool to 130–140 degrees Fahrenheit. Bank check the mixture with your thermometer to ensure it reaches the correct temperature.

Prep your pour

At present that your wax mixture is cooled to the correct temperature, it'due south time to pour it into your jar. Concord the wick upright with 1 hand and pour the mixture out of the pan with the other. Fill up 3 quarters of the jar with the hot wax mixture.

To proceed the wick upright, tie its terminate to the pen and set it across the opening of your jar.

Finishing your candle

Let your wax to firm upwards before beginning your concluding pour. You lot may encounter a small sinkhole in the wax around the wick—don't worry, that's normal. Hither's where we correct this issue.

Take the remaining wax mixture and cascade the remaining quarter into the jar. Permit the rest of the wax to fix completely. Once the wax is firm, snip off the excess wick with some pair of scissors, and your candle is ready to burn down!

Build your online store

Now that your candles are ready to get, where should you sell them? A not bad place to start is your own ecommerce shop.

Creating an online store sounds like a daunting task compared to list your candles on online selling sites like Amazon. But these marketplaces cut deep into your profits and don't let you lot express your brand freely. Your online store is not but more than assisting in the long run, simply acts as a digital home for your brand.

When it comes to building an online store, Shopify is the simplest way to start. You lot can build an ecommerce website without whatever coding or huge budget.

For a pocket-size $29 monthly fee, y'all get a beautiful storefront, SSL certifications, loftier-speed web servers, cart abandonment recovery, and other beginner-friendly marketing and sales tools. Yous even get admission to the Shopify App Store, which offers over four,000 plugins to ameliorate your store and sell more online.

Create a marketing plan

Y'all've got the recipe for success—now information technology's fourth dimension to figure out how to sell your soy candles (or other homemade candles).

Online

Like many business-to-consumer retailers, one of the most lucrative mediums to sell candles is online. You can apply multiple digital platforms, similar social media and your ain ecommerce site, to achieve potential customers around the world.

While every digital medium won't be a successful sales platform for every merchant, here are a few places entrepreneurs can try to assistance them get started.

Although the following list doesn't cover every channel merchants can explore for their fledgeling business, these are some solid options to aid market your ain business online.

• Instagram. Many lifestyle brands found great success building a sizable following on Instagram. Curate a feed of cute images related to your brand, stage photos of your candles to show off to customers, and achieve a larger audience. You tin too use Instagram to reach out to brand evangelists and provide a behind-the-scenes peek at how you lot make your candles.
• Pinterest. Habitation decor is a major category for users of Pinterest, which is 1 of the largests platforms customers employ to find brands and products. Then it's wise for homemade candle merchants to consider Pinterest every bit a pillar in their marketing strategy.
• Snapchat. As another highly visual platform, Snapchat is some other viable option for maker merchants. As i of the fastest-growing social media platforms with more than 200 million users, DIY hustlers tin use the medium to market to an increasing audition.
• Giveaways and contests. Equally office of a social/content marketing strategy, y'all tin use some of your merchandise as prizes in a serial of giveaways and contests. Non only can these contests help you lot proceeds followers and build brand awareness, but you also accept the opportunity to bear witness off how well your products work.
• E-mail Marketing: Evangelize your message (every bit well as promos, discounts, and other make news) right to your customers' inboxes.

Offline

Although selling online is a viable avenue for merchants, don't exist agape to endeavor selling IRL.

Homemade candles are compact and travel well—which makes them ideal for selling on the go. Your sweetness-smelling home decor items are ideal for displaying in craft shows and popular-up shops and gives merchants the opportunity to arrive-person feedback direct from potential customers.

Still not sold on selling in person? Going IRL for sales has a number of other benefits, including:

• Getting directly feedback. If you're eager to ameliorate your products (or just dying to hear what customers call up), selling in person is a great mode to practise it. See your target customers confront-to-face, address their pain points, and get ideas for potential new products.
• Notice wholesale opportunities. Ready to calibration your business organisation? Or looking to explore selling B2B? Markets and fairs are ideal events to encounter wholesale buyers and establish a foundation for such a human relationship.
• Build your online post-obit and e-mail subscribers. Whether yous're aiming to grow your social audition or build your email list, use pop-up shops and markets to connect online. When visitors show up at your booth or store, inquire them to subscribe to your email list or follow your branded social channels for new products, discounts, and giveaways.
• Networking and inspiration. Connecting with fellow makers and entrepreneurs is also a major office of the draw for festivals, markets, and fairs. Coming together other merchants can inspire yous with new ideas and help you lot come up up with new solutions to shared problems.

Although physical sales crave unlike skills than sitting at your desk, a little know-how and the correct tools tin go far simpler to make sales on the go. Use a mobile point-of-sale system like Shopify POS to aid you lot set up your shop or booth at your adjacent flea marketplace, farmer's market place, craft off-white, and/or maker fair, and go on transactions quick and simple.

Candle business tips

Whether y'all're starting a candle making side hustle or kicking off full-time, go along these candle business tips in mind:

Take amazing product photos

Dandy product photography is key to convincing people to buy your candles. Make sure you can clearly see the shape and characterization of your candles. Up for a challenge? Phase an image of the candle in use in your abode so shoppers can envision it in theirs. You can hire a professional lensman to take your photos or take loftier-quality photos with a smartphone.

Create more than selling opportunities

Having recurring customers is more profitable than constantly finding new ones. Test dissimilar cross-sell and upsell opportunities to bulldoze more acquirement from your existing customers. Y'all could also offer subscription boxes, like Frostbeard Studio. The brand offers a Candle of the Month Social club, where customers become a brand new candle every month for a set cost.

Expand your product line

Brands like Tofino Soap Company repurpose their scents for products like soaps, shampoos, balms, perfumes, and other things to make and sell online. Information technology'southward an piece of cake transition for many candle makers because the scents are already developed, you just demand to create the new product. Yous can and so upsell customers based on scents they buy oftentimes, create odour-centric intendance packages, and reach new audiences.

Push vacation sales

Approximately 35% of candle sales happen during the Christmas holiday flavor, according to the National Candle Association, with 76% of buyers viewing candles as an appropriate holiday gift. Prepare for this season by creating holiday campaigns with special promos and ads targeted at potential buyers.

Stay on meridian of consumer trends

Stay up to date with what'due south going on in your niche. Use resources like Facebook IQ, Call up with Google, and Nielsen to empathise customer pain points and track breakout trends. You lot can employ this insight to come upwards with new product ideas, fragrances, and marketing campaigns to promote your brand.

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Starting your candle making business

You lot've gotten this far, which means you now have a dandy grasp on how to get started with your ain homemade candle business organisation. With the tools and noesis above to assist you make and sell your homemade candles, you tin can movement forwards to create your own income stream using your DIY skills.

Have ideas on how to make candles for novice DIYers? Share your tips and communication in the comments section below.

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Candle business FAQ

Is candle making a practiced business?

Candle making is a great small business to beginning. It doesn't require much equipment or technical knowledge, information technology has a low startup cost, and y'all tin can make candles from abode.

How much does it price to starting time a candle business organization?

The benefit of starting a candle business concern is its low cost. Common costs for making candles include equipment like double-banality, pouring pots, and Mason jars. Plan to spend virtually $1,000 to start a small-scale candle business from dwelling house.

Is candle making assisting?

A candle making business tin can be extremely profitable. Non simply is at that place a low cost bulwark to entry, simply the candle making manufacture is expected to accomplish nearly $5 billion by 2026. There's no shortage of customers ownership candles they dear.

How do I start a candle business from home?

1. Practice market research
2. Build your make
3. Create a business name
4. Write a business plan
5. Brand candles to sell
6. Build your online store
7. Market your candle business organisation

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Source: https://www.shopify.com/blog/candle-business

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