Being one of the most sensual, aromatic and therapeutic pieces of product, it’s not strange that candles are so commonly used for promoting a sense of well-being and calmness. Depending on the type of candle and its ingredients, the therapeutic ones are also known for being powerful anxiety and stress busters. So, if you are drawn by their soothing aroma that alleviates your stress and improves your sense of happiness/calmness and want to start up a candle business, you can easily do that. By following some of the most basic requirements and rules, you’ll be able to successfully start up a business that can turn into something big if you know how to work.
How to Start a Candle Business?
Determine Your Target Audience
Determining your target audience is one of the most important things you can do since these people are most likely to become your customers, regular ones to be precise. When doing that, you should determine their age, gender, location and interests. Generally speaking, there are three significant categories of target markets in the candle industry:
Prestige
It’s said that a prestige candle can cost as little as $30 and as high as $200. The luxury type of these candles are known for their luxurious packaging, dazzling fragrance and brand storytelling.
Mid-Market
The candles in this category are designed to appeal to a broader audience. Usually, these candles are intended to be sold at retail outlets and they usually come with natural scents like coconut, basil, rose water, grapefruit, etc., and can cost around $10 per piece.
Mass-Market
Being designed for the mass market, these candles are extremely affordable and they come in classic scents like vanilla and ocean breeze. They’re designed to be sold for somewhere between $5 and $8.
Validate Your Business Idea
Validating your business idea is essential because it ensures a market for your candles while also reducing the risk of launching a product that no one wants. So, the first thing to do is to understand the market by figuring out who buys the candles, what type of candles do they prefer and why they purchase them. You should also identify your competitors and see what they’re selling. This will give you a clear idea of whether there’s a deficit in some kind of candle so you can fill in and stock the audience with that type of candle/s. Once you start making the candles, make sure to collect feedback from your customers and identify any faults.
Create a Business Plan
Starting a business won’t be complete without a business plan. This plan serves as a map, can help you secure funding and highlight any potential challenges.
Stock on Good Wholesale Candle Supplies
In order to stay successful, you should stock quality, easy-to-work-with and versatile wholesale candle supplies since this will help you create different and unique candles, paraffin-related and some other aromatic products. Buying wholesale is always great since the prices you’ll receive are much lower. This will help you save more money while giving you the ability to invest in more products. The larger the product range the better. Buying wholesale candle supplies is quite easy when you know where and what to shop for. That being said, a reliable and trusted seller should be able to provide you with the following wholesale supplies: wax, scents, wicks, containers and some other equipment like melting pots, thermometers, scales for precise measurement, heat-resistant containers for pouring, etc. You can receive a discount on all of these things and this gives you the chance to pay more for quality ingredients that’ll help you create premium candles that everybody will adore.
Regarding the waxes, make sure to know the difference between the most commonly used ones. When buying wholesale from a trusted and reliable seller, you can have peace of mind that there you can find only the highest quality wax that isn’t toxic. That being said, you can choose from beeswax as one of the most eco-friendly, biodegradable and 100% natural types of wax. You can also invest in soy wax as another version of a biodegradable type of wax. However, producing candles entirely made from soy wax is quite expensive and costly which is why the soy candles seen on the market are a mixture of soy wax and paraffin.
Even though not natural, paraffin is another widely used type of wax for making candles. Paraffin is mainly used for mass-produced candles because is the cheapest wax and provides a longer-lasting scent. Once you have stocked the right supplies wholesale, you can make your candles.
Register the Business
The next step is to register your business which is usually done with the regional business authority. When registering your business, you should include the business you have, its size and the state you live in.