Okay babes, let’s get real. Two years ago, I was crying in my cubicle eating sad desk salad 🥗, secretly Pinterest-planning my escape to Bali while my boss passive-aggressively CC’d me on emails titled “URGENT!!!” Sound familiar? Fast-forward to today: My handmade organic candle biz pays my mortgage and funds my Sephora addiction. No MLMs, no sketchy “girl boss” schemes – just cold, hard, glitter-infused strategy. Let’s spill the tea.
First: Your “passion project” needs to solve real problems, not just look cute on Instagram. When I started making candles, I thought everyone would care about my ~aesthetic~ lavender fields photos. Newsflash: They didn’t. My DMs blew up ONLY after I posted: “Tired of candles that smell like chemical cupcakes? Me too 👀.” Moral? Niche down like you’re Marie Kondo organizing a hoarder’s garage.
Time management hack that saved my sanity: The “90-Minute Power Hour” ⏳. Every night after putting the kids to bed (wine in hand, reality TV muted), I’d do ONE focused task: Batch-make 20 candles, answer customer emails, or stalk competitors’ TikTok comments. No multitasking. Pro tip: Track your time for a week – you’ll realize you waste 4+ hours weekly scrolling Target’s app (guilty 🙋♀️).
Pricing strategy 101: Charge. More. Periodt. 💸 My first candle sold for $12 (profit: $1.50). Now they’re $38 (profit: $22). How? I added perceived value: Hand-poured dates on the bottom (“Omg it’s like a birth certificate!”), included free matchsticks, and used FOMO marketing (“Small batch – only 30 available!”). Psychology works, ladies.
The ugly truth nobody talks about? You’ll want to quit 47 times before breakfast. When I got a 3-star review saying my candle “smelled like grandma’s denture cream,” I ugly-cried into my wax melter. Then I realized: Even Glossier gets bad reviews. Now I screenshot hate comments and text them to my group chat with 🖕 emojis. Resilience = building your “whatever” muscle.