How to Start a Simple Not Only Christmas Business With Low Initial Upcost
Before we started Greenwayoflife.com, one of the first bootstrap funding to launch a campaign were simple beeswax candles. It was a really pleasant experience to produce these candles during ugly fall days when there was nothing else to do - they smell fantastically, the activity itself is kind of meditational one and you do not need some very special tools to start.
Ideal for long rainy days - if you have a daily job - you can do it during weekend to make some spare money.
What you will need for a small-scale start?
If you want to make just a dozen of candles for your family and friends or to sell them, you do not need to buy any special tools and you can still make nice amounts of money - and if you will not be able to sell them, you can always use them as a gift. You can start your small organic beeswax manufacture for as low as $25.
- Buy a box of beeswax sheets (Starts at as low as $15 for 10 sheets)
- Buy few metres of wicks ($10 is just OK)
- Hair dryer
How to start production
First off, the best practice is to decide about your inventory and sales channel. Maybe there is a Christmas fair where you can have a small stand? Or you prefer to sell on Etsy? It is up to you, but it is always better to have more than one marketing channel in order to have enough orders.
- From one sheet, you can create as low as 1 and as much as 3 candles of standard size
- If you have a small sheet package of 10 sheets, you can produce as much as 30 candles.
- If you buy bigger package, you can always get a better price
Marketing
- Nice package and accessories (for example if you sell pack of 3, tie them with a piece of juta) can increase the price
- Collateral - Tell why is beeswax perfect for their health
- Incentive pricing - bulk discounts
- B2B - Candles are great incentive gifts for businesses - just add a paper ring with logo of your business customer and sell quantity
- Package sells more candles per single purchase decision
- You can sell also small DIY candle kits - nearly zero work for you
- Try to find a local gift shop
- It is hard to sell internationally due to ratio of product value and shipping cost
Wanna take it seriously?
It is more than recommended to buy a honey heater also known as a bee blanket - basically it is a heating pad you can use to pre-heat the sheets while you roll the candles - this will immensely increase your productivity per hour - but it is not cheap, so buy it only if you take it serious and you want to produce and sell a lot of candles.
The nut is that these specialized heaters are made to not exceed a temperature of 40 degrees of Celsium and they heat just slowly - your sheets wont melt down easily.
We used a dishcloth to cover the heater in order to make the heating even slower - when you have more than 4 sheets in active production, you have to work fast! There is no more space for romance.
Would you like to join us?
Actually, online sales are not trivial and you will have to invest some assets into digital marketing. If you would like to start selling candles but you are not sure how to start or you want to start simple, we have an offer for you.
You can sell under our brand OR we can launch a special brand only for this business. This way we can sell more and cheaper due to dropped shipping rates.
With a minimal investment of not more than $50, you can start your small green business by next Monday and we can help you to sell those - of course, we will have to make an agreement.
In case of interest, contact us at [email protected]
Do you want to support us? You can buy some candles of ours.
We accept SBD & BTC.
Buy on peerhub.com
