Kevin's Soy Candle Side Hustle → $50K/Month business

🏖️ Creative Entrepreneur fun one-liner:

Why did the entrepreneur always carry a spare tire? Because he knew the road to success is full of bumps!

Onto Today’s story….

How Kevin Turned His Side Hustle Into a $50K/Month business

When you read the story, don’t focus much on the idea.

Focus on their mindsets, how they did validation of their idea and, how they did their marketing and got customers.

These are the things you can copy and, build your business.

When I was researching this story, I was like— how can candles make 50k/month.

This story unpacks the journey and, the lessons of two regular guys,who turned a small homemade candle hobby,

into Wax & Wick, a 50k/month business.

if we got the same idea, we would have thought it would never make money and, would not have pursued it.

But it did make $50k/month.

Read on to see why this business succeeded.

I will breakdown why it worked and what you can learn from it at the end.

Here we goo…

Kevin Gillespie just wanted to light a nice-smelling scented candle, without making a mess.

One day, while working his regular office job, he noticed dark black smears on the wall behind his desk.

They were caused by the sooty residue, from his scented candle burning all day.

Kevin thought, "There's got to be a better way!"

He started researching candle ingredients during his free time.

He learned that most candles are made from paraffin wax, a non-renewable byproduct of petroleum refining.

The soot it gives off comes, from the carbon-heavy wax and cotton wicks.

Kevin realized that using more natural materials, could make for a cleaner burn.

He wanted to create the opposite of a traditional candle -candles which burn clean, even, with no additives, no paraffin blends, no artificial colors or dyes,

and are virtually smoke-free.

So after work, Kevin began experimenting with candle making, in his mom's kitchen.

He tried out different wick and wax combinations.

He wanted to create an environmentally-friendly candle, that burned evenly from start to finish.

No sooty build up, no annoying smoke, Just pleasant ambiance.

After months of testing, Kevin struck gold.

He produced a 100% soy wax candle, with a wooden wick that burned beautifully.

The combo gave off minimal smoke and left no sticky black residue. He'd created the perfect candle!

Excited by his discovery, Kevin launched the initial Wax & Wick website in early 2016.

He kept costs low by using Shopify templates, for the brand logo and product listings.

His first sale came shortly after launch.

But fulfilling that very first order ran into some tricky problems... You see, Kevin was hand-pouring each candle,in his mom's small kitchen.

Kevin was determined to send off a pristine looking candle, for that first customer.

But he kept finding little imperfections in each finished product.

After many frustrated attempts, Kevin finally got that first Wax & Wick candle shipped out.

While proud of the end result, he knew hobby candle-making would no longer cut it.

Not if he wanted to seriously grow this business.

So Kevin brought on his entrepreneurial friend, Garrett Le'Tourneau, as a co-founder, to help build manufacturing and branding capabilities.

Together they found a wholesaler, to handle large batch production.

This took the manual labor off Kevin's plate, so he could focus on formulating different candle aromas.

With the product making itself under control, Kevin and Garrett gave the Wax & Wick brand a makeover.

They polished up the logo, product photos, and Shopify storefront.

Their amateur DIY effort was finally starting to look like a legitimate business!

They also experimented with offbeat marketing tricks, to get the word out.

This included posing as customers on forums and, mentioning Wax & Wick as a solution for traditional, chemical-laden, sooty candles.

Not the most ethical tactic, but it did spark some initial curiosity and got them sales.

Another guerrilla win came from, frequently mentioning Shopify related hashtags.

Kevin and Garrett deliberately tagged #shopify, and related tags in social media posts.

This grabbed Shopify's attention and, got Wax & Wick featured on Shopify’s official podcast!

Within their very first year, monthly sales grew from just $1k to $20k. Not too shabby!

They found influencer collaborations hugely effective, for affordably growing their audience.

They distributed free product samples to influencers,in exchange for reviews and social media posts.

Through their Instagram and blog,they directly connected with their followers and customers.

They started giving free product to influencers,but some of them never promoted them.

Their profit margins stayed thin for a very long time, but it slowly got better.

Despite facing problems a few times, they persisted.

They saw each misstep as a lesson learned rather than a failure.

Fast forward to today, and Wax & Wick's candles now grace stylish homes, across all 50 states.

They then started selling on Amazon.

They also introduced candles, with more new fragrances, plus a premium extra-large candle.

Kevin says, they start each morning by setting a positive intention and, identifying the #1 priority task for that day.

This keeps them feeling motivated and, focused when obstacles pop up, Which they inevitably do!

Now they proudly offer candle lovers, a clean-burning product; healthier and cleaner, thus a completely organic, soy candle.

They are making $50k/month, while enjoying building their business.

They took a kernel of an idea, their personal problem and,

nurtured it into reality through patience and tenacity.

Mike says… “Your mindset plays a huge role in the journey, be positive and don’t doubt your dream.”

5 reasons why they succeeded:

1. Solved Personal problem

Kevin, frustrated by the mess and smoke of traditional candles, researched alternative ingredients and, experimented with cleaner-burning soy wax blends.

His own negative experience, led to making a green-friendly candle.

This shows that resolving personal problems, can also make you money.

2. Tested small

Kevin spent many months, testing over 100 iterations of candle wax blends and, wick types in his mom's small kitchen.

He repeatedly dumped out batches, with imperfections and, started over until settling on the best mixture, of 100% soy wax,and wooden wicks.

Once he tested them with himself and, with friends and family, he started manufacturing.

3. Being Lean

He was hand-pouring candles in his mom’s kitchen, during the initial phases.

Once demand grew, he found a wholesale manufacturer, rather than investing in his own facility.

4. Sold where there was traffic

Though the Wax & Wick founders, initially sold solely through their independent Shopify store,

they eventually put their candles up on Amazon also.

Tapping into Amazon's built-in traffic, allowed them to efficiently scale up sales, with less effort, than trying to drive all traffic themselves.

5. Productive Day

Each day, they decided, on the single most important business task,

to accomplish that day.

This allowed them, not to get distracted by less impactful work.

Having that priority activity scheduled, meant higher efficiency and better results.

🍹

Hope you liked the story and the secrets to their success.

Keep Zoooming!

Yours “Rooting for your success” Vijay Peduru