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Business Manners-Using Good Business Etiquette On and Offline

May 17, 2017 by SoyCandleMakingTime 3 Comments

Business Manners and Customer Service

I’ve seen a real need for a lesson in business manners/business etiquette, especially for those that run a small business or home business. I realize that big businesses can have this problem too, but I think generally they have taken some sort of training on how to deal with customers online and offline, so, even though they still may have their issues, they are not necessarily the same kind of childish things (sorry, cold hard truth here) I’ve seen from some small business owners, especially those just starting out.

I will concede that there may be some issues that arise where you may have no idea how to handle the situation or what the proper etiquette is. That’s totally fine, we’ve all been there. However, there are many times where common sense should be exercised, but the business owner chooses to not use it or allows pride to run the show.

Here is a list of some of the more important points of business etiquette that I’ve put together. Remember, you aren’t going to be able to make every customer happy, but you can at least try. In doing so, you will gain a great reputation.

Put Away the Pride…

When a customer contacts you with a complaint about their purchase proper business manners dictates that you should do everything in your power to appease your customer! It is not worth the bad review that former customer could give you! It is totally worth it to go out of your way to please them and possibly gain a life long fan who will spread the good news about your company to their friends and family.

This is where you need to put your pride aside at times and give the refund, or replace the item, etc…. WITH….wait for it….. a GOOD ATTITUDE. If you need them to pay shipping to send the original item back, then maybe offer free shipping on the replacement item. Of course when dealing with returns, you need to be sure your return policy is very clear. I do not recommend having a no returns policy, unless you are going to offer them some sort of discount on their next purchase if they are unhappy with the original purchase.

A great bible verse that goes along with customer service is, “You reap what you sew.” You will find that you shouldn’t worry about how many people will try to take advantage of you if you go out of your way to please the difficult customer. If you go out of your way, you will find that you will gain many more happy customers that will come back again and again and some of them will happily share your business with others. If you sew patience and kindness, that is what you will reap.

Don’t Argue….

When someone posts a bad review about your business online, you do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT get into an argument with them. If you do feel you need to reply to them, keep your feelings out of it. Do not accuse the person. You can try to explain the situation, but do not say it in a way that might make the person feel you are blaming them or down playing their opinion.

I recently had a negative review about my book that I just published in print in December. I had only had 2 customers give me somewhat negative feedback about the ebook format and I have sold over 1000 copies of it, so I decided to publish in print on Amazon. After getting 9 very positive reviews, I ended up with one 2 star where the comments they made seemed a bit unfair. I debated on whether I should reply, and ultimately decided I should go ahead, but I was careful not to accuse or sound defensive, I only stated some facts. Don’t reply right away when your temper is hot! Give it at least a day, maybe more so you can cool off,think properly and apply good business manners.

Be Honest…..

For example, if you couldn’t get the product shipped on time, be honest about it and let your customer know as soon as possible that it will be delayed, and why. Same with any other situation. Always be honest.

Be a Good Listener…..

Whether it’s a complaint, concern or any other feedback, genuinely listen to your customer and let them know that their feedback is important to you. Respond to emails, even if just to say Thank You. Personal attention and good business manners toward your customers will go a long way!

What else would you add to this list? Comment below!

The Fall Soy Pillar Candle Experiment

November 10, 2016 by SoyCandleMakingTime 13 Comments

A few weeks ago I made a soy pillar candle. “But soy wax is too soft for making pillars” you might say….. Not if you use a soy pillar blend wax. The two kinds that come to mind, Ecosoya PB and American Soy Wax P-100, are both made up of mostly soy wax with some vegetable oil additives (or something like that). So, while they aren’t 100% soy, they are pretty close to it.

I made a couple pillar candles a few months ago after I bought some molds and supplies from Candle Science, and they both turned out pretty well, but this time I wanted to try something different.

First of all, here’s the supply list:

15oz Ecosoya PB soy wax

1oz or up to 1.5oz fragrance oil

3×3.5″ round pillar mold

Metal wick bar

Duct tape

Hot glue or Wick Sticker/Stickum

Spool of Eco 14 wick

Brown liquid candle dye

Scissors

Chocolate mold or candy mold of fall leaves. I got mine at Michaels craft store, but there are also some here on Amazon

I don’t have pictures for the whole process at the moment, so I’m just going to show from when I poured into the mold. I’ll do a separate post on exactly how to make these, but you can just follow the melting directions on the Votive recipe.

Here’s what I did to prepare the mold. I wanted to try and make a cool design on the sides of the pillar candle by using a q-tip to draw with brown dye on the inside of the mold. I was hoping if I let the dye dry a bit before I poured, it would hopefully stay put.

I wanted to do a fall design, so I drew leaves and then wanted a brown ring around the top of the candle (the bottom of the mold)

Then I poured the pillar candle at about 175 and let cool. As soon as I started to pour, I could see that the dye was not going to stay put and it began to sink down to the bottom of the mold. Oh well, I tried! lol We’ll see what it looks like after it cools!

After cooling, I needed to cut the wick and pour a bit more wax in to make the bottom of the candle smooth and cover up the wick (the top of the mold is the bottom of the candle)

Then after sitting overnight, I popped the soy pillar candle out and this is what I found……

Not what I had in mind, but hey, I think it still looks pretty cool! So I then decided to dress it up a bit with some of the extra wax I had left. I added a bit of brown dye to the wax and poured myself some leaf wax melts as you’ll see below:

That odd light colored one was from some extra wax I had from a couple jar candles I made. It got kind of frosted since it was made with container wax and I wasn’t paying too much attention to what temp I poured at.

I used a chocolate mold I found at Michaels craft store. I love how these fall leaf melts turned out! (you can also find these molds, and others like it, here

Then I attached one of the leaves to the soy pillar. Just melted a little wax and used it like glue to put the leaf on.

I just love the way this turned out, and I am planning on doing some for Christmas presents I think! I’m thinking I need to find some snowflake chocolate molds and do the same thing, only with some blue dye and make the snowflakes blue. You could even put some glitter on the snowflakes.

The cool thing about this, is that you can “glue” these melts to the pillar and have a pillar candle, and then when it melts too low, use the melts in a tart warmer (Scentsy, or other type of warmer). If you sell your candles, this might be a great selling point too!

The only thing I didn’t care for, is that the leaf stuck out kind of far. It looks good with just the one leaf, but I think if I were going to put some all the way around, I wouldn’t fill the leaf mold up as much, maybe halfway, so they don’t look so bulky.

So here are pictures of how the candle burned. I really love the way it looks. At some points I tried to do the “hug the candle” thing ( I learned from Parylite) so that you gently squeeze the sides of the candle in closer to the flame so more of it will melt and not just completely tunnel down. You have to be careful with soy pillar candles though because they aren’t as elastic as paraffin wax, therefore you can easily break the sides off instead.

Anyway, so here are pics of it burning:

Flame was a little high at first, but then it settled down after it started melting the wax.

Just thought it looked kind of neat in this picture after the first burn….

You can see in the picture below, that I “hugged” the sides of the candle. Once it had burned down a ways, and while the sides are soft, I just gently push them toward the flame a bit.

And, then eventually the leaf fell off 🙂 It was bound to happen lol

Had a little bit of a blowout at the end. I let it burn too long (I think about 5 hours or so) and it ended up getting a small hole on one side. It’s okay though. I can always use the rest of the wax in my tart melter.

Well, that’s my decorative soy pillar candle experiment. It turned out great I think! The candle burned nicely almost all the way down (until I let it go too long that is!) .

Now the big questions…. How long did it burn? About 35 hours. It would have burned longer though if it hadn’t leaked all that wax out toward the end.

How did it smell/hot throw? Well, I used Amarreto Nog from Candle Science. It was kind of a light throw (couldn’t smell it much while it was burning, or even when it wasn’t). I could try using more, but I’ve also heard from another candle maker that Amarreto Nog doesn’t throw well anyway. So next time I will try another fragrance.

That’s it for now! Let me know what you think in the comments!

Sell Your Candles in Stores

September 14, 2016 by SoyCandleMakingTime 4 Comments

Tips to sell your candles in stores

Today I have a guest post for you. A member of the Soy Candle Making Time Community Facebook group posted about how to sell your candles in stores, and I thought it was extremely helpful and generous! If you have a candle business and you are looking to get your candles in stores, this could be a great way to do that.

Author: Lillian Newman

Indiana Handmade Soap and Candle Shop

Find her on Facebook: www.facebook.com/indianasoapcompany

Tips to sell your candles in stores

I know many of you are getting started in your businesses. A great way to get into stores is as follows.

1. Sign up for all the shows you can in your area, as much as you can afford to.
2. Type up a list of all the shows you will be in.
3. Go in with a smile and demo product to the shops in your town. Tell them, if you carry my product, I will promote your store to this list of shows. Give them the list.
4. Product sales. Invoices are payable upon delivery. consider offering a 30 day rotation. In my business, I don’t limit it to 30 days. That product could be on a store shelf or in my studio that is in a private residence, and it’s getting more exposure on the shelf. Some balk at selling wholesale but if you had your own store, you would be paying that difference anyway in lease, business tax, etc.
5. Goal is to get into 5 stores. On rotation day, go to store #1 and note the slowest selling item. With manager permission, replace slow seller with a new item. Take rotated item to store #2 and put it there. and so forth through all five of your stores. If a product has been rotated through all 5 wholesalers, consider not carrying it again after taking it to eBay.

As you work on this and build it up, it will help with sales. The store resistance to carrying your product will waver when they know you do rotations so they never have to mark items down and also, that you will actively promote them.

Earlier this year our hot tub motor and pump busted. $1000 repair. I paid for it in soap and candles instead, so I have that wholesaler on barter for the duration. I am about $100 away from having it paid in full.

The other idea. Consider barter as payment for the stores that are really hesitant besides all you have proposed. When I got into a major hardware store, my husband got a Weber grill, a snow blower, and a fancy mechanic’s drawer unit the first year. I made a believer out of them and I don’t barter with them anymore. I get paid and things sell briskly.

I think the reason wholesalers may be so hesitant to carry product is that the expenses of running a store make them cautious. Work with that by making them know you are a team player for advertising.

Example: If you opt to carry my product, every single bar of soap I sell at xyz farmers market will be accompanied by the coupon or ad you give me for your store. they will know that I am at your store and they’ll go in and buy other things. I want to help promote your business.

Lastly, always believe in yourself

I have done this for 20 years, and about 5 years away from retiring. This is what I did, and it worked.

Believe in yourself, in your abilities to create beautiful things. Thank you to Melissa for having such a wonderful list that’s a resource. I just wanted to take a moment to share my marketing tactics for new contracts. 🙂 I hope it helps you if you want to try it. I think it will! Some of you sell briskly, but others, if you are trying to sell your candles in stores, this is the way in….best wishes with your wonderful work!

Thank you Lillian for sharing this excellent info and allowing me to publish it here for everyone to benefit!

Please take a moment, leave a comment below, and go visit her website and Facebook page 🙂

Selling Soy Candles at Saturday Market

April 23, 2016 by SoyCandleMakingTime 4 Comments

It’s that time of year again. Saturday Market time! Saturday Market is a great place to sell your candles and grow your business!

If you haven’t read my post about where to sell your soy candles, you should run over there and take a quick look at the list. I ordered them from easiest to most time consuming or expensive.

First I’ll tell you my experience with Saturday Market when I did it a few years ago. I signed up for the Salem Saturday Market here in Oregon, and paid a $50 fee to sign up, plus you had to pay $30 for a space each Saturday . I could have made that $50 fee back by helping work at the market(I think things like set up and clean up) a few times, but since I live 30min. away and have kids and a husband to get back home to, I just let them have my $50, which would have been more worth it if I’d sold there all summer…..

So, the first 3 times I went I did fairly well. I more than made back my $30 space fee, gas, and material cost of the candles twice, and broke even the other time. The 3rd time I showed up, I was a bit late, but was still able to get a space. The 4th, and last time, I showed up right when they opened for sellers to register (an hour earlier than the 3rd time), and there were no spaces left! Apparently in order to be guaranteed a space, you had to have paid for a reserved spot. I thought that anyone who registered was guaranteed a spot, just that the reserved spots guaranteed you a spot in the same place each time.

Well, not so. Those that pay extra to reserve a spot are guaranteed their spot and must call the night before if they aren’t going to be there. Then, if the reserved people aren’t there, people like me can have a spot, first come first serve. Well I was really, really upset when I found that out. I mean, I read the agreement a couple of times just to make sure I understood how things worked before I signed up! Anyway, I decided it wasn’t worth it for me to drive 30min. to Salem just to be turned away, especially since you could probably bet that on any nice sunny day, there probably weren’t going to be hardly any spots available if any at all.

Anyway, take a lesson from me and make sure you check to see if you need to pay for a reserved spot in order to guarantee you can sell each Saturday.

So here’s a list of things to make sure you have in order to sell at the Saturday Market. Of course make sure to check with your local market to see what their specific rules are:

What to Bring To Saturday Market

Lots of candles in several different fragrances, sizes and types.
A pop up canopy with weights or at minimum, 1 gallon milk jugs filled with water attached to each corner. This will be a rule I’m sure for any Saturday Market. You don’t want your canopy flying away!
A nice banner with your business name, and possibly a short blurb or list of products you sell, that you would preferably attach along the top of the canopy, or along the front of a table, but up higher would be better.
Folding tables with nice table cloths that cover the entire table and 3 sides (this is usually a rule too).
A chair to sit on….you don’t want to be standing all day!
Money box, that locks.
Change!!! Don’t for get the Change! I would say you should have at least $10 in ones, $20 in fives and $30 in tens, plus a roll each of quarters, dimes and nickels.
Business cards- Hand them out to EVERYONE!
Business card holder. Looks nicer than just stacking them on the table.
Bags for people to put their candles into. Would be good to have tissue paper or newspaper as well so you can wrap any glass container candles.
Notebook and Pen/pencil to keep track of what candles you sell. And for doodling in when business is slow…..
Calculator. Best not to try to do it all in your head, especially when someone orders several candles or you need to take off an advertised discount. I imagine it makes the customer feel better about it too!
Receipt book. This is optional, but I know I had quite a few people ask me for a receipt, and thankfully I had my little receipt book, so I say this is a must. Looks more professional than just writing it on a piece of paper too! Also, at the Salem Saturday Market, you can accept credit cards even if you don’t have your own machine. So if you opt in for that, you have to have a receipt book in order to write the customer a receipt so they can take it up to the main booth and pay, and then they bring you back their payment receipt and you give them their candles.

Ok, so there’s a pretty good list for you I think. Now here are some tips. Some of these are from my own experience and some are some tips I received from some SSM Veterans who visited with me and offered some advice. It was a pretty neat experience and you could form some good friendships there. I found many of the sellers there to be very friendly and happy to help! Probably helped that I was the only candle person there too, so I wasn’t threatening anyone with competition 😉

13 Saturday Market Tips You Need To Know

Make sure to have your car packed up the night before market day so you don’t have to do it early in the morning and feel rushed.
Get to the market as early as you possibly can, at least on the first couple days you sell, and especially if you don’t have a reserved spot! Give yourself plenty of time to set up so you can be done and maybe wander around a bit before the market opens.
If you don’t have a reserved spot, you can always call the market director the night before and see if any of the reserves called in to say they wouldn’t be there. At the Salem Saturday Market, the reserved spots are supposed to call in the night before if they aren’t going to be there. And if there are spots open, make sure you get there early because those spots can fill up fast and then you’re out of luck for that day! (like me, even though I did show up early, but I didn’t know I could have called the night before)
Try to set up your tables in a way that invites people in! This is one thing I noticed of other booths that seemed to work for them. I only had one table so I just set it up out front with 2 shelf things on each side of the table. If I had two tables, I would have tried setting it up in an L shape with one table on the side of the canopy and the other toward the back. This way, it kind of invites people in to look at your stuff rather than just walking on by because they think they can see all that you have right there in front. I think this is like creating some curiosity to draw people in to take a closer look. Better yet, have 3 tables making an upside down U shape.
Set up your display with different levels. I admit, mine was kind of flat. I tried to raise some of the candles up on boxes that I put underneath the table cloth, but still, it wasn’t the way I would prefer. So if you can afford it, find some sturdy shelves that you can set on top of the tables in order to create different levels, of course making sure everything is sturdy! Even if you can’t afford to spend much money on this, I imagine you could make a pretty good multilevel structure with different size cardboard boxes and just cover them with nice looking table cloths.
Bring enough candles and accessories that will fill up your tables enough to look like you’ve got something going on there! You don’t want it to look empty and boring, or like you only have a few items to choose from.
Be there EVERY Saturday. This, I did not get a chance to do, but this was the advice I got from a couple of the regular sellers that had been selling there for several years. This way, the buyers get to know you and rely on you being there and you can develop a relationship with some of them, in turn making it very possible to get regular customers that know and love your product!
Hand out business cards to anyone who will take them and keep some on the table in an obvious spot. You normally aren’t allowed to coerce anyone or “sell” to people unless they come up to your booth, so just be ready when someone comes to browse, ask them if they’d like to take a card. Try to engage them a little bit in conversation. Maybe ask if they’ve ever used soy candles before or what their favorite scent is, etc…. But ALWAYS ask if they’d like a card before they leave.
Make sure to include a business card in the bag when someone does buy your candles.
Have leaflets on the table that have your soy candle burning instructions on them. This way you can also include that in the bag when someone buys, and they’ll be more likely to have a good experience with your candles in burning them properly.
Keep your candles out of the sun! I learned this the second Saturday I sold at the market. It was a pretty warm day and although they didn’t melt, my candles started getting faded from sitting in the sun too long, so I had to make sure to move them back under the canopy more as the day went on.
Leave the lids off of a few of your best smelling candles. I did this and have had people comment that they could smell them even before they came up close! Plus it makes people feel like it’s okay to take the lids off and smell. And you can also offer that they can do that too.
Make your prices easily visible to the customers. Many people may not ask you for the price if it’s not made available to them and they might assume it is going to be too much.

Incentives to Get People to Buy Your Candles

Be friendly! Smile, try to engage a conversation without being pushy. Some people just want to be left alone as they browse, so just go with the feel of it. If they don’t seem to want to talk, then just leave them alone to look.
Offer a free tealight to anyone!
Utilize Buy One Get One free sales, or Buy Two Get One Free (that’s what I used and quite few people took advantage of it!)
Be open when people ask information on how you make your candles and what kind of ingredients you use.
Make your booth area look appealing!
Bring lots of different fragrances and sizes. Don’t be boring!

Anyone else out there have experience selling at the Saturday Market in particular? What’s worked for you? What hasn’t worked?

Naming Your Candles-Should You Worry About Trademarks?

April 22, 2016 by SoyCandleMakingTime 7 Comments

Many of us just use the name that’s on the fragrance oil bottle from our supplier when naming your candles. While that is usually perfectly fine, there are cases where you cannot use that particular fragrance name.

Usually fragrance oil suppliers will have “Type” after the fragrance name if it is a popular name brand fragrance which could mean it is trademarked. That’s not always the case though, as I’ve looked up a few that had the word “Type” next to it and didn’t find a trademark on them.

A few examples of popular fragrances that are trademarked however are…..

Love Spell by Victoria’s Secret

Cotton Blossom by Bath and Body Works

Clean Cotton by Yankee Candles

Buttercream by Yankee Candles

Fragrance oil suppliers put “Type” on the end of popular fragrance names so you know that it is a dupe of that fragrance. They are able to use the name for their fragrance oils because the trademark for a fragrance like Love Spell is for use in candles, not the fragrance oil itself, so the supplier/oil manufacturer is allowed to use the name.

After reading some incorrect information a few years ago, I used to think that if you just put “Type” after the name then it would be fine, but after doing more research I’ve found that that is not the case. You can, however, add that it is “comparable to Love Spell by VS” or some similar wording.

Just because a name is trademarked doesn’t always mean you can’t use it though. If you do a search on TESS (US Trademark Electronic Search System , you’ll find that Cotton Blossom has several trademarks on it. They are for different things, however. Bath and Body Works has specified that it is for their bath and body products such as room sprays, bubble bath, body wash, etc…. so we cannot use that as a name for our candles.

There is another trademark on Cotton Blossom that is no longer active, but it was for ladies and children’s undergarments, so not related to candles or fragrance at all.

Usually these trademarks are only for the fragrance name, not the fragrance itself. That is why you can find duplications or copies of the fragrance from suppliers. From my research, if a company wanted to trademark the actual fragrance so it couldn’t be duplicated, they would have to get a chemical patent, and a very strict process where only a very few are approved.

Also, did you know?

If a company has a TM(™) by the name of the fragrance that means it is an unregistered trademark? Anyone can us the TM mark without registering anything, however it offers only limited protection. You will only find registered trademarks in the TESS search.

Registered trademarks are ones that have an R(®) next to the name. You CANNOT use the R on your fragrance name unless you have first officially registered it with the US Patent and Trademark Office and it has been accepted. Using the R without first registering it is a federal crime.

You can read more about the differences between TM(™) and R(®) in trademarking here: http://www.clickandcopyright.com/blog/tm-vs-r-which-is-right-for-my-trademark/

So if you have a fragrance name you would like to use, and you see that it has a trademark on it, be sure to check and see what the trademark is for. If there are none that are for bath and body products, perfumes and candles, then you should be okay to use it in naming your candles.

Search TESS here: http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=4802:p3rnxj.1.

You can also easily search on the Yankee Candle Company website to see what fragrances they have trademarked.