Side Hustle Series: Start a Candle Business as a Side Hustle

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Starting a side hustle candle business

As part of my side hustle series, I am going to go through how to start your own candle business

P.S. All of candle supplies is linked at the bottom of this page!

A few months ago, I dipped my toes into this exact side hustle. Here’s what I did to create a super successful candle business as a side hustle.

Check out my YouTube video all on my candle business! More candle videos are on my channel as well.

Looking for other ways to make money on the side? Check out my list of 44 legit side hustles to make money here!

Here are all the steps that I took to start my candle business and what you can do to have a successful business as well.

Step 1- Research

First thing you have to do is you have to research. If you don’t know how to make a candle you have to go on Google or YouTube and figure out exactly the steps to making a candle. Figure out what type of candle you want to make, everything that is needed to start a candle. This part is super time consuming. Researching everything before you even buy any supplies is super important.

Step 2- Naming and branding

Next you have to come up with a name for your candle company. You want to come up with a brand. Think of a name for your candle company that’s unique and also easy to memorize for your customers so they can easily find your company. Also make it unique to my your brand. When it comes to making a brand you really want to kind of have all the labels similar to one another so they are distinct. When people are looking at pages and pages of all these different candles and companies you want yours to stick out. Branding your business is so important. When a customer is scrolling through Etsy looking for a candle, have your logo stick out. Have it be distinct to your own company

Step 3- Purchase supplies

Next up is you want to pick out your products that you’re going to use. I decided to go for the coconut wax. first of all I think coconut wax is so unique compared to other candle companies. After I did a lot of research, I found it has a good fragrance throw and the price was good for my budget. For my wicks, I did decide to use a wooden wick because i love the crackling sound of them. I think it makes the candle look more luxurious. You also need to pick out what jars you’re going to use, I think jars are an important part of your look and your brand. There’s candles with wooden lids with metal lids with screw-on lids, click-on lids, etc. The fun part of starting up your candle company is testing out different waxes, testing out different jars, and wicks and figuring out what you want to use and what you think is going to work for your candles and your company. Don’t forget to get all of your candle making supplies as well. That includes the wax melting pot, the thermometer, fragrance oils, etc.

Step 4- Pricing your products

Next is how you’re going to price your candles. This involves a lot of math so get ready! You have to figure out your expenses for everything you bought, for your supplies, to make your candles and then eventually when you start selling your candles you want to at least break even. Then, start making a profit so you have to figure out, “okay, I spent this much money on all my supplies, I need to sell this many candles to break even,” or “I need to sell this many candles to make a profit.” This part is extremely important because you don’t want to be spending all this money on supplies and then you sell your candles that say too little of a price and you’re not even breaking even.

You also want to price your candles on the quality of the products that you’re using like if you’re using the cheapest paraffin wax and the cheapest cotton wick and some fragrance oil from a cheap craft store and you price your candle at thirty dollars that’s kind of a rip-off. The buyers will know when they’re burning a candle and they can’t smell it or the wick won’t stay lit or the wax is melting weird that this isn’t a high quality candle. They just spent all this money on this candle and it wasn’t great. You also don’t want to price your candles too low if you’re buying high quality products. If you’re buying high quality products for your candle you want to at least make your money back and eventually start making a profit.

It’s really important to start an excel spreadsheet and write down in one column everything that you bought what date you bought it and how much you bought it for and then another have all of your sales how much money you made for that month so you can really compare and see if you’re breaking even or making a profit.

Step 5- Where to sell your candles

Another step to opening up your candle business is how and where you’re going to sell your candles. There’s quite a few different routes you can go on how to sell your candles. You can sell your candles online, you can start your own website selling your candles. You can go on Etsy, Ebay, or social media outlets. You can take your candles to farmer’s markets and set up a stand and sell them in person, selling them to friends and family. So you really have to figure out which route you want to go.

For example, Etsy is a free marketplace but Etsy has fees on top of every listing and sale that you make. If you start your own website for your candle company you also have to buy a domain and a host, which can be expensive. so if you don’t want to spend a lot of money you probably don’t want to go that route at first. Once you get going with your business you can really start to sell multiple places

Step 6- Market your candle company

Last thing you want to do for your business is you want to get on social media. Social media is so important to market your products. I think Instagram and Pinterest are the best to start out on. You share pictures of your candles while linking directly to where you are selling the candles.

I also highly suggest when you’re first starting out on Etsy is to take advantage of the marketing tools that Etsy has. Start an advertisement budget of at least one dollar a day. The ads that Etsy allows you to do really gets your company out. Ads get people onto your company’s page. If you ever search something on Etsy there are a ton of ads placed on the front page and it’ll say “ad” next to the product. If you don’t use ads when you first start out, the chances of your company and your product being on the first page of the Etsy shop is very slim unless it’s super specific and super niche down.