What I Do For Fun And Profit

Homemade Soy Candle

This candle will soon be going up on my Etsy store, assuming I don’t sell it to someone at work first.

I’m planning to do a bit of a holiday sales push on the candles, reminding all my friends and former co-workers that my candles are perfect Christmahanukwanzakah gifts. I can’t really do discounts, since the whole point is to actually break even on this hobby of mine… but I have been known to cut deals on gift basket sets.

I’ve gotten some sample scents from my newest supplier, and have been highly disappointed to find that their Cranberry scent smells like port-o-john, and their regular Basil scent smells like Seabreeze astringent. From what I can tell so far, though, their Eggnog and Christmas Pine and Candy Corn and Caramel Apple and Fresh Basil are double-plus awesome. We’ll see for sure when I make test candles out of them.

Think of me when you get your Secret Santa going on at the office, and suddenly need a selection of anyone-will-like-this gifts! (The four-ounce candle in the picture is $4 plus shipping, if you’re interested..)

Fear of Rejection

Out of my previous list of candle inventory for sale, I managed to sell three: two Kahlua and one Hazelnut Coffee. The rest are in the process of being posted to my new Etsy store:

Etsy store listings

There are a LOT of soy candles for sale on Etsy, though, and mine don’t really stand out for any particular reason. I guess I just wonder how long it’s going to take before I actually sell anything.

I know that nothing has really changed about my little operation: I still melt 18oz of wax at a time in my thrifted Pyrex measuring container. I still measure my annual sales in single-digit quantities. But now that I’ve put items for sale on a much more public scale… I don’t know.

I’m really just dabbling in a hobby, and making money to offset what I spend on said hobby. I have no right to feel like I’m a “candlemaker” or a “craftsperson,” really. If my candle sales took off, it’s not like I’d actually ramp up the operation or anything. So that means I shouldn’t feel bad if my three little votives don’t sell, right?

Right?