How to Make Money Making Candles

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"Actually, any fund raising group is an excellent customer and you would be surprised at how many there are. Once you've contacted the church groups, university organizations and small gift shops—and if you want more customers—just look through your local newspaper for organizations planning fund-raising drives. All of these organizations are potential customers."

And that—small market wholesaling—is where Denny finally found an outlet for all the candles he wants to make . . . with no hassles from the business world. And that "small" market really isn't so little. It's not uncommon to see Dennis working feverishly to complete 750 to 1,000 candles in a week for one or more of his "small" customers.

And what about his large customers? "I've stopped selling to the big companies. There was too much pressure . . . pressure to compete with larger whole salers . . . pressure to make more and more candles . . . pressure to gladhand sales reps and merchandisers. Now I'm not competing with anyone. I don't have to do anything but produce good candles to keep my sales coming . . . and that leaves me some time to do a little direct-to-the-customer selling myself."

Denny likes people and he now enjoys selling his candles at the same kind of open air markets that the young couple had found so profitable. He has, however, added a new dimension to this selling. "I do it just for the fun that's in it," he says. "My wholesale business gives me more than an adequate income so I never bother to tack on a retail markup when I work one of those markets. Why should I? I make the candles in wholesale time and wholesale numbers. I sell them only where I'm not competing with any of my quantity customers . . . so why should the people have to pay more?"

Well, any good businessman could tell Dennis—and some have—that the people should pay more because, obviously, it costs Denny something to set up and run his retail display for a day. Dennis admits the expense but he's unmoved by the argument. "Look," he says, "a day of selling—including setting up and cleaning the grounds later—is nine or ten hours long. To do the job right, I need three or four people to, help me. For that, I use friends and I pay them $2.00 to $2.50 an hour depending on the location. There's a quick $100 off the top right there. I could put that money right back in my pocket by raising my prices a mere ten cents per candle. But why should I ? What's fair for the dealers is fair for the people. As long as I can live and I'm not competing with the others who sell my line, I see no reason for raising those prices.

"There's another angle on this too. Most dealers,. large and small, keep pushing their prices higher and higher because candles have become so popular. Their attitude seems to be that, because of the popularity, people expect the prices to go up. And you know what? People really do!

"Just recently the price of wax at the most popular local supply house went up one penny a pound. Now a twelve-inch candle like I make takes two pounds of wax and I certainly don't mind absorbing the extra two cents per candle . . . but a lot of dealers jumped on this as an excuse to raise their prices. Some, with no more overhead than I have, boosted prices any where from fifty cents to a dollar and wanted me to do the same. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't believe in that sort of thing.

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