I grew up the middle child of three girls. My mom was an amazingly strong woman and raised the three of us on her own in Cincinnati. If you had told me as a kid that I would grow up to own a business making candles every day, I probably would have been upset. Growing up, I wanted to be an astronaut more than anything. However, I have made candles since I was a kid and remember the first being a dipped-pillar I made at daycamp when I was seven.
I was always a hustler. As an older kid, I used to iron shirts for family at a rate of $1 per shirt. I made good money doing so, and my family was gracious enough to pay me for small tasks like that. As a teenager, I got my first real job working at an ice cream shop owned by a young married couple. They really trusted me to help them run their business, and it was extremely empowering as a teen to be trusted with someone’s livelihood. But at the time, I never thought of myself as an entrepreneur.
After high school, I moved away to attend Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. I studied marketing and went on to work in Wisconsin after graduation. In November 2014, I moved to West Hollywood, where I handled marketing for a flooring and tile company. It wasn’t long before I found myself tight for money— and that’s when I recalled my childhood hobby of candlemaking.
“One thing I wish someone told me: don’t be afraid to own your creation and be proud of yourself.”
Spending a lot of time indoors both healing from Lyme Disease and working, I found myself burning a lot of candles, which became costly very quickly. I found a candle class being offered locally, and I thought it would be a great place to make friends and learn how to make my own candles. I would save so much money!
After making several for family and friends, I began to get requests to make more, but now they wanted to pay for them. I opened an Etsy store and decided to start selling at Melrose Trading Post, an open-air antiques market in my neighborhood.
I named my company Flores Lane, and in the following months, I began devoting more time to it. In the beginning, I was selling scrubs, lip balms, deodorants, sprays and candles. I was exhausting myself making everything. I wasn’t perfecting any one product or bringing enough to the table. Sitting back and looking at sales, candles were clearly selling better, so I ditched the other products to perfect my craft.
Since starting my business three years ago, it has gone from a part-time hobby to becoming my full-time job. My identity as a business owner has now blended with my personal life, because a lot of my time is spent networking or meeting clients. I end up with friends and clients or clients as friends. At first, I felt an internal crisis, because I felt like I was losing my own identity in this business, or people were only talking to me for candles, etc. It wasn’t until I was reflecting on Flores Lane as a brand (over the period of six months), that I realized it was a direct reflection of me. I am the brand. Establishing that boundary in my life was extremely important for understanding my own role in the business, the brand—and most importantly, my life.
WHEN THE HOME STUDIO BECOMES THE WORK STUDIO
1. A rising tide lifts all ships: Create a circle of makers or like-minded creators that you can collaborate with, trust and share best practices.
2. The natural ebb and flow of business: Some weeks, you’ll feel on top of the world and like every email or call you make lands! The next week, you look in the mirror like “WHAT HAVE I DONE!?!”
3. Planning is key: If you’re feeling overwhelmed, planning your way out of anxiety is the path to success.
Building a brand takes time and education. Educating the consumer takes time but yields trust and allows you to be the subject-matter expert. I’ve learned to be transparent—people like that. If you can’t make a deadline or your boxsupplier fell through (not that that has ever happened to me), communicate with your client as soon as you sense issues, and keep everyone informed. You will make mistakes. That’s a simple fact. Some will be larger than others, but don’t take yourself too seriously, and never stop learning from them. Learn from my lesson in the beginning. Keep things simple. When I realized I was overexposing myself trying to make so many varied products, I simplified my brand.
“Fear is a powerful thing. I mean, it’s got a lot of firepower. If you can figure out a way to wrestle that fear to push you from behind, rather than to stand in front of you, that’s very powerful. I always felt that I had to work harder than the next guy, just to do as well as the next guy. And to do better than the next guy, I had to just kill. And you know, to a certain extent, that’s still with me in how I work. I just… go in.”
— Jimmy IoVIne
This past holiday season was wild, and I only recently hired full-time help until mid-December. Needless to say, there was one point at which I hadn’t slept for three days straight, because I was filling so many orders. As a woman in business, sometimes I feel like I have to work a lot harder to garner respect, because I’m not taken seriously. I’ve learned, though, not to let this feeling stop your hustle. Rise above it. It wasn’t until I was reflecting after a long week of candlemaking for the holiday season (and making other candles for myself) that I realized, “I really love making candles.” I never thought I would own my own business, but now that I do, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else!
Working in my home, having my studio here, is amazing, but it also has downfalls. I feel like I can roll out of bed and get going or stay up until I’m sleeping on the candles. But on nights I should take off, I’ll see the work quite literally staring at me, so I’ll just start making without even realizing it, because I truly love it. I’ve started to make conscious decisions to stop working and take time for myself. It’s hard to find that work-life balance when work is not only your life and passion but also where you live.
My working studio is still very much a work-in-progress, and I’m just coming up with an organized system for all my oils. But mostly, the inspiration behind everything is efficient-but-cozy, because I’m spending a lot of time there while also welcoming others into my space. I wanted it to be more organized-chaos than not. What I have found about having my studio in my home is that it is not only a space to produce product but a space to be inspired and create. Because mine is truly a working studio, it is important to not only do what works for me but to create someplace that can also work for those who work there with me. Truly. When I bring help into the studio to pour, I allow them to set up their process, because my plan doesn’t work for everyone. It’s a creative venture and I cannot dictate HOW it’s done, perse, only share best practices to ensure the same outcome.
If I have learned one big lesson through my experience as a business owner, it’s that being yourself and loving what you do makes all the difference. When customers and clients see you being your authentic, transparent (and in my case, unabashedly weird) self, they tend to want to be a part of it. I am genuinely inspired by the human spirit and how we create such amazing things through collaboration and group thought. That’s why I’m also not afraid to trade product for marketing or photography. We can learn so much by working together and sharing the word of our favorite people and things.
