sockmonkey

You can tell the person that you don't do wholesale. Not everyone chooses or wants to do wholesale. There's no rule that says you have to. It doesn't sound like you are in a position to offer wholesale pricing based on what you said. If your retail prices are already low--if you're only doubling your costs currently, then don't go the wholesale route. There's no point in only getting cost for your candles. If you can afford to, what I suggest is that you tell the person you can offer them a discount for a bulk purchase--say 25%-30%. If your candles truly are cheap at retail prices, then a re-seller could possibly buy them at your full price and double the price on them depending on their market. Don't hesitate to tell the person that.

Net 30 for dropshipping. I don't think so. She's either a total scam artist, or completely clueless.

Whoa! Thanks for pointing that out--I guess I didn't hit that zero on my calculator hard enough! At the rate I gave of $10 per hour, that equals .05¢/.06¢ rounded off. Regardless of my numbers, if she conducted the process to arrive at the numbers she gave, she should be fine. Pulling numbers out of the air isn't cool (but obviously, just as effective as when you give bogus figures like I did).

You should ask for a sample of the box and the label. It might sound dumb, but the difference in boxes and labels can affect the speed with which you can work with them and therefore, affect your profits. Most regular boxes will arrive flat and require you to manipulate both ends to close it. There are other options though and one of them could be a box that would require you to glue flaps on the bottom or top, which would require more effort and more time. How many labels are they giving you to apply to each candle? Labels could arrive on a roll, a sheet, or might be loose. They might have a crack and peel back on them, which is easy to use, or they might not, which could slow down your packaging process. If for some reason they can't provide you with samples, you can go through the motions without them and time yourself. If, for example, it took you 20 seconds to package one candle, that means you should be able to pack 3 in minute, or 18 an hour. If you give yourself a wage of $10 an hour, that would give you a labor cost of .55¢ per candle to package it. Is that too much or too little? I can't say. If you're wholesaling your candles for $6 each, it amounts to about 9% of the cost. To me, that sounds reasonable; but if you're wholesaling them for $3 each, the amount goes up to 18% which sounds like too much. The determining factor in this is how much you should be paid for that particular aspect of the job. In my part of the country, someone performing that type of job would probably only be earning around $7-$8 per hour, not $10, so that really drops the price per unit substantially if you lower the wage. In your area, perhaps the numbers you gave are good ones. Just do the equation using wages appropriate for your area and you should be fine.

Something like this? http://www.pillagedvillage.com/~pillaged/cgi-bin/cart.cgi/II_Y193_Spoon.html

Will the candles be lying flat or standing up in the crate? Is cellophane gathered and tied at the top an option? Or, could you not put the shrinkwrap seam on the bottom, but on one of the sides instead, and camouflage it by running a ribbon around the perimeter of the crate?

Not part of that co-op, but the exotic butters I have I just put in jars and sell as is.

I found glycerine at Walgreens. I don't remember if I found it around laxatives or epsom salts--I looked in both places for it.

Why would she care about beeswax? That's natural too. Sometimes people think they know what they want, but they're really uninformed, and once you explain some of the technical aspects about things, they change their minds. If working with pure soy isn't your greatest strength, there's nothing wrong with telling the customer that and saving yourself some aggravation. As far as this meeting goes, I'm anxious to hear how it turned out for you. I bet you think the candle is worse than it really is. We're usually our own worst critics and can find flaws in things that nobody else can see. Even if this doesn't turn out exactly as you had hoped, I'm sure in the future you will take better control of the situation and things will go your way. Confidence in your products is everything.

Coffee grounds? Lemon peel?

Maybe a combination of cinnamon and licorice? Candy corn? Candy corn and cinnamon? Cinnamon and patchouli? Vanilla and maple?

Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin--tony's Pumpkin Pie Spice--tony's Caramel Apple (yummy)--NG Chestnuts & Brown Sugar--Aztec

The fewer choices you offer, the more you minimize the opportunity for errors, such as people checking the wrong scent or size on the order form. Personally, I think 4-6 scent choices and only one size option are best. I think it's a good idea to have seperate order sheets for the fundraiser specifying when payment is due and how long it will take before orders are filled.

Can't you cut them up and make some sort of wax "crumbles" out of them that could be sold as melts or vacuum fresheners? I think it's a bad idea to sell products in a less than desirable state as you have described. If it was only a little nick or something, then maybe a scratch and dent sale would be ok, but I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy a real messed up candle, unless you're selling them for a quarter or something, and if that's the case, what's the point--you'd still be losing money on them.

How rustic are you talking about? The lumpy, prim kind? Here are a couple of links with instructions and recipes for making some: http://cranapplechristmas.blogspot.com/2008/08/picture-courtesy-of-homespun-country.html http://www.add-adhd-help-center.com/bathbody/mud_soap.htm

When I first read the post about them I was thinking about the bags for the "cornhole" game. I guess they're pretty much the same thing though. I do see people selling those for cornhole all over the place.

Check out First & Main--they've got dogs, cats, bears, lambs, monkeys... http://www.firstandmain.com/products.asp

Are they a registered non-for-profit group? If so, they should have a tax exempt number and copy of their certificate for you so they don't have to pay tax. If they aren't registered, you can still offer them wholesale prices, but you will have to collect tax from them on what they buy from you. However they handle sales tax on what they sell is their problem, and not your responsibility. For shipping, my supplier offers a discount based on the dollar amount I purchase, so that if I make a large enough purchase shipping was almost free, which is a good incentive to buy a lot. When you re-price your candles, examine the costs in making them. How much profit do you make off of each candle? How much does each candle weigh? How much would it cost to ship 25, 50, 100? How much does that equal per candle? Simply add that amount to the cost of each candle and boom, you've got "free shipping" if they purchase in quantities of 25, 50, or 100. If you factor in the cost of shipping you will always keep your profit and the customer thinks, yippee, I'm getting free shipping. I'm guessing your customer has already seen your prices, so raising them right now probably isn't a good thing, but you could still offer a discount on shipping. Just keep tabs on what you're willing to lose from your profit in order to gain sales, after all, a little profit is better than no profit; but don't feel obligated to offer free shipping, because it wasn't factored into your current price, and don't hesitate to tell them that if they balk about shipping.

Do you mean a commission for you, or a commission for her? You are both helping each other out, but normally, when someone is advertising a product on their website it's a product they pay for and have in inventory or else they drop ship. When they drop ship, they still owe the supplier money although it's really paid for by the customer that orders from you. Do you see what I'm trying to say? She could actually be charging you! How much exposure does your site get? Do you have a lot of sales? If you expect candle sales to be an important part of your site and you need her (or someone else) I can't see that you should charge very much--certainly enough to cover credit card fees. I could see charging a 20% fee if your website was strictly geared toward candles made my any crafter who wanted them on your website. The way it sounds now, unless you've got an outstanding website with hundreds of hits a day, it just doesn't sound fair to charge much for it.

[quote name= Hey, here is the link where the doll artist made some moohla!! These are faboulous creations!! http://cgi.ebay.com/WHITE-PUMPKIN-on-CROW-Doll-Folk-Art-Halloween-EHAG-ooak_W0QQitemZ300253088790QQihZ020QQcategoryZ158655QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem You see, that's what I'm talking about! Who wouldn't spend 2 days if need be sewing one of those to make that kind of cash?

It's the same with candle and soapmaking, it can be just as labor intensive when you consider the packaging and labeling that goes into it. With doll making the key is to make something unique. It can be a tough market to crack and that's why I would try my hand at it on ebay if I was gonna do it. You get so much more exposure than you ever could at a craft fair or brick and mortar store. With ebay, you've got nuts that are willing to shell over any amount to get the thing they want; just the type of customer that is usually hard to come by at fairs. Unlike candles, there aren't as many competing against you for the same dollar on ebay, although there are still lots of them there. I just thought of this--another website I frequent advertises aromatherapy dolls. They are small cloth dolls that look like some kind of mardis gras clown (pretty garish) and those sell for about $24 each. Here's a different site I found that has some for $59 each--nothing like the other ones, but a lot more expensive. If anyone has any sewing skills, maybe this is something else to venture into.

I have a friend that sells prim dolls she makes herself. She tried to get me in on that craft, but I'm just not a good seamstress and didn't enjoy it the one time I made one. But, there can be good money in it if the stars are properly aligned with ebay and craft shows. There's an ebay seller right now that has bids of over $200 on a prim doll. Type in "primitive folk art moon doll" in ebay's search feature, or look for buyer "cartbeforethehorse" and see all the listings for their dolls. My friend (who is not the person mentioned in the ebay search) buys muslin by the bolt to save on costs, and searches thrift stores for vintage fabrics she recycles from old clothes, and also finds good deals on the internet for other fabrics. Making primitive olls is a very affordable craft right now compared to soap and candles.

When I make smaller batches like a pound, I just melt mine in a giant glass measuring cup (I think it holds 8 cups) in the microwave, and never bothered to put plastic over it--I just keep a close eye on it. If I got soap in a tub I would try to pop the whole thing out, cut it all into cubes and then put them back in the same container if possible. It just saves a little time the next time you want to make soap.

Dried spearmint is nice.

1999 is old, but it doesn't begin to compare to these: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=88333&page=1 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/03/070329-oldest-perfumes.html