Selling Hand Made Candles
Posted by admin on Oct 28, 2009
Would you like to work at home and earn money doing something you love? Do you hate that commute to a boring job or just want to work from home and spend more quality time with your family? A home based candle making business could be what you’ve been looking for. It’s fun, creative, gives you more time to spend with your family, and has a huge potential to put extra money in your pockets. The following information details results of my research on what it takes to start a candle making business at home and how to sell your candles over the internet.
You can start making candles for profit in your kitchen, garage, or basement. Supplies are simple, and you will want to do a little research on your own to find the best prices. Your profits will be maximized by finding the lowest prices for your supplies and by selling your candles for the highest price the market will support. In general buying large quantities of candle making supplies will result in lower costs per candle. Shopping for supplies on eBay® may occasionally result in good, low prices.
What supplies will you need? My previous blog describes the contents of a candle making kit that I purchased over the internet. It has all of the items needed to make soy wax container candles. The only item you need to supplies is a double boiler for melting the wax. Here is a list of supplies that are needed for candle making:
- Wax – paraffin, beeswax, soy wax
- Containers – tins, decorative glass jars, mason jars
- Wicks
- Coloring – liquid, solid
- Fragrances – essential oils, fragrance oils
- Thermometer
- Melting pot
- Pot for bottom of double boiler
In addition to these supplies, you will also want to have labels printed with the candle information and your business name. Packaging and shipping materials round out the items needed.
Once you have your candle making supplies and the creative process under control, where do you sell them? The first place to research is eBay®. A search for candles returns over 67,000 results. Categories include “Home & Garden”, “Collectibles”, “Crafts”, and “Health & Beauty”. Most of the candles listed for sale appear to be in the “Crafts” category. Another option would be the “Health & Beauty” category if you wanted to speicialize in spa related candles such as aromatherapy and environmentally friendly soy candles.
In the “Crafts” category, types of candles listed vary from flower-shaped candles to pillar and container candles. Looking at only the completed listings we can see what price the candle sold for, if it sold at all. Small flower shaped tart candles are generally selling for around $0.99 each. Medium sized jar candles sell for around $2.00 each and a large pillar candle is seen to have sold for $7.00. Unique and seasonal candles are good sellers and some may bring in a higher price than simple tart and pillar candles.
This research has only touched the surface, but there is a potential to make money selling hand made candles online. Other places to sell would be your own website with shopping cart, other online marketplaces, or local businesses. Make some extra money and have fun with the family while you pursue your home based candle making business.
You can also open a Free shop to sell your candles, you can list up to 12 candles at no cost in the GLC Arts and Crafts Mall.
Thank you for the information. This looks like a nice place for the home based craft business to sell their items. If I ever start selling soy candles, I will give it a try.
You can sell your candles in ecommerce site or online.
Please make sure that you test all of your candles before selling them. The last thing you want is for someones house to burn down