Behind the scenes in the waxery
Honestly - I think I have some sort of entrepreneurial addiction thing running through my veins. For as long as I can remember I have had this desire to run businesses and there have been quite a few over the years. All have been successful in their own way, and they have all led me to where I am now - with a very creative portfolio career!
From my early twenties I was keen to work for myself and apart from a few years as a reporter on local papers I pretty much have stuck to that path and forged a career as a freelance journalist in newspapers, mags and telly for the last 165 years! So how on earth did I end up running a small candle business?! I mean PR yes, I get that but candles? Really?
Pervious entrepreneurial forays included a small gardening business growing and selling herbs, a boutique PR and communications business, and working as a personal development coach (which is how my book The Life Edit came to fruition) and associate lecturer - all while still writing, producing and working in the media in one way or another.
Sometimes my multi hyphen career - thank you Emma Gannon - has been a necessity. Single parenting and working are tricky bedfellows but need each other quite desperately to make life work properly. My regular part time/freelance work was always supplemented by things I could do outside of traditional working hours to fit in around my boys. This was a very long time ago as they are now 25 and 29 and at the time people did think I was a bit of a lunatic, but it was a case of trying everything I could to make it work. And I did make it work. I was also very tired most of the time and single for 13 years!
Fast forward to 2020 and overnight a lot of my work just stopped - like it did for so many of us. Free fall was not a place I was comfortable in and I needed to do something - however - candle making was not even on my radar! At that time I had just published The Life Edit so offered online tutoring and coaching which worked well. Although I wrote it initially for midlife women my client base was very varied during lockdown. I also helped a good journo friend with her online enterprise for a while until she got established.
Little luxuries became a big deal during lockdown for all of us, and one of mine was scented candles. Not really being able to justify spending huge amounts of my diminishing cash reserves on such frivolities I succumbed to buying cheaper candles, on the basis that this was better than nothing.
HOW WRONG I WAS!
When my husband complained that his asthma and the cheap candles were not well suited I researched recipes for better candles that would smell as good as the pricey ones that I had been used to buying, but hopefully cost a fraction of the price to make and not suffocate Mr A. Always a good idea not to suffocate one’s husband!
Inspired by apothecary style (mostly the Rose Apothecary in Schitts’ Creek - god I miss that series!) and our wild garden, I made a few and the rest is history. The Herberowe Candle Company was born - by accident really as it was never my intention to start a small home fragrance brand! The very thought of it! After all, the world is awash with scented candles - who needs any more of them?!
Turns out quite a few people need them, which was lucky for us!
The business was officially named by Mr A after ancient landscape feature that is just behind our house and featured on a very old map that he found. We have never seen the word on any newer maps so decided to adopt it and preserve it before it disappeared forever. It has various meanings but they are all connected with home/a safe harbour/stillness and so on. So interesting and so clever of Mr A to think of it.
Our business is still very small - just the two of us often melting the midnight wax to get orders out, standing in the rain at markets smiling like crazy people and having crises of confidence when we think we have taken on too much (oh just me then..!)
This quite often happens on a weekend after a week of TV filming days but we make it work - crazy though it sounds!
We are very lucky and have the most amazing, loyal customers from across the UK and beyond, who order from us on repeat. We also work with lovely small shops and boutique hotels across Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds who support us by stocking our products.
We are very proud of what we have achieved but we have learned the hard way that there really is so much more to running this business than simply melting the wax!
Here are a few things we have learned:
You will never do anything if you worry about it being perfect - imperfect, good enough and done is better than nothing !
Packaging will take over your life and become an obsession and you will eventually decide on the best option and then change your mind again.
Procrasta branding is real - I spent way too long stressing over fonts and colours for our logo!
You will never be able to please everyone so learn who your customers are and look after them - then they will look after you.
People always tell us they can buy candles cheaper - this used to really upset me - now I simply suggest that’s what they should do!
Home made and artisan will always win the day - I have learned to stick to my guns and keep making the products that our lovely customers enjoy. Our candles are made to be lit and enjoyed - not stuck on a shelf to gather dust.
Working with the human you love most in the world is the best thing ever - I wish everyone who wants to could do this - it changes your life in a very good way!
Do pop over to our website www.herberowe.co.uk to find out more and see what we do. This is not a sales pitch but if you do see something you fancy use the code ORDER10 for a discount and as a thank you for reading this!
I will be back with another post from the waxery very soon.