Mid-Year Check-In

I have been putting off writing this blog because I don’t think I’m going to like the numbers. It’s been a slow start to 2023 but we have seen some progress. Let’s recap what we talked about in our first blog of the year back in January. We set ourselves goals of adding 2 new wholesale accounts, add 7 new states that we sell in, hit 800 Facebook followers, and have 400 email subscribers. So where are we?

In terms of adding 2 new wholesale accounts, we are excited to say we have hit that goal! We have added a store in Florida, a store in Texas, and a store in Glenwood, IA, through our Faire site! This coming week we are talking to another flower shop in hopes of selling with them as well. Be watching our Facebook for the announcement if we can sell with them! We are ecstatic with how our wholesaling as gone but we aren’t slowing down yet!

Anyone who’s been in the candle business can attest that the busy seasons are Fall and Winter. In 2022, over half of our sales came in the last 3 months of the year. Candle companies rely on wholesale orders through rest of the year to stay afloat, so our goal is to continue to grow that side of our business. But we aren’t losing focus that we want to be a customer first company and focus on our local community.

We also understand that to continue to grow our online sales and online presence, we must utilize social media. If you follow us on Facebook (thank you!), you will notice we have started trying to post daily with usually not posting on Sunday’s. We wanted to hit 800 followers or likes by the end of the year. That would require us to add 282 new followers. That’s a large task to do and we need everyone’s help to do that! As of writing this blog, we have 549 followers. That is an increase of 31! Well short of the 282 new followers we need, but we are seeing a growth and we are very happy with that!

Whether you follow us or any other small business, the best way anyone can support a local business without having to buy anything is to interact with them on their social media accounts. Find out what their social media accounts are and follow them, like them, interact with their posts, like/love posts, reshare posts, or ‘check-in’ with them on Facebook and share a picture of their product if you have bought from them before.

Another big goal we set out to achieve was to hit 400 email subscribers. In January, we were at 218 so we had to add 182 emails to our list. We get it, no one likes to get spammed with emails. We don’t do that. We want to send 1 or 2 emails a week, but we haven’t been on the ball and haven’t been sending many emails lately. We won’t spam your inbox if you subscribe to our list. As of this blog, we have 230 subscribers, so we have increased by 12.

As I stated earlier in this blog, we want to be a customer first company. So, we want to hear from YOU! What do you want to see more of? What do you want to see less of? Are there products or scents you would like us to consider adding to our collection and website?

We understand that there is a lot of uncertainty right now in the world with politics and the economy. We’re happy with how the year has started but we have seen a decrease in our sales from this time last year. But it’s not just us. As we attend vendor fairs and talk to other vendors that we have met or are meeting for the first time, we notice a pattern. Sales are down for everyone. So, if you are one who has bought from us this year, THANK YOU! If you have interacted with our social media pages, THANK YOU! Go support your favorite small business. Whether that’s buying a product or service from them, or just interacting with them online, do what you can afford right now.