Hi, we’re Katie and Eric Roering; the founders of Fontana Candle Co. In 4 years we took our hobby of making candles in our basement, and selling them at craft shows and makers markets and we turned Fontana into a nationally recognized eCommerce brand. This year we are doing 7 figures of revenue and have 12 employees. So how did we do it?

Welcome to The Candle Couple Podcast, where we will share the nitty gritty of scaling our e-commerce brand quickly. We are spilling the tea, so hopefully we can help you scale your brand quickly too.

This is Episode 13: How to Weather Seasonality in Your Candle Business

There is no doubt about it, there is a definitive candle season. Ours is typically August through Mother's Day. There are several ways to weather this seasonality. How do we keep our employees working year round without crippling our cash flow in the slow months? And when we ship candles in the summer, how in the heck do we keep them from melting?

Timestamps:

00:49 Slow season is right around the corner for candle businesses

1:30 Do you offer other products to offset slow season?

2:20 How do you structure your labor force?

3:17 Our peak season

3:40 Diversifying our products

4:00 Cash flow analysis of making fall & holiday stock during slow season

5:42 Candles are not an essential item

6:24 Collections of products by scent for cross-selling opportunities

7:40 We made a mistake in naming our company

9:20 Shipping candles in the Summer

Disclaimer: Everything shared in our videos is from our own personal experience, and is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Always seek legal guidance from a business attorney and certified public accountant. Everyone is responsible for their own business structure and business practices, and we will not be held accountable.

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