Time To Start Something Of Your Own?

Yeah yeah yeah another founder story. Hopefully this one is interesting. It’s aimed at those thinking about starting something, just like I was 12 months ago. It was a great experience and I really recommend it.

I have a day job which I love but I also have some free time on Friday afternoons to do my own thing. I need to be able to do this so that I can scratch that itch I have of making something and in December 2019 I decided that I’d start Good Candles to do just that.

We make candles that donate 10% of all sales to good causes such as Trussell Trust, CALM, Ecologi and The Literacy Trust. I’d toyed with doing this for years since my friend Anna had told me to do something myself when we worked together at Primark. So far we've served over 500 customers, got some great press coverage and we've only been running for 10 weeks. All of this fuelled by wonderful people supporting something new.

Having registered the domain 12 months ago today I’m hoping this inspires some of you to do something brave. It doesn’t need to be huge or life changing. It can just be something that makes you happy. Life is very short, I'd rather regret doing something than be bitter for not doing it.

I won’t detail everything below (I’m saving that for when Do Books offer me a deal) but I’ve summarised some of the things I learnt and did to make it happen.

Make a plan

This feels a bit obvious but I had the idea and then didn’t really know what to do once I had registered the domain and bagged some social handles.

In February I took a day away from the desk to get some fresh air and write some plans down. Nothing too specific but starting the build a ‘to do list’. I wrote a lot of this in Notes on my iPhone and iPad and then ticked them off as I completed tasks like ‘set up email address’. It felt like a big achievement when those were marked off. A small victory for the daft idiot starting a business.

That list has never been completed. EVER. I guarantee you it will never be complete but I broke it down into Must Do / Should Do / Can Do Later. I then knew that the Must Do stuff had to be done before a candle left Kent for it’s new owner. Everything else wasn’t urgent.

1. Make a list
2. Tick things off
3. The list will never be complete. Accept this. 

Be honest

I really don’t like this hustle nonsense I see, nor will manifesting create this business and a positive balance sheet. However, one thing I knew was that I needed to be honest and that started with myself. 

I started initially making product myself. It was dreadful. Looked like it had been made with play-dough. I had a choice, spend months trying to get half decent or get an expert in that knows their onions. I chose to bring someone in. 

I wasn’t blessed with tonnes of budget but I was honest with this expert and they helped me make the things I wanted in a high quality finish that I needed. I did the same with the packaging and it paid off. Both these people knew they were taking a gamble, they weren’t going to make much on the work initially but longer term it could be a great thing to be a part of.

It was think honesty that carried on to the customer too. If you sign up to our newsletter today it still clearly states that it’s a draft email and it’s not finished. In fact what is finished? Let’s not be all glossy and let’s just be realistic. People understand this if you don’t present to be Barry Big Stuff.

I think it was this honesty that got Good Candles in Stylist, Courier and The Evening Standard in the first month of trading (I didn’t do any outreach or press release).

Be inspired but don’t steal

It’s very easy to see something and think “yeah I can do that better” and go off and make it and never credit the original. 

This is rife in brands today.

For example, I want to be able to offer our customer refills for their candles. Rather than copy something from a brand I have seen I’ve emailed them and asked if we could work together on it or if they could give me some advice. They might say no but I’ve tried, I’ve been honest and been human.

We don’t expect brands to reinvent the wheel but please don’t steal the hubcaps.

You don’t have to always be ‘on’

With social, web sales, CRM etc it is very easy to end up being on all the time. Don’t be. It is counter productive and will actually make you worse at your job.

At Good Candles we post on social sporadically and very much in the ‘oh yeah I better do something on Instagram’ rather than worrying about follower counts and vanity metrics.

Speak to other founders.

I do like those founder podcasts but they can become a bit over dramatic. They informed some of the pricing decisions I made early on and a few things but the biggest help was talking to other founders. It didn’t need to be tech or fashion or even an organised call. In passing I would often talk to people who had their own businesses and listen. We don’t listen enough. Everyone wants to ‘can I just’ or ‘well, in my view’ and sometimes we should just listen. Two ears, one mouth.

I was particularly inspired by some great people I follow including Niran Vinod (I recommend his book) , Becky and Huw from Paynter and the people that run my local sandwich place (they gave me a good supplier for the tissue paper we wrap the candles in!).

Get a good set up

Don’t get overly obsessed with tech nonsense. You don’t need it at the start but I found the following really useful.

• Starling bank - Fantastic business bank. Modern, forward thinking and great service.
• Shopify - It is the grunt behind Good Candles. We wouldn’t be up and running so quickly without them. It is the best eCom platform I have ever seen for SMEs and even big businesses. It’s fast, it’s mobile first and it does everything you need without needing to sign up to a million different add ons / plugins / payment providers.
• Mailchimp - email is powerful. It is under rated. Use it. Tell a story. Don’t be boring. This is great way to communicate more personally with your best customers.

THIS IS THE END OF MY TED TALK

I don’t know if that was useful but if it helps one person it’s worth it.

So what’s next for Good Candles? We’re launching in wholesale in January 2021 (I’m outsourcing this as I don’t have the brain power to do this myself), launching four more candles this year and hopefully raising +￡10,000 for good causes.

See you on the dance floor,

Olly