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We are a little
bit different from most companies. The Candle Witch
is a small business, a very small business; what we call
a backyard business. There are just two of us: Teri and
Eric Tolladay. With rare exception, all work is done in
our house with our own hands. Most importantly, Candle Witch
is not, and has never been, funded with O.P.M. (Other People's
Money).
Every penny invested in Candle
Witch came out of our own pockets. We are not some internet
startup with an inflated stock value, we are not about to
have our I.P.O., and we are not about to get rich from Candle
Witch. We make candles because we are artisans, and like
to have a respected craft. But we are not a get-rich-quick
company, and we will never be one.
Here's the proof. Each Candle
Witch candle takes 6-10 hours to make (see our Why
Our Candles Are So Great page for
more detailed info on our candlemaking). This means that
on a very good day Teri can make 10 candles. That is, 10
candles if they are all the same shape, color and scent
-- and even then that's a 14 hour day. Because we make custom
candles, that is every candle made is different from every
other one, a very good day for Teri is more like 5 candles.
5 candles at $30.00 each is $150.00. Based on this we can
safely guess Teri can make:
$150.00 a day (30 x 5)
$750 a week (150 x 5)
$37,500 a year (750 x 50)
Not a bad income, but with the inflated prices of Los Angeles
this is more like 25k-30k a year. Notice though, this means
is that the maximum Teri can make, if we are constantly
super busy with orders, is about $30,000 a year. That's
it.
Kind of hard to get rich on
$30,000 a year. And believe me when I say, we are not that
busy.
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So why are we on the web,
if we're not going to strike it rich. Because we make
custom candles. If we manufactured regular candles, like
most candle companies, we could make a lot more of them,
for less cost, and could afford to open a shop where we
sold candles. We weren't sure (we're still not) that there
was a big enough market in our town for a custom candle
store (and we live in a very large town). But on the web,
that's a different matter. Essentially, with the web we
could open up a custom candle store in every town, and
still have only 2 employees. Kind of neat, huh?
So does it work? Well yes
and no. Yes because we are making some money, No because
we're not making a lot. But, don't worry. We're just getting
started.
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One of our goals with Candle
Witch was to have a business so that Teri (or myself) could
stay home with our children, and yet still contribute to
the family's finances. At the time of this writing (November,
2000) Teri is just a few months pregnant with our first
child. (yeah!) This means that we're not really sure how
it's all going to work out. Our goal is to go for at least
3 years before we even talk about profitability.
We talk about Candle Witch
like it is a complete full-sized business, but it's probably
just as accurate to think of it as a performance art piece;
one that relies very heavily on audience participation.
And since you are the audience, you get to help us decide
how the business goes from one day to the next, and on into
the future. Funny as it may seem, You (the person reading
this) have almost as much say in Candle Witch as I do.
Welcome to our business.
Eric Tolladay
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