The Underdog

I started a candlemaking business in November of 2011. It was a hobby that truly got out-of-hand! But I enjoyed it enough that I was moving hundreds of candles a year, attending markets, had a thriving online shop, active IG page and I had my items in stores. They even graced the dining table of our President when he had foreign guests and were purchased by the Indian High Commissioner to our country.

​

BUT that meant that people were watching and goodness were they copying! Suddenly, there were more candlemakers than we could count and they were at all the craft and farmers markets I attended. That was fine as my product held ground. What wasn't fine was the one girl who copied everything I did! EVERYTHING - my jars, candle names, collections, my sustainability approaches and even my posts. People noticed. This same girl had "escorted away" a couple people from my table at a market once. Her endeavour lasted less than a year and that was that. Creativity is unique to each person. Entrepreneurship is not a walk-in-the-park: it requires passion, courage and work.

​

A major retailer connected with me once as they had an initiative for local items. They told me I could design and decorate a whole area for my candles to be featured. For the first 6 months it seemed alright. Then one day I quietly visited the flagship store, to find my candles shoved on a shelf, BENEATH a host of poor-quality, cheap-looking candles from China and all my decor was used for different parts of the store. I contacted the Manager (who had been replaced) and requested all my product back along with outstanding monies. That was in 2016.

​

I closed my business in December of 2019 along with my website and social media accounts to focus on my aromatherapy (this page) and a more old-fashioned marketing approach that doesn't involve social media. I hear you when you say that you had to leave the big, greedy corporations and take charge of your work yourself. The smaller shops sometimes aren't as kind as we'd hope.

​

We say that you take the power up and off another and return it to where it belongs: with yourself Seems like we both did that.