We recently connected with Morgan Kloesel and have shared our conversation below.

Morgan, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

After moving in with my now-husband, I found myself stocking the apartment we lived in together with all the home essentials. The one item I kept buying on rotation was candles. Eddie had the idea that we could start making our own and we did just that! I expected him to order a small candle-making kit that maybe made 4-6 candles but the following week a 50lb box of soy wax showed up at our door and everything moved quickly soon after.

Morgan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We started Whiskey Boat Goods, quite frankly, because we spent so much money on candles that only lasted a few hours. We started researching how to maximize the life of the candle and learned very quickly that a lot of brands take the cheaper route and don’t use quality oils and waxes. Once we learned what we were burning in our home, we knew we needed to try to make our own.

The process from starting to make candles to actually creating a business was also relatively quick. Family and friends immediately wanted to try our candles so we decided we might as well sell them. Thankfully Eddie works full time in the business world so he knew just what steps we needed to take to become a legitimate business. We went straight to consumer by building our own website and then slowly started doing local events. Once Covid happened, we paused events but maintained a large online community as well as awesome wholesale clients!

Our motto is “from our home to yours” and that pretty much sums everything up. We only create products (which eventually expanded to home goods, custom signs, cutting boards, etc) we feel comfortable using ourselves. Additionally, Morgan runs all the marketing for the company as well as creating the scents for all our products which just allows us to stay 110% on brand across the board. When we formulate a new candle scent, we want it to tell a story. From the first sniff we hope our customers are transported back in time to one of their favorite memories.

Everything is custom to Whiskey Boat Goods and our goal has always been to create the absolute best product possible. We take pride in the quality of our products and do regular tests to ensure we are offering the best quality to our customers.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Our customers are everything to us. Without them, we don’t have a working business. We spent the first 3 years of Whiskey Boat Goods doing in-person events and interacted with customers from all over the world every single weekend. We were able to see genuine first impressions of our product, build relationships with returning customers, and grow as a small business during this time. Once Covid came around, we paused those in-person events and moved more into online sales and wholesale accounts. Because we’ve been picky with the retail stores we work with, we’ve grown even more in new markets we weren’t reaching here in Austin, Tx.

Eddie and I both have a very strong work ethic. We are both very aware that without hard-work and dedication there is no success. Eddie works full-time in the music business as an artist manager and I have a background in teaching as well as blogging/marketing. Both of our backgrounds have allowed us to see just how important building foundations and relationships with those we work with are the ticket to growing together.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I almost get emotional just reading this question. It truly puts the growth of our little business into perspective.

I’m a college graduate with a degree (i’m not using) in Elementary Education. When I moved from Tennessee to Texas I decided to abort the teaching job and just see where it lead me. I eventually worked as a merchandising coordinator for a brand out of Round Top, Texas. I didn’t work with the brand for too long before I realized it was time for me to walk away and transition into working for Whiskey Boat Goods full-time. It was honestly terrifying to leave a steady paycheck and start seeing you business account dwindle when you got a paycheck. HOWEVER, the amount of growth we saw in just a few months made the decision worthwhile.

My advice? Go for it! You can always get another part-time job or go back to just doing your business on the side if it doesn’t work out. But you’ll never know till you try!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.whiskeyboatgoods.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/whiskeyboatgoods ; Personal: www.instagram.com/morgankloesel
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WhiskeyBoatGoods
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyU1CzTPw-I-H62DdmUxKxA
• Other: Blog: www.whiskeyboatbungalow.com

Image Credits
Khris Poage , Hannah Haston, Morgan Kloesel