We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Becca Pineda a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Becca, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I came up with Thrifty Wicks after creating candles for my wedding. I wanted to create something that would be useful to our wedding guests long after the wedding. For my wedding, we found a few containers that matched and my (now) husband and I mixed some of our favorite scents to make a custom candles for our guests. After our wedding, we continued to burn our regular candles around our home, the cute & cheap ones that I always bought while running “errands”. It wasn’t until one day, I noticed that our walls were turning gray where the candle was, and I also noticed that the candle was giving off black smoke. I researched why that happens, and turns out there was a ton of chemicals in the candles that I was burning. After reading that, I no longer wanted to burn those candles. This is kind of where I hit the *Aha* moment that I should just start making my own candles for our house. I was super excited for this idea, and quickly researched all the types of wax & fragrances, and everything else I needed to know to make my own candles. At this point my plan had become so big in my head that it needed to be more than just for my home. That same day, I went to Goodwill just to look around because I wanted to see if I could find truly unique pieces that would look beautiful as candles. I ended up getting about 10 containers at the first Goodwill, so the anticipation grew. I went to another Goodwill, and again scored. At this point, I knew that I needed to come up with a name & a vision. Thrifty Wicks stemmed from the idea of everything being thrifted, I definitely wanted to incorporate that into the nameI couldn’t just make plain candles because there is so many already, I needed something that would look pretty & smell good. This is how I decided to dry flowers and use them in my candles. I quickly went through my personal collection of dried florals so I ended up needing to outsource on the flowers. The succulents, flowers, shape & animal molds came as another way to make my candles unique. Truly, I went through so much trial & error with those molds and let me tell you at one point, I had all my silicone molds bagged up together to go to goodwill. I could not figure out how to use them correctly. Now I am finally at a point where I feel comfortable using all the molds to add beautiful pieces to my candles. I still have so much to learn about creating these pieces of art, but I am so incredibly grateful for the people who trust me & continue supporting me as I learn!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
HELLO! I am Becca, the founder of Thrifty Wicks! I am a wife & pet mom! (2 chunky cats & a golden), I talk about my pets any chance I get & always happy to share pictures! I am the most scatterbrained person in the world, and I’m always on the go. I like to think that I can be shy- but I am quite the opposite. I will talk your ear off for hours on end (just ask my husband), I don’t have a ton of hobbies besides shopping! I started my small business journey after creating candles for my wedding. I was super excited that I was able to combine one of my favorite hobbies (thrifting) into my small business all while creating beautiful & clean candles! Owning Thrifty Wicks has lead me to meet so many amazing people either from social media, or meeting people at pop-up markets. I love meeting everyone & hearing their story! I have built such an amazing little community which has allowed me to be super open on my business pages. Very often you will see me posting about my personal mental health & that is because I feel so supported by the small business community. I am able to be fully transparent. Mental health is something that I have struggled with over the last decade so I am very passionate about it- Thrifty Wicks has saved me from falling into another deep depression as it is something that I truly enjoy doing. Even if I don’t need to make candles, I am always able to start one project or another. It truly makes me so happy when people love their new candle. I make a wide variety of scents, styles, and designs so that everyone can find one that is truly them. Everyone who has ordered a candle from me knows that I always try to make it exactly how the customer wants whether that is using your favorite colors, flowers or even if they want to use that dish that their great-great grandma gave them. I am so, so grateful for all the customers that I have gotten, and try my best to make the best products for them so I always tell people if they are having issues with their candles that they can always come back & I will try to make it right for them. Another huge goal that I have in my business is to be sustainable as possible so I am always picking up my neighbors old boxes, bubble wrap & other packaging items. I have created a huge collection that might even last me a year!!
How did you build your audience on social media?
BE CONSISTENT! Honestly, that is the biggest piece of advice that I tell people when they are just starting! I am lacking at this now but for the first few months I was on instagram ALL the time! People really love it when you show your face & interact with them! Start sharing all the other small businesses, and build your little community! Finally, don’t be afraid to reach out with questions. I have talked to so many candle business owners that were willing to share their advice. I have found that not everyone wants to share tips, but many do!!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I like to think that I have always been fairly resilient up until recently. In the month of August, I had the worst month I had ever experienced in my entire life. During this time I had a few traumatic experiences, and at this point I was ready to give everything up. I no longer wanted to make candles, I no longer felt like I could go to work & mentally, I was not doing great. I had shared that I was going to step away from Thrifty Wicks for a little while, and during this break I realized that this was not me at all. I never just gave up like that. It was a super tough to push myself out of my comfort zone but I decided that I still needed to make candles, I just couldn’t be present at markets because truly I was not up for being around large groups of people just yet. I knew that if I didn’t continue with my business there would be no going back. I kept pushing & pushing until finally I felt like I could be at a market again. During this entire time I have received so much amazing support from my peers that I will forever hold with me!
Contact Info:
- Website: thriftywick.com
- Instagram: @thriftywickss