We were lucky to catch up with Brittany Cunningham recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Brittany, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Being a part of a small town and living on ten beautiful acres, we care deeply about the people and nature around us. We are passionate about making products that are both good for our customers and good for the planet. At 10 acre farm, we produce and sell high-quality, small batch goods made from simple ingredients and wrapped in plastic-free packaging.
Our candles are made with phthalate and carcinogen-free fragrances, 100% soy wax from US soybeans, and produced without any additives or dyes. We’re especially proud of our environmental efforts. We’re members of 1% for the Planet, which means we are committed to donating at least 1% of our revenue to environmental nonprofits. On top of that, all of our products are vegan and produced and shipped in fully recyclable or biodegradable packaging that is free of plastic.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Ever since I was a kid, I really liked the idea of owning my own business just like my parents do. I went to Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business and graduated with a degree in Supply Chain Management. Loyola also focuses a lot on sustainability, which was already important to me and became even more important and actionable after my time there.
Upon graduating, I began working in sales for education technology startups. I really enjoyed the overall mentality of working in a startup and appreciated the opportunity to wear multiple hats. It made me even more eager to start my own business, but I still wasn’t sure what that business was going to be. Then I came upon candle making.
I have always loved candles, but nearly every candle I’d buy in the store would give me and my partner a headache. So I set off to learn how to make candles that smell just as good without causing any discomfort. Along the way I fell in love with the art of candle making, the unique characteristics (and tempermentalness) of each wax, the complexities of the fragrances, and the smiles on people’s faces when they’d hold and smell one of my creations. Then I realized, this is it! This is going to be my business.
Originally from Illinois, I am now very proud to be a Michigander, so everything I make has a back story related to life in Michigan. All products are sold in plastic-free packaging and are made from high quality, simple ingredients that look and smell good in any room. 10 acre farm is a member of 1% for the Planet, which means we’re committed to donating at least 1% of our revenue to environmental nonprofits.
Right now our offering consists only of candles, but we look forward to growing our offering to fruits and vegetables grown on our farm as well as a farm stay in a Skoolie – both projects that are beginning this year and should be ready for our community next year! We absolutely love where we live and we couldn’t be more excited to expand our offering for the local area.
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
We are proud to manufacture every one of our candles ourselves. I began making candles as a hobby. To learn, I pulled information from all sorts of guides and videos online. There were a few especially helpful YouTubers who teach the ins and outs of producing candles as well as tips on running a successful candle business that I learned a lot from.
The first raw material I decided upon was our wax. I tried about a dozen different kinds of wax before settling on our 100% soy wax made from soybeans grown in the Midwest. I chose this wax based upon ease of use, how well it throws the scent, its above average burn time, and the supplier’s Midwest location and use of American-grown soybeans. Once I found the perfect wax, it was easy to choose the right wick and fragrance suppliers.
It is a top priority of ours to use plastic-free materials, so that gave us just a couple of vendors to choose from for labels and shipping materials, which made decision-making easier but also leaves us hoping that more companies will start adopting plastic-free alternatives to give consumers more choices.
We have loved manufacturing our own candles because we love the process of candle making and we have increased confidence in the quality of our products since it’s our hands working with them every step of the way.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Overall, I’m grateful the road has been relatively smooth, but it was a very bumpy start.
I’d spent the last few months of 2021 perfecting my candle making skills and polishing our business plan before taking a leap of faith and quitting my sales job that was providing me with a comfortable living. I was ready to hit the ground running as soon as we entered 2022, but it ended up being more of a slow and desperate crawl.
My LLC was formed so I opened a business bank account and deposited the business’s initial funds, which was a good chunk of my savings. Upon applying for a business credit card through the bank, I got a notification from the bank saying they detected suspicious activity and needed me to go into a branch to prove my identity. I did that, was told I was good to go, but then the system shut me out entirely later that same day.
I had lost access to 100% of the business’s money and no one could figure out why. There was a team of branch managers and other bank employees calling daily for weeks to try to get answers. I couldn’t believe that all of our money was being held captive and no one was able to do anything about it!
While this was happening, the amber glass jars and metal lids I was planning to use and had based my entire line off of went out of stock everywhere I looked, unless I wanted to pay 3-4x the price, which would not have worked with my pricing model. I went searching far and wide for new jars and ended up trying 8-10 new ones. I ended up choosing the paint can style jars that I now offer in two sizes.
There ended up being no good explanation for why my money was held. All I received was a letter from the bank essentially saying that because I deposited my money into their bank, they can restrict the account at any time. Here I was, thinking I’d have launch my business by early February at the latest, but it ended up being nearly two months later on March 29. My personal savings were dwindling because I had an additional two months of not making any income. It was stressful!
Despite all this, I don’t know that I’d change anything that happened. It taught me to be really resilient right off the bat and it led me to a really cool vessel that stands out from many other candles on the market. The amber glass jars are back in stock now and we sell them, but the majority of our customers have been drawn right to the colorful paint can style, which I never would have had were it not for this incident. Things have a weird way of working out!
Contact Info:
- Website: 10acrefarm.co
- Instagram: @10acrefarm
- Facebook: facebook.com/10acrefarm.co