We recently connected with Chicona Kibria and have shared our conversation below.

Chicona, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Risk taking is the core of being an entrepreneur. When you start a business, you are taking many risks on a daily basis. When I decided to leave my corporate job to become an entrepreneur it was a huge risk. I was scared, worried, and afraid. I was leaving a great six figured job to start a company where no one knew me, and no one knew about my brand. I had a family, I had responsibilities, it was surely going to be a huge success or a huge failure to me. I took the risk and it’s been challenging yet highly rewarding.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started an event planning company in 2012 after 18 years of working in corporate event planning for large global corporations. I’d spent many years working hard and giving my all to these companies and one day I decided if I could do this for another company and help them become successful, I can do this for myself. After a year of planning, I was able to leave my corporate job and start my event planning company. Not more than one month later my husband was laid off from his job. Of course, this not being part of the plan set us back from moving forward full throttle with my event planning company. While I was able to take on events I also had to work a full time job to help supplement for the income we lost from my husband’s job. This through a monkey wrench in my plan, however, did not stop anything. I worked 40 hours a week in a corporate job while still planning, designing, and decorating events on the weekends for my event planning company. I did this for several years and slowly became successful through word of mouth and referrals. This was before the social media craze and marketing was definitely not part of my business plan back then, other than printing business cards and having a website.

After relocating from NYC to Atlanta in 2021, I knew I had to do something different. Atlanta was huge in the event planning space and the competition was overwhelming. I had been successful through word of mouth and referrals. No one knew me here, what could I do to separate and establish myself from all of the other event planners. I took some much-needed time off and I began to study the Atlanta event scene. I got to know who the key players were, and I went to several networking events and seminars. I became active on social media and followed all of the amazing event planners in Georgia and the surrounding areas. One thing I noticed here that was different from living in NYC was the number of workshops, conferences, lunch & learns, etc. that were offered here. It seemed like almost everyone was hosting a brunch, workshop, showcase of some sort. That’s when it hit me, instead of jumping into the competitive pool of being an Atlanta social event planner, I could utilize my skills as a corporate event planning and help out these local entrepreneurs who are not as savvy when it comes to planning these events. So, I invested in myself, I got a business coach, I rebranded, relaunched, and reached out to my community of event planners to let them know this is my new company and the service I provide. At The Classic Couture Experience, we specialize in handling the important, yet tedious tasks for you so you can focus on the success of your event. This was an immediate hit, and I began to work with some of Atlanta’s most exclusive event planners, helping them plan, coordinate, and execute their workshops.

During this time, I also launched another business which was a hobby that quickly became a passion, that quickly turned into an extremely lucrative business. I launched a candle collection in July 2023, and it completely skyrocketed beyond anything I could imagine. I’m now in the process of relaunching that business and it will be bigger and better than it was before. I’m so excited about what’s in store for me and my businesses in the future.

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

Like many women I absolutely love and adore candles. I’ve always been a candle lover and over the years have spent several hundred dollars buying them. All of my friends and family members knew when it came down to buyiing me gifts, they could not go wrong with buying me a candle.

In 2022, while going through a very tough divorce, I was sitting in my living room feeling kind of down and depressed and my daughter approached me with a Tik Tok video. She said mom you need to see this video. It’s a lady who also has lots of candles that did not completely burn entirely, she melted them down and made one new candle out of all the remaining wax. By the way, this was one of my biggest pet peeves. I hated to purchase expensive candles and they would not completely burn out leaving lots of wax left over in the bottom of the vessel. So anyhow, I watched the video, and it was super easy to do so I did it. The candle I made was amazingly scented. Whenever someone would come to my home, they would complement the smell and ask where i got the candle. I would tell them that I made it and they would say, can you make me one? At the time, I had no knowledge of how to properly make candles and I watched You Tube videos that showed you had to make candles from Dollar Tree candles. So that’s what I did! I would buy candles from dollar tree, melt them down, add fragrance oil to them and give them to friends and family as gifts. People loved them! I think what they loved most was the scent combinations. I’m not a big fan of sweet-smelling candles or food smelling candles but I know other people love them. So, I would combine woodsy or floral scents (my favorites) with a sweet or food smelling scent and quickly the requests began to come in. People were asking me to make custom candles for their events, gifts for their family & friends, and even for salons and local shops.

I then decided, with the advice of my business coach, that this is something I need to do professionally. I need to start a candle company because when I made candles I no longer thought about the hurt, pain, and struggle I was going through mentally being separated from my ex as well as losing full custody of my son. Candle making was my outlet to happiness and my product was also making others happy, so I dove in headfirst. Not having any prior knowledge on professionally making candles I began on social media by following all candle companies and candle business owners who are successful. I joined Facebook groups for candle making. I reached out to to Candle Company owners and asked for mentorships and guidance. I began buying supplies and testing candles in February of 2022 with the hopes of launching for Mother’s Day. Littel did I know, candle making was not easy at all and was indeed very heavily dependent on science. I went through months of testing trying to find the right vessel, wax, fragrance oil, and wick combinations. I knew I wanted a luxury candle line, so I wanted the best of the best. Through my research I found that Coconut Apricot Soy wax was the top of the line when it came to candle waxes. So that’s what I went with, and boy was that a tough one to test! LoL

This wax is so smooth and so luxurious that it is nearly impossible to find the perfect wick. However, through lots of testing and guidance from peers and mentors I was able to come up with the perfect combination and in July 2022 Scents By Chicona K. LLC was born.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Finding my market has not been easy as buying candles is more of a luxury than a necessity for most. My candles are all handmade and made from the finest materials so the cost is not one that would be suitable for everyone. My candle is made for the candle lover. The person who knows that buying and lighting a candle is not just doing that, they understand that this is an entire experience. And my goal has been and will always be to provide a luxurious experience when you purchase my candle.

As far as looking for this type of client, I feel I have been most successful with in person events. Getting into markets, Pop us shops, vending at women’s empowerment brunches and corporate events. This has been mostly successful for me. I can talk to the people, they smell my scents, they hear my story. It makes it more personable and more relatable, therefore they are more eager and encouraged to buy.

Another strategy that has worked for me is basically “cold calling”. Reaching out directly to local shops, realtors, business owners, asking if they are interested in wholesale opportunities and collaborations. This has been very successful for me, and I see wholesale as one of my most effective growth strategies.

Social media has also been great for my business as I have the support of my current network of followers. Building and gaining new followers is something I’m still working on, and I feel will be the biggest challenge in effectively achieving my goal for growth.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.scentsbychiconak.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/scents_by_chiconak
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/scentsbychiconak
• Other: Tik Tok- Scents by Chicona K

Image Credits
Photo credit: Bloom and Flourish Studio @Bloomandflourishstudio (Instagram) Photo credit: Big Head Productions. Photographer: Winta Harris @Wintaphoto (instagram)