We recently connected with Elisa Hurt and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Elisa , thanks for joining us today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

How I got my first sale was on my website at rachelvirginiacolletion.com. The website was active for a few months at the time. I was feeling a little discouraged but continued to post on my social media pages. One day, I decided to run an Instagram ad which resulted in my first sale. I received a weird notification sound on my phone and when I checked it, I had an order! I was so ecstatic and happy, I felt that all of my hard work finally paid off.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a Candle Artisan and have been making candles in my kitchen, as a hobby, in 2017. Candle making is relaxing and therapeutic for me. The main thing that I love about candle making is choosing and creating the fragrances for the products. It fascinates me how a smell can trigger emotions and bring back memories in people. My candles and other products give my customers experiences and for some, ease their anxiety and seizures. In the beginning, I would give my products to family and friends as gifts. My family and friends loved the products so much, they asked how can they purchase more. That’s when I knew my hobby would be a business. What I am most proud of is that I continue to produce a good quality products that my repeat customers continue to purchase and for that, I am forever grateful.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I built my social media presence by at least posting once a day and interacting with my followers. Rachel Virginia Collection is on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest. My advice for those just starting to build a social media presence is to be consistent. Have a goal to post at least once a day. Your followers are want to know more about you and your business and don’t be afraid, just post it.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

Actually, I have a website and also sell on Amazon. The choice to sell on both platforms has been helpful in the success of the business. The pros is that the brand is being discovered more by customers. The cons is that on Amazon, the orders must be shipped on time, if not, the account can be deactivated.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rachelvirginiacollection.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachelvirginiaco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rachelvirginiacol
• Other: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?me=AXPH1O38IZTZ4&rh=n%3A11260432011