We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ariane Scholl a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ariane thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

When the idea first bloomed in my head to start my own business I was sitting on the very crowded #9 Ashland bus in Chicago headed to my teaching job. There was a woman that was always on the same bus as me in the morning. As a young teacher in a school of primarily veteran teachers I often struggled with the dress code and what I should and should not wear to school to be seen as professional or serious. Looking back, I was far more concerned with this matter than I think any other person in the school but I believe the root of it was in wanting to do a good job — to be seen as a real teacher.

The woman on the bus with me was always dressed very trendy and casual. I made a story up in my head that she was a barista at a nearby coffee shop where she got to wear whatever she wanted and talk to interesting people. I projected all of my desires onto her. At the time, I was struggling to find time after work for creative ventures. I knew I wanted to do something more creative and have more time to write. More than anything I wanted autonomy and the control over my own schedule. I was wilting under the pressures of being 22 and a brand new teacher with a lot of responsibility.

At this time I told myself that having my own business would be less stressful, that I would have time and space to write, that I would have more freedom to do the things I loved. I looked at opening a brick & mortar store as a destination for my happiness. Once I have *that* I would be happy — I would have it all.

Over the past seven years of business I have learned a lot and perhaps the most important thing I’ve learned is that happiness is a feeling and not a destination. If you are starting your own business out of a desire for more freedom and happiness, well, the truth is there will be a lot of that in there, but there will also be a grueling amount of work, stress and doubt — armfuls of doubt. The joke is always, “I didn’t want to work 40 hours a week so I started my own business and now I work 24/7” and there’s a lot of truth to that, especially in the building phase.

Success does not happen overnight. Over the past 7 years there were plenty of times where I daydreamed about having a 9-5 job where someone else told me what I needed to do and my paychecks were guaranteed. I would daydream about working in an office with other young professionals instead of trudging along the entrepreneur path largely solo.

It is difficult to be the impetus for a business, knowing that its success depends on your motivation. During the building years when I was the only “employee” it was difficult to take time off because I knew that meant the business came to a halt. Now that we have three amazing employees it is much more easy to enjoy the ride. All the dreams I built up in my head are finally starting to come true, I have a lot more freedom and autonomy to determine my own schedule. I have a team to help keep the business running when I leave on vacation.

There are still plenty of moments where I wonder if the stress and workload is worth it but it is also incredibly fulfilling to build and work for your own company. And that’s what I try to focus on when I wonder what it would be like back on the other side.

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

My name is Ariane Scholl and I am the founder and co-owner of Hearth & Hammer, a literary candle studio and general store located in Batavia, IL. We craft hand-poured literary candles from high-quality ingredients and curate a selection of quality-crafted goods in our general store. We believe the goods you bring into your own should be made with purpose and be built to last.

We prioritize our supply chain and choose to source primarily from USA-based manufacturers and small brands. We know how much love and hard work goes into creating a product line so when we see other makers working for themselves and creating something they love, we want to buy goods from them over large corporations.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

When I first started pouring candles it was as wedding favors for our bridal party and family members. After that I started pouring candles to go alongside the vintage goods I was sourcing and selling. Once I realized that candles were something I could track the cost and profit of, and that people LOVED candles, I began focusing on the candle side of the business.

During this time I was a part-time nanny for a family in Chicago. I would work 2-3 days a week for them to make the bare minimum amount of money I needed to cover my bills. The rest of the time I would spend working on building our brand. When I think about the hours I spent on the business in the beginning, upward of 10 hours a day, I can’t imagine doing it all over again. I’m so grateful our building years were when I was in my early twenties and child-less.

During this time I also dabbled in waitressing, something that always seemed interesting and fun, that proved to be incredibly difficult. I have so much respect for waitresses, it is truly a grueling job. During my time waitressing our candles were featured in a Refinery29 article that featured Chicago artisans. As a result of this a company out of New York City called Of A Kind found out about us and reached out to do a partnership with Chicago area Targets. As a result our candles were in a number of Chicagoland Target locations in an end-cap branded by Of A Kind.

From there things took off steadily, but still slowly. I feel like sometimes people will say, “I was featured in X,Y,Z and everything changed,” that wasn’t the case for us but we did notice that it helped with brand recognition. We were then featured in Buzzfeed, Bustle and a few other publications and began doing craft fairs like Renegade Chicago, Show of Hands and our local Artisan Collective in Batavia. It was through these markets we really got to know our customers and what they were looking for. What kind of scents they loved, which scents they didn’t like. What vessel or sizes they typically bought. We were able to update our product line and include travel tins alongside our jars to offer more variety.

During this time we landed a couple of our first stockists, a local store called Cocoon in Geneva and Strand Books in New York City. I about died when we got the email from Strand Books, I couldn’t believe such an iconic store wanted to carry our candles.

From there we reached out to other stores and pitched our line and other stores heard about us through word of mouth. Slowly but surely we built upon that momentum and followed the path that appeared before us. I often joke that I never meant to start a candle company, and it’s honestly true. I thought I was creating a product to make money on the side while I pursued writing, but as the candle sales took off I started focusing harder on opening a general store and when the space of our dreams presented itself we took the plunge.

If I could offer one piece of advice it would be to not become discontented by slow and steady growth. There were many times when I wanted it all and I wanted it quickly and would watch other brands shoot up in popularity and wondered when my time would come. Some of those same brands are no longer around today. Just remember what your goals and end game is and focus on that. Focusing on what everyone else is doing too much is just distracting and will lead you astray. Your end goal is likely not the same as someone else’s end goal, thus their path will be different. Just walk the one before you.

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

Social media has been very key for our business. When we started 7 years ago I really focused on Instagram growth. This was during a time when influencers were just starting to gain traction but a lot of people weren’t yet monetizing their feeds the way they do now.

Early on I focused on reaching out to a few key folks in the Chicago area that had a great Instagram presence. I offered to send them candles in exchange for one photo on their feed and the response was very positive and generous. It was probably 5 or 6 people from a model to a singer to a couple brand designers.

I think this helped to get our name in front of people. From there were focused on building an authentic audience, shared our experience and process.

Now, our social media has changed a little and melded with our brick & mortar store. We try to show all aspects of the business on social media from our candle-making process to the newest products we’ve received in the store.

I think my biggest piece of advice would be to be authentic and show your personality. Don’t try to copy what everyone else is doing, focus on what makes you difference and what your brand feels like and communicate that. Don’t try to be too polished and buttoned up, people want to know that you are a real person behind the brand. On the same token, don’t over share too much, particularly for negative topics. It’s okay to admit when you run into snags or have a hard week or month, but when it becomes a constant refrain of how tired you are from running your business it can turn the customer away. They might think: “Wow, they seem really busy and stressed, I don’t want to add to it so I won’t order from them.” And that’s the last feeling you want your customers to have, because obviously the health of your business depends on their sales.

So, show you personality, have fun, make genuine connections with your followers and try to not fixate on the numbers too much.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hearthandhammer.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hearthandhammer/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hearthandhammer
• Other: TikTok: @hearthandhammer

Image Credits
The image of the candle is credit to: Kyle Petit Media