We recently connected with Brad Richardson and have shared our conversation below.

Brad, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

All of our product materials are sourced in America. Our soy wax derives from soy bean fields right here in the midwest. Our product supports American manufacturing and American agriculture. Our candles are clean burning and free of toxins. Our fragrance oils are packed full of essential oils and free of phthalates and all that bad stuff. Our vessels are completely recyclable and our wooded wicks are sustainably sourced. We design our products ourselves and handcraft them in our Traverse City, Michigan workshop.

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?

We got started with home fragrance back in about 2017. Cat (Co-founder) learned candle making from her mom. I, on the other hand was running a small metalworking shop and built out a small candle studio for Cat in the corner of my shop. Our day jobs had us wishing for more freedom. We were feeling very uncreative at one point and decided to head west for the Grand Canyon on a spontaneous road trip. This escape from the day to day allowed us to shift our attention towards our goals. We talked, planned and ultimately came up with the idea to start a little business together. We would make wood products, candles, home decor, all sorts of things. It was the creative outlet that we needed; something to put our attention into. 5 workshops and countless failed ideas later and that company transformed into what Ambush Candle Co. is today.

Building this brand has been a whole lot of trial and error. We’re both visionaries and I think our creative differences somehow always tend to converge beautifully. This has allowed us to develop a unique product line that we’re both very proud of.

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

We’re small business owners and we love other small business owners. Freedom doesn’t come without struggle and you won’t survive struggle without discipline. Seeing a shared level of hard-work in other entrepreneurs gets us excited. We’re all here to kick ass and it’s empowering to know that thousands of us are all doing it together.

We connect with other business owners on a personal level and it’s absolutely helped us out in growing our wholesale and private label clientele. Many of the people who order from us are shop and boutique owners. We ourselves also own a store in downtown Traverse City, MI called Compass Rose Outpost. Running this store for the last several years has taught us the ins and outs of a brick and mortar/retail business and because of this we now understand what store owners want and expect from a wholesaler.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

One book that I recommend to all small business owners is “Profit First” by Mike Michalowicz. This book was first given to me by Evan Armstrong of Viking Coffee Co. It seriously helped us get our business bank accounts organized and put us onto a success path. The book explains Mike’s “Profit First” method which requires businesses to deduct their profits from payments before expenses, instead of paying themselves with what is left over after expenses have been accounted for. There are some great tips from this book, I read it first and recently also listened to the audiobook.

What’s helped Cat and I the most, is that we associate ourselves with a lot of entrepreneurs and like-minded hustlers. When we find time to get together with friends, we’re almost always surrounded by business owners. We share advice, good books and ideas with each other constantly. When we first moved to Michigan from the Chicago area, we joined an entrepreneurs group (which has since dissolved), it allowed us to connect with a handful of great individuals, many of which we call friends today.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ambushcandleco.com
• Instagram: @ambushcandleco

Image Credits
Photos taken inside were all done by Lindsey Mak Photography. Exterior (product) photos we taken by Cat Richardson.