We were lucky to catch up with Branecia Edgerton recently and have shared our conversation below.

Branecia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

Honestly, the biggest risk I’ve ever taken is me taking the simple candle making hobby that I picked up during the pandemic, turning it into a business and while also jumping into the world of entrepreneurship all in one go. I would never have imagined starting up a candle business a day in my life! My creative background mostly consists of designing logos, t-shirts, editing photos, etc. I’m a freelance graphic designer so doing most hands-on projects come to me easy 8 times out of 10.

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

Hi, I’m Branecia Edgerton! I’m the owner of Soulful Essence Co. Where you can find luxury scents for less! How did I get into candle making? I started making candles as a hobby to pass time during the covid pandemic back in 2020. I’ve always loved making things for people, whether that be through cooking, making t-shirts, to different crafts. Just going out of my way to make someone smile. I’ve always been fascinated with candles, really anything that smells good really, when I got my first kit from “Makesy”, I instantly fell in love with the craft! My hand poured aromatic candles are uniquely made to create the right feelings for the right moments.

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

The most effective strategy that has worked for me so far is being actively engaging with people with my products. Staying on top of social media making content daily isn’t my strong suit, which I am currently in the works of improving on, within that statement itself I’ve noticed that I get more engagement when introducing and showcasing my candles off to the general public. Perfect example, I was door dashing all last year and had a box full of candle samples that I had left over from a vendor event and the thought came to me, “Why not give each person a free candle with their order?!”. Doing that brought up my Instagram and Facebook followers up a significant amount. I started carrying around 2 of my candles with me in my purse just in case I run in to someone that’s interested in what they smell like.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I literally started off with $300 to put towards buying candle making kits, fragrance oils and jars to beginning my new business journey. Till this day I use After pay, Zip and Affirm payment plan apps to help me stay within my budget and not overspend just in case anything was to come up.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.soulfulessenceco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soulfulessenceco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SoulfulEssenceCo

Image Credits
Photos are taken by me.