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

Cayla, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

Back in 2016 I was living at home still in Aptos CA. I was a college student, was working at a Century 21 office in and in the process of getting my real estate license. I was super excited about it and thought yep this is the career for me. I still do love real estate very much so, but God had other plans for me and my life. One afternoon on the weekend, a friend & I had gone to the local craft store and decided to make some diy at home candles. Little did I know, I was about to fall fully in love with everything candles. I was so intrigued by the process and the finished product. Of course, it was not perfect and the perfectionist in me then wanted to learn everything I could so i could make the perfect looking and smelling candle. I then did my research on everything candles and found some beautiful glassware and thought okay these are perfect and I am going to fill them with candles and sell them. A couple weeks later, I got my first store order… for $900. I thought it was absolutely awesome and I was so excited. They literally flew off the shelves and from then on they were one of my main retailers for 3 years, until the store was sold to a new owner. Backing up a bit though, when I decided to make my hobby and passion a business, I stopped pursuing a career in real estate and i gave up on school. To be honest, school was never for me and I learned better outside of the classroom. So, I didn’t really care to let that go. But, giving up my career in real estate I was kind of sad about because I had been so excited about it. From 2016 on, I sold my candles online and to retailers and things were going really well. As many business owners know, scaling can either make or break you…and your business. I was a boot strapped small business with no extra funding and working days on end to fulfill orders – which was a great problem to have, but it was not sustainable. In order to scale, you need money. I had a really hard time getting approved for any kind of loan or credit card so I was just essentially trying keep up and make the orders after the money already came in. Which then caused issues because my orders were always delayed. Customers are the backbone of your business and at the time it was hard to keep them happy. It was hard having this business for a long time and I eventually got a part time job and still did my business on the side.
I had a hard time paying my bills because I wanted my business to work so badly that i would rather invest in my business more than pay my bills on time. This situation was the case for a few years until 2019. In 2019, I was absolutely determined to turn my business around and sustainably make it my full time booming job. So every day, all day I sat down and was head down in work. Contacting stores, brands, influencers to partner with, etc. Then one day I got an email back from a subscription box company. They said they were interested in partnering and wanted 130,000 units.
I was absolutely flabbergasted and my wheels started turning. I had never had to make an order bigger than 1,500 candles and I was trying to figure out how I am going to make this many candles. So, without any money for funding at the time, and with zero employees…I said yes. This was the biggest risk i had ever taken.
With that large of a purchase order I was able to take it to the bank and getting funding from them and other sources to get supplies for this massive production. I had to hire about 40 people and I have never had to be a “boss” before so that was also a learning curve and a risk for me.
This project was such a risk for me because with the large amount of money on the line and number of things that could go wrong, it was ALL ON ME. The safer option would have been to say no, but I said yes.
It was hard. I worked almost 14 hour days along with others that were willing. Long story short, we filled the order, finished the project, I was paid, and all was well. I gained a ton of customers from it and since then I have been able to operate business on a large scale in multiple different ways. So, the risk was worth the reward.

Everyday is risky running your own business. It could all come crashing down for reasons you can’t control or it could go abundantly well. All in all, after being a business owner, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Candles, fragrance, and design are all something I am still passionate about and that’s what makes it flourish. Its not always been easy but I think the more you take risks the more rewards you have. Not every risk I have taken has turned out well, I will say. But for the most part, I am a big fan of taking risks :)

Cayla, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I kind of went over this in the last question but I am a very creative person and i am also a perfectionist. So I have always strived to create a perfectly beautiful product. After years of research and development, I have created a line of clean, luxury candles in beautiful glass jars. I am also a health freak so I only produce candles as clean as I possibly can get them. They are still small batch made in our warehouse.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The lesson I had to learn within the last 7.5 years of business is to always be kind. I used to get really frustrated while running my business whether its talking to a supplier or even a customer who was just causing strife and not really giving any real reasoning for their complaints. I used to always be like super “tough”. But that does not earn respect. I have just learned to always be very direct, kind, and have boundaries. You will get a lot farther in life if you are always kind. Also, the pivot strategy. When something doesn’t go right, I pivot and quickly. i can’t dwell on something that just went wrong. Positivity and kindness is the key with anything.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

Yes we currently make all of our candles. At some point i will have to outsource and have another manufacture make our larger orders but for now we take pride in making them ourselves. I started making candles in my parents kitchen on the stove. Soon after, they moved me out to the garage and I used some plug in stoves. When I moved out of my parents house, I continued making candles in my apartment garages (3 different ones!) Then I moved my space into a big garage space that a family member owned. Finally, for the last 3 years we have been in a 2,500 sq ft warehouse!

I had no idea how to run a manufacturing facility but I learned along the way. Still so much to learn!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lalueurcandles.com
• Instagram: @lalueurcandles
• Facebook: La Lueur Candles