We were lucky to catch up with Homebody MN recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Homebody thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

When I started building Homebody MN, I realized that I had never seen the phrase “trans-owned business”. That quickly became a central part of our identity. To be loudly and proudly trans-owned, while also making sure that our products and offerings resonated with the queer and trans community. We really try to lean into authenticity in every aspect of the business. Whether thats’s donating 5% of profits, because we know we exist as a part of a larger community that we want to support, or thats using funny names like “J.K. Rowling My Eyes” that show trans people that we are thinking about them as we design our products.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Homebody MN is a proudly trans-owned business handmaking candles, curating used books, and hosting reading events. We started in 2020 when a love of candles led me to learn about the questionable ingredients in most mainstream candles. I started attempting to make my own, and before I knew it I had a whole company!

As the candle side of things settled in, I felt myself missing buying used books, a part of one of my previous jobs. As I thought about it I realized that used books very much fit within the homebody theme and started to consider ways of integrating them into the business. The whole business is run out of my house, and we don’t have a storefront, so we had to get creative about it. We came up with the idea of a quarterly subscription box where we handpick books for people based on their individual taste. It was an instant hit! Customers have loved their surprise books every quarter, and we have had a blast matchmaking books.

Seeing the excitement for books, we are now embracing reading as a way to build community. Events for the queer and trans community so frequently have events where alcohol is very central. We are excited to create a space more catered towards homebodies, introverts, and book worms, while creating community.

We do all of this work while also doing our darndest to be a force for good in the world. Our values of sustainability and giving back are integrated in everything we do from picking the ingredients for the candles to donating 5% of profits.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

My biggest advice for managing a team is to put a lot of energy into interviewing. I personally can find interviews tiring and repetitive, they aren’t my favorite task. But I know that if I put energy into finding someone who is a really good fit then it will save so much heartache for me and the person we hire. I interviewed 20 people for the last position we hired for, and it was so worth it. Everyone is really excited about the business and clearly wants to be here.

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

We sell through our own website, and that has been a great path for us. I have known from the start that I wasn’t trying to build a huge candle empire. I wanted to build a business that is known and respected in the local queer and trans community, as well as with allies of our community. I’ve prioritized sustainable growth over trying to maximize growth, and it’s provided a steady path for us. Given that this path doesn’t get huge revenue numbers super quickly, I was very conscious about costs during set up, particularly recurring costs. The Amazon’s and Etsy’s of the world would have expanded our reach, but at a very real cost. I decided that making our own way was going to be our path, and while it probably took longer to get there, I think it’s put us in a place where the business feels healthy and sustainable.

Contact Info:

• Website: homebodymn.com
• Instagram: @homebodymn
• Facebook: @homebodymncandles

Image Credits
Anna Treimer, https://wildlyconnectedphotography.com/