We recently connected with Laura Weisberger and have shared our conversation below.

Laura, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

Our business today is very different from when we launched our first collection in 2021. We have transformed an e-commerce brand exclusively selling through our website and on social media into a company that also has partnerships with about 30 brands, retailers, spas, and subscription boxes scattered across the United States. We are so incredibly grateful for the network we have built over the past 2-years and can’t wait to see how far we can take this ride.

Scaling up has been a whirlwind of excitement and also fear. When you are growing a business, it requires a degree of risk that you might not always feel comfortable with and really accepting the fact that there is no guarantee of success. When we introduced ourselves into the B2B space, it was absolutely terrifying – what if we didn’t get any orders? Or even worse – what if we got too many orders for us to realistically produce? Receiving a huge order is all fun and games until you need to really evaluate whether or not your back-end systems and processes can effectively support that magnitude of business.

We were fortunate to receive a few small B2B orders within the first week of putting ourselves out there and making our first connections. That soft introduction into wholesale made us realize fairly quickly that B2B was going to be the bread and butter of our consistent sales strategy. With that realization, we began building new strategies and tactics related to our B2B marketability, asking ourselves important questions about the marketability of our products in physical retail spaces. We wanted to make our products as appealing as possible to consumers so that our retail partners would be able to sell-through their orders with us.

We spent months performing market research, taking a deep-dive into purchase psychology studies, and polling both our B2C and B2B customers so that we could design a product catalogue that would be appealing across both physical spaces and on the web. From there, we would redesign and test the changes we made. This research and test process is ongoing – we have a firm belief that every failure is a learning opportunity. Learning to set your emotions aside, remain objective, and pivot is the most important thing you can do. Whenever our business slows down, we just take a look at our analytics, identify our strengths and opportunities, and then make an action plan to push forward.

I think the most important thing to remember about being in business is that it is never going to be a straight upward climb. You are going to stumble a few times, maybe roll pretty far down the hill in the process, but all you need to do to get to the top is pick yourself up and take the next step forward.

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

I founded Fervor Candle Company after the pandemic in 2021 when I saw a need for safe and natural home fragrance options. As a pet owner and animal lover, I was really frustrated by the lack of options for non-toxic and pet-friendly candles that didn’t sacrifice scent quality or performance.

Traditional candles often contain harmful ingredients and artificial fragrances that can irritate pets and trigger allergies. Unfortunately, I learned first-hand how many of them could make my pets sick. My dog, Kingston, is epileptic and his seizure frequency increased dramatically when I was stuck on medical bed-rest during my pregnancy with my son; I quickly realized that the candles I was burning at home all day to make my confinement a little more tolerable were the cause of that. Once I stopped burning the candles, his seizure frequency returned to normal. That realization was the catalyst for our brand – I kept thinking that there had to be something better.

Since there wasn’t really a strong market for pet-friendly candles, I decided to start crafting my own. As the saying goes, if you want something done right, you’re just going to have to do it yourself. After months of research on fragrance, different waxes, essential oil toxicity, and extensive testing, I was able to finally lockdown my perfect candle formula. I was so excited with the results – not only was Kingston completely unphased, everyone else in my home with fragrance sensitivities genuinely enjoyed the candles and didn’t go into instant sneezing-fits, unlike instances with the candles I had used before.

From there, Fervor Candle Company was born. As women-owned and operated, we are dedicated to providing pet-friendly and safe home fragrance options for families everywhere. All of our candles are made from clean burning 100% natural soy wax, free from harmful ingredients and additives. At the heart of our brand is the belief that everyone deserves to enjoy the warmth and comfort of candles without sacrificing the health and well-being of their family and pets. We are committed to providing our customers with the best possible products, knowledge, and customer service. Candles shouldn’t be complicated, and we strive to make choosing a home fragrance easy.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

When you have an e-commerce business, it can be difficult to find new customers. We have found that contrary to popular belief, social media is not always the best method. A significant chunk of our customers/B2B partnerships come from having actual conversations with people, as well as from word-of-mouth. While we do source new business from our social media platforms (LinkedIn is great if you are looking to work with other businesses), we prefer to work more old-school and network. We will talk – not to be mistaken with a sales pitch – to people everywhere: the grocery store, the mall, the dog park, in line at the bank, etc.

This becomes especially important once you start working in the wholesale/B2B space – your network is your lifeline. We partake in a lot of public events and make it a point to connect with as many people as possible. Those connections are actually where many of our new invitations come from – conversations we had with individuals at other events.

We also do our best to provide exceptional customer service. When you can form positive relationships with your customers, they become fans; when they become fans, you’d be surprised how many people they will introduce your brand to. Word-of-mouth is so incredibly powerful.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

The book Atomic Habits by James Clear has completely transformed the way I think about my day and productivity. For most of my life, I have struggled with perfectionism and taking on too much at once while refusing to ask for help. Needless to say, I was functioning under the very heavy weight of entirely self-inflicted pressure and near-impossible deadlines. This book taught me the importance of segmenting my tasks, and even the behaviors I am trying to change, into manageable and actionable chunks. My productivity these days is through the roof and I have been able to make a strong positive change in the way I perceive failure and success. I highly recommend this book to everyone, entrepreneur or not.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fervorcandleco.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/fervorcandleco
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/fervorcandleco