We were lucky to catch up with Lucy Strickland recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Lucy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

My name is Lucy Strickland and I am the owner of FireLight Candle. I thought I would start with my story.

Back in the Spring of 2020, I had just lost my brother-in-law Stephen unexpectedly and was heart broken and just a few months later, my mother-in-law was in the hospital and it was not looking good. I can’t explain why, divine intervention I think -my grief shrouds my memory of that time- but I randomly ordered a candle making kit on Amazon. After my mother-in-law, Cheri, passed away, we were completely crushed and were all gathered and talking about how she was the glue to our family. Cheri was always planning activities to bring us together. So I offered to my sister-in-law Faith–would you guys want to gather at Cheri’s house and we can make candles together as a family. I thought making memorial candles together, that we could give to every family member to light in their homes, would be nice since we lived in different towns and couldn’t be together because of Covid-19. My hope was that as we lit each candle apart we could remember and honor Cheri together.

Well the first candles we made smelled amazing… unlit. I used therapeutic grade essential oils because at the time, I was an essential oil rep. But when I lit the candle, I couldn’t smell the amazing scent! I was perplexed.

So, my ADHD superpower kicked in. I hyper-fixated on how to make a candle actually smell when lit. I began watching You Tube videos to perfect my candle making. Looking back now, I realize that this hyper-fixation really helped me through the grief. It gave me a purpose and something to focus on and served as a welcome distraction from the immense sadness. I became obsessed with making a really good candle. I never expected to start a business. But one day while on the porch watching candle making youtube videos, I came across a woman my age who had a successful candle business and she was giving her 5 foundational tips for starting a candle business. I was intrigued! I began furiously taking notes and then shared everything I learned with my husband. We were both home, my husband had been laid off from his marketing job due to the shut down….we did not have any start up money, but we had time! So we began brainstorming what a candle business might look like for me. What kind of candle would I want to create? What would my brand be? I knew I personally loved natural things. I loved hiking and being outside and I loved essential oils. So a nature themed candle business made sense. I also love art and design and care deeply about my home aesthetics. I wanted to make a product I would buy–It had to be pretty and all-natural. Pat was a marketing major and so he strongly encouraged me to choose a business name that didn’t leave people guessing about what kind of product I sold. I landed on FireLight because I felt like God gave me this light in the midst of darkness. And since a candle is fire that gives off light it would surely help people understand what kind of product I was trying to sell! The name also felt very meant to be because my name Lucy means “light bearer.”

In the beginning I was making candles in my kitchen and curing them in my guest bathroom. It was a home grown operation and the first six months went really well! My husband put his marketing skills to use and built a website for me. My next move was to approach a friend who owned a business and get my candles in a shop. After presenting my product full of nerves she said yes which in turn boosted my confidence. With my new found confidence, I went to another retail store where I did not know the owner personally, and presented like I was a pro with all the confidence in the world and he said yes!! I now had two stores and an online shop and felt so excited and hopeful. I hired my sister-in-law, Faith, to help with social media marketing and product making. My friends and family that wanted to support the new business venture were ordering candles from me online because it was covid and they were staying home that year. I loved that my profit margin was fairly decent with online sales, and so I had decided I was going to focus on building an online business. But the next year, online sales went down and by the first quarter of 2022 they were terrible! The trend was changing–people were tired of being stuck inside and they were ready to get back out there and shop in a brick and mortar with a renewed passion to support local businesses. I realized that it was important to let those customers know the candle they were considering was Locally Handcrafted so I invested in candle inserts that displayed this prominently! I also decided it was worth it to develop a high end candle line in addition to my signature line and offer different candle vessels with different price points to better accommodate the different customers and shops. This worked! Being able to adapt and change when needed made a big difference! It felt risky at the time, but I’m so glad I did it. I now have 25 retail partners and my sales have tripled since 2022. In 2023 I built a candle workshop in my backyard because I had outgrown my kitchen!

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

I recently listened to a podcast by Emily Gray about how to pitch wholesale handmade products to boutique owners. She shared her preference as a boutique owner for how to be approached and it totally changed how I was tackling the difficult job of finding new retail partners. She recommended sending a pitch package and gave lots of tips on how to do that. I highly recommend listening to her podcast for more details. I followed all of her advice and have built three solid retail partnerships in the last six months using this method. I hope to send out 1-3 pitch packages a month in 2024.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In 2023, I purchased a candle making workshop for my backyard. It was a huge leap. On paper, the business could not afford it, but knowing that having a workshop space would greatly impact my business, I forged ahead and found new ways to bring in more revenue to pay for the space. I listed my products on Faire, started sending out more pitch packages, and began offering candle making workshops. I am convinced that taking on this financial challenge was the best decision for my business and has fortified my resilience and established me in this area as a business that is not going away!

What’s Next? 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.firelightcandle.com
• Instagram: @firelightcandle
• Facebook: @firelightcandle
• Linkedin: Lucy Strickland
• Other: Faire Direct Link: firelightcandle.faire.com

Image Credits
Faith Strickland (my sister-in-law is my photographer)