We were lucky to catch up with Miles Gray recently and have shared our conversation below.

Miles , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How do you think about spending on things like coffee when times are tough?

I live in a household of three (not counting our many cats) and none of us were employed until yesterday. My fiance is disabled and I have a medley of mental ailments (as does he) so working is very hard for us. We’ve never had a lot of money. Starting a business was not easy. I saved up to actually start it and I started small, with only four products and two of each. I researched until I found an alternative to etsy that I liked, which happened to be Indiemade. I’m still very satisfied with them. I recognize not everyone, especially those on disability, are capable of “saving up.” I don’t have a lot of advice for you, other than look out for a miracle and do not hold back when it comes to seizing your goals.
After starting the initial business, I break down every single order with what money that came from it let me break even and what was profit. I always put the breakeven money back into my business, and if we’re caught up on bills (which isn’t often, unfortunately), then I’ll put some of the profit in as well.

Miles , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi! My name is Miles Gray, I’m a queer writer and in March I started getting crafty. I now work with wax and polymer clay primarily, but I’m hoping to get into ceramics and woodworking when I can afford it! Chemically Imbalanced is a small business where I share the best parts of my life, my most creative days. I strive to bring happiness to my customers even in small quantities, and it makes my week when someone says their order made their day.
My candles specifically are very unique, as they’re simple but decorated with wax melts to make themed concepts. It’s a very simple, original idea, which is my favourite.
I am most proud of my own resilience. Owning a business is not easy, successful or not. Since March, I’ve had exactly one thought of closing up Chemically Imbalanced and that was while I was unwillingly off my mood stabilizers, so once I felt better I didn’t even feel that way anymore.
I care about what I do and I will not let anyone stop me from doing it.

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

I won’t ramble on for five years, but I believe just running a business consistently shows my resilience. Like I mentioned, it’s a hard thing to do, but I’m doing it and I’m loving it. Things get hard, and that’s okay. I have severe BPD, and at my stay at a psychiatric hospital, I learned what DBT was. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. Dialectical means two things can be true at once—for example, instead of “this is hard, but I can do this,” it’s “this is hard, AND I can do this.” It makes a real difference.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Tiktok has been a great source for me, it’s a fun platform I enjoy posting on and there’s tons of art supporters on there. Most of my small business friends get most of their sales from TikTok.

Contact Info:

• Website: chemcandles.indiemade.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/chemicallyximbalanced?igshid=YTY2NzY3YTc=
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/chemcandles/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@maxgraybooks471
• Other: milesgraybooks on tumblr