We were lucky to catch up with Sierra Starke recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sierra, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?

The kindest thing anyone has ever done for me was when Erica, owner of Keeper’s Vintage offered me a space to sell my products in her store.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

My name is Sierra. I started making candles when I was shopping online for candles in the Summer of 2020 at one of my favorite candle stores and I decided I wanted to learn how to make candles instead. I purchased candle making supplies after researching different suppliers and waxes I wanted to use. A month after receiving my candle making supplies and making candles for family and friends, we created Sterling & Co., that I named after my son. Sterling, who is also a chandler. We currently sell Classic & Luxury Candles, Wax Melt, Car/Room Sprays and Forever Flowers. What sets us apart from other candle companies are that we provide an entire Luxury Candle Collection that features vessels that are refillable as many time as you want with any scent you choose from our collection of scents and that most of our scents are custom blends that my son and I have created. What I am most proud of in our business is how much growth we have had within the past two years in starting. We are now in a local store in Hampden, Keeper’s Vintage. Also, that we have expanded to other products besides our candles, like our car/room sprays that are a best selling product, our wax melts giving our customers a flame less option and our Forever Flowers that are scented flowers that last forever. They never wilt or wither and are a beautiful addition to any home decor.

Can you talk to us about how’d you funded your business?

I put together the initial capital needed to start my business by being an essential employee throughout the entire pandemic. I lived very frugal in those first few months of the pandemic and saved most of the money I made from working through that time.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

We manufacture all of our products. We did not know how to make candles in the beginning. I learned how to manufacture our products from YouTube and lots of testing to provide only the best for our customers. Once I mastered the manufacturing, I taught my son how to manufacture our products and create his own custom blended scents. The lesson that is most important to me about manufacturing is testing. It is an essential part of being a manufacturer. Testing ensures that we are creating and delivering a flawless product for the customer each time we manufacture the product. Creating our products in small handmade batches also allows us to make sure we are creating and delivering a flawless product to our customers.

Contact Info:

• Website: Sterlingnco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sterling_a_n_d_co