We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Steffy Gonzalez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Steffy below.

Alright, Steffy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear how you think where to draw the line in terms of asking friends and family to support your business – what’s okay and what’s over the line?

I think there’s a fine line between pushy and helpful.

I have plenty of friends and family who support my business by ordering candles through my Etsy shop or through custom orders for events. Not everyone can do that! Not everyone even LIKES candles. And they don’t have to start liking them or spending more money just because I decided to start making them.

So they help in other ways. Sharing my posts on social media, telling people about my business, etc. I’ve rarely, if ever, explicitly asked family and friends to do anything related to my business when it comes to purchasing or interacting… a lot of them just want to!

Every friend group and every family has different dynamics. Personally, I don’t think it would be appropriate in my situation to hold it against someone for not buying from me. The expectation just isn’t there and I think that opens the potential for awkward situations. Maybe you get a little too pushy and now people want to avoid you to avoid an uncomfortable spot. But for other friends and family, maybe there’s a different vibe. Hopefully, you know the people around you well enough to know what would make them feel weird.

Just… don’t be weird. Don’t make it weird and the people around you will just want to support you, in whatever form that takes!

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

I’ve been making soy wax candles for over 2 years. It started off as a more casual hobby that I started with an Amazon kit and some boredom. Then, I realized that I actually really liked it! The act of making the candles was relaxing to me and was helping with my anxiety by just giving me something to channel my energy into.

It was my husband who first suggested starting to sell my candles and to be honest, I didn’t really entertain it at first because I simply thought I couldn’t do it. I got a little bit of courage, bought some scent oils and a box of quality wax, and gave it a try… and it turns out, I could do it, which was a huge surprise to me.

From there, it’s all sort of a blur. I started watching a ton of YouTube videos to learn about new techniques, different types of wax, containers, etc. and there was just so much to take in. I learned about some techniques that I could use to make some pretty cool things like realistic dessert candles and cocktail candles that look like margaritas and other fun things! I got a lot of positive feedback from my first customers and friends and just kept developing from there.

It’s a very small operation. Like, I’m the only one. I do everything, from making the candles to making the labels, booking in-person market events, managing social media, accounting, and all of the miscellaneous things that come along with running a small business. It can get a little bit overwhelming, but it’s my own little thing. My husband helps a lot and he’s been amazing as an assistant. He helps me set up at all of my events, he’s my test-sniffer, and he’s really encouraging.

All of my candles are soy wax! Sometimes they’ll have beeswax elements to them, but the bases are always mainly soy wax. Everything is handmade by me in small batches so I can make sure that everything is as perfect as possible.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think two things really help me.

Not to be too confident (because I promise, I usually am not), but quite frankly, people like me. I’m likeable, I know how to connect with people at events and through my shop, and I make people feel comfortable trusting me and my products. My “day job” is in the realm of marketing, so it comes more naturally to me than maybe it does for crafters who aren’t as forward-facing.

I’ve met a lot of wonderful people, especially within the St. Louis small business community. There’s a sense of mutual respect among a lot of us and we go out of our way to support each other, so that’s really helped with building up trust not only with customers, but with other businesses who I could possibly work with in the future.

The second thing – I make a good product! I don’t put things out there just for the heck of it, to try to make a quick dollar. It takes me a lot of time to make the candles in small batches, especially around the holidays when it feels almost nonstop, but it takes a lot of time because I care. My customers need to be able to trust that when they buy something from me, it’s going to be good. Things are expensive these days! People don’t spend money on just anything… so when they trust me with their hard-earned money, I’m going to try my best to make everything perfect.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

I sell primarily on Etsy right now while I’m building my own website.

I like Etsy. It’s been great for building up an audience and a client base from nothing and coming from my marketing background, I’m able to work the SEO of my listings to try to get maximum exposure to searches on the site. The platform makes it pretty easy to process orders and it integrates with a lot of other apps that I use, like my shipping platform, so things seem pretty seamless when working through orders.

That being said… the “handmade” part of the Etsy rules are often skirted by other businesses. It’s becoming really saturated on Etsy and I do get frustrated when I’m scrolling on Etsy and see something that’s clearly a drop-shipping operation or a reseller. Some people straight up just treat it like Amazon and all that does is push myself and other handmade creators, further down in searches and further from a potential customer.

Like I said, it’s been great for building everything up in the last two years. However, I don’t think it’s very sustainable in the longterm for someone who has a small operation like me. The fees are an absolute killer and with the price of, you know, EVERYTHING going up, the cut of each sale that goes to the platform via fees can get a little out of hand sometimes. I’m excited to get my own site launched so that I can try to minimize the unnecessary fees!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://prettyokaycandles.etsy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prettyokaycandles/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PrettyOkayCandles/