Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tyler Humphries. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Tyler, appreciate you joining us today. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your business and how did you resolve those issues?

The most unexpected problem I’ve faced in my business was the supply breakdown during the height of the pandemic. It was so strange. One day you could get wax but couldn’t find jars. Or you could find jars but not lids. And then you could get lids but not wicks. It was very frustrating but caused me to pivot in my business to stay afloat. While I slowly acquired the delayed supplies I needed to make candles, I started really marketing my wax melts. Initially, I made wax melts as a cheaper version of my candles for people who didn’t want to pay full price for a glass jar candle but now they’ve become essential to my business. They sell the best during my in-person events and they’re a good starter product for people who are curious about a scent but don’t want to buy a candle.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Golden Child Candles is a small, online candle shop based in St. Louis, Missouri. I make handmade, scented soy candles and wax melts. I’m currently using Golden Child Candles’ profits to save a house that was built in the 1890s. The house sits in Hamilton Heights, a very tiny, very forgotten part of St. Louis city that has ties to Hamilton R. Gamble, the provisional governor of Missouri during the Civil War. The neighborhood is located just outside of the West End and Central West End neighborhoods. The house we’re trying to save belonged to my grandparents, so I have personal ties to the home. But I’m also a lover of old architecture and I find it exhilarating to be able to renovate and restore a home that hasn’t structurally changed since the 1910s.

By renovating this one house, I’m hoping to help raise awareness for this particular neighborhood that has seen much better days and raise the property values of the homes around it, making it easier for the next person to buy and renovate in that area since the property values are currently too low for a standard mortgage to be placed on the homes. I’m hoping that by very publicly saving one home, it will spark a revitalization wave in that area. The same type of revitalization the West End is currently experiencing.

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

I handmake all my products. It started in the Fall of 2019. I was experiencing a flare-up with my carpal tunnel syndrome and dreading making cookies from scratch with my niece and nephews like I normally do for Thanksgiven. I was casually watching a random vlog on Youtube while scrolling on Instagram. In the video, someone was making candles from a kit and it looked like a fun activity. I got the idea for me and the kids to make candles for our moms instead of cookies and that was the innocent beginning of everything.

By Christmas, my mom was encouraging me to make candles to sell and after months of experimenting and learning, I felt like I had something to sell to the world. But the world had other plans. My first in-person event was canceled due to the Covid-19 St. Louis City lockdown. After feeling a little sad for myself, I took my 100 candles and created a website to sell them on and the business was officially underway in 2020.

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

The initial funding for my business was really small. I used money from my daytime job’s paycheck to buy the candle making kit for myself and the kids. That was probably about $65. It’s hard to remember now. But in the next 2 months, I would probably go on to spend an additional $350 dollars, all out of my own pocket, buying materials as I learned to make the type of candles I wanted to sell. Candle making is very much a trial and error learning experience and it can become very expensive if you don’t know exactly what you want to make.

When my first in-person event was canceled due to the lockdown, I set up a website and started selling my candles there. And shortly after that, the nation received the first stimulus check and I used half of mine to buy more supplies to expand my scent offerings, change my labels, buy marketing materials, and start creating wax melts. So in total, I spent around $1000 over 6 months to get my business going and making enough money to pay for itself.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.goldenchildcandles.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/goldenchildcandles
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/goldenchildcandles
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrWf9xMTTJ1jel7nfhN17hg