How to Become a Master Candle Maker

As with any merchandise, the best place to sell it is wherever you find customers. I have listed some ideas here to get you started. These have been proven to have good potential for wax art sales

Shows And Fairs 
This category is probably the best possible outlet for wax art. This would include county and state fairs, street fairs, craft shows, craft fairs and any similar venue. These are usually outdoors and outdoor shows will generally produce more sales so this is a great market to target. Indoor shows can be good, but generally get substantially less traffic without a substantially lower booth fee

As a general guideline, always try to do the biggest shows possible. You will sell a lot more at a show with an attendance of 40,000 than at a show with 4,000 people You can expect to pay higher booth fees at bigger shows, but usually you will sell a lot more. Keep in mind that your labor cost (yes, your time is worth money) will be the same either way, so why not maximize sales for the time spent.

Flea Market/Swap Meet
This could be classified with shows and fairs with one big exception - people go to flea markets expecting to haggle over price. Personally, I don't enjoy haggling and find people offering me less money for something than I paid for it somewhat offensive. So I do never do any shows that are flea markets or associated with flea markets (as in Craft Fair and Flea Market). If you don't mind the haggling, some flea markets have the potential to produce big sales.

In Store Display
I have seen several stores try to market a make your own candle section in their existing store. This may do better in a candle shop than in other types of stores, however I have never seen anyone actually stop to make their own candle in this type of setup. Although some locations (such as tourist areas) might do well with this type of setup, most probably won't. You'll have to decide this for yourself.

Birthday Parties
The past decade or so has seen a big rise in popularity of professionally hosted children's parties. As a parent I understand the attraction - no work, no mess, no cleanup, Just have a good time and leave all that for someone else to take care of. Basically this has given rise to a fairly new industry - party planners for kid's parties. Some businesses specialize in this, offering a variety of party types. Other businesses offer parties in their specialty only - such as ice skating, bowling, bakeries, arcades, laser tag, plaster craft, etc

The popularity of this leads to several possibilities. If you own a business specializing in craft parties, wax art is a potential candidate for one type of party. If you own a candle store and have a spare room that could be decorated up nice, this has great potential as a new revenue source Even if you don't have a storefront, there is some potential for doing the wax art portion of a party m people's homes (more on this later).

The major pitfall to all this is having to work with kids. If you don't have a lot of patience or don't like to be around kids this is not your best option.

Customers that book a party expect things to go smoothly - after all that's why they are paying a professional (you). It's vital that you plan everything out, are well prepared, and act professionally at all times. Don't just plan for everything going smoothly - you must have contingency plans in case things go wrong. Sit down and make a list of every possible thing that could go wrong - and how you will deal with it.

Remember that a successful party with lots of happy children and parents will often result in multiple bookings for more parties

On Location
As mentioned previously there is some market for doing wax art on location. This could be as simple as providing the entertainment for children's parties, or a larger operation entertainmg corporate spouses during a convention.

Another on location possibility is fund rising. Many non profit organizations host bazaars and other events to raise funds. Although some actually offer booth space to vendors for a fee (treat these like craft fairs). Some don't allow outside vendors, but may be interested in a partnership. Basically you would kick back a portion of the sales in exchange for booth space. Sometimes these organizations will even provide free help working the booth with you.

Summary
With the ideas explored in this chapter you should by now have formed some idea of how you plan to market your wax art. These are some of the most popular marketing methods, but don't stop there - you may come up with a new and unique approach that will do even better.