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Speaker 3: Welcome back everyone. This is Mine the Business.
Speaker 4: Small Business success Stories, a podcast brought to you by Intwood,
Speaker 4: QuickBooks and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia. I'm Jennie Storrez.
Speaker 5: And I'm Austin Hankwooz.
Speaker 4: Austin, what do you think of when you think of
Speaker 4: small business ownership?
Speaker 5: Ooh, we're getting right to it. Okay.
Speaker 2: What do I think of when I think of small
Speaker 2: business ownership? I think of working alongside of my favorite
Speaker 2: partners and employees to build a growing business. I unfortunately
Speaker 2: think a tax is but I also think about just
Speaker 2: how easy it can be to start a business, depending
Speaker 2: on the tools and resources that you choose.
Speaker 4: When I think of the earliest stages of someone starting
Speaker 4: a business, I inctily think of a little kid opening
Speaker 4: up a lemonade stand. I think for a lot of
Speaker 4: small business owners, this is the first step that we
Speaker 4: take into going business for ourselves.
Speaker 2: You are absolutely correct. The first business I had was
Speaker 2: in eighth grade. I lived in Denver, Colorado, and I
Speaker 2: was snowblowing driveways, charging people fifteen dollars a driveway. It
Speaker 2: was quite a labor intensive business, and it did last
Speaker 2: that long, but I made some quick money.
Speaker 3: That's quite the hustle.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: One of those things they don't tell us when we're
Speaker 4: kids is whether we should have registered as an LLC
Speaker 4: or an ascorp. I know I was not thinking about that.
Speaker 4: Do you think kids today are looking into patent and
Speaker 4: copyright law for their lemonade recipe?
Speaker 2: I mean, with the AI technology we got today, who
Speaker 2: knows what the powers that these kids. They're pretty sophisticated now,
Speaker 2: so I would not be surprised. But I had no
Speaker 2: idea about any of this stuff when I was starting,
Speaker 2: and certainly not when I was a kid. Now, even
Speaker 2: as an adult, I put in a lot of research
Speaker 2: in studying to learn the steps I needed to take
Speaker 2: to make my business official and finally get things off
Speaker 2: the ground.
Speaker 4: Absolutely same here and all these options and understanding the
Speaker 4: best way to get started and launching your business can
Speaker 4: be so overwhelming for a lot of people. But luckily
Speaker 4: we are here to help because most of us aren't
Speaker 4: selling lemonade in the yard anymore. We're dealing with significant
Speaker 4: amounts of money, regulations, liability, insurance, and so much more.
Speaker 4: So we've got to know all the paths we can
Speaker 4: take and understand what is the best thing for our
Speaker 4: business and our future plans.
Speaker 2: And that can be very daunting just to get started right,
Speaker 2: how overwhelming it is to think about, Oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: I have to think about to your point, insurance, all
Speaker 2: these employees, these liabilities, money, regulation compliance, it's pretty daunting.
Speaker 2: I remember when I first started out Janias, I had
Speaker 2: countless question and I was so fortunate to have some
Speaker 2: mentors and people in my corner that I could lean
Speaker 2: on to help me with that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, it's really important to just make sure
Speaker 4: that you're getting the information that you need in order
Speaker 4: to navigate this path, because, especially if you're the first
Speaker 4: person in your circle. To start a business, you don't
Speaker 4: necessarily have that level of knowledge around you. I know
Speaker 4: for me, it was a lot of kind of Google
Speaker 4: and YouTube university trial by fire if you.
Speaker 2: Were professor Google is what I call them. We're going
Speaker 2: to be discussing all that and more today with our guests,
Speaker 2: Misty and Dennis Acres from the Candle Poor in Tampa, Florida.
Speaker 2: Misty and Dennis are University of South Florida alums who
Speaker 2: wanted to start a business that broke through the clutter
Speaker 2: of technology and are increasing reliance on all things online
Speaker 2: to bring people together in a physical space. They also
Speaker 2: wanted to have a product that people could use and
Speaker 2: enjoy every day. They found the perfect blend of the
Speaker 2: two in candle making. They opened The Candle Core in
Speaker 2: Tampa in twenty nineteen and have been providing unique and
Speaker 2: enjoyable experiences for customers of all ages ever since. They
Speaker 2: are Tampa's first pour your own candle experience, and they're
Speaker 2: also family owned and operated. From individuals to couples to
Speaker 2: groups large and small, they have a plethora of products
Speaker 2: and scents to choose from, and pride themselves in crafting
Speaker 2: a bond building social experience that leaves you with something
Speaker 2: beautiful to take home. Missy and Dennis, thank you so
Speaker 2: much for joining us on this episode of Mind the Business.
Speaker 2: We're here in the candleploor in Tampa, Florida. It smells amazing,
Speaker 2: really cool spot.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's half the battle, so custom candle experience. I
Speaker 6: hope it smells good when you get in here.
Speaker 2: So, I unfortunately am someone who is chronically online. I
Speaker 2: am always on social media, I'm always looking at headline news.
Speaker 2: I spend too much time on the internet. So when
Speaker 2: it came to candle making, sort of the opposite of that.
Speaker 2: What stood out about candle making to you, which which
Speaker 2: allows people to detach from their devices and sort of
Speaker 2: the online buzz that we're always pulled into.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's about the experience and that's what we wanted
Speaker 1: to create with our business. Candles are something that I
Speaker 1: think most people love and they use and then they
Speaker 1: reuse and come back. So that was a big part
Speaker 1: of it, is just being able to have an in
Speaker 1: person experience vers like what you said is like surfing
Speaker 1: online and really you know, being able to shop and
Speaker 1: get everything you need to do at your doorstep. This
Speaker 1: is something that really brings people together, and we love that.
Speaker 2: Talk more about the bringing people together part because I mean,
Speaker 2: I can't count quickly here, but I'm at least a
Speaker 2: dozen actual seating arrangements here. So how large these parties?
Speaker 2: Do people come by themselves sometime? I mean, what is
Speaker 2: the true customer experience when they walk in the door.
Speaker 6: That's a great question. The candlepoor is a custom candle experience.
Speaker 6: Our goal is to help you create your own scent.
Speaker 6: So we bring people together. They choose from over one
Speaker 6: hundred different individual scents to make their own custom scent blend.
Speaker 6: The experience itself last right around thirty to forty five minutes,
Speaker 6: and we always reckoned and starting your day with us
Speaker 6: because once you are done creating your own special candle,
Speaker 6: they need two hours to set prep in bag. So
Speaker 6: that's when you go spend some more time with friends,
Speaker 6: and you come back and pick it up. I mean,
Speaker 6: you can come by yourself, that's perfectly fine. Ninety nine
Speaker 6: point nine percent of what we do is actually not
Speaker 6: about candles, is about making you feel welcome, enjoying yourself,
Speaker 6: having a fun experience.
Speaker 2: That's amazing. Now to my understanding, this in Hyde Park
Speaker 2: is your first location. Talk to us about what it
Speaker 2: was like to open your doors on day one.
Speaker 1: Terrifying. Yeah, I mean the thing is you have no
Speaker 1: idea what to expect. Are people gonna You know, we
Speaker 1: are both from the area, so I think we had
Speaker 1: that initial friends and family welcome, everybody's excited, they're proud
Speaker 1: we do grand opening. But then once that day's over,
Speaker 1: it's who's coming? Do people know where we are? Our
Speaker 1: first location was actually on the other side. We were
Speaker 1: on the second story, no traffic, so we were just
Speaker 1: kind of like, okay, there would be days that likee
Speaker 1: walked through the door. But then what really happened, especially
Speaker 1: like crediting social media, is people started to come in,
Speaker 1: they were sharing other people saw it, they were like, oh,
Speaker 1: my friend just came. So that took off really fast
Speaker 1: for us, and we're very very blessed that we had that.
Speaker 1: And then really just our friends and family like gathering
Speaker 1: together to support us and rallying and coming in and
Speaker 1: getting the word.
Speaker 3: Out was huge.
Speaker 2: Well, you all have obviously done a wonderful job. I
Speaker 2: think you're opening your fourth location.
Speaker 5: Now, m m. Yeah, we'll be in Sarasota congratulations.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so how did you guys find the money to
Speaker 4: do this?
Speaker 1: We self funded our first location. That was just something
Speaker 1: like I knew for several years what I wanted to do,
Speaker 1: so I you know, we were saving for that. But yeah,
Speaker 1: to start, it was very difficult to present to people
Speaker 1: and you're trying to like explain it and they're like,
Speaker 1: what what are you doing? Even our friends. I had
Speaker 1: a friend that came up to us like a year
Speaker 1: after we opened, and she was like, I just remember
Speaker 1: when you were talking about it, and she was like
Speaker 1: I just left being like, oh no, the this is
Speaker 1: never going to work, and I'm like she felt sorry
Speaker 1: for us, and then she's like, I'm really happy for you.
Speaker 1: But I knew what it would look like. He knew
Speaker 1: what it would look like, but until we were open,
Speaker 1: we didn't really have a lot of backing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean sometimes it takes time to make believers
Speaker 4: out of folks, right.
Speaker 6: Exactly, And honestly, what she said that still happens. So
Speaker 6: if we go to like a networking event and it's
Speaker 6: like I'm a doctor, i'm a lawyer, I'm an accountant,
Speaker 6: and I'm like, we are a custom candle experience and
Speaker 6: They always like, you know how whin the dog looking
Speaker 6: at you that doesn't really understand you?
Speaker 5: And they tilt their head to the left a little bit.
Speaker 6: They're always like, do that and you try to explain
Speaker 6: it and have you really got to get them in
Speaker 6: here and touch and feel and be part of the
Speaker 6: environment to really understand what we're doing.
Speaker 3: You know what's funny.
Speaker 4: I find a common theme in all the folks that
Speaker 4: we've talked to on this season and just in general,
Speaker 4: is you don't ask questions to folks who don't have
Speaker 4: the experience or the exposure to what you're trying to do. Right,
Speaker 4: You had a lot of nasayers, You got a lot
Speaker 4: of people saying, are you nuts?
Speaker 3: But these are also probably.
Speaker 4: People who don't own a business, You've never dabbled in entrepreneurship,
Speaker 4: or at least of not taking the level of risk
Speaker 4: that you guys have taken. And so I think this
Speaker 4: is a good reminder talk to people who are actually
Speaker 4: in the arena, because they're the ones that are going
Speaker 4: to set you up for success, versus folks who are
Speaker 4: kind of just maybe projecting their own fears onto you
Speaker 4: and are not really going to give you the advice
Speaker 4: that you need to move forward.
Speaker 1: It's a really good point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have a funny feeling that's going to be
Speaker 2: a theme of this season, right, leaning in on your
Speaker 2: trusted advocates and sort of your team members.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: We're just talking to Sharise earlier with episode one, and
Speaker 2: she was talking about how she had a mentor, right,
Speaker 2: and so she leans on the mentor for recommendations and
Speaker 2: other things like that.
Speaker 5: So I'm right there worth with you. I think it's
Speaker 5: very important.
Speaker 2: You know, a big reason why I like into a
Speaker 2: quick book so much is because they simplify the day
Speaker 2: to day of me tracking my revenue, my bookkeeping, my payroll,
Speaker 2: all that fun stuff. And so I'm curious, when is
Speaker 2: it a good time to diiy the patents, the trademarks,
Speaker 2: the incorporations, the accounting versus sort of offloading that to
Speaker 2: a trusted partner.
Speaker 5: How do you balance that?
Speaker 6: It's just knowing your strengths, your weaknesses, a lot of
Speaker 6: the law stuff. That was an easy one to say,
Speaker 6: let's offload that one. You know, Yeah, that's literally what
Speaker 6: it is. You got to understand yourself and you really
Speaker 6: want to focus on what the business is doing. I
Speaker 6: know you mentioned into it quick books, and it's going
Speaker 6: to take care of a lot of things for you.
Speaker 5: That's the one thing you want to.
Speaker 6: Do is get us much off of your plate so
Speaker 6: you can focus on how is this going to run?
Speaker 6: How are my customers going to feel when they're in there,
Speaker 6: as opposed to do I remember to put that recept
Speaker 6: in and get that all that in the background and
Speaker 6: focus on your main business.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's part of it too, is like I said,
Speaker 1: stay in your lane. If you're not great at something,
Speaker 1: just understand you're not. You know, he does all the marketing,
Speaker 1: and that was something like when we decided to do
Speaker 1: it together. His photography is beautiful, so when we first
Speaker 1: started the business, we're posting these professional photos. Hiring is
Speaker 1: probably the number one thing that's important with any business.
Speaker 1: It's just making sure that you have the right team
Speaker 1: in place. So if you're not good at like judging
Speaker 1: somebody as far as like you can't read them, and
Speaker 1: get somebody that can use a recruiter. That's important. But
Speaker 1: we've always done that in house because it's something that
Speaker 1: I feel is probably one of my biggest strengths.
Speaker 2: I think before the interview, you too were sort of
Speaker 2: going back and forth where Dennis is more of like
Speaker 2: the pie and the sky guy and Misty is more
Speaker 2: of the operationals. Right, So maybe maybe there's like this
Speaker 2: really cool dichotomy that balances out, you know, the success
Speaker 2: of this business because you two works so well together.
Speaker 5: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 6: I mean a majority of things behind the scenes. So
Speaker 6: it's making sure the machine is working. And then how
Speaker 6: do we I guess what I would say that I
Speaker 6: do is how do I put a little sugar on
Speaker 6: the machine? I mean everything we do here is a process.
Speaker 6: Everything is laid out, there's check marks to be made,
Speaker 6: everything extremely extremely well oiled machine kind of stuff. And
Speaker 6: how do we take the well oiled machine and give
Speaker 6: it a little more personality? And that's it can be
Speaker 6: probably annoying sometimes, but it's my my trait for sure.
Speaker 6: And then yeah, as far as entrepreneurship, that's just waking
Speaker 6: up every day and looking in the mirror and saying,
Speaker 6: here we go, let's let's get through it and making
Speaker 6: your list. And like you said, you're learning every day
Speaker 6: and sometimes you don't realize you're learning it. Maybe more
Speaker 6: trial by fire sometimes, but you want to do your
Speaker 6: best to wake up and understand that you're blessed to
Speaker 6: a be busy.
Speaker 5: That's why we're tired and we're busy.
Speaker 6: So you're blessed to be busy, and you're blessed to
Speaker 6: have a counterpart in the business that really puts their
Speaker 6: heart and soul in it and is up.
Speaker 5: Till the wee hours of the night.
Speaker 6: I always tell the staff when you get an email
Speaker 6: at midnight or one am, it's not because she delayed
Speaker 6: it on some weird clock system as she's sitting next
Speaker 6: to me just firing away on our computer, because that's
Speaker 6: the best time she can work because no one can
Speaker 6: email her back.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and holidays, weekends.
Speaker 6: So you just got to get used to that lifestyle,
Speaker 6: and you got to get used to some of your
Speaker 6: days are just not going to look the same majority
Speaker 6: of them all. I think that's why we do this though.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely a different breed for sure.
Speaker 6: When people go to a school for entrepreneurship, I'm like,
Speaker 6: maybe just go out and get your teeth kicked in,
Speaker 6: because that's what it is.
Speaker 5: It is.
Speaker 6: It's like, how do we get through today? Like the
Speaker 6: pandemic happened. Obviously, we open in April twenty fift two
Speaker 6: thousand nineteen. The world changed a little bit after that,
Speaker 6: but just to navigate the PPP loans and navigate all
Speaker 6: that so we can just somehow hope to stay open
Speaker 6: was a day to day taxing on both emotions and
Speaker 6: mental status and all kinds of things.
Speaker 5: But we got through it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like you say, year to year, it's different, and
Speaker 1: we just really got like that fire with our first year.
Speaker 1: You're trying to figure out what you're doing, who you hire,
Speaker 1: who your customers are, how to run your business, and
Speaker 1: then global pandemic that's never happened in any of our times.
Speaker 1: So then it's like, okay, now we have to close
Speaker 1: for five months. So year two was like really weird
Speaker 1: because we had to like move everything online, so we
Speaker 1: were doing like virtual candle poor experiences.
Speaker 5: That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: It was cool, yeah, and it was neat to see
Speaker 1: like people really you know, they were just like sending
Speaker 1: us messages like we hope you survive, you know, and
Speaker 1: we're just like, oh.
Speaker 5: Gosh, like little do they know you're thriving now?
Speaker 1: Yeah? And then you know, so year two was like,
Speaker 1: all right, how do you operate being clothes for five
Speaker 1: months with our staff. We kept one hundred percent of
Speaker 1: our staff, which we were extremely proud of to like
Speaker 1: figure out ways to keep them working. Then at the
Speaker 1: end of that year, it was like, Okay, we're doing
Speaker 1: an experience where it's touching and news, but everyone's having
Speaker 1: to wear a mask. And then the third year we
Speaker 1: were like, all right, we're kind of back to normal.
Speaker 1: So it's been a real challenge, but we've learned a ton.
Speaker 1: We feel like we can kind of get through anything.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean, it's so a test of endurance.
Speaker 3: I think entrepreneurship for sure.
Speaker 5: I always say the candlepor is anonymous for change. So
Speaker 5: we're always trying to get better.
Speaker 6: And if you're not getting better, you may not be
Speaker 6: getting worse, but you're just being stagnant.
Speaker 3: I'm curious, was this always the dream?
Speaker 4: Did you always have entrepreneurial dreams or what was your
Speaker 4: previous lives in, you know, corporate entrepreneurial.
Speaker 1: Yes, this No. So I was with a company for
Speaker 1: about ten years that did medical aesthetics. Learned a ton.
Speaker 1: It was a growing company, and it was something like
Speaker 1: what I love about it is what I want to
Speaker 1: do here.
Speaker 5: I got that.
Speaker 1: Experience there and I really learned franchising, the good, the bad,
Speaker 1: the ugly, what mistakes that we could potentially make here,
Speaker 1: and then just trying not to do those things so
Speaker 1: we don't have to go backwards. The dream, I don't
Speaker 1: think was Candles, but it was definitely to create something
Speaker 1: for our employees to hopefully have careers for a long
Speaker 1: time and then maybe go into business for themselves. That's
Speaker 1: a big part of it too. My ultimate dream would
Speaker 1: be to have an employee that's been with us a
Speaker 1: couple of years and then they end up opening in
Speaker 1: a different market and you know, opening their own business
Speaker 1: and putting them into business, which would be neat.
Speaker 3: How about you, Dennis, what was your past life?
Speaker 5: I got too many past lives.
Speaker 6: One of my past lives was photography, video work, that
Speaker 6: kind of stuff. I've done, real estate, I've sold flowers.
Speaker 6: I've done a lot of different things. And when she
Speaker 6: approached us to say candles, I went, what And then Yeah,
Speaker 6: once we worked on the business plan and put our
Speaker 6: minds to it, I just buckled up.
Speaker 5: Honestly, Okay, that's it.
Speaker 6: I literally was just like, Hey, you think this is
Speaker 6: a good idea, Okay, let's do it. And I'd like
Speaker 6: to say, I'm like her chest piece, like where do
Speaker 6: you need me today?
Speaker 5: And where can I help? And let's move forward.
Speaker 3: So I think that.
Speaker 4: Speaks to the underrated but really valuable asset that it
Speaker 4: is to have a partner. Maybe they don't see the
Speaker 4: whole vision, but at least they trust you enough to
Speaker 4: be like, you know, I think you can make this work.
Speaker 4: So I appreciate that about y'all.
Speaker 5: Coming up on Mind the Business, Small Business success.
Speaker 1: Stories higher slow fire Bath is probably the best advice
Speaker 1: that I've been given that I've used.
Speaker 2: We'll be right back. Welcome back to Mind the Business.
Speaker 4: So let's talk about what comes next after you start
Speaker 4: the business. You're tracking inventory, sales, payroll, all the things.
Speaker 4: How does that work for y'all? How did you set
Speaker 4: that up? Because you know, obviously we talk about the
Speaker 4: robustness of into it QuickBooks and being able to manage
Speaker 4: so many different aspects of your business, whether that is
Speaker 4: tracking your money, your expenses, taking care of payroll. The
Speaker 4: benefit of using a system like into it QuickBooks is
Speaker 4: that it takes all of these things that we have
Speaker 4: to individually track and puts them all in one place.
Speaker 4: So can you talk to us about how you set
Speaker 4: up your process to be able to make sure everything's
Speaker 4: flowing so that you don't get lost in the minutia
Speaker 4: of running the business.
Speaker 1: Yeah, into it. QuickBooks was one of the first things
Speaker 1: we did. I came from an industry that had like
Speaker 1: we had our own reports, so if I needed to
Speaker 1: see KPI anything like that, I had to like request
Speaker 1: through it. They developed it, so it was just a
Speaker 1: lot different With QuickBooks. It makes it so much easier,
Speaker 1: especially for a novice business owner because I'm not an accountant,
Speaker 1: I didn't really know, but you can really get a
Speaker 1: lot of great information and helpful information even just getting started.
Speaker 1: But then once you're operating, you know, are you making
Speaker 1: money like you don't? You know, it makes it so
Speaker 1: much nasier. Yes, yes it is. It is very important.
Speaker 1: But it's shocking how many people don't have, you know,
Speaker 1: either access to that or it's something that they don't
Speaker 1: even check.
Speaker 4: So it says a lot about the robustness of the
Speaker 4: system that when I was looking for an account and
Speaker 4: the first thing and they were like, what are you
Speaker 4: going to use if it's not into a quickbook case,
Speaker 4: We're just literally not going to work with you, you know,
Speaker 4: so it's like the proof is in the putting.
Speaker 3: I think for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think what's really cool when people start businesses
Speaker 2: is kind of just how step by step it can be.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: It goes to, you know, you get your LLC, you
Speaker 2: open up the business bank account, you get your EI
Speaker 2: N things like that, Right, So it's like it's a
Speaker 2: very step by step process. And for a lot of
Speaker 2: small business owners, part of that process is getting a trademark.
Speaker 5: Do you all have a trademark? Yeah?
Speaker 6: I was about to say that. That was one of the
Speaker 6: first things we did to protect the brand. But the
Speaker 6: fun fact about us is we are the Candle Poor,
Speaker 6: but we are Wick candlebar doing business as the Candle
Speaker 6: Poor because wick is too commonly used of a word,
Speaker 6: so we couldn't TRADEMARKT and that that's why we wanted
Speaker 6: to do that, so we.
Speaker 5: Can actually trademark it and protect it, just like our icon.
Speaker 6: I don't know if you can show that on this,
Speaker 6: but we have that little square that looks like things
Speaker 6: are pouring into sure and trademarking that and luckily we've
Speaker 6: only had to use once someone was kind of copying it,
Speaker 6: so we've only had to use it once where we
Speaker 6: actually had to like put our trademark into effect.
Speaker 2: Well that's great though, because you took these steps beforehand,
Speaker 2: you were able to protect yourself.
Speaker 1: Yeah. We were just told, like, you might come up
Speaker 1: with a great idea. If you don't protect yourself, someone
Speaker 1: else can see it and they can literally do every
Speaker 1: single thing you're doing and run away with your business.
Speaker 1: So that was important. We had someone that literally almost
Speaker 1: used our logo exact and was reaching out to like
Speaker 1: all of our followers and asking them to follow hers.
Speaker 1: But it was very confusing because people thought it was us,
Speaker 1: like the logo looked like ours. She was even trying
Speaker 1: like to get us to follow and we were like,
Speaker 1: what the.
Speaker 5: Heck, what do you do?
Speaker 1: So little things we utilized, the attorneys that we had
Speaker 1: used that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I felt it was just like you're working every
Speaker 6: single day and it pops up up and our staff
Speaker 6: started saying, Hey, someone's like following us and like they
Speaker 6: want us to like you know that, follow on, follow
Speaker 6: things you do and get someone's attention.
Speaker 5: So she was doing that and it's just frustrating.
Speaker 6: It's like you're putting in a ton of money and
Speaker 6: a ton of time and someone just wants to throw
Speaker 6: something up and kind of work underneath your brand.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've had the situation too.
Speaker 4: I've had to send a couple of seasoned desist letters
Speaker 4: through my attorney for folks just legit copying your entire content.
Speaker 4: Or you're trying to start a brand that is so
Speaker 4: similar to what you're doing that there's clearly going to
Speaker 4: be some confusion. So it's important to have an attorney.
Speaker 4: All that's part of your team as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: They're not cheap, but there's a reason they're good at
Speaker 1: what they do, and they use an attorney. I would say,
Speaker 1: not just like when you need them, but to avoid
Speaker 1: having to use them and need them. So that's a
Speaker 1: big part.
Speaker 3: Of it too.
Speaker 2: Something really cool that you mentioned was doing business as
Speaker 2: can you explain to our listeners what a DBA is?
Speaker 6: I mean, I know why we did it because of
Speaker 6: the trademark issue. It makes filling out paperwork a lot
Speaker 6: longer sometimes because you got to write all that in.
Speaker 5: But a lot of times you'll see that.
Speaker 6: When you're looking up businesses, absolutely you can't find them,
Speaker 6: like why can't I find them?
Speaker 5: And because they have that.
Speaker 1: Part of it also is like we are going to
Speaker 1: potentially franchise. You know, our second location is with Candle
Speaker 1: Bar two, our third location and so on, so everything
Speaker 1: is also separate. That's something to think about when you're
Speaker 1: going into business. Is it all going to be under
Speaker 1: one umbrella or do you plan to have different locations?
Speaker 2: Oh, explain that a little bit. So you're saying that
Speaker 2: you're you have different LLCs for your different locations.
Speaker 1: Yes, and you can protect yourself too. If something happened
Speaker 1: at our Saint Pete location, it's completely separate than what
Speaker 1: we have here or Oxford Exchange or the warehouse or
Speaker 1: if you were you know, just the Candle Poor. If
Speaker 1: a franchise ease coming over, then they're going to have
Speaker 1: a different name, but they would be doing business as
Speaker 1: the Candle Poor. So that way it's recognized when they
Speaker 1: use it that way.
Speaker 5: That's very cool.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's uh one of those areas of
Speaker 4: entrepreneurship that a lot of people really don't understand what
Speaker 4: the point is of taking that step of separating the businesses,
Speaker 4: but it really is from a legal protecting standpoint, just
Speaker 4: to make sure that if there is some sort of
Speaker 4: issue with one site, you're not putting your entire empire
Speaker 4: at risk because everything's lumped together. I recently did the
Speaker 4: DBA thing too, because now I have technically like two
Speaker 4: different brands, and so it was weird explaining to folks
Speaker 4: when I was invoicing them, like why is this Delisious
Speaker 4: Delights but your Jokero dinetto podcast because I have a
Speaker 4: food media company. And then the personal finance thing. So
Speaker 4: it just helps clarify to like what entity are we
Speaker 4: working with. And as far as the trademarking, it's something
Speaker 4: that is pricey, right, but it is something that is
Speaker 4: really essential if you really have a long term vision
Speaker 4: for your brand. I can't tell you the amount of
Speaker 4: friends that I've had that have started businesses are two, three,
Speaker 4: four years in and then they find out that the
Speaker 4: name they've been operating under has been trademarked by someone
Speaker 4: else and you literally have to start from scratch. H
Speaker 4: That is devastating. Yeah, you know, so just taking the
Speaker 4: time to understand, like what you're actually investing in, how
Speaker 4: you can protect your brand, that's an essential part of
Speaker 4: this and it's something that you should plan for financially.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good point. There's people that literally go
Speaker 1: out and look for that, or they'll like get ahead
Speaker 1: of you and like get your website before you can.
Speaker 1: We want the candle Poor. So that was something we
Speaker 1: had to think about too. What's available that we might
Speaker 1: have to pay a little bit, but we're not like
Speaker 1: having to pay thirty thousand dollars because of the name.
Speaker 1: It's so common and someone just has it to sell it.
Speaker 1: So that's a really good point.
Speaker 5: It's actually a good point.
Speaker 6: So when you mentioned the beginning early stages, go on Instagram,
Speaker 6: So for me, go on every single thing and take
Speaker 6: as many as you can. Yep, even the different iterations
Speaker 6: of it. So I believe I've blocked off like candle Poor.
Speaker 6: We're the candle Poor, but we have that one associated
Speaker 6: just not using it. So that's a way to protect it.
Speaker 6: And then you mentioned time about the trademark.
Speaker 5: It takes time. Yeah, So if it's something you want
Speaker 5: to do, that's.
Speaker 6: Game plan day one. How do we do this and
Speaker 6: then start the process. Get help because there's hoops to
Speaker 6: go through and all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 4: Tip on snacking up the social media and you know
Speaker 4: your ur l, you are home or the dot net.
Speaker 4: You want to get all of them because anything that
Speaker 4: you leave open is potential liability for someone else to
Speaker 4: claim it.
Speaker 1: Or you come up with a great name, you start
Speaker 1: doing logos and everything, and then you realize like, oh
Speaker 1: that's not available, and then you have to start over.
Speaker 1: So it's it's good to like figure that stuff out
Speaker 1: first and then build. So we didn't even know our
Speaker 1: name until it was it was late. We opened in April,
Speaker 1: and I think it was like January when we finally
Speaker 1: like were like okay, and then we were like getting
Speaker 1: running with like logos and things, but everything else was
Speaker 1: taken care of. Yeah, it's just important to get all
Speaker 1: of that taken care of first so you're not going backwards.
Speaker 1: You don't want to be scrambling and then realize that
Speaker 1: the website's not available or your logo is copying somebody else.
Speaker 1: So like really doing that research and I think getting
Speaker 1: the legal help before and they guide you rather than
Speaker 1: like you come up with everything, you waste time because
Speaker 1: then you realize, oh, you're going to be violating somebody
Speaker 1: else's you know, trademark, So it is important.
Speaker 5: I'm thinking now back at this trademark.
Speaker 2: I'm thinking about getting the business bank account, going, applying
Speaker 2: for the right things. What was the physical process right,
Speaker 2: so like before you physically were mailed the awesome stamped
Speaker 2: trademark there, did you have to go to a website?
Speaker 5: Did you go inside of an office?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 5: What did you do? Count? Like do two years? Two years?
Speaker 2: Okay, so walk me through that process a little bit more,
Speaker 2: step by step.
Speaker 1: Honestly, we utilized again the patent attorney to do it.
Speaker 1: So they just asked, you know, us, whatever they needed
Speaker 1: to get it going. They gave us kind of like okay,
Speaker 1: these are going to be and they helped with a
Speaker 1: name too, like these are going to be things that
Speaker 1: would potentially cause you to get declined or somebody else
Speaker 1: to protest, because you can do that too, so somebody
Speaker 1: else can protest, which we've done before with people trying
Speaker 1: to apply for something that it's too close to what
Speaker 1: we're doing or it's so generic. You know. Wick that
Speaker 1: was a big thing because every candle has a wick
Speaker 1: in it, so that was like a word that's kind
Speaker 1: of a buzzword to not get approval. So that's part
Speaker 1: of it as well.
Speaker 4: One of the resources that I love is the into
Speaker 4: what QuickBooks blog. There's a bunch of information on there
Speaker 4: on how to start a business. I've actually contributed to
Speaker 4: the blog and there's a lot of educational tips and
Speaker 4: information for people who want to start out. So I'm curious,
Speaker 4: what is the best piece of advice that you've gotten
Speaker 4: from your business mentors?
Speaker 1: Higher, slow, fire fast is probably the best advice that
Speaker 1: I've been given that I've used from the time that
Speaker 1: I started what I would say, like my professional career.
Speaker 1: And it sounds harsh, but it is the most truthful thing.
Speaker 1: When you meet someone and you're on the fence, don't
Speaker 1: hire out a desperation. It's not good for anyone. It's
Speaker 1: not good for your business. A lot of times the
Speaker 1: wrong person can really taint like your environment or a team.
Speaker 1: And if you do make that mistake and you realize
Speaker 1: somebody is not a good fit, you got to get
Speaker 1: rid of them because it the more time they are
Speaker 1: it's really affecting your business negatively. So that's probably the
Speaker 1: best advice that I've ever been given.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and if you stay consistent on that, the team
Speaker 6: actually starts to respect it, because.
Speaker 5: Not only you're holding them to standards.
Speaker 6: Now, if the standards aren't met and someone can't stay
Speaker 6: on the team, they under Okay, serious, Like this is
Speaker 6: not a joke, and like she said, don't hire out
Speaker 6: a desperation, because if you hire out a desperation, you
Speaker 6: end up getting that person in there and six months
Speaker 6: down the road you're like, oh no. So it sounds
Speaker 6: like she said, terrible, but you have to you got it,
Speaker 6: And then that might mean you have to be in
Speaker 6: the shop or the business nine to nine again. But
Speaker 6: you get through it and you hire again, and you
Speaker 6: cross your fingers and you do a good job.
Speaker 2: So, as someone who's starting a business from scratch, there's
Speaker 2: a lot of surprises that come with entrepreneurship. I've dealt
Speaker 2: with a handful of them over the last five years myself,
Speaker 2: and I'm assuming you all have as well. So talk
Speaker 2: to me now about sort of the surprises that came
Speaker 2: out of left field that just threw you for a loop.
Speaker 1: I think my biggest one was I learned that sales
Speaker 1: taxes don't go to where they need to go, like
Speaker 1: you have to physically go to the state and do
Speaker 1: these sales taxes. So I think we were operating for
Speaker 1: like three or four months and someone had asked about
Speaker 1: it and I was like what, And you know, then
Speaker 1: you have to file with Florida, and I had no idea.
Speaker 1: So when you're getting sales tax, it's actually going into
Speaker 1: your account sitting there, and then you pay it either
Speaker 1: monthly or quarterly. So that was a big surprise. Insurance
Speaker 1: is a cost that like, it's expensive and it's really
Speaker 1: not something that we've had to use, but you have
Speaker 1: to pay it, and then as you grow, you're paying
Speaker 1: it employee taxes. There's just stuff that you're just like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, that's a.
Speaker 5: Hard lesson Tampa Forth. We did just have a hurricane
Speaker 5: last year.
Speaker 6: Right, and there's obviously natural disasters that you never want
Speaker 6: to happen that can happen, and that's all over the country,
Speaker 6: so yeah, you want to prepare for that, but you
Speaker 6: also hope it doesn't happen.
Speaker 5: But yeah, little things like that will sneak up on you.
Speaker 4: So I'm curious because this is one of the questions
Speaker 4: I get a lot from my own business coaching clients.
Speaker 4: They're like, well, should I start an LLC right away?
Speaker 4: Do I start operating as a sole proprietor so, like,
Speaker 4: how did you guys decide on what entity made sense
Speaker 4: for the business.
Speaker 1: We relied on the accountant to kind of guide. We
Speaker 1: gave him what do we want to be?
Speaker 3: What are we now?
Speaker 1: And his recommendation was ESCORP So that's where we are now.
Speaker 4: So when you're starting an entity, you have compliance requirements
Speaker 4: with the state paperwork, you have a physical location that
Speaker 4: has its own compliance requirements. You have digital content that
Speaker 4: requires compliance. So how have you been maybe surprised by
Speaker 4: some of these requirements in your own journey?
Speaker 6: You really got to be careful from a business building perspective,
Speaker 6: brick and mortar everything has to be ADA, so when
Speaker 6: you're designing it, you have to know about how wheelchairs
Speaker 6: can turn around in certain areas, the distance between doors
Speaker 6: need to be certain things, So you definitely do that.
Speaker 6: Definitely take the time to work with a nice architect
Speaker 6: or someone to help you with that or at least
Speaker 6: understand it, because that's one of the things that if
Speaker 6: you don't think about, you'll be two years in and
Speaker 6: someone will walk in and that's a big fine. And
Speaker 6: you mentioned digital there are digital compliance things as well.
Speaker 6: I highly, highly highly recommend Google just ADA requirements for
Speaker 6: your website because there is a lot more things you
Speaker 6: can think about that you're having dream that can go
Speaker 6: wrong with a website because a lot of times people
Speaker 6: use websites as placeholders. Please reach out to consultant something
Speaker 6: about the ada portion of it, because it has to
Speaker 6: be accessible for people who are blind color blind. It
Speaker 6: has to be accessible by navigating your entire website.
Speaker 5: With just like I think it's the space bar and
Speaker 5: the arrow keys.
Speaker 6: There's a bunch of little things you need to make
Speaker 6: sure that you're compliant with or you could have issues
Speaker 6: down the road, for sure, so much to keep track of.
Speaker 1: Yeah, even capacity, like capacity issues where we based on
Speaker 1: the number of seats that we have and people who
Speaker 1: can be in the space that required us to add
Speaker 1: additional restroom. So there's so many things that like if
Speaker 1: they say this is a space that holds twenty people,
Speaker 1: then you have to accommodate for those twenty people.
Speaker 5: There's just a lot that.
Speaker 1: We learned, but definitely again utilizing experts that you're not
Speaker 1: having to go in after you do a build out
Speaker 1: and then you're having to spend forty thousand dollars to
Speaker 1: redo your restrooms or anything like that.
Speaker 4: The thing is, these things change too, so it's not
Speaker 4: a one and done situation, right, So it's important to
Speaker 4: just really keep your ear to what's going on because
Speaker 4: you might have to make some additional changes as your
Speaker 4: business continues to operate.
Speaker 2: So the last thing I need to know here, what
Speaker 2: is your favorite scent? I'm looking behind you. I'm see
Speaker 2: probably one hundred different scents. You have to have a favorite.
Speaker 2: I'm sure.
Speaker 3: What is it that's so hard?
Speaker 1: It changes? I think for me it's more of a
Speaker 1: nostalgia thing. A tomato leaf. I grew up on a
Speaker 1: tomato farm, so that like just brings me back to
Speaker 1: being little on the tomato farm with my dad, the smell, everything,
Speaker 1: So that's that's mine for sure.
Speaker 5: It's amazing. Oh man.
Speaker 6: Mine probably evolves with the idea of a vacation because
Speaker 6: I think we need one. It's called Seaside Villa. It's
Speaker 6: just very smooth, kind of close your eyes, you're out
Speaker 6: of here kind of place.
Speaker 5: So I like that.
Speaker 6: And I like one called black Ood and so if
Speaker 6: you like a little masking a little smooth, that's one
Speaker 6: of my favorite ones as well.
Speaker 5: Very cool.
Speaker 2: And I know you all ship all around the country
Speaker 2: Dcandlepoor dot com go check it out.
Speaker 4: Well, thank you so much for having us here at
Speaker 4: the Candlepoor you know, I think what you guys are
Speaker 4: doing is a very novel, incredible concept. There's something very
Speaker 4: powerful about the sensory experience that when you connect a
Speaker 4: memory a person with a smell, it's not just about
Speaker 4: a candle. It really is about remembering someone or a
Speaker 4: specific time. So I love that you guys are really
Speaker 4: creating this experiential thing that people can dive into and
Speaker 4: do something a little different when you're looking for some
Speaker 4: fun stuff to do here in Tampa.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we appreciate you coming and visiting us.
Speaker 2: It's been fun, Denise, I learned a ton during this interview,
Speaker 2: and good god, it smells good in here. I just
Speaker 2: I don't want to leave. I know, what were some
Speaker 2: of your biggest takeaways.
Speaker 4: I think it's the idea that when you're starting a business,
Speaker 4: there are so many things that you can plan for,
Speaker 4: but then again, there's like so many things that you can't.
Speaker 4: You know, things like, let me think about what enity
Speaker 4: I want setting up an accounting system with something like
Speaker 4: into it quick books. But then you're also just going
Speaker 4: to be confronted with things that you literally cannot even
Speaker 4: anticipate are going to be a thing. And so I
Speaker 4: think it's just a good reminder that when you're thinking
Speaker 4: about going down this road as a small business owner,
Speaker 4: be prepared to you know, play with fire pun intended.
Speaker 5: Actually that was a really good one.
Speaker 4: I like that.
Speaker 5: I'm right there with you.
Speaker 2: I think a big takeaway for me was coming back
Speaker 2: to this idea of the step by step process of
Speaker 2: starting a business. Right they sort of just followed the playbook,
Speaker 2: right Google, how do I start a business? And then
Speaker 2: it goes into the LLC formation versus the sole proprietorship
Speaker 2: and understanding the differences there and maybe there's a partnership
Speaker 2: or maybe it's a S corporation or things like that,
Speaker 2: and then you know, taking that to the next level
Speaker 2: with finding the trademark and kind of leaning into Okay,
Speaker 2: who in my network is a trusted ally that can
Speaker 2: help me file for this trademark and how do I
Speaker 2: get that process started? And how long is it going
Speaker 2: to take for me?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 2: So, I think just leaning into this idea that starting
Speaker 2: a business in the beginning can be a very step
Speaker 2: by step process, which is really encouraging for a lot
Speaker 2: of small business owners listening right now that are still
Speaker 2: in the beginning stages. But once you have that business
Speaker 2: up and running, rocking and rolling, there's a lot to
Speaker 2: look forward to, like expanding to a fourth location.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 4: I think this is an amazing episode to kick off
Speaker 4: our small business starter Kit series. I don't know about you,
Speaker 4: but I'm ready to make a candle. So that is
Speaker 4: a wrap for this episode. You can find me on
Speaker 4: social media at Jociero Dinetto podcast.
Speaker 2: And you can find me at Austin Hankwitz. You can
Speaker 2: follow Into It QuickBooks on all social media at QuickBooks.
Speaker 2: To get the tools you need to start, run and
Speaker 2: grow your business, head to QuickBooks dot com today and
Speaker 2: while you're there, check out the latest QuickBooks blog posts
Speaker 2: for helpful resources and insights, and you might even see
Speaker 2: something written by Janie.
Speaker 4: Don't forget to follow this show wherever you listen to
Speaker 4: podcasts so you can stay up to date on future episodes.
Speaker 5: We also want to hear from you, so be sure
Speaker 5: to leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 3: See you next time.
Speaker 4: Nothing in this episode constitutes business advice. This podcast is
Speaker 4: a production of iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio and Into It QuickBooks.
Speaker 4: Our executive producer is Molly Sosha. Our supervising producer is
Speaker 4: Nikiah Swinton, and our writer is Eric Leja.
Speaker 2: Our head of Push Production is James Foster, and our
Speaker 2: mixing engineer is Paul Vitulen's of audiography