Star-Brite candles is a locally owned business owned by Sheila Mabe and her husband Mitchell. The company makes and sells scented candles.
1. Can you please give me a quick mini-bio of yourself?
I have been in business for myself for about fifteen years. Five of those years, I was still employed as a secretary for East Middle school. I am fifty-two years old, married and have two grown children. I currently own two businesses: Star-Brite candles and Sun-up tanning. Both businesses are seasonal so each business supports the other in their off-seasons. I started Star-Brite candles approximately fifteen years ago and my husband and I purchased Sun-up tanning in March, 2009.
2. Did you own any businesses before Star-Brite candles or have any experience making candles when you decided to start the business?
No, I never owned a business prior to Star-Brite candles and the only experience I had was what a friend of mine showed me about candle making.
3. So why did you start the candle business and why candles? Why not something else?
Both of my children left home at basically the same time, so there was a void in my life. Both played multiple sports so we were always on the go. All of a sudden this stopped and we were like, “what are we supposed to do now?”. One day, I went to the Super Flea in Greensboro to see a friend of mine, who told me she was going to be there selling candles. When I got there, her booth was packed and the line leading to her booth was long. That got me thinking….maybe I want to do this. I went home and told my husband that I thought that I wanted to make candles. I called my friend, who when she found out I was interested, happily invited me to come up and learn to make candles. My friend lives in Sophia and, after work, I drove up there every day and made candles. A couple of months later, my friend broke the news to me that she was planning to sell the business and already had a buyer. I did not care who she was selling the business to; I just knew I was not driving all the way from Star to Sophia to make candles with a stranger! I decided that Star was a long way from Sophia and that Star would definitely not be in the new buyer’s territory so I decided I would just make those candles myself. I decided to go out on my own. For $500, I bought the candle recipes from my friend and that is how I got started.
4. How did you decide to take the step from public work to self employment?
Well, I made and sold candles for five years while I worked at my regular job. I knew that I could not continue working two jobs forever and candle sales were up, so I had to make a choice. My husband and I discussed it and decided that I would try it for a year. I decided that then was the right time because, at the school I was working at, we got a new principal, who was never there. I was forced to make decisions that I should not have had to nor wanted to make. I am glad I took the step from public work to self-employment. It is scary sometimes. The economy has been horrible for the past couple of years and I have battled depression over the past few years also. I felt like I didn’t care whether I made a candle or not or even lived or died. That is all behind me now.
5. How do you sell your candles?
We started out taking our candles to festivals and flea markets. We still do festivals sometimes but mostly, we just do fundraisers now. We have a few salespeople who go out and market our candles for fundraisers. They are paid commission only.
6. How did you start doing fundraisers?
The idea for fundraisers came from a lady who was selling jewelry next to us at a festival in Southport. She wanted to get a price from us so she could sell the candles at her school in Lee County as a fundraiser. We gave her a price. I was expecting an order of about a thousand or so candles. When the order came in, it was for five thousand five hundred candles! That was basically how we started with fundraising. Now we have several school, etc. that sell our candles as fundraisers. Another way of selling our candles is selling training and basic materials for getting started as a candle maker. This idea came from my niece who lives in Georgia. My husband and I discussed it. For $5000, we trained my niece for two days, gave her some basic supplies, a burner and a large pot, some wax and fragrances and a few candles to use as samples. She has been making candles ever since. We have done this two more times since then, once for a lady in Rose Hill, NC and once for a lady in Boone.
7. Did you write down a business plan? (either in the beginning or later on)
We have never written a business plan. We have just sort of gone with the flow.
8. What is your biggest regret and/or mistake in your venture?
Without a doubt, my biggest regret is, here my husband and I are 52 and 53 years old and we have nothing to fall back on. No retirement, no savings, etc. Other than that, I have no regrets.
9. What advice would you give to another person thinking of starting a small business?
Right now with the economy the way it is, if you have a job, I would keep it. Don’t start a business right now unless you have a good solid plan B. For instance, a lot of it my products are petroleum based: the wax, the fragrances, the containers, etc. have gone up so much in price over the past couple of years. In the beginning we could make a candle for 60 cents now it costs $1.60 to make a candle. Though it costs more to make the candle, we are not able to raise the price by a $1 to recoup the cost. The market just won’t pay that much more; therefore, we have to sell more candles to make the same amount of money as we did before. Also, some of the other downsides of owning your own business are no benefits, paying all of the health insurance costs out of pocket and right now, it is hard to get a business loan.
