February 20, 2024 • 22 mins
Melissa Gallardo’s childhood smelled like dark-roast coffee and lavender Fabulosa. As an adult, she found it difficult to find fragrances that made her feel at home, so she took it into her own hands and taught herself to make candles. It was a fun hobby side hustle until a 5,400 candle order almost sent her over the edge.
Join Ben and Tanya as they chat with Melissa, founder of Bonita Fierce Candles, about taking her passion project from her side hustle to her full-time job. Discover how she started the company in her spare room while working 9-5 and finishing a graduate degree, built a relatable brand by focusing on her personal experience and how she landed her first big order. These are the Unshakeables.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
For Melissa Glardo, founder and CEO of Benita Fierce Candles,
starting a candle business from scratch, miant handling every single
part of production, from wax plooring and fragrance mixing to
packaging and shipping. She mostly had been getting small orders
from local boutiques, but that all changed. One night in
twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
We got a fax po from Barnes and Noble. A
literal fact sent my email at midnight and it said
fifty four hundred candles, my biggest order to date. I think.
I woke up and like I couldn't fall back asleep.
I was like, how in the world are we going
to do this? I just stare at my ceiling. I'm like,
(00:43):
there's no way. I don't even have the money to
get this far.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Welcome to the Unshakables from Chase for Business and Ruby
Studio from iHeartMedia. I'm Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
And I'm Tanya Nipo, a lawyer and consultant for business owners.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
On the Unshakables, we're sharing the daring stories of small
business owners facing their crisis points and telling the stories
of how they got through it. Hey Ben, Hey, Tanya,
I think you're gonna like this one.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
We've got a guest today who really mastered the art
of pr and successfully managed to weave her culture into
her brand and into her products.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Awesome, let's get going.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
On today's episode Bonita Fierce Candles from Long Island, New York.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
If I found myself back in my childhood home, I
remember my mom cleaning Saturday mornings so vividly.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
That's Melissa Gallardo again, the owner and CEO of Benita
Fierce Candles. She grew up in Long Island, New York,
and like me, she is the daughter of two immigrants,
and she has fond memories of the rich smells and
sounds of her childhood home.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
So the smalls was first lavender, fabuloso. You know, there
were so many kinds of sense and smell. I was like,
from coffee in the morning to the holidays where most
of my families drinking cookita.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
But living on Long Island, Melissa felt like her identity
was always in question.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
I absolutely loved being at home with my family, but
as soon as I started going to school, I really
felt other. I was probably one of a handful of
Latinas and even people of color in my own elementary
school and as a huge part of my story because
I am a non Spanish speaking Latina grew up in
(02:29):
one of the top ten most segregated suburbs, and I
had to deeply assimilate to feel accepted in my community.
And meanwhile, I never did.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Like all kids, Melissa just wanted to fit in, and
for her that meant straightening her naturally curly hair, dressing
like the other kids, and not talking about her family's heritage.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
By the time I got to middle school, we're understanding
more about the political landscape with presidential elections and politics.
I couldn't talk about it, and that, you know, I
had relatives who were still like getting their papers, who
were considered undocumented.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
She loved her family and her home life, but didn't
feel like she could really celebrate her culture. But during college,
Melissa began to reconnect with her culture, and for her,
that process started with her hair.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Come probably twenty eighteen, I decided that I kind of
needed to change. So the first thing to go was
my hair. I was like, you know, I'm going to
go to a curly hair salon and I got my
first curly cut, and while it was bleached, and it
was damaged. I had never seen my hair come back
to its glorious, curly hair form.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Melissa graduated from college with a degree in communications and
a head full of long, bouncy curls. She got a
job in media, but just eight months into working, the
pandemic hit, and just like that, she was working remotely
while living at home with her parents.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I was commuting two hours each way to work in
Times Square. I ended up reclaiming a lot of my time.
I was learning about personal finance, and I wanted a
side hustle. Like so many other people, I felt like
in corporate I was starting to max out on how
much I could make, and for me, I didn't want that.
I wanted to feel limitless. So then I picked up
(04:13):
a hobby and it ended up being candle making, just
for fun, just for fun.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Melissa started looking for candles that reflected the sense she
grew up loving in her home, but she couldn't find anything.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Historically in fragrance and fine fragrance and home fragrance. It's
really a eurocentric industry. And I also didn't find any
candles on the market that really represented my Latini dad
like anywhere, even from Etsy shops to a big name
brand candles, and so I really then and there I
was like, I'm going to combine my identity with candle making,
(04:46):
and Warn was voting the Fierce Candles.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
So Melissa got to work. She'd continue her corporate job
from home during the day and pour all of her
nights and free time into beneath the Fierce Candles. Meanwhile,
she saved up to TI ten thousand dollars to help
clever startup costs, and just six months after conceiving the
idea for her company, she launched her website with a
variety of sens.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
We have candles like afacito, which is inspired by Wilde Mercado, azugar,
which is inspired by Celia Cruz, like we are creating
very inclusive fragrances.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
But even after the successful launch, Melissa continued to work
in the corporate world while she finished her graduate degree.
In the meantime, the candle making business started to take
over her parents' house.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
It started in my kitchen, okay, then it went into
my dining room, and then we took over the entire
bottom half of my house. So we have racks of
candles just stacked up, and it got really really crazy.
And by the way, my house smells amazing. Off, I
bet all the time. It smells absolutely amazing, But it's
(05:57):
very overwhelming the amount of space you need.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
To Melissa realized that the ten thousand dollars was enough
to get her started, but wouldn't last long. If she
wanted to be able to fill large purchase orders, she
was going to need a lot more cash.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I started getting savvy with my money by taking our
zero APR credit cards. Oh and I started charging those
guys once I knew like I had purchase orders, and
I really ran with that. But then I realized the
purchase orders were so large that I needed more money
to get them started. But also I started winning grants.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
A wow. Okay, Ben, I have to bring you in
here to talk about the funding piece, which is a
huge part of the story.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah, you're just doing that because I'm a banker.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Well, I mean, let's make use of you right while
you're here.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
So there's a couple of things that jumped out at
me when you were talking to her. First is I
think she learned a valuable lesson along the way that
I hope our listeners here today and think about. Which
is it's really fun to talk about purchase or orders
and sales.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
It's great.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Cash is king and cash flow always matters. So you
can sell an infinite amount and if you don't have
the inventory or the financial resources to buy that inventory,
it doesn't matter. And you always have to spend in advance. Always.
I can't think of many businesses where that's not the case.
And you need to be one step ahead on cash
(07:23):
flow at all times, and that means a couple of things.
It means having the financing in place in advance for
the orders that could come in. And then it's about
collecting your money after the fact, because especially if you know,
you get an order from a big company like that,
sometimes they don't pay for thirty days, but sometimes it's
sixty days, and sometimes it might be ninety days and
your calling and you need your money, and in the meantime,
your employees aren't going to say, hey, no problem, pay
(07:44):
me next week. So cash flow is what kills businesses.
So staying on top of cash flow is really important.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Unfortunately, she had great credit and she had ways to
get the money. She was great at pitching and getting grants.
Not everybody's got that going for them, you know, not
everyone can pitch it actually get money.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
There's ways to learn that, so I'd encourage everyone. You know,
there are way more resources out there for small business
owners than people realize, whether it's to the government through
what are called CDFIs, which are financial institutions for the
underbank of course at banks, as well with venture capitalists,
with not for profits that are focused on helping to
spur entrepreneurship and self reliance. There are way more resources
(08:23):
out there than people realize and put in the research
and spend the time.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Okay, Ben, let's get back to the story. So Melissa
works hard to get more cash flow for her business
and actually won ninety thousand dollars from grant money alone.
So the online business was doing well, but Melissa knew
she could grow it a lot more. Besides she had
done her research.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I realized very quickly that two thirds of the candle
market is sold in big box mass market retail, but
also in the candle world. It's really hard to self
fragrance online because it's so important for people to actually
smell it and experience it for themselves. I could tell
you we have a Capacio gon leche cannel. It smells
exactly like a freshly brewed cup of coffee, but you're
(09:07):
not always sold immediately you think of what other coffee
candles smell like. But when I create a product, it's
a little sweeter than what you would think with caramel
and like fresh milk, and those are the things that
are really hard to convey online. So the strategy ended
up being to go into retail.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
But to get into retail, Melissa knew she needed to
get her and her company story out there.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
It was a really hard sell online, but our story
was really strong, and it was about brand awareness. Again,
like I'm a media person, That's what I did all
day every day. I grew the business based on my
ability to tell my story, to get the brand out
there and say it well.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Fortunately, Melissa had a strong media background and knew how
to sell her story and just who to sell it to.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
As part of my strategy in order to grow was
to create brand trustworthiness, and one of the ways I
could do that was getting articles written about me and
my story and strategically thinking about how I would tell
my story in order it for it to get picked up,
(10:15):
in order for me to fit the mold of the
media cycle, and I was also strategically reaching out to
people who have written similar stories, so pitching to the
right journal as and understanding where they live in the landscape.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Her first big order came in from an unlikely place,
a DM on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I got a DM from the assistant fire, which is
very rare for just so many businesses. Most of the
time you're going out and pitching. Wow, my assistant buyer
was luckily one in a million because she is Latina.
She was my age, and she was my target market.
And she saw beneath the Fierce Candles dms me on Instagram.
(10:58):
She's like, Hey, I'm on an assistant buyer for Northstrum
and I'd love to set up a meeting with you.
And immediately I started freaking out, ran to see my
mom and we both started crying.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
The meeting went great and north Strump's put in an
order for fifteen hundred candles. At that point, Benita Fierce
Candles had only two employees, Melissa and her sister. After
landing the Northstrom order, Melissa started pitching to other special
t retailers, including Barnes and Noble.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
We sent them candles, they really liked them. We were
expecting you know, a smaller order, probably similar to Northtrum. Oh,
there's gonna be like fifteen hundred candles. And you know,
they said we were going to be in the Spanish
language section just for his spinal carritage mother. They would
be in select stores. Then I sent them our new
packaging mock up. We got a fax po from Barnes
(11:50):
and Noble, A literal fact sent my email at midnight
and it said fifty four hundred candles, my biggest order
to date. I think I woke up and like I
couldn't fall back asleep. I was like, how in the
world are we going to do this? I just stare
at my ceiling. I'm like, there's no way. I don't
(12:14):
even have the money to get this far. First thing
I did was whip out my notebook and start mathing,
immediately freaking out with my family. My family's like, you're
gonna say, yes, you're gonna do it, like we're gonna
make sure it happens. And I'm like, oh my god.
I knew we were gonna get another retailer, didn't think
(12:35):
it would be four times as large as it was
originally planned for. But meanwhile I had to go find
money I gave myself I think three weeks.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
So Melissa went back to something she knew well, how
to get grant money.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
I knew I was good at pitching. One of my
superpowers is being able to give a really good pitch
about my business and was able to win more money
for it.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
With grant money intel, she got started on her two
biggest orders to date.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
It was all sorts of dramatic because we originally had
planned for it to go out in mid August, a
little like I think the second week of August, and
it didn't go out on time. I hired additional people.
I even got like my sister in law to jump
in and help. My mom was coming home from work helping,
like you know, four hours after she worked an eight
(13:28):
hour day. All the men of my life, they took
the palletts and I mean literal palettes of candles like
two thousand pounds and pulled the pallettes out of my backyard.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
So we could literally just pull everything out onto the
liftgate of the truck that showed up to my house.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Family business real quick, right, really was. It was a
true family affair, all hands on deck.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
So we still pampoured every candle like we always had.
It was six hundred a week we had to maintain,
and you know, everybody is going bonkers making sure reorders
are coming in. We started production in May to send
out everything by August, and New York heat and the
humidity is a huge concern, and we ended up boxing
(14:20):
everything in my house. So we palletized everything at seven
o'clock at night in the middle of August, and it
took about two or three hours of us like putting
all the boxes in the right position, making sure everything
was right. So when the truck came, all we had
to do was take the palette jack and roll it
down my front yard.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
But they had pulled it off. The order that had
caused so much excitement and panic at the same time
was finally out the door.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
You know that I announced the big launch into Barnes
and Nova the congratulations. How are you going to celebrate?
I'm like I already did because watching the truck leave
Mushtreet that was the time to celebrate. For me. It
was like the amount of relief, the weight lifted off
of my shoulders because we finally made it happen, and
(15:10):
then we celebrate it again when it actually thought we
saw it on shelf.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
And after that it was full speed ahead for Benita
Fierce Candles and they haven't stopped since now.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
To see customers picking up these candles, it brings tears
to my eyes. It brings a smile to my face
every time somebody says that they've discovered us for the
first time. I can't tell you how much joy it
brings to me to see our community thriving and feeling
like they're seen for the first time.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Today, Banita Fierce Candles are sold in about seven hundred
stores across the country. They're in Barnes and Noble and Nordstrum,
and there are plans to launch and another major retailer
very soon. So ben what'd you think about that story?
Speaker 3 (16:04):
She's got a great story. I thought a few things
when I heard her speaking. The first thing I thought was,
this is someone who's really found a passion and that's
why I think she has so much energy for what
she's doing.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah, her story is compelling, and she's very tied to
it and clearly very led by it. And that's something
that people see right. People can see it, they can
experience it. I think that was such a critical part
of what drives her and what has contributed to her success.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Yeah, and I think her business for her is not
just what she does, it's who she is. It comes
from who she is, her identity and her connection with
her identity is a part of what drives her. And
that's a lot more powerful than just the need for profit.
And so I think the fact that she's driven by
such a personal connection to her own background and making
(16:54):
that come to life for a community, I think is
part of why she's going to be successful.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
And again it's something that people can see, you know,
potential customers, potential partners, potential vendors.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
All of those employees and granted, her employees at the
beginning were her family, right, But you know, I don't
think they just did it because they're the step dad
or the mom or the sister. I think they did
it because they shared that passion.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
I think finding ways to get free help in the
beginning is really underrated, and that clearly helped her get
off the ground.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
It does, and it shows leadership, right, It shows that
she was able to get people behind her, because just
because someone's in your family doesn't mean they want to
work for you for free.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yeah, tell me about that yet, right.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
And definitely not for an extended period of time, But
she was able to get people to rally behind what
she wanted to do. So I think that's a huge
testimony to how that passion translated into a way that
made people connect with her and what she was trying
to do in her business.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Yeah, it did, but to her credit, one of the
things she realized, Tanya, is that brands matter. There are
very few products today that can't be copied. You know,
someone could buy one of her candles and try to
re engineer the scent. That's doable, But a brand's harder
to copy. And I think she realized very early that
if she was going to be successful in this venture,
(18:09):
she was going to have to build a brand. And
there's lots of ways to build a brand. Sometimes you
can just throw a lot of money at it, but
she didn't have a lot of money, right, so she
built the brand through herself. So I think the lesson
for me is that there are lots of ways to
build a brand, but brands always matter, and.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
She was very intentional about it. I think that's what
people forget, is that you have a brand, it's just
whether you are intentional about creating the brand you want
or not. So there's certain thoughts and feelings and emotions
that someone feels when they hear a particular business name
or have it an experience with the business. And she
was intentional about creating the experience or designing the experience
(18:46):
she wanted people to have. But intentionality, I think is
the key. Or she was really really thoughtful from the beginning.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
That's right, And she didn't make the sort of classic
mistake of creating a brand and then trying to build
a product to fit that brand. You can't do that.
Brand is a megaphone. You build a great product that
people love, and then the brand is the megaphone with
which you amplify that. And she got it in the
right order. A brand is a megaphone for what you
already do great, not an excuse to say that you're
great at things you aren't. And so she realized what
(19:14):
she was great at, and she picked up the megaphone
and yelled about that.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
I also give her a lot of credit. You know,
people need to think really deeply about how they want
to use different types of financing, and by that I
specifically mean equity versus debt. Yeah, that's a You know,
she chose to use debt because she knew how to
use it. Well, look, I think debt has a place
in a business. I work for a bank. It'd be
really weird if I said something different. But I absolutely
(19:39):
believe in responsible use of debt. So she took a
risk because she borrowed money. Now it was in some
sense a somewhat de risk because she already had the
purchase order, but if she had failed to deliver on
that order, they wouldn't have paid her. Or if they'd
paid her late and she had had to miss a payment,
that would have come back on her. So she was
willing to bet on herself and take the personal risk
to keep more ownership in the business. Other people might say,
(20:01):
I think I'm going to need more capital than I
can access through debt, so I'm going to use equity
and I'm going to go find an investor in the business,
And that's another way to do it. But you're going
to have to give up some ownership and that's painful,
and you should guard that really carefully because once you
give it up, you don't get it back. So there's
always that trade off to make she has grown at
a pace that's allowed her to use that and maintain
ownership and control. Some businesses lend themselves to that, some don't,
(20:24):
but she was ready going in.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
It's really important to make an intentional decision and take
it very seriously when deciding whether to go with the
debt or the equity route to grow your business. And
Melissa's retained all equity in her company up to this
point and for what she's doing, I like that approach.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Okay, Tanya, I want to go now to what's fast
becoming my favorite part of the show, sharing the great
advice from our small business owners. Now, Melissa is kind
of a PR expert at this point, and here's what
she had to say about getting pressed for your small business.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Well, let's hear it.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
I really think entrepreneurs need to understand what value journalists
have and putting themselves in their shoes, making their lives easier,
seeing how their brands could fit into their stories.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
And what's going on in the world today.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
So I'm going to be reaching out, like, hey, we
should talk about our Gona La Florida candle because it
is inspired by Latina icon. During Women's History Month, how
cool is that? Or even a better example would be,
we have an azook Garde candle and it's based off
Celia Cruz, Queen of Salza, and she is going to
(21:37):
be on the US Quarter, and that is so freaking cool.
It would be great to have that for Women's History
Month or during that announcement time where I can go
to a journalist and say, hey, we have a candle
that's inspired by the Queen of Salsa and she's going
to be in the US Quarter. That is a story
to be said.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Thanks so much for listening to The Unshakables. If you
liked this episode, please rate and review it. It'll help
our show find more listeners. On the next episode, we'll
be back with the story of a couple that risked
it all to start their own electrical company right as
they were about to have their first child. Could they
keep their family afloat while starting this new company. I'm
(22:17):
Tanya n Nevo and this is The Unshakables from Chase
for Business and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
The Unshakables is a production of Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia
and Wheelhouse DNA
For Melissa Glardo, founder and CEO of Benita Fierce Candles,
starting a candle business from scratch, miant handling every single
part of production, from wax plooring and fragrance mixing to
packaging and shipping. She mostly had been getting small orders
from local boutiques, but that all changed. One night in
twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
We got a fax po from Barnes and Noble. A
literal fact sent my email at midnight and it said
fifty four hundred candles, my biggest order to date. I think.
I woke up and like I couldn't fall back asleep.
I was like, how in the world are we going
to do this? I just stare at my ceiling. I'm like,
(00:43):
there's no way. I don't even have the money to
get this far.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Welcome to the Unshakables from Chase for Business and Ruby
Studio from iHeartMedia. I'm Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
And I'm Tanya Nipo, a lawyer and consultant for business owners.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
On the Unshakables, we're sharing the daring stories of small
business owners facing their crisis points and telling the stories
of how they got through it. Hey Ben, Hey, Tanya,
I think you're gonna like this one.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
We've got a guest today who really mastered the art
of pr and successfully managed to weave her culture into
her brand and into her products.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Awesome, let's get going.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
On today's episode Bonita Fierce Candles from Long Island, New York.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
If I found myself back in my childhood home, I
remember my mom cleaning Saturday mornings so vividly.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
That's Melissa Gallardo again, the owner and CEO of Benita
Fierce Candles. She grew up in Long Island, New York,
and like me, she is the daughter of two immigrants,
and she has fond memories of the rich smells and
sounds of her childhood home.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
So the smalls was first lavender, fabuloso. You know, there
were so many kinds of sense and smell. I was like,
from coffee in the morning to the holidays where most
of my families drinking cookita.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
But living on Long Island, Melissa felt like her identity
was always in question.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
I absolutely loved being at home with my family, but
as soon as I started going to school, I really
felt other. I was probably one of a handful of
Latinas and even people of color in my own elementary
school and as a huge part of my story because
I am a non Spanish speaking Latina grew up in
(02:29):
one of the top ten most segregated suburbs, and I
had to deeply assimilate to feel accepted in my community.
And meanwhile, I never did.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Like all kids, Melissa just wanted to fit in, and
for her that meant straightening her naturally curly hair, dressing
like the other kids, and not talking about her family's heritage.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
By the time I got to middle school, we're understanding
more about the political landscape with presidential elections and politics.
I couldn't talk about it, and that, you know, I
had relatives who were still like getting their papers, who
were considered undocumented.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
She loved her family and her home life, but didn't
feel like she could really celebrate her culture. But during college,
Melissa began to reconnect with her culture, and for her,
that process started with her hair.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Come probably twenty eighteen, I decided that I kind of
needed to change. So the first thing to go was
my hair. I was like, you know, I'm going to
go to a curly hair salon and I got my
first curly cut, and while it was bleached, and it
was damaged. I had never seen my hair come back
to its glorious, curly hair form.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Melissa graduated from college with a degree in communications and
a head full of long, bouncy curls. She got a
job in media, but just eight months into working, the
pandemic hit, and just like that, she was working remotely
while living at home with her parents.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I was commuting two hours each way to work in
Times Square. I ended up reclaiming a lot of my time.
I was learning about personal finance, and I wanted a
side hustle. Like so many other people, I felt like
in corporate I was starting to max out on how
much I could make, and for me, I didn't want that.
I wanted to feel limitless. So then I picked up
(04:13):
a hobby and it ended up being candle making, just
for fun, just for fun.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Melissa started looking for candles that reflected the sense she
grew up loving in her home, but she couldn't find anything.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Historically in fragrance and fine fragrance and home fragrance. It's
really a eurocentric industry. And I also didn't find any
candles on the market that really represented my Latini dad
like anywhere, even from Etsy shops to a big name
brand candles, and so I really then and there I
was like, I'm going to combine my identity with candle making,
(04:46):
and Warn was voting the Fierce Candles.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
So Melissa got to work. She'd continue her corporate job
from home during the day and pour all of her
nights and free time into beneath the Fierce Candles. Meanwhile,
she saved up to TI ten thousand dollars to help
clever startup costs, and just six months after conceiving the
idea for her company, she launched her website with a
variety of sens.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
We have candles like afacito, which is inspired by Wilde Mercado, azugar,
which is inspired by Celia Cruz, like we are creating
very inclusive fragrances.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
But even after the successful launch, Melissa continued to work
in the corporate world while she finished her graduate degree.
In the meantime, the candle making business started to take
over her parents' house.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
It started in my kitchen, okay, then it went into
my dining room, and then we took over the entire
bottom half of my house. So we have racks of
candles just stacked up, and it got really really crazy.
And by the way, my house smells amazing. Off, I
bet all the time. It smells absolutely amazing, But it's
(05:57):
very overwhelming the amount of space you need.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
To Melissa realized that the ten thousand dollars was enough
to get her started, but wouldn't last long. If she
wanted to be able to fill large purchase orders, she
was going to need a lot more cash.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I started getting savvy with my money by taking our
zero APR credit cards. Oh and I started charging those
guys once I knew like I had purchase orders, and
I really ran with that. But then I realized the
purchase orders were so large that I needed more money
to get them started. But also I started winning grants.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
A wow. Okay, Ben, I have to bring you in
here to talk about the funding piece, which is a
huge part of the story.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah, you're just doing that because I'm a banker.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Well, I mean, let's make use of you right while
you're here.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
So there's a couple of things that jumped out at
me when you were talking to her. First is I
think she learned a valuable lesson along the way that
I hope our listeners here today and think about. Which
is it's really fun to talk about purchase or orders
and sales.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
It's great.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Cash is king and cash flow always matters. So you
can sell an infinite amount and if you don't have
the inventory or the financial resources to buy that inventory,
it doesn't matter. And you always have to spend in advance. Always.
I can't think of many businesses where that's not the case.
And you need to be one step ahead on cash
(07:23):
flow at all times, and that means a couple of things.
It means having the financing in place in advance for
the orders that could come in. And then it's about
collecting your money after the fact, because especially if you know,
you get an order from a big company like that,
sometimes they don't pay for thirty days, but sometimes it's
sixty days, and sometimes it might be ninety days and
your calling and you need your money, and in the meantime,
your employees aren't going to say, hey, no problem, pay
(07:44):
me next week. So cash flow is what kills businesses.
So staying on top of cash flow is really important.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Unfortunately, she had great credit and she had ways to
get the money. She was great at pitching and getting grants.
Not everybody's got that going for them, you know, not
everyone can pitch it actually get money.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
There's ways to learn that, so I'd encourage everyone. You know,
there are way more resources out there for small business
owners than people realize, whether it's to the government through
what are called CDFIs, which are financial institutions for the
underbank of course at banks, as well with venture capitalists,
with not for profits that are focused on helping to
spur entrepreneurship and self reliance. There are way more resources
(08:23):
out there than people realize and put in the research
and spend the time.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Okay, Ben, let's get back to the story. So Melissa
works hard to get more cash flow for her business
and actually won ninety thousand dollars from grant money alone.
So the online business was doing well, but Melissa knew
she could grow it a lot more. Besides she had
done her research.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I realized very quickly that two thirds of the candle
market is sold in big box mass market retail, but
also in the candle world. It's really hard to self
fragrance online because it's so important for people to actually
smell it and experience it for themselves. I could tell
you we have a Capacio gon leche cannel. It smells
exactly like a freshly brewed cup of coffee, but you're
(09:07):
not always sold immediately you think of what other coffee
candles smell like. But when I create a product, it's
a little sweeter than what you would think with caramel
and like fresh milk, and those are the things that
are really hard to convey online. So the strategy ended
up being to go into retail.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
But to get into retail, Melissa knew she needed to
get her and her company story out there.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
It was a really hard sell online, but our story
was really strong, and it was about brand awareness. Again,
like I'm a media person, That's what I did all
day every day. I grew the business based on my
ability to tell my story, to get the brand out
there and say it well.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Fortunately, Melissa had a strong media background and knew how
to sell her story and just who to sell it to.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
As part of my strategy in order to grow was
to create brand trustworthiness, and one of the ways I
could do that was getting articles written about me and
my story and strategically thinking about how I would tell
my story in order it for it to get picked up,
(10:15):
in order for me to fit the mold of the
media cycle, and I was also strategically reaching out to
people who have written similar stories, so pitching to the
right journal as and understanding where they live in the landscape.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Her first big order came in from an unlikely place,
a DM on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I got a DM from the assistant fire, which is
very rare for just so many businesses. Most of the
time you're going out and pitching. Wow, my assistant buyer
was luckily one in a million because she is Latina.
She was my age, and she was my target market.
And she saw beneath the Fierce Candles dms me on Instagram.
(10:58):
She's like, Hey, I'm on an assistant buyer for Northstrum
and I'd love to set up a meeting with you.
And immediately I started freaking out, ran to see my
mom and we both started crying.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
The meeting went great and north Strump's put in an
order for fifteen hundred candles. At that point, Benita Fierce
Candles had only two employees, Melissa and her sister. After
landing the Northstrom order, Melissa started pitching to other special
t retailers, including Barnes and Noble.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
We sent them candles, they really liked them. We were
expecting you know, a smaller order, probably similar to Northtrum. Oh,
there's gonna be like fifteen hundred candles. And you know,
they said we were going to be in the Spanish
language section just for his spinal carritage mother. They would
be in select stores. Then I sent them our new
packaging mock up. We got a fax po from Barnes
(11:50):
and Noble, A literal fact sent my email at midnight
and it said fifty four hundred candles, my biggest order
to date. I think I woke up and like I
couldn't fall back asleep. I was like, how in the
world are we going to do this? I just stare
at my ceiling. I'm like, there's no way. I don't
(12:14):
even have the money to get this far. First thing
I did was whip out my notebook and start mathing,
immediately freaking out with my family. My family's like, you're
gonna say, yes, you're gonna do it, like we're gonna
make sure it happens. And I'm like, oh my god.
I knew we were gonna get another retailer, didn't think
(12:35):
it would be four times as large as it was
originally planned for. But meanwhile I had to go find
money I gave myself I think three weeks.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
So Melissa went back to something she knew well, how
to get grant money.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
I knew I was good at pitching. One of my
superpowers is being able to give a really good pitch
about my business and was able to win more money
for it.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
With grant money intel, she got started on her two
biggest orders to date.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
It was all sorts of dramatic because we originally had
planned for it to go out in mid August, a
little like I think the second week of August, and
it didn't go out on time. I hired additional people.
I even got like my sister in law to jump
in and help. My mom was coming home from work helping,
like you know, four hours after she worked an eight
(13:28):
hour day. All the men of my life, they took
the palletts and I mean literal palettes of candles like
two thousand pounds and pulled the pallettes out of my backyard.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
So we could literally just pull everything out onto the
liftgate of the truck that showed up to my house.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Family business real quick, right, really was. It was a
true family affair, all hands on deck.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
So we still pampoured every candle like we always had.
It was six hundred a week we had to maintain,
and you know, everybody is going bonkers making sure reorders
are coming in. We started production in May to send
out everything by August, and New York heat and the
humidity is a huge concern, and we ended up boxing
(14:20):
everything in my house. So we palletized everything at seven
o'clock at night in the middle of August, and it
took about two or three hours of us like putting
all the boxes in the right position, making sure everything
was right. So when the truck came, all we had
to do was take the palette jack and roll it
down my front yard.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
But they had pulled it off. The order that had
caused so much excitement and panic at the same time
was finally out the door.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
You know that I announced the big launch into Barnes
and Nova the congratulations. How are you going to celebrate?
I'm like I already did because watching the truck leave
Mushtreet that was the time to celebrate. For me. It
was like the amount of relief, the weight lifted off
of my shoulders because we finally made it happen, and
(15:10):
then we celebrate it again when it actually thought we
saw it on shelf.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
And after that it was full speed ahead for Benita
Fierce Candles and they haven't stopped since now.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
To see customers picking up these candles, it brings tears
to my eyes. It brings a smile to my face
every time somebody says that they've discovered us for the
first time. I can't tell you how much joy it
brings to me to see our community thriving and feeling
like they're seen for the first time.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Today, Banita Fierce Candles are sold in about seven hundred
stores across the country. They're in Barnes and Noble and Nordstrum,
and there are plans to launch and another major retailer
very soon. So ben what'd you think about that story?
Speaker 3 (16:04):
She's got a great story. I thought a few things
when I heard her speaking. The first thing I thought was,
this is someone who's really found a passion and that's
why I think she has so much energy for what
she's doing.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah, her story is compelling, and she's very tied to
it and clearly very led by it. And that's something
that people see right. People can see it, they can
experience it. I think that was such a critical part
of what drives her and what has contributed to her success.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Yeah, and I think her business for her is not
just what she does, it's who she is. It comes
from who she is, her identity and her connection with
her identity is a part of what drives her. And
that's a lot more powerful than just the need for profit.
And so I think the fact that she's driven by
such a personal connection to her own background and making
(16:54):
that come to life for a community, I think is
part of why she's going to be successful.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
And again it's something that people can see, you know,
potential customers, potential partners, potential vendors.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
All of those employees and granted, her employees at the
beginning were her family, right, But you know, I don't
think they just did it because they're the step dad
or the mom or the sister. I think they did
it because they shared that passion.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
I think finding ways to get free help in the
beginning is really underrated, and that clearly helped her get
off the ground.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
It does, and it shows leadership, right, It shows that
she was able to get people behind her, because just
because someone's in your family doesn't mean they want to
work for you for free.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yeah, tell me about that yet, right.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
And definitely not for an extended period of time, But
she was able to get people to rally behind what
she wanted to do. So I think that's a huge
testimony to how that passion translated into a way that
made people connect with her and what she was trying
to do in her business.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Yeah, it did, but to her credit, one of the
things she realized, Tanya, is that brands matter. There are
very few products today that can't be copied. You know,
someone could buy one of her candles and try to
re engineer the scent. That's doable, But a brand's harder
to copy. And I think she realized very early that
if she was going to be successful in this venture,
(18:09):
she was going to have to build a brand. And
there's lots of ways to build a brand. Sometimes you
can just throw a lot of money at it, but
she didn't have a lot of money, right, so she
built the brand through herself. So I think the lesson
for me is that there are lots of ways to
build a brand, but brands always matter, and.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
She was very intentional about it. I think that's what
people forget, is that you have a brand, it's just
whether you are intentional about creating the brand you want
or not. So there's certain thoughts and feelings and emotions
that someone feels when they hear a particular business name
or have it an experience with the business. And she
was intentional about creating the experience or designing the experience
(18:46):
she wanted people to have. But intentionality, I think is
the key. Or she was really really thoughtful from the beginning.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
That's right, And she didn't make the sort of classic
mistake of creating a brand and then trying to build
a product to fit that brand. You can't do that.
Brand is a megaphone. You build a great product that
people love, and then the brand is the megaphone with
which you amplify that. And she got it in the
right order. A brand is a megaphone for what you
already do great, not an excuse to say that you're
great at things you aren't. And so she realized what
(19:14):
she was great at, and she picked up the megaphone
and yelled about that.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
I also give her a lot of credit. You know,
people need to think really deeply about how they want
to use different types of financing, and by that I
specifically mean equity versus debt. Yeah, that's a You know,
she chose to use debt because she knew how to
use it. Well, look, I think debt has a place
in a business. I work for a bank. It'd be
really weird if I said something different. But I absolutely
(19:39):
believe in responsible use of debt. So she took a
risk because she borrowed money. Now it was in some
sense a somewhat de risk because she already had the
purchase order, but if she had failed to deliver on
that order, they wouldn't have paid her. Or if they'd
paid her late and she had had to miss a payment,
that would have come back on her. So she was
willing to bet on herself and take the personal risk
to keep more ownership in the business. Other people might say,
(20:01):
I think I'm going to need more capital than I
can access through debt, so I'm going to use equity
and I'm going to go find an investor in the business,
And that's another way to do it. But you're going
to have to give up some ownership and that's painful,
and you should guard that really carefully because once you
give it up, you don't get it back. So there's
always that trade off to make she has grown at
a pace that's allowed her to use that and maintain
ownership and control. Some businesses lend themselves to that, some don't,
(20:24):
but she was ready going in.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
It's really important to make an intentional decision and take
it very seriously when deciding whether to go with the
debt or the equity route to grow your business. And
Melissa's retained all equity in her company up to this
point and for what she's doing, I like that approach.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Okay, Tanya, I want to go now to what's fast
becoming my favorite part of the show, sharing the great
advice from our small business owners. Now, Melissa is kind
of a PR expert at this point, and here's what
she had to say about getting pressed for your small business.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Well, let's hear it.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
I really think entrepreneurs need to understand what value journalists
have and putting themselves in their shoes, making their lives easier,
seeing how their brands could fit into their stories.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
And what's going on in the world today.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
So I'm going to be reaching out, like, hey, we
should talk about our Gona La Florida candle because it
is inspired by Latina icon. During Women's History Month, how
cool is that? Or even a better example would be,
we have an azook Garde candle and it's based off
Celia Cruz, Queen of Salza, and she is going to
(21:37):
be on the US Quarter, and that is so freaking cool.
It would be great to have that for Women's History
Month or during that announcement time where I can go
to a journalist and say, hey, we have a candle
that's inspired by the Queen of Salsa and she's going
to be in the US Quarter. That is a story
to be said.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Thanks so much for listening to The Unshakables. If you
liked this episode, please rate and review it. It'll help
our show find more listeners. On the next episode, we'll
be back with the story of a couple that risked
it all to start their own electrical company right as
they were about to have their first child. Could they
keep their family afloat while starting this new company. I'm
(22:17):
Tanya n Nevo and this is The Unshakables from Chase
for Business and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
The Unshakables is a production of Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia
and Wheelhouse DNA
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