The following is from a school newspaper article I did back during my senior year of high school. It jumps around a little bit due to the maximum word count.
I did something that not a lot of high school students do. Usually, when they want to work, they go and apply at places like fast-food restaurants or retail positions. I decided to not do either of those. Instead, I decided to open my own business and become my own boss. You read that correctly. I started my own candle business in the middle of quarantine. I make homemade 100% soy candles and wax melts from the comfort of my own home. Loni's Candles offers over 20 kinds of scents to choose from, such as vanilla, watermelon, cherry, eucalyptus, and others as well as a variety of candle sizes ranging from 2.5 oz candles to 12 oz candles.
During the Christmas of 2019, my grandmother had gifted me a beginners
candle-making kit. I was a little skeptical at first but decided to try it out and thus, I found a new hobby because after all, I was never the artistic one in the family. My grandmother reassured me saying "You are artistic, just in your own way." Through a few trials and errors, I managed to become very good at making them. I had some extra tins from Christmas and made one for each of my grandmothers who both enjoyed theirs very much. That is when the thought process began. "What if I could start my own business?" because seeing the smiles on their faces was worth it. At the start of the 2020-2021 school year, I started to get annoyed with not being able to do as much as I usually do, and with a lack of in-school and out-of-school activities. I decided that I would start researching and seeing what I would need to really get my business started. I created a logo that would help encompass what my business is about and how it I want everyone to feel. With the help of my grandmother, we went searching across many websites to get the items we needed: containers, wicks, wax, labels, scents, colors, product boxes, and shipping boxes. Once everything was ordered and came in, I used wix.com to create my own website: loniscandles.com. After a couple of months of being in business, it has been a rocky start but one of the best things I have ever decided to do. Recently, I've been on the hunt for vendor shows and craft fairs to help spread the word more as well as create more social media posts, which is where I show some of the behind scenes on what goes on when making products. Making candles might seem stressful, but it's really not, especially when you get the scents to fill your house while you're making them. If you ever start to wonder about opening your own business, do it. If you know friends or family members starting their own business, support them 110% of the way!