It almost feels like yesterday and it almost feels like 30 years ago that we ordered a 'make your own candle kit' from Amazon back in February 2018. Since then life seems to have gone by in a flash, but we also struggle to remember what we did with our spare time, or what we even spoke about before our life became totally consumed by wax, wicks and fragrance oils! We've made a few mistakes along the way, but we both agree that we wouldn't change a second of our business journey so far, and so as we turn 3 today we thought we'd take a short trip down memory lane and explore our 3 favourite moments of Home County Candle Co. life so far...
#1: Our first order
Launching a brand new business is hard, especially I think when it's a product based business and you (quite literally in our case) pour your heart into your products. We started small, with a tiny batch of candles in 3 different scents (Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire) and we set up a website. Of course family and friends showed their support (which we'll be forever grateful for), but I'll never forget our first web order from a name we didn't recognise (and whose name is now forever emblazoned on my memory). We were 5 days in, I was talking to my Mum in her bedroom when my phone pinged and up popped an order for 3 x Buckinghamshire candles for a Mother's Day gift. I immediately sprinted into Oli, jumped up and down on the bed and burst into happy tears. The thing is, we loved our brand, we loved our products and we loved the stories we were telling, but until you know that somebody else, a total stranger, loves them too you're never quite 100% sure. That one order gave us all the confidence and assurance we needed, and we've never looked back since. I may not burst into tears with every order today but I can assure you the feeling of knowing our customers love our products as much as we do never gets old!
#2: Moving into our first premises
If running a business is hard, then running a product based business from home is even harder! For the first 18 months of making candles our home became a factory - we were packaging orders on the living room floor, storing candles in the cupboard under the stairs and doing an obstacle course to the sofa every time we wanted to sit down! Needless to say, moving into our first proper premises in August of 2019 was a huge moment for us, and allowed us the space we needed to get organised and really ramp up our operation (as well as get back to having a tidy home where everything has its place!).
#3: Seeing our products in print
As a teenager (and still now to be honest) I was a total sucker for a glossy monthly magazine. I think I used to like pretending I was a bit of a Carrie Bradshaw type with my Glamour magazine subscription - I'd always rip out the pages I loved and my wardrobe was covered in magazine cut outs of my favourite outfits. Anyway, enough of a glimpse into the psyche of teenage me...
Back in October 2020, on the way home from collecting my wedding dress with my Mum I got to run into Tesco and scan the magazine aisle for Best Magazine. Scouring the pages of that week's issue I clocked eyes on our first piece of press coverage - our Somerset Reed Diffuser in the 'Girls Night In' feature. Since then we've been lucky enough for our products to grace the pages of House Beautiful, Platinum, Great British Food and Notebook magazines, and the feeling of seeing our products in print is still as wonderful as that very first piece of coverage.
There are countless more small moments that have added up to a big difference over the last 3 years, but these are the ones that stood out to us as we looked back. Thank you for joining us on our little trip down memory lane, and thank you for being a part of our journey over the last 3 wonderful years in business!
All the best,
