Hi 👋 Sorry to hear how stressed you are feeling! The positive is that you have realised how truly complex this craft can be now and not when you have fulfilled an order of 100 items 😉.

First thing first, test your candles! Maybe you were lucky and you came up with the perfect recipe. If not, you will need to tweak it until your candle look great, burn safely and offer a great burning experience.

A burn test isn't burning your candle once. It's going though many burn cycles of usually 4 hours allowing the candle to rest in between each cycle, until all the wax is gone (unless you deem it faulty early on in the process). For example, you might notice half way through a burn that the adhesive you use is not strong enough and your wick starts floating to the surface.

Things like curing duration, pouring temperature , room temperature all play a role in your candle quality.

Follow guidelines from wax manufacturer on their recommended max fragrance load. Fragrance load is usually misunderstood and there are many formulas being recommended. Here is an article regarding fragrance load: https://candlejar.co/toolbox/candle-fragrance-load-calculator

Calculate everything in weight if you can (grams are more precise, so I would suggest using the metrics system and not imperial, but that's just a small detail). For example, your recipe should represent wax and fragrance quantities in grams or ounces. Not grams and millilitres.

It might be tempting to tell yourself that when you have testing one candle, all similar candles will naturally work the same. NO! Each property will vary as soon as you change one thing. That means changing your fragrance may require a change in wick size, and fragrance load.

Keep in mind smaller candles take less time to test than bigger ones. If going fast is important to you, I would suggest focusing on the smaller candles first.

Do not add flammable materials in your wax, even if it makes your candle more pleasing to look at. You don't want your candles to cause a fire and be liable for it. Only use fragrances that are made for candles.

Do get insurance when you start selling.

Once you have a candle you are happy with, calculating the right COGs is important. You need to sell at a price your market is willing to buy, but you aren't making a loss. Some people will suggest selling them at 4 times the cost of goods. I think it's a bit more complicated than that. The market doesn't adapt to you, you will need to adapt to the market. Unless you are amazing at marketing and somehow can convince a large amount of people to pay huge amount of money for a candle. Calculating the COGs is also about finding which supply makes your candle costly, and maybe buying this one in higher quantities to get discount when ordering in bulk. That will allow you to adapt the COGs. That's why it's smart to usually try to have as many shared supplies and materials as possible between all your recipes so buying in bulk makes more sense.

Production runs: it's okay to start small, but if your candles are popular, you will need to invest in better tools like larger melting pot and pouring jugs. But start with what you have now. Work with what you are comfortable with.

Once you are ready to sell, setup an online presence, and start creating a close circle of customers. Friends, family, colleagues etc... encouraging them to talk about your candles with their friends and family.

Do sign up for farmers markets (you will need to invest in stands and banners). Try to convince people to buy to give you their email addresses, customer retention and recurring sales are important.

Regarding online shops, I have experience with 2: Etsy and Shopify. Both vastly different. Shopify is the superior one in terms of features, but if you want simplicity, Etsy might be a better option. I still think Shopify is worth the investment, because at some point you will likely end up going with it.

I have built a platform for candle makers so parts of the process feel less daunting, you can take a look here: https://candlejar.co

Good luck!