I saw my wife's "little candle business" become BIG BUSINESS!
Even after my wife, Kari Andersen "found" her little candle business, I was pretty much just a supportive husband. I let her spend a little money to get started, encouraged her to spend what she needed for business cards and such and let her advertise on our mini-van.
I was glad that she'd found something to do and that she seemed to enjoy it so much. It was fun to hear her stories about sharing the candles. I was glad that she was able to sell a few. My initial concerns about shelling out the extra monthly expenditure for Candle of the Month program and her little candle business were unfounded, it seemed. She was going to do OK. Funny thing, though. It seemed like I kept hearing story after story of how so-and-so "just went crazy" over the candles. When I was with her I would actually see this phenomenon in action. People smelled the candles and HAD to have them. This happened over and over and over again!
She was eventually able to enlist a few other local ladies and I was glad that she was making friends. Before I knew it, the people that she'd found had found people and she was starting to put a little team together. Neat, I thought, she can have a little extra cash to have fun with. It keeps her busy and she seems to really love the candles. After about a year of watching her "play at this little candle business," I began seeing her team numbers grow: 51 one month, 65 the following month, 77 the next. She began connecting with people all over the U.S. and Canada and they were joining her little enterprise. It began to dawn on me that perhaps this was more than I had originally "assumed" it to be.
One cold winter's day last October, I decided I wanted to investigate what she was doing a little more closely. She had been encouraging me to get more involved but I still was not seeing it. So to appease her and to satisfy my curiosity I spent approximately an hour one day on the computer reading the archived company newsletters.
I began to see this pattern of ordinary folks, who loved candles, starting their own little candle businesses, and doing extremely well, in all different kinds of ways: retailing, home parties, fundraisers, recruiting, etc. They were doing well and as near as I could tell, my wife was doing well, also.
The potential began to become clear to me. The possibilities began to appear endless to me. I got excited!! I called my wife's sponsor, Jackie Ulmer and said,
I purchased her a new computer for Christmas. I started telling her to double and triple her candle orders. I insisted that she have a case of Sweet Orange and Chili Pepper on hand at all times. "You know you're going to sell them all anyway. Why not just order a bunch of them?!"
I have come to enjoy candles. I still don't really claim to be a "candle person." I do, however, consider myself to be a business person, a networker, and an entrepreneur.
I look forward to being "retired" soon. My wife's little candle business has really taken off and I'm lookin forward to being a full time husband and father who, like her, helps others see and seize this marvelous opportunity for themselves. They have dreams that can only be realized through a "gift" such as the opportunity we offer. My wife sells candles, that's for sure, but her greatest accomplishments have been in terms of personal growth, confidence, happiness and success. She is changing lives and offering hope where there had previously been none.
Collin Andersen Montana
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