Lara:

Entrepreneurship is in my blood. Generations back, everyone’s had their own business. I always think that it’s something that I’m destined to do and why not start now?

Adam:

Welcome to the Youngpreneur Podcast brought to you by The Hunter Futurepreneurs Program.

The Hunter Futurepreneurs program has been designed to inspire, educate, mentor and connect future entrepreneurs to start or build a sustainable business.  

It’s a free program for young people supported by the Commonwealth Government, under the Entrepreneurship Program Initiative.

On the show, you’ll meet other young people, not unlike yourself. These young entrepreneurs had an idea for a business and decided to take action and just got to work creating an opportunity for themselves. If you enjoy these stories please join us by subscribing to the podcast and checking out the other ways you can get involved by visiting the show notes at, hunterfuturepreneurs.com.au/lara.

I’m your host Adam Spencer and I’d like to introduce you to your mentor today.

Lara:

Hello my name is Lara Davis. I’m 16 years old and I’m the owner of Lovely Little Lights. 

Lovely Little Lights is soy wax vegan scented candle company. I make and sell a range of candles in different scents and sizes.

Adam:

Lara started her business when she was just 13 years old. Initially, Lara’s parents were sceptical. Having run businesses themselves, they knew how challenging it was going to be. But after presenting them with a 16-page powerpoint presentation, Lara won them over and Lovely Little Lights was born. We start off this great conversation with Lara with me asking her Where did the idea for Lovely Little Lights come from?

Lara:

Entrepreneurship is in my blood. Generations back, everyone’s had their own business. I always think that it’s something that I’m destined to do and why not start now? Coming up with candles was probably one of the easiest things to do and it gave me so many different options in terms of how to actually produce them. The different varieties of candles are endless and gave me so much creativity. But the business stemmed from my family and seeing what our own business has done for them. Lot of pressure, big shoes to fill, but honestly, it ranges from chocolate shops to owning pubs, food production, tiling, marketing, building, a fair chunk of stuff.

Adam:

Do you see entrepreneurship in your future?

Lara:

It’s hard to think about the future. I think about that more than majority of the people my age, but I can’t narrow it down. Obviously, something along the lines of self-employed is in the picture, but I’m not just sure just yet what that involves.

Adam:

Do you have any people that you look up to in the business, entrepreneurial world?

Lara:

Majority of the times it’s just my parents. They’re so close to me and I experience what they experience every day. Their, majority of the times, what I look up to and what I aspire to be.

Adam:

Where did the name come from?

Lara:

Majority of the times, I was thinking something along the lines of, Lara is something, and rhyming with L to keep it simple, but I’m not sure how it came up. We were struggling for months to find out how it was, but in the living room, I don’t know, dad just came up with it and he said, “Lovely Little Lights,” and as soon as he said it, I just remembered and that was it, from then on.

Adam:

By the way, we’re sitting in Lara’s bedroom right now doing the interview and I’ve just noticed, are they inspirational, goals, reminders?

Lara:

Yes.

Adam:

That’s really awesome. Can you read a couple out for us?

Lara:

Some of them is, my goals is straight A’s in school, and then it’s like, “Never do tomorrow what you can do today.” This is my study space, so every time I study. My thing is, whenever I get up to leave to study and I don’t want to leave and I should probably stay, I read this out and if I still want to leave I’ll leave, but if I don’t then I’ll keep going.

Adam:

Lovely Little Lights, the idea for it was you just wanted to do something entrepreneurial, and candles were an easy way to get into entrepreneurship.

Lara:

It’s not about starting something new or starting something really big, I want to do this for the rest of my life. It was just about starting, because I knew I would learn more from starting in that time than trying to figure out what to do.

Adam:

Did you test the market at all? Coming from this business background, all these family members in business. How did you approach it? Did you test the market? Did you ask people if they wanted candles?

Lara:

Honestly, I didn’t think that much into it at that point. I just bought my first block of materials and went from there. I produce soy wax candles. They are different to your typical paraffin wax. Paraffin wax is pretty much what you would buy at the dollar store and things like that. The real pretty cheaply made products. The difference with soy wax is it burns a lot longer, which is great for value of money. And the other difference is that soy wax is a natural product compared to paraffin wax, which is a byproduct of diesel fuel. Which is actually really bad to burn in your home, which, not many people know.

Adam:

How much of this stuff did you know before you decided to start a candle business?

Lara:

Absolutely nothing and no idea.

Adam:

What was the first thing you did when you’re like, “I want to start a candle business.” What did you do?

Lara:

My birthday money was the first block of materials, and I searched up where to buy materials, and bought materials, trialled so many different things. I couldn’t count on my hands how many times I’ve failed at actually producing a candle. There’s a lot more that goes into it.

Adam:

How old were you when you were doing this?

Lara:

I started at 13.

Adam:

13 years old, that’s incredible.

Jodie:

Can I just add something?

Adam:

Definitely. This might be a good time to introduce your parents.

Lara:

This is my lovely mother, Jodie Davis.

Jodie:

Lara, just before her 13th birthday, decided that she wanted to start this business. For her 13th birthday, instead of getting presents, she actually asked if the family could give her money to start her first business. My mum and John’s mum and we gave her money instead of gifts.

Adam:

How did everyone react to that?

Jodie:

I think everyone was a little bit surprised and thought, “This isn’t going to last.” We also thought, to be honest, this isn’t going to last. This is just going to be a phase. We tried to deter her knowing that we’d run our own businesses and how much work was involved. We thought, she’s really got no idea of how much work owning your own business is. We kept deterring her and kept saying no and kept saying no. And then anyway, when she finally sat us down and presented a, how many page PowerPoint was it?

Lara:

16 page PowerPoint.

Jodie:

16 page PowerPoint on why we should let her start her own business. How could we say no to that? She was dedicated and we thought, well this is going to be a really good learning curve for her. That was three years ago, so she’s gone from strength to strength and we’re, of course, super proud of her. But, she’s pretty determined once she sets her mind to something. There’s not much convincing, not much changing it.

Adam:

Can you remember anything from that 13 … Was it 13 page?

Lara:

16 page.

Adam:

16 page PowerPoint presentation?

Lara:

Well, majority of the PowerPoint presentation was outlining the sources and how much it would take me to make one unit of candles. Because at that stage, I only produced one, so how much it would take me to produce that and then how much profit I could put onto that.

Adam:

Before you’d even asked about the birthday money or tried to convince your parents, you had already been doing research?

Lara:

Oh yeah, this was months preparation, because by the time I was doing all my preparation and having this thing in the background and I was like, this is yes or no. But I was never going to accept a no, but that was my final thing that I was working towards. That took a fair bit of effort to develop.

Adam:

What timeline are we talking about in sourcing the material? How long did that take?

Lara:

Working between suppliers, probably, well, I’m still doing it now, I’m still adjusting where I get things from. It’s always changing based on what they change, but the initial steps and what I worked out that I needed, probably took around two to three months.

Adam:

Did you go straight into production after those two or three months?

Lara:

Well, I needed the yes from mum, but after I got the yes and I got the money to get it, I started my first batch. My first order, I think it was less than $50 or something like that. Majority of that block failed.

Adam:

It failed, as in you didn’t even have an end product, it wasn’t good enough for you?

Lara:

I’ve made some small number of candles with that and I think only about half of them worked, because long story short, it was a learning curve and it’s a hard learning curve, especially at the start of the business.

Adam:

Two to three months of research, the pitch to the investors, got the money, got the supplies in, did your first production run, that was a failure, didn’t sell any from that. You didn’t even-

Lara:

Well, no, the few that actually worked-

Adam:

The half or so.

Lara:

… I sold them.

Adam:

Who’d you sell them to?

Lara:

As soon as I finished these batch I was so excited and I sat them on the entry table of our house. Darren Simpson, one of my dad’s friends, big bloke and car mechanic, wouldn’t ever think that he would buy a candle. He saw the candle, he was like, “Oh, what are these?” At this stage, I was in the office working all my production things out, trying to market these things to Facebook, and then dad’s come in, he’s like, “Guess what you just got?” And he bought one. I was so excited. That was how I got my first customer.

Adam:

Did you get any referrals sales from Darren. Did he go and tell his friends?

Lara:

Yeah. Actually, there was a few people that came from him through Facebook and then he referred me to one of his mates that had a shop-

Jodie:

Can I add one quick question?

Adam:

Definitely.

Jodie:

Or suggest a question for you? Ask her where she started making them.

Lara:

Oh, God.

Adam:

Lara, I just thought of a question, where did you start making them?

Lara:

Well, it was bit of a sliding scale. I started in the kitchen, I think I made my first two candles in the kitchen, then mum kicked me out. I progressed to the laundry and I probably made the next 100 to 200 candles in the laundry, then I got kicked out again. Well, I say kicked out, but it’s for the better. Dad ended up making me a little studio at the back, so I’ve got a full room, full production line going.

Adam:

Really? Is it still there?

Lara:

Yeah.

Adam:

Are those candles at the front door, is that permanent point of sales?

Lara:

Pretty much.

Adam:

Where are we up to? This is a roller coaster ride.

Lara:

I’m not too sure.

Jodie:

Welcome to our life.

Adam:

Got your first sale from Darren, what was next? Was it just a case of reinvesting that? Getting more money, buying more supplies, making more candles, getting better at it?

Lara:

At this stage, I had no other income from anything, so the bulk of my business was built up from selling candles, earning the money, and then buying more supplies. But at that stage, to get more customers, the thing that basically skyrocketed my business was the Facebook page, and all mum’s friends Facebook is the godsend. A lot of mum’s friends helped me out and that page grew and grew. People shared the story and then a lot of people came through Facebook.

Adam:

You just breezed past a lot of stuff just there. Can you tell me more about the Facebook page? How did you grow that page?

Lara:

Mum shared it on her profile and then all of her friends heard about it and it’s basically a snowball from there. Her friends shared it and then their friends shared it and because it was so different, I guess, it just blew up.

Adam:

You mentioned something about that, about your mum being in advertising and that helped.

Lara:

From the get go, mum was into me with branding. Make it professional or don’t do it. That’s probably the thing that has made me stand out, in my opinion. I think that’s what’s made me into what I am instead of just a 13 year old that made the candles, and that’s probably helped the most. But she’s always helped me with marketing and growing my page and how to lay things out and how to keep everything branded and consistent and everything to do with that.

Adam:

That was going to be my question. What’s the number one lesson that you took away from all that, in terms of branding? What’s the number one branding lesson, and I think you might’ve just gave me the answer.

Lara:

Obviously, have your logo, keep it consistent. I used the same font, the same colors. I have my rainbow background for pretty much everything that I do. Signs at markets, Facebook posts, Instagram posts, everything is consistent.

Adam:

Did you ever put together a branding guideline document?

Lara:

Actually, yes, we did when we did Cat’s marketing program.

Adam:

You’re still 13, 14 when we’ve got our first sale. When you’ve had your Facebook page set up, how many sales had you made up until that point? Just a ballpark.

Lara:

From first production to the launch of the Facebook page?

Adam:

Yeah. How early on was the Facebook page?

Lara:

That was probably within the month, I guess. Well, at that stage, those 25 were the only candles that I had, so less than 25.

Jodie:

22.

Lara:

It was some family event and we had a bunch of friends over and one of mum’s closest friends, family friends, Kate … I was with my best friend in the laundry, taking photos of the products to put on the Facebook page, and Kate is on the committee of my old primary school.

Adam:

Sorry, this was still back when your office was a laundry, was it?

Lara:

Yes. She mentioned something about the Tuggerawong Public School fete, so that was my first market that I did. I was advertising on the Facebook page and things like that. That was probably the biggest, not the biggest market that I’ve done, but the first big success in my business and the thing that kept me going and allowed me to buy more products, and that was the biggest jump.

Adam:

How did you get in contact with them? Did you just …

Lara:

Kate gave my details to the committee and then they reached out and sent me all the application forms. And then I had to get insurance and things like that, get all my market set up and then pay the fee and then went on the day.

Jodie:

There’s one thing that she hasn’t told you about that story, which she decided she would do something very clever in terms of a marketing idea, this didn’t come from me, before the day. Because you had to be an approved stall holder at the markets, Lara gifted a very simple, small candle to each committee member before the market. Every single committee member and their families came and bought candles on the day. It was very, very clever.

Lara:

I forgot about that.

Adam:

That’s really clever. Let’s go back just a minute here, because you’re 13 years old and you’re getting given application forms to set up a fete and have to set up insurance. What were you thinking? Were you overwhelmed? How thick was … How many forms?

Lara:

Oh, it was all online.

Adam:

Were you asking your parents for help at this stage, like, “Can you help me fill these forms out,” or were you doing it all yourself?

Lara:

I think majority of it I did myself. I think one of the only questions that I asked mum was, am I a sole-trader or something to do with the legal things. But other than that, it was pretty much all me.

Adam:

Let’s talk about that as well, because you can’t register a business or get an ABN as a 13 year old, can you?

Lara:

You can. I do.

Adam:

Really?

Lara:

Yeah. It frustrates me how many things I can’t do because I’m under 18 with a business, but I can get an ABN and I have an ABN.

Adam:

What were you frustrated about, because that’s come up in other conversations?

Lara:

Majority of times it’s to do with money. Setting up an Etsy store and linking my bank account, I can’t link my bank account. With the Square thing, I have to set it up all through mum. Even just simple things, sometimes market holders won’t let me have a stall.

Adam:

How successful was this first fete?

Lara:

About $500 was mine, I think.

Adam:

$500? Did it cost you any money to have the application, to have your stall there?

Lara:

Yes. I think it was $20.

Adam:

Wow, okay. Now, $500 as a 13 year old, you probably would have thought you were a millionaire at that point.

Lara:

Hundred percent. I was living.

Adam:

Can you share these numbers? What was the profit margin of the product per unit? You don’t have to share it if you don’t want to if that’s a trade secret.

Lara:

Well, because one of the other skills that I’ve learned is I’ve become somewhat good at Excel, so I worked at all that. At the start, my profit margin for my tin candles, not including labor, just pure material cost was 82%.

Adam:

How many different lines do you have? Do you have different product names or bundles?

Lara:

I have a few different bundles, per se, but the main difference is the size and the scents. I have six different scents at the moment and two different sizes.

Adam:

Right. How do you decide what scents you want to do?

Lara:

Well, this is another story. Sometimes I don’t listen to mum and this was one of the cases where I should’ve listened to mum. At the start, my idea was that I have as many scents … I had 14 scents to start with and I thought, well someone will be able-

Adam:

That’s a lot.

Lara:

… I know. Someone will be able to find a scent that they like, so they will end up buying one. What I found with markets was that people would come up and smell all of them and couldn’t decide. I started reducing them and I got down to six, but from that, because I started with the 14, I knew which ones were the best sellers. Majority of the times it was the top six sellers that I kept.

Adam:

That’s really smart. Did you go further with that? Were you constantly testing new scents or did you just stick with your best sellers? These are the lines I’m going to make more of.

Lara:

Well, at the start, the six that I chose were the best sellers at the time, and then I’ve switched two of them so far. I swapped out a few and then I adjusted one of them, from a different supplier.

Adam:

Let’s go back to fetes now and markets. The first fete was really successful, $500, 82% profit margin. You were like, “Okay, we need to do more of these.”

Lara:

That was the goal from then. After that I booked in, I think, three more markets. One was a total bust. After I got my part-time job, everything that I did with Lovely Little Lights, I compared it to that. I worked out the hourly rate that that market gave me and shocking. Absolutely shocking. Waste of time.

Adam:

Do you know why? Do you have any ideas why-

Lara:

In terms of why that market wasn’t good?

Adam:

Yeah.

Lara:

Majority of it came from, I didn’t pick well with the markets and it was really slow. There wasn’t that many people going through at all and it was like a side thing. It was at a gym where people didn’t go to the market. I found, over the years, the best markets are the ones that are run by Council. The Love Lanes And Live Well Festival, which is two of the best ones that I’ve pretty much ever done. And then ones at schools. So the parents want to support the school by purchasing.

Adam:

Were they just markets around the central coast? Did you go to any markets elsewhere?

Lara:

Not really because it’s hard because I don’t want to bog mum down because it’s bit of a trek to take all the stuff.

Adam:

Juggling between Lovely Little Lights and a part-time job, why did you decide to get a part-time job? Were you not making enough money as a 13, 14, 15 year old?

Lara:

I think at the start of it, Lovely Little Lights was the main thing and I could grow and grow and grow and grow because I just kept putting stuff back in. But as soon as it slowed down, I couldn’t grow it as much, so I decided to get the part … My initial thought with the part-time job was to get the job and then invest in the business with that as well so I could grow that up. But what ended up happening was I just went to work and didn’t put that much effort into that.

Adam:

Why did it slow down, do you think?

Lara:

Honestly, pure effort on my behalf. Being, not distracted, but putting my time into school and probably getting a bit lazy with it.

Adam:

Do you have any plans to get back into it or sell it to another 12 or 13 year old at school?

Lara:

I’ve had a couple people ask, but not at this stage, because obviously there’s not much that I can do, especially going into senior years. School is my full time job and that’s the thing that I have now and that’s the thing that I should be concentrating on because I’m not going to have it in two years. But I think in the future with Lovely Little Lights, I’ve always seen it as a wholesale business, and progressing it and advancing it to that stage, has been the ultimate goal. I couldn’t get there before those serious study started so that may be a potential after school, but just see where we go after school.

Adam:

Tell me about that story, customized candles last Christmas?

Lara:

Last Christmas I was fully focused on Lovely Little Lights. Exams were over, everything was down and now to this. I don’t know how I came up with it, but something about a personalized gift and making it unique to that customer, made me a ton of sales. I make all my labels, I design them on an online program and print them out at the local printing service. All I did was wrote, Merry Christmas and then left it up to the customer on what name they wanted it to have. So then that person would receive the gift and be like, “Oh, that’s my name.” It was very unique to them and I think that’s something that made it really special and stand out.

Adam:

How did you market those? Was it just through the Facebook page?

Lara:

Majority of the standalone customers was through Facebook, but I also decided to reach out to local businesses. I basically compiled an Excel sheet of probably 200 plus local businesses that would be a business that would give something to their either employees or staff or customers for Christmas. I reached out to preschools that would have all their staff, I reached out to coffee shops, a bunch of different businesses, and wrote this pitch. I made a video as well.

Lara:

I sent this out, I spent ages on this. Developed my pitch and individually personalized each email, and from that, the downside was, is that I sent it out a bit too late. But I did get, I think it was three or four bulk orders from this. That was a big plus for me. I got, I think it was a order of 20 candles, that I did all the custom labels for and sent it out. And then I got an order of 50 and then I think I’ve got an order of 30.

Adam:

Wow. So three or four bulk orders. What was your total sales for that Christmas period? What are we talking, is this two or three weeks?

Lara:

Basically two or three weeks of work leading up to Christmas, and I think my total at the end was about $2,500. Which is basically what advanced my business to the wholesale level that I ended up getting, which was buying a whole bunch of new materials. The thing that I found is, obviously, wholesale concept’s, the more you buy, the cheaper it is. So I bought as much as I could with that profit and I also bought a big heavy duty commercial wax melter, and that made my production so much easier, so much quicker, and ultimately, it saved me a lot of time.

Adam:

Wow. If we go back to almost the beginning of the story where your first customer, one of his friends or something, got you into a shop?

Lara:

No, that one didn’t work out. But I did the same thing, the same email out to a bunch of local businesses asking to stock them and out of that I got my first stockers, which was Glee Coffee at Wyong.

Adam:

How many emails were you sending out to people, different businesses?

Lara:

It was literally just the one, the one first email.

Adam:

You sent one email and got it into the shop?

Lara:

Yeah. I sent out an email to a large majority of businesses, and then specific businesses that I thought would be most likely to stock my candles, I would then send in a gift bag with a tin candle in. And then the thing that I did differently with Jemima, which was the owner of Glee Coffee, is I got a box that hold three of my tin candles. Because I was targeting these businesses, not to put my product in their shop, but to create a product for them that was branded with their logo. I printed out their logo on the candles, sent them in and I got the best response back from her. She was blown out of the park and posted it all over her social media from the sample pack that I sent in. I sent in the letter with her with very detailed, I had a wax seal on it, and it was just something that she had never seen before and I was pretty proud of it.

Adam:

That’s really awesome. Did you try to get into other stores after that and was this where the seed was planted in your mind to maybe go full wholesale and try to stock it in a whole bunch of other places?

Lara:

That was the first big move into retail and wholesale. Previously, I had, I think at that point it was about six other businesses that were just on, is it consignment basis? Where I would just have the candles and whenever they would sell they would just put the money aside. But that was the first big move into selling my candles to businesses, personalized.

Jodie:

In fact, a lady’s clothing store approach Lara after seeing the candles at Love Lanes and asked her to basically put their logo on it with a beautiful, inspiring quote on it. Lara developed that packaging, down to the point where if people want to reorder, there’s a Facebook and Instagram logo on there. Open it and see what it’s like inside.

Adam:

That’s really cool. It’s a white box with a really cool looking label and a black bow around it, with another label with Facebook, Lovelylittlelights.com.au. I can already smell it, it smells good.

Lara:

This is my version of the classic collection. This was something that I brought out because I thought my rainbow label might be a bit too much for older people, I guess. I had that version, which is the classic, which is my version of the classic collection, and then she saw that and she was like, “Oh, can you do this?” I’m like, “Yes, of course.”

Adam:

That’s really cool. This is such an inspiring story. What advice do you have for other 13 year olds out there? What would you tell them if they’ve got an idea that want to do?

Lara:

I think, 100% just, whatever idea you have, it doesn’t have to be special. I made candles. Candles are probably the most common startup. Just, whatever you’re thinking, just start it. Just start because you will learn so much from it and you can always change. You can always tap into another market. I think the biggest advice that I’ve got from my mum, which I talked about before, which was the branding and trying to keep things as professional. Don’t treat it like you’re a teenager starting a business, try and be as professional as you can. Even when you’re talking to people, and sound like you know what you’re doing. Biggest one is fake it till you make it and just keep on the branding. Try and source the cheapest, sustainable products and just get starting. Get into markets, get into the local market and just start because you’ll learn so much along the way.

Adam:

Thank you for listening to the Youngpreneur Podcast brought to you by The Hunter Futurepreneurs program. What exactly is the Hunter Futurepreneurs Program? I’d like you to meet the Entrepreneurship Facilitator at Hunter Futurepreneurs, Cheryl Royle.

Cheryl:

The Hunter Futurepreneurs Program exists to support, inspire, educate and mentor young people who have an idea or a passion they want to explore. We show you step by step how to validate your idea and build a successful business.  

If you are…or know a young person  with an idea

Hunter Futurepreneurs are here for you and we can help you.

Adam:

Do you have an idea for a business but have no idea where to start? I’ll tell you where to start, it’s simple, all you need to do is go to the show notes page for this episode, hunterfuturepreneurs.com.au/lara, and there you’ll be able to answer a couple of quick questions and then Cheryl will be in touch with you to schedule a free meeting to help you get started the right way. 

Cheryl:

So that’s what gets me out of bed in the morning. Two young guys coming in, knocking on my door, saying, “This is my idea. What do I do with it?” And we developed it to at least getting them a grant to make it happen.

I felt that the opportunity, the opportunities that were going to open up for these young boys were incredible, and the journey that they’ve been on has been incredible as well. So they’ve learnt so many things. They’ve learnt about finances. They’ve learnt about resilience on how … They’ve learnt about how to develop an app. They’ve learnt about things like contracts, working with other people. It’s just been amazing and it’s been an amazing journey. Whether that app is successful or not doesn’t matter now. These young boys have walked away with skills that will hold them very high throughout their lives.

Adam:

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts for more incredible stories from other Young Entrepreneurs to learn how they started and built their businesses. They started from scratch just like you, there is no better time to get started than right now, get in touch with the Hunter Futurepreners team today at hunterfuturepreneurs.com.au/lara.