Spiral Light Candle in Hillsboro, North Dakota

Yesterday afternoon, I learned that Sapphire's in Hillsboro, North Dakota, has been re-ordering those candles that burn in a circle. The Spiral Light Candle things. Folks are driving in from Fargo, and Grand Forks, to get our self-filling candles.

Then there's Shepherd's Path in Bangor Maine, another place selling our candles. And more than two dozen others, on a list that's seriously out-of-date now.

What impressed me wasn't so much that Spiral Light Candle Corporation keeps getting orders from new retail businesses: it's that they re-order. Quite often, in some cases. Folks keep coming into the stores and buying out their stock. Which is good news for everybody: with the possible exception of whoever has to re-arrange the displays and keep track of inventory. And that's another topic.

This video does a pretty good job of showing what these candles do:

"Spiral Light's Spiral Burning Self Filling Candle"

anoasisproduction, YouTube (July 28, 2011)
video, 1:31

Spiral Light Candle is changing gears right now, since we need to make a whole lot more candles than we did a month ago. It's an interesting situation: My wife's been taking long strands of candle wick, cutting them to length, and shipping the ready-for-assembly wicks back to Hillsboro.


Making long strands of wick into shorter strands. October 28, 2011.

Right now, having wick preparation done partly as a sort of cottage industry makes sense. I'm not sure how long that's going to be the case. My son-in-law and I have been discussing locations for a factory: and that's yet another topic.

Somewhat-related posts:

• "First Full-Time Employee, and a Busy Monday"
  (September 12, 2011)
• "Catholic Marketing Network Trade Show: Second Morning on the Floor"
  (August 4, 2011)
• "Hiring Relatives and the Chinese Business Model"
  (June 5, 2007)

Christians in Action Trade Show, No: Website, Yes

About an hour ago I learned that Spiral Light Candle won't be attending the Christian Trade Show and Business Expo's Houston trade show. It's the 15^th Annual Christians In Action Trade Show, and would have been a fine opportunity to show folks these candles. And a good networking experience.

But we've got finite resources, and the decision was made to focus on getting the Spiral Light Candle website ready for online commerce. Now, a blatant display of self-promotion:

• Spiral Light Candle Corporation
  • Spiral Light Candle
    Video: A Candle With a Twist

That's Spiral Light Candle Corporation. (spirallightcandle.com)

I also learned that I'll be handling routine maintenance and updating for spirallightcandle.com - which isn't as impressive as it sounds. All the code will have been taken care of by the time the project gets to me: leaving me with a nice, friendly, interface and a list of clerical duties.

I was looking forward to at least hearing about Houston, the Christians in Action Trade Show, and all: maybe even being asked to help out. But that's the way things go. I'm looking forward to seeing how the website looks - and how it works.

More-or-less-related posts:

• "Candles, Another Trade Show, and an Upscale Shopping Center"
  (October 29, 2011)
• "First Full-Time Employee, and a Busy Monday"
  (September 12, 2011)
• "Families, Vacations, Catholic Marketing Network's 15th Annual Trade Show, Schedules, and a Candle"
  (August 1, 2011)
• "Family, Business, and Focus"
  (November 30, 2007)
• "Hiring Relatives and the Chinese Business Model"
  (June 5, 2007)