Your friend should start a small side business selling their homemade candles.
**Question:**
Your friend Emma makes beautiful scented candles at home as a hobby. Everyone who sees them says she should sell them. Write an email to Emma. In your email:
– Compliment her candles genuinely
– Suggest she start selling them online
– Offer specific help to get her started
**Model Answer:**
**To:** emma@email.com
**Subject:** Serious suggestion – you should sell your candles!
Hey Emma,
I need to tell you something honestly. Your candles are genuinely amazing, and I think you’re sitting on a real opportunity. I’m not just saying this as your friend — every single person who has seen them has asked where to buy one.
The lavender vanilla one you gave me for my birthday? My roommate asked if she could buy one for her mom. My coworker saw it on my desk and offered me twenty bucks for it on the spot. You have a natural talent for blending scents, and your labels look professional already. The candles burn evenly, the jars are beautiful, and honestly, they smell better than anything at the mall for twice the price.
So here’s my suggestion: start a small side business selling them online. You don’t need a full shop or inventory. Just start with an Etsy store — it takes fifteen minutes to set up. List three or four scents at first. Price them at what they’re worth, not just materials. Your cost per candle is maybe four dollars in materials. You could easily sell them for eighteen to twenty-two dollars each.
I want to help you actually do this, not just talk about it. Here’s what I can do: I’ll help you take professional-looking photos of your candles using my camera. I’ll help you write the Etsy descriptions. I’ll even post about your shop on my Instagram and Facebook to get your first sales. My cousin runs a successful Etsy shop, and she said she would give you advice on shipping and pricing.
What do you think? Let’s at least try. You can always stop if you don’t enjoy it. But I really believe people will buy these. Let me know if you want to meet this weekend to set it up.
Talk soon,
Jess