Dominique Octave Presents Ricki Lawal

Welcome to our first segment of Dominique Octave Presents…

This blog series shares transparent interviews with amazing people who have forged a path to success and are trail blazers in their own right. Each interview will take you behind the scenes of the interviewee’s story – some of the highs and lows, the process and advice to inspire you on your journey.

 

Introducing Ricki…

Ricki is an entrepreneur and founder of her beautiful home fragrance business, Selfmade Candle. 

Borne out of lockdown, Selfmade candle has been featured in Elle, TimeOut and Grazia. 
Ricki’s candles can be found on her sophisticated website, in Selfridges via a luxury jewellery brand called Astrid & Miyu, and with several other vendors. Having recently left her 9-5 career as a Marketing Lead at a Tech Company to run Selfmade Candle full-time, I am so excited for you to read this blog where Ricki tells us a bit about how she has done it.

What is Selfmade Candle? 

Selfmade Candle is the sustainable wellness brand for the modern day maker. We use 100% natural soy wax infused with essential oils to provide lavish scent experiences through guilt free products. Our products are eco-friendly and vegan friendly all the way down to the ink we print with, and the glue we use on our labels! We’re all about getting lit, responsibly.

How did it all start – what was your inspiration? 

Selfmade Candle was started during the first Lockdown of 2020. It all started with a series of Instagram stories recycling my candle jars to make new candles. I hated the idea of throwing them all away when done and wanted an outlet for both my creativity and my love of making something new from old. Following George Floyd’s murder and my prior company’s inaction, I wanted a way to do something to support my wider community and with that Selfmade Candle as a side hustle was born. With rising demand, I decided to turn Selfmade into a full time business towards the end of 2020.

Business start-up costs are often a deterrent for young and aspiring entrepreneurs, with most juggling a 9-5 or studies when starting a business, could you tell us a little bit about your experience? 

It can be argued that the best time to start a business is when you’re already working. I was able to use my income from my previous job as a way to sustain myself when I was essentially working for free for Selfmade. It meant that I had to be really savvy with time management and prioritisation. You can’t waste time that you don’t have. So that was an excellent motivator when building Selfmade at the start. 

Selfmade Candle has an amazing online presence including your website and social media, what service did you use to make your website and how do you maintain your website and social media?

Funnily I built the first iteration of Selfmade Candle over a weekend. The surprises a lot of people, but with platforms that enable web development (without coding) being as sophisticated as they are, the barrier to entry is a lot lower. I started with a template that I branded via Wix. Shortly after, I moved platform to Shopify due to the app ecosystem available with Shopify. To this day I still manage the website and have not employed anyone to code a thing.

In terms of press (magazines/news etc), how have you managed to forge collaborations with brands and what advice would you give to business owners/influencers seeking press collaborations?

In terms of press, I think my success has been down to the fact that I see press as a long term relationship. Just like with my customers, journalists are first and foremost, people. I’ve only ever reached out to media that I value and I myself would read. I also really value the time of any and every one I speak to and use this same approach when talking to press.

With wearing so many hats, how do you manage your time effectively?

You can’t play with time that you don’t have. When you’re CEO, CMO, CTO, CFO and more, you need to be able to juggle multiple priorities at once. I’ve been juggling multiple priorities ever since I got my first job at 16 so have found this to be a skill developed further over the year. 

Can you share a highlight since starting Selfmade Candle?

My biggest highlight was when I made my first donation to Black Minds Matter UK last quarter. There’s no better feeling than contributing to something greater than yourself.

Lastly, can you share any podcasts, videos and/or resources that an entrepreneur needs in their life?

How I Built This By Guy Raz. Hearing other people’s stories really motivates me, especially when i’m able to relate to the struggles they faced early on.

Thank you so much Ricki for sharing, if you would like to follow Ricki and Selfmade Candle please see the links below. 

You can purchase a candle via the Selfmade Candle website – https://selfmadecandle.com/

Selfmade Candle Insta – @selfmadecandleco

Ricki Insta – @rickilawal