One Year of Cherry Tree Candle Company!

I can't quite believe that I have made it all this way, I am a creative person, I am always picking up and dropping creative projects to the point that my family joke and call them "5 minute hobbies" ! So to reach the one year mark with this "5 minute hobby" has made me very proud! 

I wanted to do a little recap over the last year of my business, for myself and for anyone that is interested!  

At the end of October 2020 we heard the news that England would go into it's 2nd national lockdown to help protect the NHS from Covid-19, I had already adapted my wedding photography business into family mini-sessions over the summer and I was just a week away from running my Christmas mini-sessions when I had to refund my clients. I was fed up, I was so sad that I had put such a lot of effort into something that could now not happen! So my Sister, my Husband and I went out for pizza (my favourite food ever) and had quite a few drinkies as the second lock down grew closer! 

Over the next few days I came up with a plan that I could make candles over the winter to sell, so random!  I made some candles for Christmas presents a few years ago and thought that I could give it another go, I bought a kit off the internet to see if I could do it and I dived right in!

On 5th November 2020 I announced that I was to launch my own little candle brand, I had no idea what to expect, everyone was so excited for me and it was so much fun! On 19th November first collection sold out in 2 hours!!!!! I couldn't believe it!! I absolutely loved making candles and being able to sell them.

Sadly at the end of November, I lost my job working for the NHS, I was made redundant during a pandemic! Baffling but I thought this was my calling to finally give it a go at being fully self-employed with my photography and try and make this very new candle business work! Being fully self-employed had always been a dream of mine and with some redundancy money in the bank this was the time to see if I could make it work.

I then went onto do a Christmas restock, a reclaimed glassware candle collection, a self love valentines collection (keep your eyes peeled for the 2022 one because there are some amazing things coming!) a mothers day collection, the spring/summer collection, wedding candles and now here we are back in November with a autumn/winter collection and an amazing commemorative rose gold candle launch!

This last year has had it's ups and downs...

I've launched a number of new products over the last year some were a great success and others not so, it hasn't all been plain sailing, and has been a very difficult summer for candle sales! 

Now here we are 5th November 2021 a whole year later from that launch date and things are looking very different for me and be as transparent as possible about running a business and being self-employed, it isn't easy. Yes I get to stay at home all day and yes I get to do what I want when I want, but it also comes with a LOT of responsibility and stress, a very different amount of responsibility and stress than when I worked for a big organisation. 

A photo collage of lots of photos of candles and pictures of me (Lisa) from over the past year of running my business