The honest answer is under $300. A case of soy wax, fragrance oil, a stack of vessels, wicks, and a double boiler you probably already own gets you making product this week.
Because it is cheap to start, the myth here is not the money. It is that candles are easy money. They are easy to make badly and hard to make well, and the difference is three details most beginners never learn.
First, fragrance load. Soy wax holds only about eight to ten percent fragrance oil by weight. Pour in more hoping for a stronger scent and the excess will not bind. The candle sweats oil on top, the surface pits, and the "throw" gets weaker, not stronger. Weigh your oil, do not eyeball it.
Second, cure time. A candle needs one to two weeks to cure before it burns and scents the way it should. Sell it the day you pour and the customer gets a weak, tunneling candle and never buys again. Pour a batch ahead, always.
Third, wick size to vessel diameter. The single most common beginner failure is a wick too small for the jar, so the flame carves a tunnel straight down the middle and leaves a ring of wax it never melts. Match wick to vessel width and test-burn before you list anything.
Your margin comes from selling direct, at markets and craft fairs and to local shops, where a candle that costs you three dollars sells for eighteen. Racing to the bottom on a crowded marketplace against sellers undercutting each other is how you work for free.
The rest, the exact wax and wick pairings, testing method, and direct-sales pricing, is in the full plan:
See the full candle making business plan →
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