Hello loyal candle buddies,
With mixed feelings, I'm writing to let you know of changes coming to the shop in 2024.
2023 was a year with many successes (licensing, the Stands partnership, etc) and many challenges (the darned algorithms, economy pains, etc). The challenges brought a lot of added financial stress to myself and many other small business owners. This feeling had left me burnt out and really not feeling like my best self for my children, you and most importantly, me.
After much reflection, I decided it was time for me to pivot. This week I accepted an administrative assistant position with a financial firm. This decision wasn't made lightly. It will be a change in routine for my children (who have loved having me working from home for the past six years) and for Serpent & Flame.
That being said, Serpent & Flame will not be going away. It will be changing to an extent. Since my new job is full time, S&F will have to scale down to a level I can manage working some weekends or nights (but not to a level where I can't enjoy time with my kids). I love S&F and I love all of you! I don't want to stop creating things for you.
The plan is going to evolve as I see how this new schedule works for me in January.
Here are my current intentions:
- Sunday, December 17th will be the last day I offer made-to-order items on a retail level. MTO still will remain open for our wholesale partners but our processing time may shift.
- We will move back to the read-to-ship "sell what is made" format on Monday, December 18th.
- Product lines will be streamlined. I am going to be moving the shop to one type of candle so that it's easy for me to create a process for. (I'll be posting pictures of these later this month.)
- The initial focus will be candles and hopefully sprays. The status of other product lines is uncertain until I know what my time looks like.
- We will be scaling back on conventions because I will not have the vacation time to use for most 3-4 day events. Chicago Tardis is the only 3 day event we're planning on in 2024 (but I'm hoping we can also do Chicago Supernatural). We will try to do weekend 1 or 2 day events but how many I can do is unknown at this time.
As the plan changes, I will absolutely let everyone know. You all are important to me and as I said before, I want to keep making things for you as long as I can. I know it'll suck scaling back but I also know we'll all make it work. We always do.
My inbox and DMs are open any time with questions! I'll be posting more as I get pics on our new collections and designs come out. Im really excited about them and two super secret projects I'm working on still.
Take care of yourselves. You matter and are appreciated.
-Andi