Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Debbi Osowski. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Debbi , thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
My optimism comes from my husband. He is also an entrepreneur / business owner who sees the world through a positive lens. His mantra is always “you don’t hear “no” if you don’t ask the question”. He is always looking at the best possible outcome and planning for the best.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
“do good adventures” is a soy candle company based in Fargo, North Dakota. What started as a summer hobby in 2018 organically became a small business after learning about a local holiday market that same year. In 2019, I resigned from my full-time job as a high school counselor to focus on the business full-time, and in the summer of 2021, we moved the production out of our laundry room (which had spread to the entire house!) into a small production space. My daughter, Abby, joined me full-time in the summer of 2022.
This past year was spent focusing on refining our brand and our product line to have a cohesive look and feel. We love the outcome and the look of our elegant, classic, timeless vessels and variety scents. “do good” candles will look beautiful in any space and type of home decor. Our Signature Collection is available in two sizes and poured in black or white ceramic vessels. Our seasonal scents are poured into glass vessels with beautiful gold foil printed labels. We will be re-launching one of our first collections, the do good collection, this March and cannot wait to share the updated scents and new look. We recently launched “The Exclusive Glow Series” which is a limited release, exclusive candle launch on the first of every month.
We have a small retail space in our production studio as well as a website for online sales. We sell in-person at many local markets and have expanded to some markets in Minneapolis and Chicago. We have also been a vendor at Atlanta Market and continue to focus on growing the wholesale side of the business.
I knew from the beginning that I wanted “do good” to be a give-back company. We donate $2 from the sale of every full-price retail candle to mental health charities that focus on awareness, suicide prevention, and building self-esteem in children & teens.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Looking back, my love of learning helped build the business in all areas. I always love learning new things, and there were so many avenues of knowledge to explore, from candlemaking, website development, marketing, and social media. The list goes on and on. I also had retail experience from the past, which, combined with my counseling background, allowed the business to be very customer-service-focused. I also had a small photography business in the past, and those skills were helpful for social media. If I had to name three things, they would be love of learning, caring for people, and determination to succeed.
The advice I have for individuals exploring a new career path or starting a business would be: do your research on the platforms/products that work best for your business type (for example, Flodesk is beautiful but not the right email platform for product-based businesses), accept that you will make mistakes but will learn from them, don’t wait for things to be perfect or they will never happen.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
We continue to face two main challenges. The first is pricing our products so that we can make donations and still have the profit to pay our expenses and continue to grow. The second is somewhat similar – growing our online presence to increase traffic and sales through our website to expand beyond our local community.
Our local community has been immensely supportive of our business. We sell exceptionally well at in-person events when customers can see and smell the products. The next trick is to figure out how to describe and communicate about the candles so someone online can have that same experience and confidence to buy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.dogood-adventures.com
- Instagram: @dogood_adventures
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dogoodadventures
Image Credits
Abby Anderson
