We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alejandro Buxton a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Alejandro, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
My mom and grandma are the hardest working people I know. My grandma has been an entrepreneur her entire life and I grew up in her salon after school while my mom was at work. I also saw my mom go to law school when I was 2 or 3 years old. I remember spending a lot of time in the library and going to her classes when she didn’t have anyone to watch me. When she graduated, I walked the graduation stage with her and accepted her diploma.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I started Smell of Love Candles because my mom really loved candles. Like when I say she loved candles, every store we went to, she had to get a candle. But then when she burned the candles, we both started getting headaches and my asthma was triggered. She got allergy testing and realized that the candles were triggering our headaches and triggering my asthma. So she threw them all away and she was disappointed. So I decided to create my first candle, Jurassic Orange. My mom helped me because she’s made candles in the past but not for selling, she made them for the house. And she encouraged me to start selling them as a business because I had 3 businesses in the past: I sold lemonade, I cut grass and I shoveled snow. And that’s how Smell of Love Candles was started.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The three skills that impacted my journey: speaking skills, ability to sale and upsell, and attention to detail.
I would tell early entrepreneurs to be clear when you develop your brand. What problem do you solve? How does your product help people? What does your product do?
I would tell them to focus on getting in front of people. For example, we started doing markets all the time and as we did markets, people started getting familiar with the brand and us. That has helped us grow tremendously.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
My mom and family encouraged me to start the business. She gave me so much love and motivation to start this. She also became my first investor and fan and supported me by helping me do markets all the time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://smelloflovecandles.com/
- Instagram: @SmellofLoveCandles
- Facebook: @SmellofLoveCandles
- Linkedin: @SmellofLoveCandles
- Twitter: @MomandSon
- Youtube: @SmellofLoveCandles
Image Credits
Smell of Love Candles
