‘Damn': Business owner runs pop-up, loses money
Clare Neilson, 42, owns the candle business Clare Makes. The idea for her business came about during the pandemic, when she started making her own candles.
She wanted her apartment, which had no outdoor area, to 'smell like a garden' and fell in love with the scents she created.
Originally, she thought no one would be interested in her candles, given the popularity of traditional scents like vanilla and caramel, but her husband encouraged her to give it a try.
'My husband said, 'people will buy these,' and I was like, 'no, they won't,' she told news.com.au.
Ms Neilson's husband was right; she discovered many people like her were craving more natural scents, less vanilla cupcake, and more lemon myrtle and pine needle.
The candle business quickly became a successful side hustle. Then, two years ago, she lost her job and decided to focus on it full-time.
'I got made redundant two days before Christmas. The timing, being so close to Christmas, was not ideal, but it pushed me to do my business full-time,' she said.
'It was painful at the time, but without the push, I wouldn't be where I am now.'
Ms Neilson explained that even though she's proud of her business, that doesn't mean everything she tries her hand at is a success.
Case in point, she decided to set up a pop-up stall in Maitland at a popular shopping centre, but it ultimately lost money.
The business owner broke down exactly how she lost money over two days on social media. Firstly, it cost $400 to run the pop-up from the shopping centre, and then it cost her $20 in petrol.
Food for the weekend cost her $69.50 for breakfasts and $28 for lunches. The product costs were $214, plus GST of $63.35, bringing her total to $794.35.
On Saturday, she had seven sales and made $388.50 in total. On Sunday, she had seven sales again and pulled in $255.
Her total sales over the weekend came to $643.50, however she also uses Shopify, so after paying a few dollars in fees, she took home a total of $637.52.
It wasn't enough to offset the total costs though and the pop-up ultimately left her $157.33 out of pocket.
After posting the video of the business fail online, Ms Neilson said she was stunned to discover some people were offended that she included the cost of feeding herself in the business expenses.
'It is wild you've included your food costs,' one complained.
'Food that you eat or your kids eat isn't a business cost. An employee would have to buy their own food,' someone else pointed out.
'To be fair, the majority of the loss was meals, which don't count as a business cost,' another said.
The business owner argued that she understands the feedback but included the cost because she wanted to be 'transparent about every dollar spent to run the pop-up' store.
'People were mad that I was counting food costs. If you want me to take out food costs, okay, but let me add back in the time I spent and my loss would be a lot bigger than $157,' she said.
In general though, people were kind, appreciated Ms Neilson's transparency, and were happy to commiserate with her over the unsuccessful pop-up.
'Damn,' one wrote.
'Oh my god,' another said.
'I hope at least the exposure leads you to future sales down the track,' someone else said.
'Thanks so much for sharing this, I love watching these videos as a fellow small business owner,' another praised.
The business owner admitted that she was 'really nervous' to share the video because it 'isn't nice to show you've failed' but she wanted to be transparent with her followers.
'The purpose was not for people to feel sorry for me but to show the real picture,' she argued.
Ms Neilson said she's learned from the experience already. If she tries a pop-up again in the future, she'll make sure to have better 'foot traffic' before diving in.
The candle maker doesn't think the pop-up helped with brand awareness because not enough people walked past.
It is a great example of how different strategies work for different businesses. The pop-up experience was radically different from the Newcastle market scene, where she can 'quite easily make a really good profit,' especially when the weather is nice.
Ms Neilson said it's 'not great' when you try something in business and it flops, but she's learned that not everything is going to be super successful.
'There have been points in my business where I have thought is this the end? Because I have just done so badly over a weekend but my answer always is – just because you've had a bad weekend doesn't mean you have a bad business,' she said.
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