Time-saving tips, tools, and strategies for candle makers & candle businesses discover how to save time, increase efficiency, and achieve greater productivity

As a candle maker or business owner, you wear many hats. Beyond the actual creation of your products, you also likely handle photography, marketing, social media, sales, fulfillment, bookkeeping, and more. This probably leaves you wishing there were more hours in the day!

In this article, we share actionable tips, tools, and strategies that’ll save you time when making candles and enhance the efficiency of your candle business. This way, you can devote more energy to the aspects of your craft and business you enjoy the most.

When quick time savers are needed, specialized tools and equipment are your best bet. You can use them right away and they save you valuable time, whether you're a candle-making hobbyist or run a full-fledged business.

Here are our top time-saving tools for making, packaging, and shipping your candles.

• Wax melter: A wax melter opens up a whole new world of efficiency when making large batches of candles. With the capacity to heat 65 pounds of wax in one go, you can pour many more candles in a shorter period of time—especially compared to using the double boiler method, microwave, or a Presto Pot. While the melter heats up, you can also work on other parts of your business to make the most of your time. 
  
  
• Extra pouring pitchers: Having a dedicated pouring pitcher for each fragrance you make regularly eliminates time spent on cleaning. 
  
  
• Piston funnel: Pouring candles neatly from a pitcher can take a lot of practice, but a piston funnel* dispenses wax precisely, preventing spills and drips that require clean-up time. This means you can also place containers closer together on your work surface and pour more candles at once.
  
  
• Heat gun: Indispensable for quickly smoothing rough candle tops and filling sinkholes, it only takes a few seconds to perfect a candle surface with a heat gun*. Heat guns are also handy for warming warning labels or wick stickers that aren’t adhering properly to glass. And they rapidly melt hardened wax on pouring pitchers, work surfaces, and piston funnels for quick cleanup.
  
  
• Wick setting tool: Especially helpful for double- or triple-wicked candles, wick setters save you time (not to mention frustration!) by placing the wicks exactly where they need to go on the first try. 
  
  
• Wick bars: While wick setters place wicks in the ideal spot on the bottom of the container, the top of the wick also needs support while the candle cools. This is where wick bars come in! Designed with a center notch to secure and hold the wick upright, wick bars save you time from having to adjust a shifted wick in a cooled candle and heat gunning the top to smooth the adjustment.

• Pre-printed labels and cards: Many makers design and print their own labels at the beginning of their candle making journey. As your business grows, though, using professionally printed labels—as well as thank-you and candle-care cards—will save time when packaging and enhance the presentation of your products. With Avery WePrint, save 10% when printing your custom labels and cards. 
  
  
• Labeling tool: If you label a lot of candles, this is another time-saving tool to have in your arsenal. Though many makers get very good at eyeballing labels over time, tools like the Norden Supply Candle Labeler, Label Ledge*, and Label Wizard* allow candles to be labeled more quickly and accurately—without the investment of time and practice. 
  
  
• Flush Packaging boxes: Save time—plus have greater peace of mind—by using shipping boxes specifically designed for packing efficiency and safe delivery. Flush Packaging manufactures 100% recycled cardboard shipping boxes for many CandleScience containers that assemble quickly and eliminate the need for additional packing materials. See how quickly an order can be packed with a Flush Packaging box versus traditional methods!

*As an Amazon Associate, CandleScience earns a commission from qualifying purchases of this item at no additional cost to you.

Having the right tools goes a long way in saving you time on your candle making journey. But if you want to go a step further and achieve greater time savings in the long term, you need to get strategic with your business operations.

Imagine taking a road trip without Google Maps or GPS—it would probably involve lots of detours and missed turns, right? Having plans and systems set up is like a roadmap for your business that provides valuable time-saving clarity and direction. Let's explore some practical ideas for infusing organization into your candle business.

Preparation through planning is a major factor in business success. Plans minimize distractions, indecision, and procrastination—all of which lead to wasted time. Doing the following three planning activities will help you form a foundation for working more efficiently. 

• Set your priorities: Over the next 12 months, what are the events and activities you want to focus on? Identifying these priorities—and scheduling a date for them—naturally creates the outline of a plan. Example activities include:
  
  
  • new candle and product launches
  • seasonal or special collection drops
  • promotions and sales
  • markets, pop-ups, and shows
    
    
• Create a roadmap for your business: With a stronger sense of your priorities, you can now put together a plan of action. It’s fine if you don’t know all of the details when you start this process; but a framework will ultimately help you stay ahead of crucial deadlines, better allocate resources like money and time, and meet your goals. And you can always fill in more details as they become known! Finding a system that works best for you is key. Consider starting with these tools:
  
  
  • A document or spreadsheet to capture, organize, and build out your ideas. Google Docs and Sheets are free, easily accessible, and autosave so your hard work is safe.
    
    
  • Project management tools like Asana, Notion, or Monday.com if you prefer visual forms of organization. 
    
    
• Make a content calendar: With your business roadmap in hand, you can now create a content calendar for the social media and email marketing that supports these goals. Synching these marketing efforts upfront will save you time and help you engage your audience more effectively, drive sales, and maintain a consistent brand presence throughout the year.

Intentional systems save time with the many moving parts of a candle business. Here are three to consider:

• Inventory systems: With all of the materials and supplies that go into the creation of handmade products, an inventory system saves you time keeping up with stock levels and preventing shortages that affect making and fulfillment. This system can be as simple as a spreadsheet that’s updated manually, or managed with professional programs like Craftybase or Inventora.
  
  
• Standard operating procedures (SOPs): SOPs are a set of step-by-step instructions for processes—like candle production, order fulfillment, and shipping—that standardize them, allowing them to be done more efficiently and quickly. They help to minimize errors, train employees, and facilitate smoother operations—all of which contribute to increased productivity and saved time!  Make basic SOPs by breaking down each process into its essential parts and systematically documenting them in writing. Some SOPs may benefit from including visual aids like photos, screenshots, or videos.
    
• Strategic ordering practices: Consider buying supplies in bulk to save time, money, and ensure your inventory is well-stocked. You’ll spend less time planning out and placing orders! Plus, you’ll receive bulk discounts and better per-piece and per-ounce pricing. 

A well-organized workspace is a game-changer for both your productivity and peace of mind! If possible, have a dedicated candle making area—even if it's a small corner of a room. The less time you spend on setup, the more there is for candle making and fulfilling orders! 

Here are our best workspace-related tips to save you time in the long run:

• Workflow optimization: Think about the flow of your production process and arrange stations, supplies, and equipment to minimize unnecessary movement. For instance, keep wax and fragrances near your melting station; then, situate your pouring area in close proximity to the melting station.   
  
  
• Smart storage: Keep your most-used tools and supplies within arm’s reach by utilizing vertical storage, like shelves and pegboards, to quickly grab what you need as you work. For larger candle batches, consider rolling sheet pan racks with multiple trays for cooling and curing so you can keep your pouring area in use.
  
  
• Organize your supplies: Keeping your supplies accessible avoids time-wasting pauses in your work. In general, this means keeping similar supplies together, but here are three more ideas for organizational efficiency:
  
  
  • Store 1 oz to 16 oz fragrance bottles in shelf-sized bins, then organize them in a way that works for you, whether it’s alphabetically by name, or by manufacturer, collection, or season. Some makers like to keep a spreadsheet of their fragrance library, too.
    
    
  • For larger jugs and pails of fragrance, write the scent name in permanent ink on the outward-facing side of the container for quick identification.
    
    
  • Store cases of candle containers so their labels are visible. No label? Simply write the name on the box ends.

Frequent task-switching is both inefficient and stressful, but how do you avoid it? Boost productivity by batching your work. 

Batching means concentrating on one task at a time; it typically streamlines your workflow and reduces mistakes, too.

Let's see how batching applies to different areas of candle making!

• Fragrance blending: Pre-mix any fragrance blends you make and put them into their own containers. This saves time as you'll only need to pour from one bottle, rather than multiples, when making candles. Amber-colored PET/HDPE plastic or glass bottles are ideal for storage, and remember to note the bottling date to avoid your blends expiring before you use them! 
  
  
• Candle production: Review your workflow to see if you have downtime that can be filled with other activities. Makers working with wax melters can use the time while the wax is heating to:
  
  
  • process or label already-made candles
  • prep and wick containers for that day’s pouring
  • complete administrative work 
    
    
• Shipping: Pulling candles, gathering packing materials, printing packing slips and labels: these many steps to shipping orders are surprisingly time-consuming! If you routinely have multiple orders to ship, try these three time savers:
  
  
  • Have a shipping station: This doesn’t need to be fancy or complicated, but having all of your shipping supplies together and a surface reserved for packing only allows you to work more quickly!
    
    
  • Ship on designated days: Consolidating your order packing allows for a more organized and systematic workflow. It saves time and can lower the risk of errors that cost more time—and money—later.
    
    
  • Schedule USPS package pick-ups: Save yourself the time of driving to the post office. When using prepaid USPS shipping labels, you can schedule free package pick-ups online, at your convenience.

Did you realize you were also going to become a marketer when you started making and selling your candles? It’s something many makers enjoy because marketing is another place to flex their creative muscles, but marketing a product line can be time-consuming and overwhelming to manage. Because your time and energy are finite, planning ahead and batching your marketing efforts will make the most of both.

Well-crafted product photos are vital for capturing the attention of your ideal customers. In fact, an Etsy survey found that 90 percent of shoppers said that the quality of photos were “extremely important” or “very important” to a purchase decision. So you want to stop their scroll with the photos you share and post! Save time when it comes to doing your own product photography with these ideas. 

When it comes to batching, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Some makers create a week's worth of social media content or emails in a single session, while others dedicate a couple of days to produce a month of content. However you choose to create your social media and email content, there are many tools at your disposal that can streamline this part of your business! 

There's a well-known saying that goes: “Don't reinvent the wheel.” Applied to content creation, it means not limiting a post, or piece of copy, to just one platform or purpose. With this approach, you make the most of the original content, getting more value out of your efforts and saving time. 

Once you've created a piece of content, repurposing it for multiple uses is a strategy that's particularly effective for evergreen content—material that stays relevant over time. Let's dive into the how of content recycling:

Efficiency is the cornerstone of saving time as a candle maker and running a successful candle business. By adopting these time-saving principles and using specialized equipment, you can enhance your operations, reduce stress, and create more room for creativity and growth.

As your business expands, consider outsourcing tasks to professionals, contractors, or employees to further optimize time. With careful planning and the right tools, your candle business can flourish while granting you the freedom to do what you love—crafting beautiful candles and growing your brand.