A company dedicated to providing curated self-care experiences
“I’ve always had the entrepreneurial spirit because my grandfather was an entrepreneur. Even as a kid, I always knew that I wanted to have my own business,” said 45-year-old Shontelle Flowers, who launched her candle and skincare line FlowEsScents in 2016, a brand that focuses on helping women create self-care experiences that help them de-stress, relax, elevate their mood and find their peace.
“As I got older and started to branch out, I started to realize that my passion was truly candles and skin care, because I’ve always been enamored with the beauty industry. That’s when I knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur.”
MSR: Why did you decide to make candles for your business?
SF: I was working as an IT business analyst, which is a very stressful job. I was the only Black woman on my team. I felt like I was left out, like I wasn’t part of the conversations that were happening around me.
I’d leave work feeling stressed out and a little defeated. One day, one of my family members went to a candle-making class and she showed me a candle she’d made. That was the moment for me when I was like, ‘That’s what I really need to focus on because I love candles.’
So, I bought a candle-making kit and then I started making candles, did it as a hobby to see if that was something I wanted to turn into a business. I started handing out my candles as gifts to family members and coworkers. About a year after that I decided to turn it into a legitimate business.
MSR: How does your business impact the community?
SF: My business impacts the community because I really home in on the importance of finding peace wherever you are, especially at home.
During COVID, a lot of us were at home. We couldn’t leave. There was so much going on politically and socially. It was really important for us to find peace and to use the tools we had around us to find that peace. And candles, in my opinion, was one of those ways.
A lot of people said they use them to de-stress, to relax, whether it was working from home or school. I also host events that bring the community together. These events were fragrance events where people make their own perfumes.
MSR: What would you consider your best-selling product?
SF: The biggest seller is Coconut Peach. That’s everyone’s favorite. Even people who say they don’t like a fruity or coconut smell, they’re like, “Wow, I didn’t expect it to smell like that. I love it.” So that’s my top seller.
MSR: What has been your biggest challenge in owning a business?
SF: Time. One of the challenges of owning a business is working a full-time job, going to school for my doctorate, and then also running a business. Time management is essential when it comes to owning your business. If I don’t have good time management I’m all over the place. I feel overwhelmed.
MSR: What has been the most rewarding part of owning your business?
SF: The most rewarding part of owning my business is building a community of customers. I like to call them my tribe, my community, and my people. I treat them like family. I treat every customer like they are family. I appreciate everything that they’ve poured into me. I appreciate the people who have been with me since 2016.
The most rewarding part is how people respond: “Hey, I got my candles. They smell so good. I’m burning my candle now and I feel so relaxed, I feel so happy. I gave one of my candles to one of my friends or one of my kids took my candle because they felt it smelled good. And now I have to buy another one.”
MSR: What does success look like for you?
SF: I want to see my business grow. I want to eventually have a brick-and-mortar store where people can come in and curate their own fragrances and teach people about fragrance. How it impacts us, our mood, our body chemistry, and how it makes us feel.
MSR: What advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur?
SF: I would say do research. Research your industry and make sure it’s something that you really, really want to do. Do some self-awareness and some introspection to determine if owning a business is something you want to do. It’s not as pretty as a lot of the things we see on social media. Be open to being taught things from other people who have been in the business, because we don’t know everything.
MSR: What would you like to add?
SF: In business, a lot of times we see people on social media who are doing what we do. They may have started after us, or before us, or whenever. We see them at a level that we want to be, and we start to say, “What is it that I’m doing wrong? Or what are they doing that I’m not on that level?”
I would say don’t compare yourself to what you see other people doing. Run your own race. It’s your journey. And your journey is your journey and not anybody else’s.
No matter where you start, it’s about how you finish and what you’re doing in the process to make yourself better. Make your product better to serve the people that you want to buy your products. You want to make sure that you’re serving them and not just selling.
For more information, visit www.flowesscents.com.
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