Today we’d like to introduce you to Enishia Alford.
Enishia, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Well, Brianna Wicks wasn’t always Brianna Wicks. It all started with my love of gifting my family members a sentimental gift. I have a real true passion for gifting personable gifts, especially to love ones. I would search ours hours in stores looking for the perfect gift and I always will come up with a concept of giving a gift basket but in stores, you would always find a really expensive gift basket but with only one or two good things inside of the basket and everything else would be kind of not even worth you’re wild. So I began making my own for the family at first, and then one day, my little sister she was like, why don’t you actually do this for a living and I was like, I don’t know so I started looking into it and I came up with the name Brianna Baskets. I have this really big thing about wanting everybody to afford quality items, so I was looking for ways to make the baskets really affordable I wanted to stay in the $30-$40 price range.
In order for me to do that I would have to basically make everything inside of the basket, so I looked for things that wasnt too expensive in; a really good idea that I had was to add candles. I mean whenever I gave gifts, I would always put a nice candle inside because he doesn’t like an amazing smelling room right. Shopping online for the perfect Candles wasn’t as easy as I thought because they were a little bit on the pricey side, and one candle was about 20 bucks, so I looked into making candles myself. I did all the necessary research, you know, like YouTube Dr. Google and I finally got the hang of it. Once I found the perfect wax for me and that perfect wick I was ready to find the perfect scents to complete this recipe of success lol. So I begin making candles and it went from me adding Candles to access my basket to be really really really really love making candles. I love making candles so much that it went from Brianna Baskets to Brianna Wicks! And I still live by one and two give access to quality items and an affordable price. That’s my biggest thing I want everyone to have access to things that are nice I feel like Candles they’re good for so many things. Like meditation, Setting a vibe, unwinding from a hard day of work, creating the perfect ambience for a killer bath, and making your space smell absolutely amazing! I want to give this access to as many people as I possibly can, and that’s my story!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The role to become Brianna Wicks has been nothing short of an adventure. I got my first chance to really showcase what I could do at a party in Tampa by a girl that follows me on my Instagram page. She loved my postings and the concept of my candles. At this time, I was still so new, trying to really figure out what identity I really want it to have for Brianna Wicks. I was still in that phase where I was going back-and-forth with different vessels, and I wasn’t really sure what book I wanted as my signature look but I didn’t know that I wanted it to look classy modern chic that’s what I was going for. I feel like simplicity is key. She loved what I was doing and she invited me to a party and she invited me to be one of the vendors at the party at this time I didn’t really have a large inventory, so I went to work I was so excited I had to pay a vendor fee and of course, I had to buy everything for my set up and at this time I have never done any sort of ending events and this is my first time, so I kinda didn’t know how am I said it should be but I didn’t know that I did wanted to be classy, attractive, and very inviting.
So the day of the event, I’m super nervous because I’ve never sold any of my candles to anyone before at this time. So I get to the event and I’m super nervous I set up of course when I go to vending and then I’m like this is my first time but I didn’t know that I wanted to represent my product, so I wanted my appearance to be a professional classy attractive and inviting. To make a long story short, it was a complete success. Everyone loves my candles, from the vendors to the guest that were at the party everyone follows me on social media. They were reposting me sharing with your friends. The love was so Surreal. See, I thought that I was going to sell a couple of candles. I had no idea that Brianna Wicks would go as crazy as it did. Once I started doing the Lake Eola market in Orlando On Thursday nights, my customer base went from a few customers to a consistent basis I’m talking about customers that would come every Thursday night that I was there buying more candles, bringing their friends bringing their family bringing any and everyone that they could possibly think of.
And a lot of my customers love the fact that I have a recycle reuse program for my candle vessels. If you bring in the sauce that you brought bought for me previously. I would give you 50 Cent per vessel towards your next purchase, and I will also reuse them to make more candles, kind of saving the environment, you know and a lot of people like that because they’re a lot of environmentally friendly people out here in the world. When I say I’ve only been making candles officially with a business license since December. Brianna Wicks has expanded so fast by word-of-mouth and just being at a couple of markets it has been challenging, and it’s on the way just because of the fact of kind of trying to keep up with the demand and then not really having the supplies to keep up due to Covid so it’s kind of been challenging in that way but it’s been nothing but excitement and blessings the entire way! I absolutely love it. I thought I was a silly couple of candles I never thought my business would thrive as much as it has and it’s been amazing because I’ve done nothing but do what I absolutely love I’m a perfectionist; I pay attention to detail and just doing things that I would do in any particular project that I’m involved in and people absolutely love it makes me so happy and it makes my heart full.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
What sets Brianna Wicks apart from a lot of my competitors is the quality of my product at such an affordable price. Remember, I want everyone to have access to quality. I feel like everyone should have access to quality. For me, it’s not necessarily about making a profit it’s more of making an impact. I am very proud to give people access to environmentally friendly non-toxic, affordable Candles. When you think of things that are more environmentally friendly, you think of more expensive, specially when you say a really nice environmentally friendly Candle that looks upscale And then you look at the price tag, and you realize you can afford it. That’s the best feeling in the world. It makes you want to buy two or three or four at a time and it also makes the person want to support you more because they believe in your cause!
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
What I love about our city is that Orlando it’s full of open-minded, non-judgmental people. There are genuinely people out here in the world that, without that will support you just because they truly believe in you. There are also parts of our city that don’t care how awesome your product is or how many people love it. If your product isn’t something they’re used to, they won’t give you a chance. I feel like that part is really sad, but it makes me Greines even harder to prove that I deserve to be here, and I won’t quit until Brianna Wicks is a Florida household name! My thing is I honestly don’t care about being globally no, I want to be known by the community. I want to be able to get back to the people that supported me to give me where I am, and I just want to keep doing that.
Pricing:
- 10 oz Candles $14
- 16oz Candles $20
- Wax Melts $6
Contact Info:
- Email: briannawickscandleco@gmail.com
- Website: www.briannawicks.com
- Instagram: Briannawickscandleco
