I Am Up For A Challenge - Are You?

As a small, on-line business owner, I am always faced with many behind the scene challenges.  Many of which are true learning experiences.  Some that are fun and well, some that I could really do without. 

August will be a month of not only many challenges but there is one that I am personally going to love.  The reason I am going to love this is because I actually am the making the choice to have this wonderful opportunity to share with other small business.

So, here is my challenge to you, if you are up to a blog challenge, visit the Ultimate Blog Challenge.  Come have some fun from the everyday world that all of us on-line business owners go through. 

Watch our blog posts, we are making some very important changes that we feel are great and hope you will enjoy them also.

Have a great week and I hope to see you at the Ultimate Blog Challenge!

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The Right Type of Personality is Required For a Candle Maker

Photo credit: mconnors from morguefile.com

The Right Type of Personality is Required For a Candle Maker

Before you get started in the candle industry, you have to analyze your own mindset to see if you have what it takes to be a candle maker from conception to fully-functional success operation. It's not enough to say you want to make money or be your own boss.

Everyone wants those things, but not everyone can achieve those goals. It takes a special person. You don't have to be a workaholic or nor be willing to engage in questionable marketing tactics. You just need to have a few characteristics that are common to most successful candle makers.

The candle industry requires deep commitment. If you're the type to change jobs with your moods, then stick to a 9-5 job. You're building a business and it takes time, effort, reviewing, and tweaking to make it work.

Commitment and a positive attitude can make or break a candle maker. You're going to have slow times. Every candle maker does. Something will go wrong - whether it's a late delivery of supplies or your shopping cart went down. If you panic and shut down, you'll tarnish your reputation as a true professional candle maker.

The successful candle makers do not fly by the seat of their pants and hope everything goes well. They believe in being meticulous planners. They make schedules and plans for their day, week, month, year, and even further down the road.

They plan every step of a product before the product development even begins. They plan every single detail they can think of. The more meticulous you are with your plans, the fewer things there are that may go wrong.

To become a successful candle maker, you need to have an abundance of confidence. Even if you're worried, anxious, or unsure of yourself, what you project must be that you have it all together - you cannot let fear paralyze you.

Are you willing to be a student for life? No successful candle maker gets to the top and stops learning in this industry. If you do, that only means you will eventually become the competitor and fall prey of a hungry candle maker who stayed on the ball with up to the minute solutions and practices in this field so
that they can become king or queen of the mountain when you let your guard down.

You have to know how to get from point A to point B on your journey to achieving financial independence. Do you know what you'll say when your in-laws or spouse questions your "career as a candle maker?" If you are a confident candle maker, the questions won't bother you at all.

If you aren't sure how to develop a game plan for your success, if you do not know how to set and achieve goals, or have a mindset that is not in sync with that of a victorious win, then work on those things before you quit your day job and set off on this journey. You want to be mentally prepared for the challenges along the way.




Submission guidelines: You are welcome to publish this article in your opt-in newsletter or on your website provided it is published in its entirety, including the resource box. Please email Ria Wallace of your intent to publish this article.
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About the author: This article was brought to you by Ria Wallace, Master Chandler and Owner of Ria's Collectables-A Soy Candle Company, that specializes in hand poured, Natural Soy Wax Candles. Her mission in life is "Touching peoples lives one minute, one day, one flame at a time....."™ She is also the Author of Ria's Pay it Forward and My-Our Old House where she shares real life stories and how the little people impact the everyday life of many. Her helpful articles are regularly syndicated online. You can find more articles about soy candle decorating tips, tools and resources to educate and inspire you to use soy candles safely and economically at home. at Ezine Articles.

(c) Copyright 2010-Ria Wallace
http://www.riascollectables.com/

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Email Spammers Exposed

Photo Courtesy of xander

Email Spammers Exposed

Beware, names and email address are exposed as are the programs that these spammers are representing.

Truthful Affiliate Marketers HATE the CROOKS.  Help us bust them

Affiliate Hijack (no link included)

ryan_makemoneyonlinesurveys_org_buyers@theconsumerinforcenter.com

On behalf of:

Lauren Mitchell

Lauren@laurenmitchell.com

Cherry Bertina

deeanngreen006@terra.com.co

makecashwithsurveys_buyers@theconsumerinfocenter.com

Janelle Davies

cbpredators212@googlemail.com

This is a "spoofing" site as they have altered our Company's email address.  Please note, do not click on any link that appears to have been sent from our company unless, you have purchased from us.

Email address from ?sales@riascollectables.com is not us.  DO NOT CLICK AND LINK WITH THIS EMAIL ADDRESS.

What makes Janell Daivies email address so FRIGHTENING is that she is using the same subject line such as changing passwords etc in the subject line.

Angela Moree

support.websitex@gmail.com

Promoting

http://www.pereginadventures.com

Disclosure:

Ria's Collectables is a Soy Candle Company that "Touches peoples' lives, one minute, one day, one flame at a time....."

As an accredited BBB Company, we do not in any way condone the practices of email spammers.  As a result,  we are publishing these posts to keep our customers aware of what we "believe" to be spamming practices and they try to promote get rich quick schemes. 

Why we believe these are spamming practices is due to the fact these emails are unsolicited.

Please note, not all affiliates practice deceptive behavior.  As a matter of fact, Ria's Collectables only associates itself with business' whose business practices follow truth, honesty, and integrity as set forth by the Federal Trade Commission.

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Email Spammers Exposed

Picture Courtesey of KConnors

Email Spammers Exposed

I really never thought the day would come that I would finally make this post. Hey, I have pondered this for a while and if it is an annoyance to me, than it must be for you also.
When you are in business online for the right reason, which is to build relationships, honestly and from the heart, you run across many irritating things. Yes, as an online business you get spammed. As a matter of fact, on line business get spammed more than any personal email due to the fact that we are always behind the scenes working to improve so that you our customer has the best experience.
Here lately, like in the last several months, there seems to be a rash of Gmail users who think that I as a business owner wants to know everything there is to know about anything but would benefit my customers. Personally, I find this offensive for the following reasons.

* When I am wasting time deleting hundreds of emails that are "unsolicited",  I am taking time away from what I do best which is customer service, and making candles.
* As a result, my customers suffer which in my opinion is unacceptable.
* I have gone as far as contacting the security departments of Google and have done a whois search to find out who the source is so that I can put a stop to it. Still nothing works.
I have even had some web hosting company's tell me that, "that was something that someone must have copied". OK, so I am showing you this is going on. Help me take care of it.
I have even gone as far as not publishing the company email address so that all of the new little computer programs pick us the email address and spam us. To no avail.
I have personally hunted the unsubscribe to many of the emails and there is nowhere to do that. Guess what, now we are going to.
From today forward, we are going to start publicly posting the peoples email address that spam our company and it is going to be neatly filed under the Email Spammers Exposed.
Come join me in our fight to expose these people who change things up so that they can either sell email address or just waste our time. I would love to hear from you. Help me spread the word because to be very honest, I would rather spend my time working on things that benefit you, not what benefits people who continue to show that they do not care about truth, honesty, and integrity.
Do you know anyone who is having problems with email spammers? Let me know and together we will conquer this.

Remodels Cost Alot of Money

Remodels cost a lot of money so why not enhance your light with some tea light candles? You can enhance items on a mantel by placing several tea lights behind a picture, or inside of a vase. Be careful to make sure that the tea light is in an appropriate candle holder

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Welcome Back Lisa - Dynamic Art House

I am excited to share that Lisa from Dynamic Art House is back!  YEAH- Ria is doing the happy dance.

I shared Lisa's story awhile back regarding her journey with cancer.  You can read that post here.  I hope you have gone and signed up for her blog posts and are following her, she is truly an inspiration that has blessed my life.

You can check out her latest paintings here, they are so full of vibrancy and color and if you look at them long enough, you can see something special in every one of them.

Lisa's paintings are on exhibit for the month of May at the Cheyenne Mountain Library in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  If you have the opportunity that would be a great day trip.

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Faces of Cancer

Lisa Ann Bonfiglio

Dynamic Art House

2010 has already started to be one of those years that has un-defined true meaning.

As a cancer survivor, I can say with full conviction, Cancer changes your life in many ways. It does not matter what form of cancer you have, the very words of being diagnosed has an impact that only people with cancer experience.

I was blessed to be able to watch The Last Lecture by Randy Pauch. I must say, Diane Sawyer from Good Morning America did a fabulous job when she interviewed Randy. That was an interview that became, family TV time, as did her follow up interview. You can read her interview here.

He and his wife, Jai, showed those of us with cancer the true meaning of paying it forward, as they so un-selfishly shared their journey which truly was a journey of remarkable courage.

Randy once said, "When there’s an elephant in the room introduce him". You can find more quotes from Randy along with numerous videos here.

Today, I want to share a very dear friend of mines journey with this wonderful elephant. Lisa, you may remember, was one of Ria's Pay it Forward Recipients. You can view the post here.

With vibrant contagiousness, Lisa shares her elephant with all that will listen with the hope to touch just one person's life. Although Lisa and I live miles apart, she still to this day shares hope when days are just a little gloomy.

I encourage both men and women to visit Lisa's blog which you can find here. You might be wondering why I say both men and women. Cancer has no bounderies and it touches the lives of men, women, and children. So, why not visit Lisa as she shares so un-selfishly with all of us. While you are there, let her know you stopped by. I know you will make her day.


Ria Wallace is a Master Chandler and owner of Ria's Collectables-A Soy Candle Company. Her mission in life is "Touching people's lives one minute, one day, one flame at a time....."™ She is also the Author of Ria's Pay it Forward, and My-Our Old House where she shares real life stories and how the little people impact the everyday life of many

Creo Communico-Thank You

A Special Thank You to Creo Communico



Far too often I become busy and over look the importance of stopping long enough to say Thank You.

You know how that is. Small business owners perform that great balancing act between, family, working full time, and our own business. Personally, I get caught up with customers and forget that my customers also include my support system that works hard behind the scenes to help me make it all happen.

Ria's Collectables will soon be opening a sister company and have decided to change all of our web hosting needs to Creo Communico.

What will be new:

We will be placing a special area in the store for special announcements.
Our shopping cart will automatically charge shipping.
Our blog will be there to help save our customer's time between going from several different web sites.
We will also be sporting new web pages with exciting new products.

Greatest Importance:

Because of the business values of Creo Communico and the strong work ethics that they have continued to prove, we have added them to our trusted list of resources. Ria's Collectables is an accredited business through the BBB. For the security of our customers, integrity of each business that we work with is our number one priority.

With the hard work that Creo Communico LLC has done for me behind the scenes, it is only appropriate to take this time to say "THANK YOU"

Sign up for our RSS feeds to be kept up to date on all the changes.

Until next time.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

How To Plan Your Candle Purchase So You Do Not Blow The Budget

How to Plan Your Candle Purchases So You Do Not Blow the Budget

There are so many different candle options available today. Sorting through all of the information is overwhelming to say the least. How do customers sort through all of the information so that they can make a knowledgeable decision? With consumers being more conscience to the environment, now is the time to treat your candle purchases just as you would any other household purchase. Plan

Candles are like any other decorative accessory that you place within your home. Having a thought out plan helps to look at your candle as an accessory in your home or office instead of just something that smells good.

Have A Goal - Ask yourself these questions

1. Do you know what room you want to place your candles?

2. Do you want to create a relaxing atmosphere?

3. Do you want to create a romantic ambiance?

4. Do you like having candle light dinners?

5. What appearance you are looking for?

6. Do you want a different scent for each room that you have candles in?

7. Do you want natural wax candles or are paraffin candles OK?

8. Do you like giving candles as gifts?

By having a goal for where and how you are going to use your candles, you can actually create a custom, decorative atmosphere that is fragrant within your home.

Here are some ideas to help

Do you know what room you want to place your candles?

Pillar candles grouped together make a nice touch on a dresser in your bedroom; You can place them on a fire place mantel, or on a coffee table in the living room or den.

Do you want to create a relaxing atmosphere?

Lavender is a favorite among candle lovers for creating relaxation. Put a Lavender scented candle in your bedroom and burn it for 1 hour per diameter of the candle before you go to bed. Make sure it is completely out before retiring for the night.

Do you want to create a romantic ambiance?

Tea lights are small and can be placed in various different containers to help create a soft, warm glow. Sprinkle several around and feel the magic of the soft light.

Do you like having candle light dinners?

Un-scented taper candles are perfect for the dinner table. Have some fun with the kids and teach them how special even peanut butter and jelly can be while eating them by candle light.

What appearance you are looking for?

You can easily create a one of a kind candle scape in minutes by placing several pillar candles mixed with votives and tea lights on a plate.

Do you want a different scent for each room that you have candles in?

With the hundreds of candle fragrances on the market today, you can literally have a fragrance theme in every room of your house. In the kitchen, you may want coffee, bakery, or herb scented candles; you might place wine candles in the living room, lavender in the bedroom, and lemon in the bathroom. The possibilities are endless.

Do you want natural wax candles or are paraffin candles OK?

Candles made from paraffin are widely available at most discount and craft stores. Natural wax candles are more readily available through online stores and at boutiques.

Do you like giving candles as gifts?

All candle lovers enjoy receiving candle gifts. You could always have some on hand to give as a gift, that way you will never have to worry about what to give.

By treating your candle purchases as a decorative household item, you can create a purchase plan. Your well thought out plan will help you budget your purchase so that you do not go overboard and ruin the monthly budget; it will also help you to create your decorative, custom fragrant home which will be truly one of a kind.

Sit down and think about how you would use candles to decorate your home. Make a list of every room you would like to place them in. Think about the aroma you would like that room to smell like. Write down your list and start pricing your candles so that you can put that on your budget.

Any purchase you make for your home should be carefully thought out, researched, and planned.

Living by the core business value of "Touching peoples lives one minute, one day, one flame at a time.....Ria Wallace is a successful Master Chandler who helps consumers nationwide have that "Rodeo Drive" natural wax candle experience through her on-line, Better Business Bureau Accredited Business, Ria's Collectables.