Meet Tamika Gemes of Happy Monday Candle in Southwest Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tamika Gemes.

Tamika, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Happy Monday, Candle Co. was birthed out of necessity. At the time of conception, I was unemployed, but I always had the desire to start my own business. My initial thought was to make and sell body butter. Taking up new hobbies in my spare time, I visited a local handcrafted shop in Atlanta that hosted DIY classes. I signed up for the body butter making, candle making and a couple of other DIY courses. The initial goal was to create a full bath and body line but for some reason, I took more liking to the process of making candles.

From there, I experimented with different waxes; soy, beeswax and paraffin just to name a few. I did not care for any of those; however, one day, I stumbled across coconut wax. From there, I did my research, found a vendor and began exploring the uniqueness of this wax and immediately fell in love with it. I knew my brand had to be unique and different. I knew I wanted my brand to represent positive energy and positive vibes. The phrase “Happy Monday” hit home because I don’t know one person who is a fan of “Mondays,” lol. So I decided that I should be the one to put a positive twist on the day “Monday,” and from that moment it became Happy Monday Candle Co.

In the beginning, I was only selling to family members and friends. Finding employment again, I then started selling to coworkers and adding more customers from word of mouth. The following year, I submitted several applications to local handcrafted stores in Atlanta. Many stores never gave me a return response. Eventually, in the fall of 2018, I got a response back from Crafted Westside and was asked to supply my candles at four of their five store locations.

Happy Monday continued to trend, and in 2019 I became a vendor at HomeGrown Decatur. Happy Monday has also done many pop up shops at JCrew, West Elm, and Dance 411, just to name a few. We have done countless events with the Atlanta Indie Market, which is a great street vendor event for any small business in Atlanta. Happy Monday started off with seven fragrances, one for each day of the week, and quickly expanded to now ten unique scents. In late Fall of 2020, Happy Monday will be adding four additional fragrances to the lineup and in total, will offer 14 wonderfully scented candles.

Today, Happy Monday can be found either online, at any Atlanta Indie Market event or at one of the above mentioned handcrafted retail stores. Although we are a small business based in the heart of Atlanta, we are grower larger each day. Our goal is to be nationally recognized and eventually have our candles in shops and homes around the world.

Please tell us about Happy Monday Candle.
Happy Monday is a candle company that is locally handmade and crafted right in the heart of Atlanta. Happy Monday is known for several things, for one the name “Happy Monday.” I get so many compliments on the name of the company. Happy Monday embodies positive vibes and positive energy. One of the themes of Happy Monday is, “Pouring out positive vibes one batch at a time.” Happy Monday strives and works to ensure that you will have a positive experience with a Happy Monday candle.

One goal of Happy Monday is to bring positive vibes to the old negative connotation associated with Mondays. Additionally, we want Happy Monday to not only be the great start of a new week, but we want those positive vibes to spread throughout all seven days. As a result, Happy Monday Candle Co has a candle for every day of the week, each having the name “Monday” in it. For example, “Saturday’s” candle is called “Happy Hour Monday.” For some, Saturday’s are a day of cocktails and fun times with friends. This candle has the perfect blend of whiskey and hazelnut as the two leading fragrance notes, personally one of my favorites. As you can see, each candle has its own theme and its own personality.

Happy Monday only uses coconut wax. Most candle companies that you see use soy wax. Coconut wax allows Happy Monday to give our customers the best cold and hot throw scents. Coconut wax is a much softer wax, but blends very well and burns cleaner and longer than soy wax. With so many candle companies around, you have to make yourself stand apart. I believe Happy Monday does a great job in doing that. Happy Monday packaging stands out due to its vibrant and lively colors. It is a known fact that color can influence your mood. All of these elements and aspects work cohesively to make up the DNA of Happy Monday.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Although I am a small business, I never thought having someone to manage my business account would be beneficial. I thought that since I was a “small business” that it wasn’t really necessary because I thought I could do it by myself. Being the sole owner of Happy Monday, I wear all the hats of this business, along with still working a full-time job. In the process of me doing that, I took a lot of “L’s” financially because I didn’t properly manage them. Now I have an experienced accountant who manages the financial books for Happy Monday. This allows me to know precise details of how much I am spending for production costs against income made for goods sold. Something as small as this made a huge difference in my business. I recommend anyone starting a business, whether big or small to invest in a trusted accountant. It will save you so much time, money and energy.

Contact Info:

• Website: happymondaycandleco.com
• Phone: 404-446-7640
• Email: myhappymonday129@gmail.com

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