Timing and persistence are what gave this Black-owned business a fighting chance.
Coming from a long line of entrepreneurs, Sharie Hendricks, founder of Laguna Candles, decided to pave her own lane. However, it was in unfamiliar territory as she had no prior experience in candle making.
Hendricks’ journey all started in her kitchen, where she received support from her husband, Clarence. The goal was to create a clean-burning product made from sustainable ingredients.
“I decided to just experiment with what it would be like to research clean-burning candles,” Sharie told AfroTech. “Ultimately what we would do is when I started the company, we would purchase candles from other companies who would give us an opportunity to brand them and to put our private label on them. Then, eventually, we realized that we were going to have to make our own candles.”
After trial and error and learning the ropes, the Hendricks family has been running its luxury candle company for 20 years. While the small business has reached great success over the years, there was once a point in time when they were uncertain whether they could stay afloat.
Nearly a decade ago, Laguna Candles faced the misfortune of a big-name company blocking them from trademarking their brand’s name. In their first attempt to defend their brand, they were unsuccessful.
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