Recently an issue was raised by Jen and Bob that some people recieved information during Chandler Training that others did not. This demonstrates to me the need to make it clear how these training sessions work and what our agenda is. I completed a training session of 4 new Chandler enterprises this weekend. Information was provided at this session that was new and some of was the same as past Chandler training. Every week we will have more new Chandlers that will want to join into the Chandler Guild Alliance. Our Saturday training sessions in Cedar Rapids are the point of entry for almost all new Village Chandlers. It is important for me to state exactly what the objectives of this training are:
1. It has been stated clearly in every training session and in all printed material about Village Chandler that our objective is to create an alliance of independent candle producers rather than a franchise or any type of standard one size fits all business model. We also state our intention to link these independent enterprises in a microenterprise network. We have a long term plan that will take many people and many years to realize. Our plan is to revolutionize the candle industry through the Chandler Guild. That is our agenda and it is stated clearly.
2. We have never intended for each Chandler training to be a preprogrammed, scripted cookie cutter curriculum. These are dynamic open interchanges between diverse and creative entrepreneurs. We will create new process and content each and every time the Chandler training takes place. The majority of our time in the Cedar Rapids Chandler Training is to answer the specific technical and marketing strategy questions of the participants. For this reason, each and every training will include new and different information. We then link all Chandlers to each other through the ChandlerGuild website, the Chandler SIGS and the Annual Chandler Congress to share this growing body of soy candle knowledge with each other on a continual basis. Your most important source of knowledge is your own testing and the sharing of information with each other. Their are no ultimate gurus in this effort to build a basis of best practice for soy wax candle production. Each of you may hold a key source of innovation or knowledge that will move the work of this Guild forward on a path of upward progress. This is a group process with shared responsibility. You will get out of this Guild an equal measure of what you put into it. Those that take the most responsibility for this effort will have the most influence and gain the most benefit. Those that stand on the sidelines will probably find the most to find fault with. Constructive criticism is always welcome and highly valued in this process. Complaints without corresponding offers of solutions are a waste of everyone's valuable time. The Guild is yours to build. If you want to have it be different, dig in and help build and guide The Guild to grow according to your needs. This Guild will be built by dreamers and doers, builders and workers not by bitchers and moaners. Those Chandlers that work closely with me know that I always welcome criticism coupled with a proposed plan of corrective action. Good critics with valuable suggestions for change are my best colleagues. I do not have much time for career complainers. There is a simple ethic in this Guild: "You don't like it... then work with us to change it". I have offered this training for an entire year without charging any training fees. Any Chandler that wants to improve this training can volunteer to assist at anytime.
3. I will provide here a clear outline of what we provide in the Saturday Chandler Training Sessions:
a. We start the training with a brief overview of the total candle industry and an historic perspective of the development of soybean wax as a new product option.
b. Specific production methods are demonstrated and practiced by all training participants to make quality votive candles and container candles with Phytowax.
c. We review 9 tested marketing strategies to build your soy wax candle business. These strategies are based on our own twelve years of experience in the candle market.
d. We provide industry information on direct access to other supply sources for wick, fragrance, dye, etc. This key information will save a startup Chandler both time and money.
We are very specific that our training is to provide processing knowledge and technical advice to use Phytowax C-1 for containers and Phytowax PV-1 for votive candles. There is no hidden agenda here, we provide training for Chandlers that want to use the wax formulas our company has created through 12 years of innovation and product improvement. We use these quality waxes during training. These are the same waxes that are sold by the Phytowax Regional Warehouse Partners. We were the first in the world to create soy wax and we are very confident in the performance of our products.
We know of no Chandlers that go to a trade show to sell the product line of their competitor candle companies. We likewise provide this training as a central part of our effort to market our Phytowax soybean wax products.
We make it very clear during our training that all we provide in our one day intensive training session are simple tools to start in the candle business. We do not provide magic formulas or magic methods for anyone. The most important ingredient is your own hard work and your own intensive learning and product development. All candle makers must carry out their own testing. There are regional climate differences that will make any candle wax perform differently in varied conditions. All Chandlers must ultimately work to build their own fully developed candle production expertise. Chandler Guild and the Chandler Guild website is an exceptional tool to use for this education and information followup.
The effectiveness of the Chandler training provided by Phytowax is demonstrated in the fact that after our very first one year training cycle, 100 people representing 77 independent Chandler enterpises from 21 states and 2 provinces in Canada came to the Phytowax headquarters in Cedar Rapids to form Chandlers Guild.
The first year of training sessions provided by Phytowax was the creative force that launched both the Chandler Congress and the Chandler Guild. Sohodojo and The Five Phytowax Warehouse Partners were the organizing team that made this exceptional event possible. Every Chandler and The Table of Twelve is what will make this organization great.
Are you going to learn all you know to build a Chandler business at the Saturday Training in Cedar Rapids? Absolutely not... the responsibility to gain a full range of candle production knowledge is in the hands of each Chandler. All we provide is one tiny first step to get you on the road. We point you in the right direction, the distance you travel is up to you.
The First Annual Chandler Congress is a demonstration that the first year of Chandler training did have a strong and positive effect on a large number of family based soy wax candle enterprises. It was primarily the particpants in our Saturday training sessions that launched the Chandler Guild. Further development is now up to all Guild Members and the Table of Twleve.
Your success or failure is up to your own hard work and intensive learning. As Table of Twelve member Brian Bock of West Virginia stated at the Congress, he has been making candles for more than 30 years, and he must keep learning from his own testing and from other candle makers to keep his business alive.
Being a Village Chandler is not easy. It is always interesting and challenging. Life does not come in neat packages. Mass consumer society may have tried to sell that illusion. Chandler Guild is about a real world enterprise with very real people that work to solve problems and overcome challenges.
We welcome all Village Chandlers on this journey that presently does not have a map. We are writing the script for this adventure together. You are participants not consumers of a ready made package. What you get here is what you help create. If you don't like it, change it.
We now have Chandlers in almost half of the states and in two provinces in Canada. By the time of the Second Annual Chandler Congress next year we will have Chandlers in all fifty states and in many other nations.
If you have friends, family or business associates that want to participate in our Saturday Chandler Training, have them send an e-mail inquiry to:
soyawax@aol.com