Hi! I'm Tonya Wampler and I own Tonya's I AM Crochet & Scents LLC. I've been on this incredible journey of owning a business and product branding for a little over a year now. I would have never dreamed that I'd be doing something like owning a business and "trying" to brand a product! I had no prior experience or have any clue what i was doing. Not to mention, I was completely out of my comfort zone! Learning the world of e-commerce, for me, was and still is a whole other world and language!! From the beginning, I came at my business naturally from a consumer's point of view rather than from a business owner's point of view. This has been a huge strength, but has also been a big weakness.
In October 2018, I was busy crocheting big spa baskets for all my mom's staff in the memory care unit at the nursing home where she resides. (My mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in 2009.) The crochet baskets were a huge hit, so I decided to keep making crochet stuff and see what happened. So through the fall of 2018 and the winter of 2019, I was making crochet bags and spa baskets. My husband and I decided that adding some homemade spa stuff would be a really nice touch. We messed around with the sugar scrubs and absorbed any and all information I could get my hands on regarding skin care. It was about 2 months in when I felt like I needed to go in a different direction. I have always LOVED home fragrance, so It didn't take me long to think about what I'd really love to explore! I've spent a lot of money on candles, plug-ins, room sprays, infusers, incense, and the list could go on...
To me, there's nothing better than coming home to a house that smells divine or having a guest raving over the fragrance of your home! Our sense of smell and our emotions are tied closely in a way that researchers are just beginning to uncover! Meanwhile, I had found a new type of home fragrance that I absolutely fell in love with! I loved the whole concept of flameless fragrance for your home. Candles are lovely, but can be extremely dangerous; so wax melts/cubes/tarts melted in a wax warmer was my new obsession! Just to give you a little context, when a store would run their wax melts on sale, my best friend and I would sometimes be there for hours smelling and picking out all our favorite scents. I loved the idea but still had some issues. For example, I would get frustrated when I was changing out the wax cubes about every 6 to 8 hours and I noticed that the scent was bold at first but would quickly fade! I really felt like I was wasting money AND I knew I wasn't the only one who had these complaints! So my husband and I brainstormed and I told him what I was thinking. Being the cook of the house, My husband,Troy was eager to get started! We first tried paraffin wax melts. We had lots of molds and they were super cute! 
However, I quickly realized that our wax melts weren't any better than the ones I was buying from various stores. Troy and I threw ourselves into research. Coming at it from a consumer, I was really excited about coming up with something to solve the issues I was having with the current options for home fragrance. In late April 2019, the idea for Whipped Wax was hatched. After a lot of brainstorming and even more praying, we were getting closer!
On June 5th, 2019, Troy was praying for a breakthrough. We couldn't get the texture right, It was still too stiff. The Lord "connected some dots" for us and we ended up having this fluffy, soft, and fragrant wax and oil blend that was more wonderful than anyone could have expected! Of course, I immediately wanted to put it in my wax warmer! That is how we knew we had something special! I loved the fact that it took very little heat to melt our blend of soy wax and coconut oil. Our special blend begins to melt at 76 degrees! We noticed that as it melted, it almost looked frothy. The air that is whipped into our blend caused the frothy look and we quickly realized that the whipping process was probably the most important part. After 3 days, I was actually in shock! It STILL had scent to it after 72 hours and the fragrance was STILL pretty strong! I was so excited and was in hopes that we could recreate it!!! We spent a lot of time trying to figure out what made it be so concentrated and long lasting. When we were inquiring other knowledgeable people loved to give it to people to try out themselves and that is where we found out how wonderful it felt on the skin! One girl we had given a sample to try didn't know how she was supposed to use it; so she put it on her hands. She couldn't say enough about how soft her hands were and that she had begun to put Whipped Wax on her feet too and loved it!. Troy and I immediately began to use it on our skin. I knew that coconut oil was the new thing everyone was using on but I hated how greasy it felt and how it takes forever to soak into skin. Again, I was blown away because it wasn't really greasy and within a minute or so, the Whipped Wax had soaked in completely! So we began "working backwards" again to try and figure out why our unique Whipped Wax soaked in so well and didn't have that greasy feeling like coconut oil by itself has. Summer and Fall of 2019 was full of new adventurers into R&D and the whole craft show world! We got some really amazing feedback from customers that purchased our Whipped Wax! The Whipped Wax kind of took on a life of its own. With it's popularity, I decided that our money and time should be focused on this fantastic new flameless home fragrance that could also double as a body balm. My hands and feet had never been so soft!! My next thought was, "now what?" Here we had this product that was a game changer in home fragrance and was also dual purposed. We definitely had a solid product, but was totally lost as far as what to do next. We decided to first cover ourselves and file a patent. We were officially patent pending since march 2020! When 2020 began, all plans came to a halt with the onset of the Covid-19. I realized that to stay in the game, we had to refocus. So again, I find myself in unknown territory. E-commerce was never a blip on my radar. I would have probably laughed at someone if they told me I would be sitting here today typing a blog, making social media content calendars, and running a business! It has been the most uncomfortable but AMAZING experience I've ever had thus far.
Presently, all of our efforts have been on the re-branding of our product with some really exciting changes coming soon. I have been taking marketing, website building, and analytics classes online and I have been getting more proficient with my Shopify store. I guess I should be proud that I have actually embedded meta tags, improved SEOs, and set up a functioning online store! At least I sound like I know what I am talking about!😂 To me, e-commerce was like a whole different universe with a completely foreign language. There has been a whole lot of crying and frustration along the way, but I couldn't quit even if I wanted!! This "new" world has completely consumed me and I have a product that I completely believe in and am so proud of! Whipped Wax is completely unique, handcrafted and will solve some (if not all) of your home fragrance issues along the way.
Lastly, about a week ago I got to thinking about how far product quality and customer service has fallen. I remember a time when the customer came first, when there was pride taken in a product, and when the bottom line wasn't the most important factor in a business. When this whole thing started, the only thing I had to reference was being a consumer. Almost all my business decisions came from that point of view. This was great because it caused me to ask myself and my friends/family; What makes you buy a product? What would cause you to continue to buy the product? What do you value in a product? What frustrates you about today's businesses verses those 30 or 40 years ago? I think I found out pretty quickly that creativity alone does not run a successful business. I was a little overwhelmed and had a whole lot more respect for those small business owners that put their blood, sweat, and tears into every facet of their business.
Up until recently, I hadn't actually written down any official mission statement or vision statement, however, it has been on the forefront of my mind since the very beginning without me even knowing it! Without customers, my business wouldn't be a business! Our mission is to bring a trust back between the consumer and business! To consistently bring a quality product to our customers that is made with high quality materials. To go the extra mile to add those personal touches that make a customer feel appreciated. To always be quick to listen to the customer and really get invested in their feedback. To build a loyalty to our brand that will stand the test of time. To always make integrity, responsibility, and ethics a priority in my business and personal life, And to always remember to treat customers like I would want to be treated as a consumer!
Well the adventures are still to come and I have a whole lot of learning to do. So the future should be anything but dull!
Thank you so much for reading!
BLESSINGS!
Tonya.
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