Hart Main, age 13
When Hart Main was 13 years old, his little sister Camryn was selling candles for a school fundraiser. He remembers teasing her for the “girly scents” and saying that only women would buy her candles. This jovial teasing turned into a business idea later on when Hart was saving for a $1500 bicycle. In order to reach a larger crowd Hart created ManCans, candles scented to appeal to men as well. Instead of flowery, sweet scents, ManCans candles smell like a “fresh new baseball glove.”
Hart’s business idea was like no other, it was unique, and appealed to a new genre of people; for this reason, ManCans rapidly took off selling more than 300 candles a week. “It started as a Joke; it really wasn’t meant to turn into anything serious” says Hart. Thanks to his mother’s encouragement, his jokes became reality. “Even if it sounds like they’re joking, if their idea sounds like something they can do, by all means, I tell them to go for it,” Amy, Hart’s mom, says. Hart’s little sister also has a dog-walking business of her own, which was sparked by a simple conversation in the car.
Starting off, Hart had high ambitions, a little too high for a startup business; however, he was encouraged by his mom to stick to his main scents and branch out as expenses allow. Right now, ManCans offers eight unique scents such as: NY Style Pizza, Grandpa’s Pipe, Sawdust, Campfire, New Mit, Fresh Cut Grass, Coffee, and even Bacon. Along the way ManCans featured the scent “Money to Burn” but because of low sales has since been discontinued.
Variety of ManCan Scents created by Hart Main
Hart makes all his candles in soup-cans, and although it is a for-profit business, he donates soup to local soup kitchens with a portion of the proceeds. This is a prime example of how you can make a positive influence in the world, without necessarily donating all of your earnings to charity.
ManCans has been a business of trial and error. Hart took something laughable and made it sellable. ManCans serves as a perfect example that products don’t have to serve just one audience, and there is always a way to make things marketable to different groups. Young entrepreneurs should be encouraged by Hart’s story to not reject a product, until they attempt see it from a different angle; in Hart’s case, this meant making masculine scented candles.
“Hart’s candles are in stores in every state, with sales exceeding six figures annually.” (NFIB. “
kept on creating all natural soy candles and soon afterwards, he introduced his candle business, Bianchi Candle Company. The company did not come as a surprise to his parents because if you rewind to Nic’s younger years, you would be impressed with the young boy. During elementary school, Nic would sell toys to his classmates at recess. Later, he upgraded his little toy business with a catalog and everything was sold with a logo of his creation. He even went the next step and employed two other children as sales reps to help him with his toy business at school. His eagerness to be an entrepreneur expanded as he entered his candle company. The candle making process is more complex than most people think. Besides having a passion for entrepreneurship, Nic enjoys the math and science subjects which is a bonus in his candle making. Much thought goes into the ratios of ingredients and the sizing of the wick to ensure a longer burn and elements of the jar and label will matter in the process since the heat of the flame could destroy them.
motivational candle, Yes You Can candle, and the Bianchi Candle Co, purely luxurious candles, are two of the most popular brands of candles that the company sells. All the candles are natural and without any dyes causing them to be purely white, which when his last name is translated from Italian, it means white. Nic’s story is inspiring for me because he followed his passion which brought him into the world of business.
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