Passion and perseverance have been the flaming factors of young Michigan entrepreneur, Forrest Gillespie. Born 1999 in East Lansing, Michigan, Forrest Gillespie started his first company, ‘Gillespie Inc.’, at the age of 15- caring to the lawn care needs of his fellow neighbors. Hiring a couple of his neighborhood pals, Forrest took on a lifelong passion to make money from his self originated business. Trying to expand beyond his family reputation and neighborhood border lines, he struggled to pick up clients saying, “As such young guy, it’s tough to get people to trust me with their yard.” Forrest continued on for a couple seasons but as that dwindled out, he pushed on to a different product.
Looking for a different business to start, he took an unorthodox approach that consisted not of looking for a problem or a gap in a market but rather a simple online search, “I just Googled, ‘top businesses to start as a young entrepreneur’ and candles came up as number seven which sounded dope.” And so FlamesByForrest began producing and selling candles to local customers. Looking to separate himself from the the pack he advertised his product as, “Premium soy candles with craft recycled paper labeling” giving ten percent of proceeds to pancreatic cancer research- which was sparked from a recent family passing. It was soon after where Forrest got connected with the nationwide Young Entrepreneurs Academy which helped him with professional guidance on his company along with seed funding that he used to up his manufacturing equipment based in his family’s basement.
Fast forward to a year ago today, Forrest Gillespie began his enrollment at Hope College in Holland Michigan with a Business Management major. Determined to grow his candle business with his new studies, he made the move to go online selling to regional customers on Etsy . This was led from the problem he had years ago with Gillespie Inc. as he says, “I went online to expand my market but also to deal with the problem of initial consumer confidence.”
Since being at Hope College this last year, Forrest has played a role in the Business Club along with co-founding the Entrepreneurship Club. FlamesByForrest has grown slowly but gradually, selling now online and at one local retail store. He’s recently sold his 800th candle giving back now over six hundred dollars to pancreatic cancer research. His curiosity to seek new businesses hasn’t ended there though. As of July 2018, he has joined a team to co-found a new start-up, Hoplite, aimed to provide full service marketing to small businesses.
When asked about his future he replied, “In seven years I see myself still with Hoplite, having sold FlamesByForrest, and hopefully having landed a management position in a larger corporation with my first million secured.”
I think it’s cool that Forrest did not give up when his first business didn’t work out, and instead he changed his trajectory completely by selling candles. The cause behind FlamesByForrest also has a certain authentic feeling to it since pancreatic cancer affected his family directly. It’s nice to see that Forrest has a vision for himself and can see what he wants to achieve seven years down the line. Very cool story.
I find it interesting that he recognized the innovation the candle industry needed. Although not altering much, he was able to get the attention of consumers through philanthropic proceeds from sales and environmental friendly material for the actual product.
This is a really interesting story and actually reminds me of a very popular artist who did the same thing and googled an idea to start his business. I also like how the man is already focused on making his first million.