In November of 2010, Hart Main’s sister began selling homemade candles to her classmates. As one would imagine, the scents she sold were generally intended for other girls – lavender, flowers, etc. Main joked with his sister that she should make scents that favored boys who didn’t want their room to smell ‘girly’. His mother thought this idea had merit. Seeing the potential market for manly candles, she encouraged her son to give his idea a shot.
“I do that with all of my kids — I listen to them,” Amy Main says. “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.”
After the local media caught wind of Main’s up and coming entrepreneurial ventures, his orders skyrocketed. The quick traction initially led Main to consider broadening his selection of candles, but after reconsideration, he decided it would be best to stick with his eight core offerings: New York Style Pizza, Grandpa’s Pipe, Sawdust, Campfire, New Mitt, Fresh Cut Grass, Coffee and, of course, Bacon.
ManCans is doing quite well – averaging 300 orders per week. In addition to generating revenue, Main has demonstrated his aspirations to help his community.
“Main makes the candles in soup cans, so he purchases soup and donates it to local soup kitchens. He then returns the empty cans and he and his mother make the candles in their kitchen. He orders oils from suppliers around Ohio and combines them with the wax.”
Main has demonstrated true entrepreneurship is: recognizing a need, finding solutions, and making the idea a reality.
Hi! I really enjoyed reading your post. I also wrote one of my blog posts about Hart Main, so it was fun for me to read the story from a different perspective. I love that you dedicated some of your blog post to focus on Hart’s mom and how she always listens to and encourages her children to try new things. It is really inspiring to read about how this young boy had the creative and innovative idea to help his community by using soap cans to make his candles and then donating the soap to help the homeless.
Very cool use of resources that would have otherwise been wasted.
It’s so cool how Hart Main saw a gap in the candle market and created ManCans with scents for men, like bacon and campfire. His business took off quickly, and now he averages 300 orders a week. He also gives back by using soup cans and donating to local soup kitchens, and that’s a very cool contribution, especially from our perspective as Christians.