By: MARIA OROPEZA, Lake Voice For Anna Little, being a junior in college means not only balancing homework and exams, but also running local business, Duluth Candle Company.
Anna is a Strategic Communications major at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. Starting the candle company was initially just an idea for a class assignment.
“I wanted to do something I wanted to do,” Anna said. “It wasn’t supposed to turn into anything.”
After looking at the business plan and the numbers, Anna decided to go for it. She started making candles in September and getting a solid plan together.
Duluth Candle Company was recently featured at the Duluth Junk Hunt, which is a semi-annual sale that features vendors of all sorts; selling unique, antique, and refurbished goods. This year it was held at Clyde Iron Works.
This was the first event Anna and the company have ever been a part of.
Despite having to plan around school and internships, Anna found the time, with the help of family, to make over 200 candles for the Hunt in about two and half weeks. While she worked on half at her house in Minneapolis, her parents worked on making the other half here in Duluth.
Anna said that the Duluth Junk Hunt went “insanely well”, better than she anticipated. She ended up running out of candles and people have already started reaching out on how to order them.
Being a Duluth native, for Anna it was important that the business be out of Duluth and be a part of the local business community.
“I’m from [Duluth]. I know what they like and don’t like,” Anna said.
Anna wanted Duluth to have something that was “handmade, local, and affordable”.
Her plans for the company are to eventually have candles end up in gift shops around town and to keep doing events.
“It’s really fun to see people enjoy them,” Anna said.
She wants to keep running the business herself, along with a few family and friends to help. Her goal is to keep it local and personal.
You can check out the website or follow Duluth Candle Company on Instagram and like the page on Facebook.