This week on my Parents in Business series I’m featuring Teneika who created the Bisou Candle Co, and I loved this interview. Teneika has really clear goals and intentions about why she set up the business, and believes that growing business comes one step at a time….don’t expect it all to happen at once.
Here she shares her story with us, and how taking on her first hire was an enormous and positive step. Her candles look stunning, so if positivity, knowing your “why”, well-being, self-care and juggling family life is important for you, then read on…
Tell me a little bit about you, your background, and your business?
Hi! My name is Teneika Caines and I am the very proud and happy mother to the most loveable 5-year-old boy. We live together in the Midlands. Prior to starting my own business, I worked in sales and marketing. When I am not busy with my mummy duties, you can pretty much expect me to be busy running my candle business
Bisou Candle Co.
Bisou Candle Co is a candle brand, that merges wellness and luxury. We create luxurious candles made with high-quality ingredients, 100% natural soy wax and wooden wicks, and we champion wellbeing and wellness.
What were your motivations for setting up your business?
I have always dreamed of starting my own business and have always obsessed with the concept of taking visions from intangible thoughts into physical manifestations. Therefore the creative side of the business has always interested me. However, I became really driven to actually go after my dream and put my all into my business once my son had turned 4 years old and I decided that I wanted to invest in his education from a young age.
The opportunity to provide my son with a higher quality of life, and simultaneously show him that he can be and do anything that he sets his mind to is my biggest driving force behind my business. I tell him on a daily basis to believe in himself and encourage him to dream big, but quickly realised the clearest way for him to understand that was to become the example.
Another motivation was having more flexibility with my time and to be as present as possible with my child during key moments of his childhood, such as attending school plays.
How do your business around your family and childcare?
Balancing business and family has been no easy feat as a business and motherhood are both 24/7 jobs and very taxing. I am very much still trying to find as many effective methods as possible to achieve a steady balance, but I have implemented some methods to date which have been effective.
Some things that have helped me so far include:
Pacing myself as much as possible with my business, remember Rome (nor Beyonce) was built in a day. Take things one step at a time and celebrate all the small wins along the way.
I have also started waking up much earlier to enable me to maximise the time in my day and get more done. I utilise this time to focus on my admin tasks and set my intentions and desired outcomes for the day.
Most crucially I try to schedule in regular self-care and wellness to prevent burnout as much as possible. When raising a family and building a business it is very easy to neglect ourselves. However, there is a lot of value in taking a step away from your business, every now and then and making some investments into self-care.
Since setting up your business what has been your biggest success to date?
I have very recently taken the plunge into recruiting for the business and have taken on our first hire. Whilst recruiting has been a learning curve and a little nerve-racking at times, being able to provide an opportunity to someone else through my business has definitely been the biggest success for me.
What’s your top tip for anyone who is thinking about setting up their own business?
My top tip in business would be to know your ‘why’. What is the emotive reason behind starting your business? We all know that most businesses end up in ‘failure’ but a large proportion of this statistic is due to people giving up on their business too soon, because of the many challenges and hurdles that are thrown your want constantly in business. 18 months is the average time it takes for someone to give up in business, yet many successful businesses are only profitable after 18 months. Therefore a strong and compelling why is crucial to keep you invested in the business when the going gets tough and to give you a much better chance at seeing through the many hurdles and obstacles that come your way.
Thank you so much for letting me feature you and Bisou Candle Co on my blog. I wish you the best of luck in the future.
You can find out more by visiting the Bisou Candle Co website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram channel.
If you like what you’re reading and would love to be part of my Parents in Business series just drop me an email: thepramshedblog@gmail.com. Or have a nose at some of the other businesses I have featured in the series: Mindset by Pinky, Kingshill Studios, and Super Mum Society.
Claire x