We had the good fortune of connecting with Michele Huff and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michele, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I wanted to start something I could get my hands dirty and build from the ground up. There is something so rewarding in seeing success build. I wasn’t sure how well it would be received, but once I launched my first line of products, it was steady engagement and sales. Those sales started building with happy customers and more influencers started talking about us and, boom!, here were are! We have grown to a quarter million dollar business in four years! Sometimes businesses have immediate success and I feel while that’s amazing, I think steady growth is far better as it forces you to constantly rethink your next steps, keeping them purposeful, into profitable ventures.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Amber Vale Home is unique because we just don’t create the better-for-you, great smelling candle, we create a scent that truly takes you to that place in time, that moment that floods the memory bank and brings with it happy thoughts of past great times. We didn’t just want to be “X CANDLE COMPANY,” we wanted to be a candle company you couldn’t forget, and just HAD to keep a repeat order going because you love it so so much. But also, creating a cleaner, more non-toxic option so we can have great smelling spaces and feel great about that it’s not going to make us sick or harm our health. Getting this message out is key to our success because there are so many brands that don’t adhere to these standards for better health. They just create a cheap, fragrancy candle and many of them sell very well, but they are missing the point. It’s like downing a Red Bull with your salad for lunch. Well you ate kinda healthly imo. Haa. Haa. At Amber Vale Home, we didn’t just want an okay experience for our customers. We wanted to give them the entire package – healthier candle AND scents you cannot live without! We wanted to make it better on all fronts, thus the launch of Amber Vale Home. There have been challenges, no doubt. Probably the hardest is customer acquisition. Getting others to talk about us and share our story, our brand and credo with others is paramount to our success. In the beginning, that was hard. It was a constant state of talking to new wholesalers to take a chance on us. Talking to influencers to try us out and talk about us on their platforms if they loved our stuff…it’s so much talking and can be exhausting. But, on the other side of all that work, are “wins.” Wins that will propel you to next level sales if you just. don’t. give. up.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
First, we’d head to my favorite Nashville hot chicken place, J Alexanders – NUMBER ONE!!!

Franklin downtown is jaw dropping charm – we’d hang out there alllll afternoon shopping.

Nashville’s downtown is unparalleled – we’d have to shop in the Gulch, have tacos in 12South, we might have to have drinks one evening at the Twelve Thirty Club.

I would want an entire afternoon at the Soho House so we could chat and snack all day.

We might have to take in a concert at Bridgestone – we both have a love for music!

Definitely on the list would be an afternoon at Arrington Vineyards for a glass of wine and more chatting!

Because she LOVES baseball, we’d have to take in a Nashville Sounds baseball game.

And we might have to take in a Nashville Preds hockey game too!

But THE BEST OF ALL is heading to Green Hills in Nashville to shop til we can’t!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My family. To Rob, my husband, who works tirelessly beside me handling all of our marketing/graphic design and social media and even pitches in with the shipping department, it is in part because of him for so much of our success. If we don’t look good, our potential customers are not going to take a chance on us. My two boys, Brayden (22 yo) and Laiken (16 yo) help immensely with moral support – constantly encouraging me to push further and reach for the big things. I love it! They are dreamers and entrepreneurs just like their dad and I and THIS is what makes running a business SO MUCH FUN!!!! Going after the accounts you have a slim chance in getting and getting them is so rewarding! Brayden pitches Amber Vale Home to many of his business clients, as he now runs two businesses of his own, so it’s wonderful to see how we can all help each other. Lake, who also runs his own business, helps with deliveries and tasks in the studio when he can. It just makes doing this so much fun when you have your favorite people right beside you!

And I can’t forget to thank my bestie in North Carolina – Kara – because without her constant prop of encouraging, ground swelling, explosion of affirmation on a daily basis, I’m afraid this girl might not be as productive!

Website: ambervalehome.com

Instagram: @ambervalehome

Facebook: Amber Vale Home

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