Small Business Spotlight | Urban Wanderlust

Tell us about you and your company.

My name is Judith, I have an 18 month old little girl with my husband of 3yrs. I have a small business, called Urban Wanderlust (UW), where I hand make travel inspired candles, lip balms, room sprays & perfumes.

What inspired you to start your business and what drives your passion for it?

After a trip to Costa Rica, my husband and I were thinking of ways to earn extra income with an end goal of saving for our own home.  But we wanted to have fun doing it... long story short one night I was playing with a store bought candle that wasn't lighting properly and thought, "I should try to do this myself" and UW was born.

What drives me to continue in this entrepreneurial journey is my desire to work for myself full-time and to be my own boss.  This will give me the flexibility to work my own hours, so I can spend more time with my family.

What makes your business unique and sets it apart from competitors?

What I think sets me apart from other "travel candles" is that I've actually been to all of these places myself.  Each scent is created from me and my husband’s personal experiences of what reminds us of memorable moments a certain place. So when a customer purchases Costa Rica, they're purchasing orange/mandarin flavored Tortuga drinks by the beach while the sun sets in beautiful orange, pink shades in the sky... they're purchasing an experience... an escape... a Destination.

How do you handle setbacks or failures, and what lessons have you learned from those experiences?

Everything in life and business (especially) is a learning experience. Own it and learn from the situations so that you and your business can grow from that mistake.  In the beginning there were tons of mistakes I made.  If I hadn't learned from them, my small business would have suffered.  But I am here today and in my 6th year of business which I am super proud of.

What is on the horizon for Urban Wanderlust?

My community of followers and subscribers know that I'm pivoting how I do business to allow for more downtime with my family.  My baby girl is growing every day and I don't want to miss anything!  I'll be focusing more on the wholesale and custom order side of the business which doesn't happen as frequently - which I'm OK with.  I'm also adding candle business consultations to the list, but I'll only be taking a few clients at a time so I don't overwhelm myself.

How do you manage being a new mom, working a full-time job and running a small business, inclusive of managing a growing YouTube channel?

I give myself a schedule and try REALLY hard to stick to it. I recently realized I was overworking myself between Urban Wanderlust/YouTube channel, family time and my day job. So I decided to re-prioritize my time throughout the day to allow myself moments to relax and actually enjoy running my small business - thus creating more time for ME.

With this re-shuffled schedule, I remain fully committed to concentrating on my day job, Monday thru Friday.  When I get home from work, it's "family time", dinner, playtime, movie time, etc.  I typically work on UW after the baby is asleep and I usually take Thursday and/or Friday off from UW, depending on workload.

On the weekends, I usually pick one day to record all of my YouTube content (usually takes about 3hrs if I'm recording a sit/talk type video) and really work on batch loading all of my social media content as well.  I edit my YouTube videos while the baby sleeps throughout the week.

What is your definition of self-care?

Doing what makes YOU happy.  That could be binge watching your favorite show on tv, getting your nails/hair done or even taking mid-day naps. For me... it's whatever makes me feel relaxed at that moment.

What do you do for self-care?

Lately it's been binge watching anything on Netflix (really into romantic comedies), of course after the baby is asleep. 😉

How can people get to know more about what you’re doing and where can they find you?

The best way to stay connected and see behind the scenes into my business & small bits of my life are through IG & YouTube @urbanwanderlustcandles