I Turned Candle-Making Classes Into a Small Business After a Layoff

This as-told-to essay is predicated on a dialog with Taylor Kelly, the 34-year-old founding father of Eventful ATL, who lives in Atlanta. The next has been edited for size and readability.

In case you’d requested me at first if my side hustle of candle-making lessons would turn out to be a enterprise a 12 months later, I might’ve had no clue.

It went from $2,000 in income in 2023, when it was a night and weekend facet gig, to $16,000 in 2024, once I created a authorized enterprise entity: Eventful ATL.

Then, in 2025, I used to be laid off from my company job.

It gave me extra flexibility to essentially dive in, and we ended the 12 months a little bit underneath $75,000 in income. I pushed into 2026 with a secure small enterprise, and we’re on observe to finish 2026 with round $100,000 in income.

We at the moment provide over 12 class subjects, together with candle making, flower arranging, pasta making, tea tasting and mixing, charcuterie making, wine tasting, and cocktail making. We additionally just lately added pottery-making and seasonal lessons like wreath-making and gift-wrapping.

Generally I ponder, how on earth did I find yourself right here?

I began internet hosting candle-making workshops after shifting to Atlanta

I lived in New York for a number of years and labored for Ritani, a New York-based jewellery firm, in a number of completely different advertising and marketing roles from 2019 to 2025. I took two years off from Ritani between 2020 and 2022 to do a full-time MBA program on the College of Miami, and I rejoined the corporate in Might 2022.

My facet gig started within the winter of 2023. I would moved to Atlanta, and with a purpose to get out of the home and meet folks, I began internet hosting candle-making workshops on evenings and weekends. Candle making had been my hobby throughout COVID and grad faculty.

It began to develop past candle making, into different kinds of lessons. I teamed up with a venue companion who has a beautiful occasion area and added flower-arranging and caviar-tasting workshops.

Initially, I requested folks whom I knew had particular hobbies, passions, or expertise in the event that they’d provide a category in it. Quickly, I began getting emails and calls from small enterprise homeowners and creatives who actually needed to show however did not wish to take care of the logistics of coordinating lessons or experiences.

It wasn’t onerous to steadiness it with my full-time job as a result of I used to be working remotely and wasn’t doing anything after work hours. I would spend my nights and weekends engaged on Eventful and centered on web optimization for natural progress.

Because the months glided by, it turned clear that there was a possibility to continue to grow Eventful, and I considered the opportunity of making it my full-time job. Nevertheless, I favored having a secure paycheck.

I used to be laid off from my full-time job in Might 2025

It wasn’t a giant shock that it occurred. I keep in mind being pressured, like, Oh, crap, I haven’t got any earnings now. If I hadn’t had this little enterprise on the facet, I might’ve spiraled. I am so grateful that I had my facet hustle to fall again on.

I began my job search in June whereas nonetheless working my facet gig, however I wasn’t getting a lot traction with interviews. I despatched out hundreds of applications and bought solely a handful of interviews. I would be so irritated about spending a complete day making use of once I might’ve spent that vitality diving into my enterprise.

There have been so many roles listed, and a recruiter would say, “We would love to talk,” after which the role would vanish. That was disheartening, and it made extra sense to pursue one thing that I had going myself.

I additionally wasn’t discovering roles that had been thrilling to me, the best way I had years in the past once I lived in New York. A part of that was as a result of I used to be so enthusiastic about engaged on my enterprise. I knew there was potential; it wasn’t enormous on the time, however I knew we might proceed to develop.

A few months later, I made the choice to pursue my enterprise full-time

I am undecided I might’ve pursued rising the corporate full-time anytime quickly if it weren’t for being laid off.

Now, we host 15 to twenty occasions a month. We’ve got at the least two public lessons every week, and we’re including extra all through the vacation season, in addition to a number of personal group experiences all through the week.

We’ve got a variety of manufacturers that leverage us to supply team-building experiences for shoppers and workers, together with corporations like Google, Salesforce, Chick-fil-A, and House Depot.

We work with about eight to 10 contractors and instructors who train lessons. I like engaged on a workforce — I do not like sitting right here alone. I’ve additionally began instructing a variety of our pasta-making and flower-arranging lessons.

After I’m not instructing, I like being current at as many lessons as potential to facilitate setup and breakdown. Nevertheless, there’ve been many instances when our workforce has dealt with lessons with out me current, and the purpose is to make sure we’re creating the proper techniques to make that the usual, with a purpose to finally scale and develop into new markets like Miami and New York.

Generally I am the advertising and marketing individual, and generally I am the trainer for the day. Daily is a brand new day, and I get up to an e-mail of one thing cool that I did not anticipate coming throughout my desk.

I am excited for us to proceed to develop

It took till September of this 12 months, when my mind was like, That is it. This enterprise is basically bringing in cash, and if I am being lazy or not doing as a lot as I can, it impacts my life. I’ve a dog who’s very expensive. I both earn money and pay the payments proper now, or it would not occur.

It isn’t simply concerning the cash, although. I additionally get to talk with so many passionate folks day-after-day. My enterprise has been in a position to movie on a Bravo show and has been featured in native information. We signed a lease for our first everlasting area in downtown Atlanta early this 12 months, in preparation for the World Cup this previous summer time.

Now that I’ve totally dedicated and we now have people who find themselves actually invested in what we’re doing — the enterprise homeowners who love instructing and sharing these alternatives — I all the time take into consideration scalability.

There are a variety of completely different shifting elements proper now. I would actually like to deal with brand partnerships and do a giant partnership push in 2027.

That being mentioned, who is aware of what I would do if one other alternative got here up? I haven’t got to all the time be there personally with my enterprise.

We’ve got a variety of occasions taking place on the finish of 2026, which is giving me anxiousness — however I requested for it. It is both that, or we do not develop.