Brett Fitzgerald is the Co-Founder of Abeille Candles and an Icehouse Coaching alumni.
This Kiwi Business Story is based on a podcast from 20 July 2023, and all figures quoted are from that time. You can enjoy the complete podcast here.
What was the ‘aha’ moment for the company?
I sat down one day with Ellie’s brother, Sam [Ellie is Brett’s partner]. They are involved with a company called Manuka South and he's part-owner with his father, Rob.
We got talking and he said, ‘why don't you do beeswax candles and a jar with a fragrance? There's not many people doing it in New Zealand.’ In fact, there wasn't anyone doing it in New Zealand at that time.
We jumped on a website, found all the testing kits and started to make our own candles in the kitchen. We found out pretty quickly that it's not that straightforward! But we just went from there… and we haven't really looked back since. We launched officially in 2019, but we started testing in December 2018.
What’s the purposes behind this business?
We want to bring this brand global. We are actually in the process of rebranding. This is where Kevin [D’Ambros-Smith, Icehouse coach] has been helping us – doing our brand story and figuring out what’s our USP.
Because anyone can make a candle, anyone can do it with beeswax, anyone can throw a fragrance into it, and so our purpose really is we want to bring New Zealand to the rest of the world through using New Zealand beeswax, telling the New Zealand story; the craftsmanship, the artisan luxury, all those sorts of things.
So we're just in the process of getting that down and then we'll hopefully be able to put a stamp on the map for Kiwis, and then show other Kiwis what we're capable of doing. Just because we're a little isle at the bottom of the world, it doesn't mean we can't do great things.
What's been a highlight of the journey so far?
Seeing the personal development. As we've gone through this, the highlight’s never been, ‘we've made X amount’ or ‘the business has grown to this point.’ That stuff is fun at the time, but that wears off pretty fast and you need another goal. So the highlight for me has been growing into the better version of who I can be every day, and seeing where that journey takes me, which is pretty cool.
How did you hear about The Icehouse?
I actually heard of The Icehouse from my father in law, Rob. He did the Owner Manager Programme, loved it, and raved about it. He had been telling me for the last two years, ‘you need to go and do something with The Icehouse!’
And now you’re getting coaching from Kevin D’Ambros-Smith?
I came to a realisation that even the All Blacks have coaches and are the best at their craft. So we got Kevin on board… Kevin came in and flipped the house upside down, which was a good thing! He showed us where we were going wrong, and where we were going well. So having him on board has been absolutely vital to keep us going, especially through a difficult period such as what the New Zealand economy is facing at the moment.
Kevin looked at our whole business practice. He helped us draw up things like cash flow reports. He helped us properly study our market and do our proper market research because I did not do that when we first started. I started bringing this out and people were either going to like it or not.
He looked at our website and helped us optimise that, our email marketing, and helped us cut costs where we did need to cut costs. He helped us get bundles on our website – that increased our average order value by 20%. Now he's helping us with the whole brand story for our new brand, which has been really exciting, and understanding the possibilities around this.
What else do you get from coaching?
Kevin’s been a great sounding board, too. So the times when sales aren't coming in and you're going into a head spin, I ring him and he has a way of putting things into perspective for you that calms your thinking. So he's been awesome. And I'd highly recommend to anyone – don't be afraid to empty the pockets a little bit.
It’s a return on investment and it's an investment in yourself. Don't buy the fancy car, that's going to cost you four grand a month. Use that money on development, such as courses and mentors through The Icehouse.