Nothing completes a cozy vibe like throwing on a sweater and melting into a soft blanket, surrounded by candlelight.

Faith Parker’s Sonoma County business, Boho Bungalow, aims to help customers create that cozy vibe year-round.

Parker has sold homemade candles and other home décor since 2012. Her business currently has just eight employees and has brought in $1 million in sales over the past few years.

She closed her Sebastopol location in February but still operates a shop in Occidental and expanded her Petaluma store to host in-person candle making classes. She plans to take the classes on the road later this year.

The Press Democrat sat down with Parker to discuss how business has changed since her expansion.

Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

When did you decide to become a small-business owner?

Faith Parker: I transitioned from waiting tables to owning a brick-and-mortar. I started out with a vintage furniture store and slowly realized there was so much muscle and sweat. I was basically a furniture mover, running around with my pickup truck to estate sales and getting this stuff.

Slowly but surely I started learning more about how retail works. I also have a passion for candles and they were always a top seller in my stores.

I started out in my kitchen, then transitioned into a carved out space in my office and now we’re making them in our Occidental store.

What was the process of learning to make candles like? I’ve watched videos of people trying DIY kits and the process seems difficult.

Parker: There is a lot to itbut you have to have the correct temperature for the wax and wick size is very crucial or you can get candles that burn too quickly. You can potentially start a fire if you have too big of a wick or too much of the fragrance oil to wax proportion so there are a lot of mishaps that can happen when you’re not an experienced candle maker.

When did you start these classes?

Parker: We’ve been making candles since 2016 and we just started offering candle classes after I closed my Sebastopol store and bought my building in Petaluma. We did an expansion and started making and offering candle-making classes.

Since closing (the Sebastopol) location, we’ve been concentrating more on building a better connection with our customers because we’re able to spend more time with them when they come in. We get to have them in a more intimate setting and I feel like we’re building better relationships with our community.

What has business been like since coming out of the height of the pandemic?

Parker: It’s been pretty consistent. We’ve been able to meet our sales and revenue goals and I feel very, very fortunate.

We have to do things differently. I think consumer habits are changing, they’re looking for more experiences and that’s what we offer through the candle classes and our renewable products, which are kits where people can refill their candle vessel at home just using the microwave.

But I think consumers are also looking for more of a connection when they come into a store. They really want to be seen and that sets us apart from the big box stores.

I want to go back to when you opened your first store and what that experience was like.

Parker: When I first started, it was just vintage things called Vintage by Design.

Then we rebranded ourselves as Boho Bungalow because we started on the Bohemian Highway which runs through Occidental and that’s where our name came from and also the name of our in-house candle line which is Bohemian Botanicals.

How did you finance your business when you were starting out?

Parker: I literally sold the furniture out of my living room because it was a vintage store so I cleared out my house and went around on Craigslist and got all this really cool, midcentury secondhand vintage furniture. Then I just kept reinvesting in my inventory until it got to the level ait needed to be.

I could buy a chair for $50, for example, and sell it for say $250 and reinvest that money back into inventory and I did that for years and without really taking a paycheck home.

What are some challenges you faced starting out?

Parker: The first problem I saw as a retailer was figuring out how much inventory I needed to have to reach my revenue goals. There’s a formula to that.

The second problem I saw was figuring out my cash flow. I adopted a system called profit first and it really gave me the full view of my finances.

It was challenging but once I solved my cash flow issues, it became really clear that the next think I had to tackle was reducing my cost of goods sold which is what I pay for the product to come. That’s my biggest expense of all between operating costs and my payroll, my cost of goods sold is going to be my biggest expense.

And overall challenges now, we’re lucky that we’re small so that when we need to make changes in our business, it’s easier to do so. For example, if we ran out of jars that we’re using for candles, we can find another jar and change our entire candle brand.

If we were a huge business trying to do this, it would be catastrophic but since we’re a micro business, can make these changes smoother.

What is some advice you would give aspiring entrepreneurs?

Parker: The reality is you will never stop solving problems. Once you solve one problem, you get to the next level until you solve that problem. If you have the mindset that solving one problem will solve all your problems, that’s never going to happen. You just have to embrace it and be grateful.

You can reach Staff Writer Sara Edwards at 707-521-5487 or sara.edwards@pressdemocrat. com. On Twitter @sedwards380.