LIGHTING THE WAY
WHAT STARTED AS A MUM AND DAUGHTER SIDE HUSTLE IN CANOWINDRA, NSW, HAS GROWN INTO A FULL-TIME FAMILY BUSINESS.
How a mum and daughter side hustle turned into a thriving family business.
THEY SAY IT’S BETTER TO LIGHT A CANDLE than point out the darkness, but for Dannielle Maere, the end of 2019 was closing in quicker than she could find a match. The figures didn’t look good for the boutique candle business she had built alongside her mum, Deb – despite five years of love and savings poured in alongside the soy wax.
“We decided that if Christmas wasn’t fabulous, we would scale Meeraboo right back with a view to closing it down,” Dannielle, who prefers Danni, says.
It could have been the end to a dream Danni had fostered for years. The mum of two had been encouraging Deb to turn her hobby pouring candles into a business they could all work in – but the effects of the drought in the Central West was taking its toll.
“We relied on local and regional stockists who weren’t buying as much or as regularly because when farmers don’t spend money in the community, it has a flow-on effect,” Danni says. “Now, I can definitely see why our business wasn’t growing. I wasn’t telling our story, we weren’t releasing new products – mostly because we didn’t have enough room at Mum’s place to store everything – and we weren’t marketing as regularly as we should have been.”
Then, Buy from the Bush (BFTB) shared Meeraboo on its Instagram page. With the Australian landscape imbued in every candle – scents like banksia, paper daisy, desert pea and bush lemon – Meeraboo’s website experienced unprecedented traffic.
“The day BFTB shared us on social media was a pivotal moment in our business and the weeks following are ones I will never forget,” Danni says. “We had never experienced an influx of orders like that. It forced processes and a production line which placed us in good stead for where we are today, and more than anything, it instilled the confidence that we needed to move forward.”
Deb poured her first candle in 2014 for a local Christmas market. Completely self-taught, she’s come a long way from her four decades working in the dairy industry.
“Mum has been working on a dairy farm for over 40 years. She always used to say she’s not good at anything other than milking cows, so when she discovered how good she was at candle-making, she grabbed the opportunity with both hands and hasn’t looked back,” Danni says. “In the early days, we would just walk into stores that we loved and show them our product and tell them our story.
This is how we grew our local stockist base, who are now our greatest advocates and supporters.”
Alongside the early days of side-hustling Meeraboo, Danni was studying law, completing her post-grad in 2016 just before she gave birth to her son, Archer. When he was five months old, she went back to work at a local marketing agency before falling pregnant with her daughter Alba in 2019.
“I decided to complete the work experience component of my post-grad studies, with a view to being admitted in 2020. I remember this time so well because I experienced awful morning sickness with my daughter, I was working full-time and running Meeraboo as a side hustle with Mum,” Danni says. “It was definitely a juggle, especially with a two-yearold! I still get tired thinking about that time.”
Just when Danni was due to be admitted, COVID-19 hit Australian shores. “I remember sitting on the couch next to my husband, glued to the TV. I told him, ‘Well, that’s it for Meeraboo then’, because I knew all our stockists would be closing down. I had just had our second baby and my husband is a builder, so he wasn’t going to be able to work in other people’s homes. I was worried about how we were going to make an income,” Danni says. “I had already planned to launch a new collection that ironically was for tourist gifting and airports. I decided to launch it anyway, and I jumped on my Instagram and started telling our story. We did our biggest month ever in April 2020 on the back of this, which ultimately led to our decision to build our candle shed.”
The essence of family is at the nucleus of Meeraboo, entrenched deeply in the motivation and practicalities of the business. It’s a dream come true for Danni, working alongside her family to fragrantly enrich their lives and that of their loyal following.
“My mother-in-law started helping in 2019, eventually leaving her job to work here full-time. My husband helps out daily; he’s our storeman, forklift driver, box lifter and postman. One of my brothers has just started working here once a week, and my brother-in-law helps out daily with heavy lifting,” Danni says. “Working alongside my family everyday makes me so happy. Creating a business and lifestyle for them was my biggest motivator, and having achieved that, I couldn’t be prouder.”
Visit @meeraboocandles or buyfromthebush.com.au
“In the early days, we would just walk into stores that we loved and show them our product and tell them our story.”