From Candle Maker to Empowering Entrepreneurs: Jazmin Elon on Building the BLK Sunflower Business Collective
Photos by Victor Jones
In this segment of The Day With Trae, guest host Besa Gordon fills in for Trae Holiday to interview Jazmin Elon, the founder and visionary behind Blk Sunflower. An entrepreneur and educator, Elon established her company based on candle making. Since then, she has turned her experiences as a budding business owner and candle maker to leading the BLK Sunflower Business Collective, a thriving community of over 800 entrepreneurs she helps grow and succeed.
"First of all, I've always been into education, whether it was training, whether it was within my corporate job," Elon said. "Training was my thing.
Elon highlighted that candles were essentially a means for her to gain visibility, ultimately allowing her to pursue her true passion: educating other business owners.
"Organically, people started coming to me for answers, business answers," Elon said. "They're like, 'I saw you doing it; how do I do it myself?' And so I thought, you know, this is my calling, and I really have to move forward within it and help people, and it's what I love to do."
Since establishing herself as a mentor, Elon has assisted countless businesses, including OBK Winery and Converge's partnered Intentions Juice & Smoothie Bar. Her impact has even extended globally, reaching entrepreneurs from Africa to Europe, far beyond her community of Seattle.
"It sounds funny; candles were never even like a big love for me," Elon explained. "I was a businesswoman who saw an opportunity. I want people to realize that, to an extent, business is a science, and if you move accordingly, you can reach success."
Since going down the path of an educator, Elon has observed many common mistakes new owners make when starting their ventures. One of the most notable, she highlighted, is the tendency to believe immediate success is imminent without setting realistic expectations.
"When people see my business, they think I blew up overnight. I didn't reach my first six figures until 30 years of being in business," Elon said. "I made a candle business, and next we know, it was successful. I have lost a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of resources trying to get here. And so I want people to understand, stop falling into the trap of this is going to happen overnight. This is a journey, not a marathon."
As for having an excellent start to one's business journey, Elon explained that influential branding is the critical factor in a good launch.
"My candle company, I had the most basic jars. Yes, my candles smell good, but it's nothing amazing, and it sounds weird for me to say this about my business, but what was very intentional and very thought through, and I put a lot of time and effort into it, was my branding," Elon said.
For Elon, her own brand, BLK Sunflower, was meticulously planned out from the start. "If you do not brand your business as something that people want, that if it's not intentional, you don't have a color palette that goes with what you're speaking to, or the audience that you're speaking to, if you're just picking up random fonts here and there, you don't have a story to tell," Elon said. "You're not going anywhere because people don't see you as a cohesive brand."
While Elon emphasized the importance of having confidence in one's work, she also highlighted that, alongside good branding, a compelling story is crucial for success.
"Stories are so important because we tend to forget that humans were built for storytelling, accepting and receiving stories, and it allows you to connect with your audience," Elon said. "A lot of people, when they start businesses, say, 'Oh, I just want to sell it to everybody.' That's not true. You can't sell anything to everybody."
According to Elon, a paramount aspect of good branding is identifying and understanding your target audience once they are interested in what you are offering.
"Your branding is on point. That drew them to your brand. Now you're telling them their story," Elon said. "They're like, 'You know what? This is cool, even if I didn't really need this candle.' Because once again, let's be honest, candles aren't a necessity."
She continued, "But people not only started purchasing candle one because they liked the branding, but they may have bought it because of me. They're going to buy your product because of you, who you are, your story, and how you connect to them, and they will keep buying it because it continues to resonate with them."
As for her group, the BLK Sunflower Business Collective was born from Elon's desire to find equitable ways to support her fellow business owners, especially as many began seeking her guidance.
"Technically, you can find this stuff online, but sometimes it needs to be put together in a way that's easy to understand," Elon said. "So within the collective, there are tons of videos, there are tons of classes available as well as we have a weekly collective conversation where we talk everything about business, whether it's entrepreneurship life, how to even move, self-care as an entrepreneur, marketing, whatever it is."
Recently, Elon hired a team of experts to help develop software to make entrepreneurship more straightforward and affordable.
"As an entrepreneur, I have maybe, like 10, 15, subscriptions to different programs, and I'm managing all my business," Elon said. "It's like this trying to bring it together. There has to be an easier way. So many people are out here capitalizing off entrepreneurs, and let's be honest, eggs are expensive, everything's expensive, and it gets very, very depressing."
This new software aims to streamline the management of schedules and work obligations, making it more efficient for entrepreneurs.
"My whole thing within the collective, within the academy, is business simplified and setting realistic expectations and finding ways to automate so that you can step out and actually enjoy your life," Elon said.
Before concluding, Elon shared three essential tips with our Converge audience on on how to grow a business from the ground up, starting with the importance of understanding why you want to start a business in the first place.
"Know your why," Elon said. "Are you doing this because you just want money, or are you doing this because you're passionate about it? Because I'll tell you right here [that] if you're doing it just because you need money, you will not succeed. You will not be able to sustain it."
Her next tip reinforced an integral theme of the entire segment: establish strong branding.
"Know exactly who you're talking to, how to talk to them, and what they want to see," Elon said. "If you don't do that, the people are not going to come."
Lastly, Join the BLK Sunflower Business Collective for just $4.99 monthly and access invaluable support and resources.
"I will get you in the right direction," Elon said. "Yes, it's a shameless plug, but the people in it tell me every day that 'I don't know what I was doing before without this."
Tap into the BLK Sunflower Business Collective by clicking here, and be sure to check out their social media presence here!
"Maybe with this new platform, I'll be able to make it so we can have a free community," Elon said.
"I'm not promising anything right now, but my goal is to make entrepreneurship and quality entrepreneurship accessible because, listen here, our mental health as [entrepreneurs] tends to take a big hit," Elon said. "That's what I want to do. I want to make sure that people don't feel what I felt in the past and [what] I see a lot of people feeling to this day."
For more insights on local entrepreneurs transforming the Seattle, tune in to Besa on Back2Besa on FOX 13 every Thursday at 8:15 a.m. and join Trae every weekday at 11 a.m. on all Converge Media platforms and The Day With Trae YouTube Channel.
