Soy Candles Light the Way for Local Entrepreneur

by Candace Lagerhausen

When Rachel Monrad received a soy candle as a gift a few years back, she had no idea just how much that gift would impact her life. After noticing how much she liked the candle, she began to wonder why. “I thought ‘What is so different about this candle?’ so I researched, and it was the soy”, Rachel said. That’s when she started learning about the different types of waxes that can make a candle, and decided to make her own soy candle. After sharing her creation on Facebook, she started getting order requests almost immediately. “That was in August, by October I had a business, and by December, I was in my first store”, Rachel shared.

In October 2019, Rachel started Old Oak Market. She grew very quickly, and is now in 40 stores. “It’s just fun, it’s a fun job”, Rachel says. Rachel hosts candle-making classes and parties on location, and has her candles available on line with free local pickup/meetup.