This all started out as a beeswax based business. Candles, lotions, creams, rubs, lotion bars for those massages ;) However with 3 little ones and the wife knowing this side of things more than myself; we decided that in the sense of time this would initially be harder to get off the ground. The idea slowly morphed into, lets make some beeswax emergency candles and then also put some useful survival items into a kit of some sort. At first we had the idea to maybe make half the can itself a candle; however in the end that just didn't work as smoothly as we wanted.
So we did a pivot and moved towards making tealight sized beeswax candles. Quick and easy to pour. Although we did have some wax issues to begin with; once we found a new supplier all of these issues stopped. After that it was sourcing and testing items that we felt would be a good fit and would fit the "Survival Essentials" type category.
This did lead to further issues and while our initial iteration of the kit included water purification tablets; in the short term we had to drop these to as we were unable to break the product down as we had needed to fit into the cans. This was due to EPA related regulation and we felt it best to just move forward minus this item; if the company ever offers a smaller package; we will happily add this item back to the can. Also this led to issues with our labeling and we had to do a re-print. Don't ask why I went ahead and approved this the way I did; lessons learned.
So that's the story; small family business starting out. We love it and love that it gives us more time together vs me diving into some other endeavors that had not been as successful as we had hoped; but did take up a good chunk of my time. We have loved developing this together and testing out a of neat survival items together. Keep an eye out as we have a few future product releases soon! Make sure you check out Issue Alpha!