Dude Candle Relocating to South Carolina

UPDATE MARCH 2, 2026 - This blog was originally posted in early November, 2025. It served to keep people updated on a complete personal and professional cross country move during the peak season for candlemakers like myself.

Holiday orders were critical at this time of year, both for my business and more importantly - you, the customer - who were waiting for orders to arrive before Christmas. This served to provide regular updates with production and shipping timelines in the middle of a cross country move. I'm happy to say - I managed to get every order out in time for Christmas.

To those of you who stuck by me, saw the messaging on the website, and still placed your orders in November, knowing it would be December before they shipped - thank you.

I was about to lose faith in humanity in the whole moving process and your support means the world to me.

Now - here I am, writing you on March 1st, 2026 and wow, what a ride. I am beyond tired.

You'd have to be a candlemaker to understand how busy it is during the winter months. It's the most important and busiest time of year for us. Add to that, I have a full time job working remotely and things get really hectic.

I've been living out of boxes since I arrived in South Carolina. I've been trying to organize my business and establish new procedures, systems, and processes to be more efficient with Dude Candle.

I haven't even sent ONE marketing email since moving here! That's an absolute sin! Never have I been that delinquent on email campaigns. Why? I couldn't afford to risk the influx of orders while getting operations back up slowly. I've been doing nothing but scrambling to maintain orders, build up inventory, supplies and infrastructure. Some customer emails have been neglected - and that's not a proud point for me.

But, here we are. Obstacles have been obliterated. Pain points have passed. And operations are optimal! There's a couple minor tweaks to make moving forward, but I'm thrilled to be back to normal (almost).

Understandably, you have no vested interest in the struggle it took the last four months to get here. For anyone in a similar situation - give yourself a little grace and know it'll take a little time to get on your feet. It took twice as long as I thought for myself, but I think I was a little optimistic. After all, how many times does a single dude actually pack up his home, his life, and business and move cross country?

With that, here's the original blog post content below with a few more details why I made the move from California to South Carolina. I thank you all for your patience, patronage, and support in this journey. 

Why move to South Carolina?

NOVEMBER 2025 - Well, this is where I get a little uncomfortable sharing personal information, but many of you are true supporters, customers, and fellow candlemakers who follow my business and my journey here and on other platforms and I'd rather clarify it now for all.

1) I lost my mother unexpectedly here in California after a sudden downward spiral and home hospice. With her passing, there's no immediate family close by to justify staying.

2) The residence I rent is being sold when they promised that wouldn't happen.

3) The cost of living in this dumpster fire state of Crazifornia is insane. It's literally not affordable or sustainable. 

4) The move to South Carolina puts me closer to another family member.

5) The move will dramatically improve shipping costs for the bulk of Dude Candle customers which is roughly from the midwest to the east coast.

A little more unnecessary details...

Ultimately, I have to think about my personal and financial future and making a logistics move that benefits Dude Candle.

I hate to repeat myself, but for those who don't know, Dude Candle is solely owned and operated. There is no "team" here and nothing about the business is outsourced. Every aspect from web design to product development to shipping (to name a few of the many duties) is performed by myself. And it's all done after working a full-time day job. I take Dude Candle very seriously. It's my passion.

I will continue to work remotely for my "day job" after the move and I am so grateful to my employer for their incredible support and urging me to grow Dude Candle to a point where I can "step off" and make it full time.

Unfortunately, the last 18 months along with what's in front of me with this move ha really upended everything. I feel a little behind on my business goals at the time of this posting, but I'm hopeful I will be putting these stressors to an end shortly. 

Am I excited? Nope. Should I be? Yes. Will I be? Probably. When? After it's all behind me the first of the year. I feel like I haven't been able to come up for air in over a year. Again, it's all happening quickly and I wasn't prepared for the death and aftermath of losing my mother and then immediately being thrown into the fire for a cross-country move on short notice.

As I said above, your continued support for this hard working dude is so appreciated and has never been needed at a more critical time in my life and business. 

Thank you.