CONCORD, N.C. — For Bria Smith it was a no-brainer: the vision of a place where people could be creative while also relieving stress, all wrapped into Her Candle Bar.
"We could pour back into the community where we live every single day," Smith told WCNC Charlotte.
Originally from New York, Smith has called the Carolinas home for years. During the pandemic, she returned to New York after the death of her uncle. It was during this stressful period that the idea of Her Candle Bar was born.
"I needed to start something that kind of just tickled me differently and helped me to relax, and so we started making candles," Smith said. "This really kind of helped me not think about everything that was going on and really just pour into something that relaxed me and create my own self-care."
The candle bar set up shop right along downtown Concord’s busy Cabarrus Avenue East at the end of November. The opening comes to Concord as cities across North Carolina top rankings as some of the best to start a business.
Durham, Charlotte, Raleigh and Winston-Salem all rank in the top 15, according to Wallethub. Numbers like those are attracting entrepreneurs to areas just like this one.
Smith said she credits Retail Lab for helping launch her business. It's a program established at the Cabarrus Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship that helps early-stage and pre-launch retail business owners in Cabarrus and Rowan Counties by providing an application-based, six-week immersive Boot Camp. Focus topics in the program include business basics, strategy, branding and marketing, e-commerce, point-of-sale and inventory, and real estate/licensing.
"I [could] see all the economic investment happening with the treescape and the apartment buildings and how a community was being created here just ten, fifteen minutes away from me in Harrisburg," Smith said.
Smith has witnessed that economic investment for some time.
"We had to come up with ways in the home to have fun and also create the ability to relax and provide some self-care. It was a very stressful time," Smith said.
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Now, she sells candles and other self-care items, as well as hosts candle-making classes.
"This was transitioning from an in-home business," Smith sad. "It went from something fun you just did for yourself and your self care to like, Okay, we want to wrap a model around this. And we want to offer this to other folks.
Back on business though, Concord is missing from that list of top cities for business owners.
Yet Smith invested here anyway.
When we asked her why she said, "We’re familiar with Charlotte, I went to school there. But It’s oversaturated to some degree from a business perspective. And there are nice things and experiences that are needed right here in Cabarrus County."
It's right here, where that economic investment continues to grow.
Contact Kia Murray at kmurray@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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