Business started by two stay-at-home moms takes off
By Katrina Grant
Two stay-at-home moms, Nicole Yohnson and Kara Prevost, had the idea to come together and combine their passions. They formed Southern Scents and Specialties.
The business, which has only been around two months and is already a success, sells homemade candles and baked goods. The women also donate $1 from each sale to the Burlington County K-9 Search and Rescue Team, of which they are members.
“Kara and I met through the K-9 team and became good friends,” Yohnson said. “She liked to bake; she always made delicious stuff and brought it to the meet and greets. We collided our talents and combined the two. We decided to donate $1 of everything we sold to the K-9 team.”
Yohnson started her homemade candle business in 2007 with her husband, but it became too much with her husband working full-time and her being a stay-at-home mom. Prevost had her baked good business Sugar Momma’s for 20 months before the two met.
“My dog had 12 puppies, two litters,” Prevost said. “One of the puppies, Patton, went to Nicole.”
“I still have Patton,” Yohnson said. “He does human remains detection now. We had a special connection through the K-9 team, and we just talked about doing this business together. I was like ‘I trust you’ she said ‘I trust you,’ so we said ‘let’s do it.’ We were both career women, and we were just sitting home, so we thought this was a good way to make some extra money.”
Southern Scents and Specialties was started two months ago and has been busy since. The business offers homemade candles in many scents ranging in price from $4 to $12. It also has a variety of baked goods to choose from.
“When the order comes in I try to get it out in two days,” Yohnson said. “It can be time consuming.”
“I’ve been baking since I was 6. I used to do it with my grandmother,” Prevost said. “So, I love baking. It’s like my sanctuary. When I’m stressed out and want some alone time, I bake. Depending on the orders, I pretty much bake every day. I can bake pretty much anything; I do cakes, cupcakes, cookies and other stuff. I have my own chocolate chip cookie recipe that I perfected, that took me about five years. Everyone always wants the recipe, but I won’t give it away.”
Right now, a lot of the business that Southern Scents and Specialties does is through word of mouth and selling their items at meet and greets for the K-9 team.
“We do something different every week to market ourselves and get out there,” Yohnson said.
“Our goal is to one day open a store,” Prevost said. “We would absolutely love that.”
You can reach Southern Scents and Specialties through its website at southernscentsspecialties-com.webs.com, through email at [email protected], or check them out on Facebook- Southern Scents and Specialties.
