January 17, 2010

About the SoyLicious.com Team



Michael Broyles (CEO)

If I asked Michael what he thought of the title 'CEO', he would probably say it was nothing more than a fancy title for a candle maker, but don't let that fool you - not only is he a great candle-maker, but he is also a very savvy business man.
Michael and his wife Rachel met over 17 years ago while he was working as a manager at Home Depot. During that time, they managed to get married and have 7 children, Brandon (16), Nathan (15), Brittany (14), Zachary (13), Quentin (12), Courtney (10), and Jonathan (9).
While working as a manager for a regional craft store, Michael was putting in many long hours, nights and weekends and started looking for a way to make a living without missing out on his family. The craft store sold items to make candles from parafin wax. The first candle he made was horrible and wouldn't even burn, however, with more practice and experimenting, he was able to make quality candles that he sold to friends, family, neighbors, and craft shows until he had two different 'potential customers' that he lost because they only bought soy candles.
After much research on Soy candles, he was able to see many advantages to soy wax from low soot, renewable resource grown by American farmers, and longer burning. During this same time, the children started bringing home fundraiser packets for overpriced, imported junk candles. Around the same time, Michael and his wife found out that their second oldest son Nathan, who was 9 at the time, had Type 1 diabetes. It was then that they decided to make this a full time business. Being a savvy business man, he started putting together fundraisers with high quality, affordable, clean burning soy candles and has since dealt with 10's of thousands of fundraisers.
'This is truly a family business', Michael says, 'Even today, when we have over 1000 candles to send out, all the kids will come straight in from school and start helping out!'
There is nothing better than knowing that you get to earn a living spending time with your family.

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