I turned a fun candle-making side hustle into a full-time business after my layoff. Sometimes I wonder how the heck I did it.

This as-told-to composition is according to a conversation alongside Taylor Kelly, the 34-year-old originator of Eventful ATL, who lives in Atlanta. The following has been edited for dimension and clarity.

If you'd asked me in the commencement if my side hustle of candle-making classes would rotate into a endeavor a twelvemonth later, I would've had no clue.

It went from $2,000 in income in 2023, whenever it was an evening and weekend flank gig, to $16,000 in 2024, whenever I created a lawful endeavor entity: Eventful ATL.

Then, in 2025, I was laid off from my company job.

It gave me additional elasticity to really dive in, and we ended the twelvemonth a small under $75,000 in revenue. I pushed into 2026 alongside a stable small business, and we're on track to end 2026 alongside about $100,000 in revenue.

We currently recommendation complete 12 category topics, including candle making, angiosperm arranging, pasta making, tea tasting and blending, charcuterie making, vino tasting, and cocktail making. We additionally lately added pottery-making and seasonal classes akin wreath-making and gift-wrapping.

Sometimes I wonder, how the heck did I end up here?

I started hosting candle-making workshops following moving to Atlanta

I lived in New York for multiple years and worked for Ritani, a New York-based jewelry company, in a few distinct promotion roles from 2019 to 2025. I took two years off from Ritani between 2020 and 2022 to do a full-time MBA program at the University of Miami, and I rejoined the business in May 2022.

My flank gig began in the winter of 2023. I'd moved to Atlanta, and in command to get out of the home and encounter people, I started hosting candle-making workshops on evenings and weekends. Candle making had been my hobby during COVID and grad school.

It started to develop beyond candle making, into another types of classes. I teamed up alongside a venue partner who has a fantastic event area and added flower-arranging and caviar-tasting workshops.

Initially, I asked group whom I knew had particular hobbies, passions, or cognition if they'd recommendation a category in it. Soon, I started getting emails and calls from small endeavor owners and creatives who really wanted to instruct but didn't desire to agreement alongside the logistics of coordinating classes or experiences.

It wasn't difficult to balance it alongside my full-time job since I was operating remotely and wasn't doing item alternatively following activity hours. I'd expend my nights and weekends operating on Eventful and focused on SEO for integrated growth.

As the months went by, it became apparent that there was an chance to keep expanding Eventful, and I idea concerning the possible of making it my full-time job. However, I liked having a stable paycheck.

I was laid off from my full-time job in May 2025

It wasn't a big astonishment that it happened. I recall being stressed, like, Oh, crap, I don't have any earnings now. If I hadn't had this small endeavor on the side, I would've spiraled. I'm so grateful that I had my flank hustle to autumn rear on.

I started my job hunt in June during motionless operating my flank gig, but I wasn't getting much traction alongside interviews. I sent out hundreds of applications and got lone a fistful of interviews. I'd be so annoyed concerning spending a entire day applying whenever I could've spent that energy diving into my business.

There were so many jobs listed, and a recruiter would say, "We'd affection to chat," and afterward the role would vanish. That was disheartening, and it made additional awareness to prosecute item that I had going myself.

I additionally wasn't finding roles that were breathtaking to me, the way I had years ago whenever I lived in New York. Part of that was since I was so enthusiastic concerning operating on my business. I knew there was potential; it wasn't huge at the time, but I knew we could continue to grow.

A brace of months later, I made the decision to prosecute my endeavor full-time

I'm not certain I would've pursued expanding the business full-time anytime shortly if it weren't for being laid off.

Now, we presenter 15 to 20 events a month. We have at smallest two community classes all week, and we're adding additional throughout the holiday season, as fine as multiple personal collection experiences throughout the week.

We have a lot of brands that leverage us to provision team-building experiences for clients and employees, including companies akin Google, Salesforce, Chick-fil-A, and Home Depot.

We activity alongside concerning eight to 10 contractors and instructors who instruct classes. I akin operating on a squad — I don't akin sitting current alone. I've additionally started instruction a lot of our pasta-making and flower-arranging classes.

When I'm not instructing, I akin being current at as many classes as imaginable to facilitate setup and breakdown. However, there've been many times whenever our squad has handled classes without me present, and the goal is to justify we're creating the correct systems to create that the standard, in command to eventually measure and develop into new markets akin Miami and New York.

Sometimes I'm the promotion person, and sometimes I'm the instructor for the day. Every day is a new day, and I awaken up to an email of item chill that I didn't anticipate coming throughout my desk.

I'm enthusiastic for us to continue to grow

It took until September of this year, whenever my brain was like, This is it. This endeavor is really bringing in money, and if I'm being lazy or not doing as much as I can, it impacts my life. I have a dog who's extremely expensive. I either create prosperity and pay the bills correct now, or it doesn't happen.

It's not fair concerning the money, though. I additionally get to conversation alongside so many passionate group all day. My endeavor has been capable to movie on a Bravo show and has been featured in local news. We signed a lease for our archetypal imperishable area in downtown Atlanta first this year, in preparedness for the World Cup this former summer.

Now that I've completely committed and we have group who are really invested in what we're doing — the endeavor owners who affection instruction and sharing these opportunities — I continually think concerning scalability.

There are a lot of distinct moving parts correct now. I'd really affection to concentration on brand partnerships and do a big alliance shove in 2027.

That being said, who knows what I'd do if another chance came up? I don't have to continually be there personally alongside my business.

We have a lot of events happening at the end of 2026, which is giving me anxiety — but I asked for it. It's either that, or we don't grow.