Chesapeake Bay Candle Head Details Landing Target

Rockville-based candle maker Chesapeake Bay Candle is a highly successful and long-lived company, having sold its first products in 1995.

In a blog post this week, the candle behemoth’s co-founder, Mei Xu, details how her tenacity over the course of a year enabled her to land the company’s first “big box” contract with Target.

Here’s how the story begins:

I tracked down the candle department buyer’s phone number and left her a message. She didn’t call back. So I left another message the following week — no reply. I refused to take her silence as a ‘no.’ So I left messages every week for six straight months. I figured she might not appreciate my tenacity but she was my only way in to the company.

Finally, I had a conversation with her receptionist to ask why the buyer wasn’t returning my calls. She told me that I should go over the buyer’s head and talk to her boss. So I called her supervisor, who told me that my products sounded great and that she’d have the buyer call me.

The phone rang two minutes later: Jackpot, it was the buyer. I thought I’d finally struck gold. Then she told me what I’d done wasn’t the right way to start a business relationship. She refused to meet with me, and my subsequent calls went unanswered.

But there is a happy ending, so click over to the full story to learn how it ends!

It’s a great story of just what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, and we are glad to have such energetic and successful companies here in Rockville. (Well, it’s on the border with “North Bethesda,” but I say let’s claim it!)

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