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Changing careers often requires a leap of faith, and leaving a career to start a small business even more so. Terah Meishalyn of Little Rock, owner of Terahdactyl Candles, said starting her small business had a steep learning curve, but each hurdle has helped her grow on the path to creating something truly beautiful.
“I’ve learned that it is OK to fail and that every single business owner goes through that too. It’s how we learn,” she said. “I’ve had a lot of fails and used to beat myself up over them, but I’ve found a lot of comfort in knowing that’s essential for both personal growth and business development. I feel much more confident now, and I’m not afraid of failure.”
Raised in Arizona, Meishalyn spent eight years as a dental assistant before becoming an entrepreneur.
“Toward the end of my career in dentistry, I started making candles as a side hobby and gave them as gifts to friends and family,” she said. “To my surprise, they rapidly became highly requested items, as people wanted to give them as gifts to their friends and family.”
A personal tragedy prompted Meishalyn to move to Arkansas, a place she had never even visited. In May 2022, she finalized her divorce and became homeless in Arizona.
“I was devastated,” she said. “I had nowhere to go, and it felt like I had nothing left in the world. Out of desperation, I finally took a leap of faith and Googled places to live that had a lower cost of living, and Little Rock, Arkansas was the first thing that came up. I put my notice in at my dental job, packed up my car and dogs, and drove to Little Rock to start a new life in a state where I knew no one.”
When she moved to Arkansas that July, she said, she decided to try starting her own candle business instead of immediately finding another job in dentistry.
“Everyone told me that I should get a ‘real job’ for when my candle business didn’t work out, so that really just motivated me to make my small business work even more,” she said. “I am still going strong to this day.”
Named for Meishalyn’s teenage nickname, “Terahdactyl,” Terahdactyl Candles offers clean-burning coconut-wax candles and has grown to offer home fragrances and body-care products that include room and linen sprays, gender-neutral perfumes, body butter, lip balms, and body soaks and scrubs.
“When I saw how much people loved my unique fragrances, and some would comment they wanted it in a body product, I dipped my toes into the water of making personal care items, starting with formulating a body butter, then branching out into a beard balm, both of which are best sellers to this day,” she said.
Terahdactyl Candles is also available for white-labeling commissions, custom product development and wholesale, she added.
She described her business as a local, woman-owned small business that uses clean ingredients to create gender-neutral products most anyone can enjoy.
“I create affordable luxury products with the goal being to encourage everyone to practice self-care, even if they’re just small moments such as lighting a candle and decompressing after a long day,” she said.
As the owner and sole employee of the business, Meishalyn starts her day by answering emails and checking messages on social media. Then she checks off items on her “seemingly endless” to-do list of products she plans to make. She said she spends hours formulating every single product, which she makes by hand. On the weekends, she often attends vendor events and tradeshows.
The best thing about being a small business owner is making her own schedule, she added.
“I had wanted to work from home for a while anyway, since one of my dogs has separation anxiety and I felt bad leaving him the whole day while I was at work,” she said. “I also now have a much more flexible schedule, so I can prioritize quality time with my friends and loved ones.”
That said, starting a small business, especially in an unfamiliar state, is not without its hurdles.
“The biggest challenge was getting started in a brand-new state where I knew literally no one,” she said. “I had no prior experience running any sort of business, so I had to figure everything out as I went along and get out of my comfort zone to socialize and network. I’m still learning something new every day as I figure out the logistics of not just running a business, but growing a business.”
About a year and a half after starting her business, Meishalyn has garnered quite a following. She said one of her biggest accomplishments is landing a white-lable deal for a company in Texas, and Little Rock locals can find her products on the shelves of Nexus Coffee and Creative.
“When I first went there not even a week after moving to Arkansas, I loved everything about the environment and swore that one day my candles would be on their shelves,” she said.
Although she came to Arkansas as a stranger, Meishalyn said her small business has enabled her to develop a close network of people she now considers family.
“Us small-business owners stick together, support each other and build beautiful interpersonal relationships along the way,” she said. “I have made so many beautiful friendships by meeting new people through my business, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without them, both business-wise and personally. They mean the world to me, and I know I can always lean on them for unconditional support.”
Like many small business owners, Meishalyn supports nonprofits, including Last Chance Arkansas, which advocates for abused, abandoned and neglected animals. She said she cannot wait to see how much more she can help the community as her business grows, and if Terahdactyl Candles smells like success now, just wait until fans get a whiff of what is to come.
“My dream is to focus more on the perfumery aspect of my brand and eventually get my product onto shelves of major retailers such as Target,” she said. “Developing my perfumes is such a huge passion of mine and really just feels like a part of who I am, so I plan to expand my perfume line and hopefully get them featured in places where more people can access them.”
When she is not crafting products, Meishalyn cares for her three miniature dachshunds, Miso, Merlot and Matcha, as well as 30 backyard chickens. She also spends plenty of time hanging out with friends, trying new restaurants and exploring the outdoor beauty of a state she ventured to in a risk that paid off.
“It was the best decision I could have ever made,” she said. “I have fallen in love with Arkansas and the people in it. My business has been an instrumental part of making the friends that I have here, and I truly could not have gotten to where I am today without them.”
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