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After building a candle business rooted in Hispanic heritage that was set to launch in major retailers like Nordstrom, founder Melissa Gallardo found herself in a position few founders plan for: starting over. Her brand, Valorosa (previously known as BFC), began as a pandemic side hustle and within two years, she had secured placement in major retailers including Barnes & Noble and Nordstrom. She was winning six-figure grants, and had left her full-time job to go all in. While on paper, it was her best year fulfilling large purchase orders, and her products preparing to hit shelves nationwide, things were shifting under the surface.
Gallardo’s business was gaining traction when she made the decision to invest in trademarking her brand name.That delay would later become, as she describes it, one of her biggest business mistakes. The filing ultimately led to a trademark opposition. The result was devastating: she could no longer operate under her previous brand name, the very brand she had built and prepared to take into retail. With piles of inventory already produced under that name and commitments in motion, she was forced into an urgent and costly reset, navigating legal constraints, rebranding, and rebuilding while still in the middle of fulfilling major orders.
“It still [feels] just as raw as it did three years ago [when this all happened], even with all this time to process,” she shared on Instagram with her online community reflecting on the journey for the first time.
What some might have expected to be the end of her business story, resulted in a resilient pivot. Today, five years into her journey, she’s rebuilding under a new brand, Valorosa. She’s made it out the other side and carrying forward a brand that is leaving its mark in the fragrance industry, as well as hard-earned entrepreneurial wisdom that every founder can learn from.
Here are a few lessons you can apply to your entrepreneurial journey.
The complexity of your numbers grow, as revenue grows. And without a clear system, financial management can quickly become overwhelming. Gallardo chose to work with Magda before she felt overwhelmed, giving her consistent visibility into her business finances early on. Through monthly financial reviews, she gained a clearer understanding of her cash flow, expenses, and what was possible within her business.
“[Hiring Magda] offered a skillset that I didn’t have nor did I want to acquire when it came to my books. It’s such an invisible piece to sustainable business.”
That financial clarity became especially valuable when the unexpected legal roadblock forced a full rebrand. Because she already understood her numbers, she was able to plan ahead, set aside payroll, account for legal and rebrand costs, and step away from day-to-day operations to focus fully on rebuilding the business. She made sure to set aside at least two weeks of her own payroll so she could step away from the day-to-day, virtually close her doors, and fully focus on the website creation.
“I had to work that extra [amount] in from the holiday sales,” she says. “I can see what's possible in my books.”
Growth can be misleading if your margins aren’t solid. Gallardo built a detailed costing process for every product, tracking expenses down to the smallest components, including scent oils, wicks, packaging, labels, shipping materials, transaction fees, and wholesale pricing structures. Having that level of visibility from the beginning allowed her to understand exactly what each product needed to generate in order to remain profitable as the business grew.
For retail, the math becomes even more critical. “If you want to be in retail doors, you have to be built on your wholesale price,” said Gallardo. If your pricing structure doesn’t work at the wholesale level, scaling into retail only amplifies the problem. And if the numbers don’t work at scale, growth simply accelerates losses.
And don’t forget you have to be able to take into consideration platform fees, commission, shipping costs. “It’s a balance between volume and cash,” she says.
If you plan to scale your business and turn a side hustle into a full-time gig, Gallardo insists you invest in a trademark. Her founder’s story serves as a cautionary tale as a business that got opposed at the trademark office.
“It derailed [my business] for nearly two and a half years and limited my growth and my ability to run a business,” she says.
Rather than navigating it alone, Melissa hired Tannia Ospina of The Ospina Law Firm to move through the rebrand process with clearer legal guidance and structure as they addressed trademark protections. She also sought additional legal support for contracts and the foundational legal structures needed to rebuild the business more securely.
For Gallardo, the takeaway was practical: build your legal and financial support systems early. Trademarks, contracts, insurance, and proper business structures may not feel urgent in the beginning, but they become critical as a business grows
Gallardo's journey is a reminder that financial discipline goes hand in hand with resilience. Clear systems, consistent visibility into costs, intentional pricing decisions, and proactive vendor relationships created the cushion that allowed her business to adapt when challenges arose. Sometimes, the strongest businesses aren’t the ones that grow the fastest. They’re the ones that know how to rebuild.
“If you don’t fully believe in your mission or your vision, what’s it all for? I needed to continue, and I knew this work wasn’t over,” said Gallardo.
Ready to read your numbers with someone who knows what they mean? Contact Magda.
