Author Archive for Hannah Sedam

Silly Bandz – Years in the Making to Finally Hit it Big

Posted by Hannah Sedam 
· Friday, November 8th, 2019 
· 8 Comments

Image result for Robert Croak

Robert Croak founded Brainchild Products, which was the company who in 2006 released a bunch of colorful, shaped rubber-bands called Silly Bandz. Anyone who was born from 1997 to 2007 probably remembers the Silly Bandz craze in elementary school and middle school. Silly Bandz success was no accident but a lot of hard work by the hand of the inventor.

When Robert was 23, he took over his grandparents’ restaurant and got into the business ownership world. He opened two more restaurants during the 1990’s as well as started a concert promotion company and a custom apparel company where he first experimented with selling custom rubber band bracelets. Robert thought that this idea of custom silicone bracelets would be a big hit, but he didn’t get as much traction as he had hoped.

Image result for silly bandz"Silly Bandz finally took off at a trade show in China in 2006, where Robert saw similar shaped rubber bands created by a Japanese designer. This trip gave Robert the three changes he needed for Silly Bandz to be what they are today; bigger, thicker, and more detailed. During the peak of the craze, in 2008, more than a million packs of Silly Bandz a week were sold. Phones were ringing off the hook and supply was flying off of the shelf.

Silly Bandz was so successful, they ran a Facebook ad offering work on the spot. A line down the sidewalk was the response, and the warehouse was so full of work that tables outside the building were being used to pack orders. The frenzy started to slow during the summer of 2010, at which point the craze in the Unites States was thought to be over. Robert Croak was content and was happy to have hit it big with his idea, but that is not the end.

Walking around campus, I have noticed a very interesting article on primarily sophomores and freshman’s arms. Its Silly Bandz, making a potential comeback. I asked my friends why, and the reasoning that I have gotten is that they remind them of an earlier time in their life, and they are simple and classic. Who knows how this new emergence will affect the company; maybe there will be another $200 million craze, or just another blip on the map. Either way, Silly Bandz has affected millions of people through its fun, crazy colored and shaped silicone bracelets.

8 Comments
Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Fashion, Vintage

Vincent Charles Salon – run by an 11 year old

Posted by Hannah Sedam 
· Friday, November 8th, 2019 
· 4 Comments

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Vince Weishaus is a 11-year-old hair stylist in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Vince has his own salon in his parent’s basement. He started doing hair when he was 2 years old with braiding his mother’s hair and playing with his sister’s dolls. His favorite hairstyle to do was braiding. He gave his first haircut to his grandmother at the age of 5 under the careful supervision and assistance of his Aunt.

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From there, Vince’s love for hair grew, so much so that his parents gave him his own salon for his 9th birthday. The supplies were donated from his old neighbor who moved to a different house. Vincent Charles Salon was open for appointments, all free of charge.

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His Instagram has only around 2500 follower, but highlights a smiley, happy young boy living out his dream. Vince Weishaus enjoys being a stylist because he enjoys making people feel happy. While Vince is still young, he wants to become a celebrity hair colorist. The sky is the limit when you work hard and do what you love and continue to work hard. Vince figured out that is you love your work, you won’t “work” a day in your life.

4 Comments
Categories : Beauty, Celebrities, Charity, Detroit, Fashion, Makeup, News, Youngest Entrepreneurs

Krish Chopra – NPHub

Posted by Hannah Sedam 
· Wednesday, November 6th, 2019 
· 2 Comments

Krish Chopra

Anyone who is looking into nursing school should know of the name Krish Chopra. Krish Chopra invented the company NPHub which changes how nursing graduate nursing students complete their clinical hours. Krish Chopra is a first-generation American who revolutionized the nursing industry. The inspiration came to him through an unfulfilling sales job at AT&T where he was “overpaid and underworked”. He tried multiple times in many different industries and settled on nursing after a frantic call from a nursing student. Through this frantic phone call with the girl crying in frustration, he thought of the idea of NPHub. NPHub connects U.S. nursing students with clinical instructors who were willing to offer training for $12.50 per hour of training. This company only has 10 employees and is projected to have an annual revenue $1.6 million in 2019. His company not only revolutionized the nursing graduate clinical work but also showed that anyone can be an entrepreneur, regardless of background.

2 Comments
Categories : Nursing

My Father – The Reason I want to be an Entrepreneur

Posted by Hannah Sedam 
· Monday, October 21st, 2019 
· No Comments

This post is more on the sentimental side, so excuse my soppy story. The most incredible entrepreneur that I know is my father. My father was in the military for nine and a half years  during the gulf war and worked overseas for Boeing in Saudi Arabia for five and a half years. At the time he married my mother, my father had a high school degree and no outside business experience. My father promised my mother that she would never have to work when they had children so that my mother could be a stay at home mom. My father returned to the states when I was one and a half and my brother was two months from being born. He started working as a financial planning business while also pursing a bachelor’s degree at Philadelphia biblical university, now Cairn. He worked about 90 hours a week from the time I was 2 till the time I was 8 on growing his business and pursuing his degree.

It was a rough time for our family, as many entrepreneurial businesses are not extremely profitable in the beginning stages. I remember times where my father would skip meals and the bills were paid over the phone at the last moment possible. This is the less beautiful sides of entrepreneurship. Many people do not entirely understand the downsides to being an entrepreneur. It becomes even tougher to be an entrepreneur when you have a family to support and people relying on you.

My father worked so hard and somehow still managed to be home with our family on Sundays. My father continued to grow his business and got his Bachelor of Science in biblical studies in 2005, when he was 39 years old. He continued to pursue various accreditation and grow his clientele and increase his business. Currently, my father has his own firm with three employees and is a certified financial planner for many interesting clients. He is proof to me that starting your own business takes a lot of time and hard work, nothing comes easy. My goal in this is to somehow make him proud with my business endeavors and one day work alongside him in the business.

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Categories : Business

Anita Campell – Connecting Entrepreneurs to the Trends They Need

Posted by Hannah Sedam 
· Monday, September 30th, 2019 
· No Comments

Anita Campell is arguably one of the most influential entrepreneurs in the internet age for other entrepreneurs. Anita trained to be a lawyer and is currently a business speaker, analyst, publisher, and writer. Her inputs on the small business sector have been immensely helpful to numerous small businesses trying to keep up with this ever-changing world. Her sight, Small Business Trends, has a mission to allow small businesses to succeed through showing the success of other small businesses. Her businesses is online and connects more than two million entrepreneurs and experts together to bring about important trend information available to the mass public. The articles on her website range from office events to boost moral in small businesses to 10 places to find Instagram influencers. While the site has very minimal fancy buttons or features, it is straightforward, has great ease of use, and allows even the older generations to access and use the site. If you have a chance, I would definitely recommend checking out her site and reading some of the articles. https://smallbiztrends.com/

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Categories : Uncategorized

Josh Ramsay: Marianas Trench & Much More

Posted by Hannah Sedam 
· Tuesday, September 10th, 2019 
· 3 Comments

Josh Ramsay is a well-known artist and entrepreneur from Vancouver, British Columbia. He is a singer, songwriter, producer, recording engineer, actor and lead vocalist in Marianas Trench. Josh started Marianas trench in 2001 at the age of 20. Josh asked his high school friend Matt Webb, who is now the guitarist, to start a band with him. The two of them responded to a newspaper ad put out by Ian Casselman, lead drummer, looking to play in a band. Ian then introduced the duo to his roommate, Mike Ayley, who is the band’s bass guitarist. The four members are still the four members of the band today, who is currently on their Suspending Gravity Tour. The band has produced 5 full-length studio albums, been nominated for 65 music awards, and won 17 of them. While you might not recognize Josh for his own band, you might know him through some of his songs he has written. He has written 16 well known songs, including 5 Seconds of Summer’s “Story of Another Us”, Nickelback’s “Satellite” and “She keeps me up”, and the most well-known, Carly Ray Jepson’s “Call me Maybe” as well as “Guitar Strings/ Wedding Rings”.  Josh Ramsay is an incredible entrepreneur who took his love of music to start an amazing career as a musician, songwriter, and producer.

3 Comments
Categories : Art, Music, Pop