Author Archive for stiererrv22

Are you Kidding Socks

Posted by stiererrv22 
· Tuesday, November 22nd, 2022 
· 1 Comment

In 2014 two brothers started the company Are you kidding. The two brothers were interested in helping others so by starting their own business, they are able to fulfill this goal. Brandon and Sebastian Martinez were fifteen and thirteen years old when they first started their business. The two started designing and drawing their own sock designs at home but have eventually made the upgrade to sell their unique socks on their online store. Their socks feature designs such as race cars, rocket ships and googly eyes. The price of each pair of socks costs ten dollars. In order to stay successful they took roles. Brandon became the director of sales while Sebastian is CEO. They were able to make $15,000 selling their specialty socks in their first year of business. By the second year, they claim that “We have been able to already reach the $15,000 that we made last year and are on track to double and hopefully triple our sales this year.” Instead of just keeping all the profits, they wanted to give back to the community. The company “teamed up with organizations like the American Cancer Society and the Live Like Bella Foundation last year to raise more than $3,000 for cancer awareness. In April, the company partnered with The Hue Studio and donated 25 percent of all proceeds from its “Eye See You” sock sales to Discovery Arts, a charitable organization that brings art programs to children with serious illnesses.” The brand kept growing and partnered with major organizations such as  Live Like Bella, JDRF, Make-A-Wish, Cowboys Who Care and the Special Olympics. 

These two young entrepreneurs inspired me because they were able to make a big impact at such a young age. They had a vision and were able to achieve it so I would describe them at very innovative. They continue to make new designs and always want to improve.

1 Comment
Categories : Socks

Shop412

Posted by stiererrv22 
· Saturday, November 12th, 2022 
· 3 Comments

The area code 412 is more than just a local area code. It represents the great city of Pittsburgh. Two brothers, Christian and Aaron Kinkela, had the brilliant idea to make this area code into a brand. The brand was created in 2007 and they wanted to “create a brand that celebrated Pittsburgh’s emerging generation of cultural creators and professional athletes – all inspired by the ‘Burgh’s proud blue-collar heritage.” They continued to work on the brand and decided that the slogan for their company should be “Hometown is hero.” In 2008, the brand opened their first store in the South Side of Pittsburgh. The company began to work to have collaborations with famous Pittsburgh athletes and actors to help promote the brand. They worked with “Kris Letang (Pittsburgh Penguins), Ike Taylor (formerly of the Pittsburgh Steelers), Lupe Fiasco (Grammy-winning recording artist), 13thWitness (one of Instagram’s most-followed photographers), Meghan Klingenberg (Women’s World Cup Champion), and Heinz (a Kraft company) as well as Ryan Shazier.” The company began to have partnerships. This included the Pittsburgh Pirates, Pittsburgh Penguins. Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, and the Pittsburgh firefighters Local 1. These helped to get the brand name out and expose more People to the brand. The brand also partners with major companies such as Champion, North Face, and Sarris. 

This brand has inspired me for multiple reasons. The first main reason is how they give back to the Pittsburgh community. I take pride in my city and love that they always help any way possible. The next main reason is that they were able to think of a simple concept and expand on it. The area code has been around since 1947 and they were able to innovate and make this into a business. Finally, they are constantly changing. The brand has their core collection of black and gray hoodies and shirts but they are always looking to add new release new clothes.  

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Categories : Clothing, Pittsburgh
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Crumbl Cookies

Posted by stiererrv22 
· Saturday, November 5th, 2022 
· 4 Comments

Crumbl Cookie was founded by cousins Jason McGowan and Sawyer Hemsely. Jason had a passion for technology and wanted to form a business. He contacted his cousin Sawyer who was still in college and wanted to pursue a business. He said “Let’s just do something really cool and we’re going to do cookies.” They were able to begin to form their business with ease, but struggled on forming the perfect recipe. After numerous tries and getting feedback, their cookies were perfect and were ready to open up their first shop. In 2017, the first shop opened in Logan Utah. This was an instant success and the business continued to thrive over the years. In less than four years, around 200 shops opened in 32 different states. They were getting referred to as the fastest growing cookie company in America. They credited their success to a couple factors. This includes their store format, box design, and weekly menu. The store format at every location is different and unique, however they all are open so you can see the cookies being made in the back of the store. Next off is their trademarked pink box. This pink box makes the cookies fit perfectly and encourages people to take pictures of it. This box made the company blow up on social media and make them trending. According to Marshed, Crumbl has, “5.6 million TikTok followers (and 56.9 million likes), plus 2.6 million Instagram followers. There even is a trending hashtag on TikTok, #CrumblReview, in which people film videos of themselves rating the chain’s famous cookies — so far the hashtag has 498 million views.” This has allowed Crumbl to avoid spending money on influences and advertisements. The final example is their weekly menu. They initially were famous for their chilled pink icing as well as chocolate chip cookies but have expanded their menu. Every week, they have a new group of cookies so that they can explore new flavors. 

I would describe the owners of Crumbl as very innovative and adaptive. They are always looking for new ways to improve and stay trending. Through their social media as well as their constantly changing menu they are able to keep customers wanting to come back. I find it super fascinating how they were able to be super successful by starting a company in a well dominated market. They found a way to differentiate themselves and were able to succeed because of this. 

4 Comments
Categories : Cookies
Tags : , ,

Jacks Stands/ Hustl

Posted by stiererrv22 
· Sunday, October 2nd, 2022 
· 4 Comments

Jack Bonneau was eight years old when his business began. Jack was a major fan of Legos and wanted to get a 400 dollar set. But, like most 8 year olds, he did not have the money to buy this. So his dad suggested that he should start a lemonade stand. Instead of a typical lemonade stand in front of his house, they decided to go to the local farmers market. This helped him to learn about working with the farmers market, insurance, building a lemonade stand, how much to charge, supplies, expenses and how to sell. He was very successful and after a few weeks he was able to buy his Lego set. Instead of being satisfied with his success, he wanted to show his business to his friends as well. They all had a good time and this lead to Jack seeing a real business opportunity. He wanted to help other kids who want to operate their own lemonade stand, but don’t have the time, commitment or money to operate one at a farmers market. To help the business grow, he decided to go on Shark Tank to pitch his idea. Jack appeared in Season 8, Episode 8 of Shark Tank, he struck a deal with billionaire investor Chris Sacca and became the youngest boy ever to pitch and make a deal on Shark Tank. After this, his business began to thrive, over 100 kids and their parents worked at Jack’s Stands (total of 4 stands) and they are adding two new stands at the Southwest Plaza Mall Holiday Marketplace for 7 weeks over the holidays. Jack continued to look for new ways to help his business expand, and the newest edition was a new startup company, Teen Hustl. This company would allow teenager’s to deliver meals on their bikes or skateboards. The main mission of this company was to give teenagers the same opportunity that he gave to younger kids.

Jack is inspirational because he always wanted to help others out. He found a way to make a profit for himself, and instead of just focusing on himself he wanted to first help out his friends then help out other children. He goes on to eventually want to help teenagers so that they have the same opportunity. Overall, Jack is a very caring and passionate entrepreneur.

Shark Tank Update: Jack's Stands & Marketplaces - Business 2 Community

4 Comments
Categories : delivery

Me and the Bees

Posted by stiererrv22 
· Sunday, September 25th, 2022 
· 2 Comments

When most people get stung by a bee, they get annoyed and mad at bees. This however, was not the case for Mikaila Ulmer. After getting stung by a bee she began to get curious and wanted to learn more. Around the same time her family suggested that she should come up with an idea to submit for a children’s business competition. She decided to use her grandma’s cookbook for the 1940’s and incorporate honey into the lemonade recipe. That was the start of her successful business. She became successful pretty quick and decided to donate a percentage of the profits to local and international organizations fighting hard to save the honeybees. She continued to do well, and went on the show Shark Tank. She got an offer of $60,000 from Daymond and accepted it. Since airing on shark tank, her company made a deal worth over 11 million dollars and continues to thrive to this day. She still felt that she could do more to help the bees, so she helped out the Healthy Hive Foundation, a nonprofit to further help the mission of saving the pollinators. 

Two words I would use to describe Mikalia would be caring and hardworking. I would describe her as caring because she truly wants to help the bee community. Instead of getting mad at the bees for getting stung, she wanted to learn more. She was able to incorporate bees honey into lemonade and by doing this was able to support organizations that helped honey bees. She had a passion towards them and cared for them so she had to help out. She uses the slogan “Buy a Bottle…Save a Bee.” I would describe her as hard working because of how young she was when she started her business. Her parents suggested that she entered a business competition, and this created her product. While she was working on her business, she was still at school learning.11-Year-Old to Sell Lemonade at Whole Foods | Time

2 Comments
Categories : Bees

Mo’s Bowes

Posted by stiererrv22 
· Saturday, September 24th, 2022 
· 1 Comment

Moziah Bridges is the founder, president and creative director of his company Mo’s Bows. They are a family business that is based out of Memphis. Mo was nine years old when he founded his company. He was looking for an accessory to match his personality but could not come across anything that suited him. So with the help of his grandmother, he was able to make the first model of his company. From there on, the rest was history. He did around $55,000 in sales before being featured on the television show Shark tank. After seven months his company made close to $200,000 and about two years later made close to $600,000. He was very successful due to two traits he has, being ambitious and wise. He was very ambitious by creating a company from scratch with his grandma at a young age. He was able to get into the very competitive market of men’s clothes and continue to succeed. I would also describe him as wise by not taking a deal with the sharks or being discouraged by this. After not making a deal, he took mentorship under Daymond John and the business continued to improve. He eventually went on to give former president Barack Obama a custom-made tie in “Obama Blue,” as well as produced bow ties and neckties for all 30 National Basketball Association teams.

Throughout reading articles about Moziah, I realized how there are so many possibilities to start up a successful company. There are so many businesses that have opportunities to create a new niche where a new company could be created. This has helped me to begin thinking of new creative ways to improve current problems.

 

Mo's Bows NBA Deal and Growth

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Categories : Clothing, Uncategorized