Archive for Business::Entrepreneurs – Page 7

Bianchi Candle Co.

There are many things that people enjoy and one common thing is candles. Candles can come in all different scents, wicks, and ingredients. These things make each candle unique, and an all natural soy candle handed poured in Papillion, NE, Italy is definitely unique.

Nic Bianchi received a candle making kit on his twelfth birthday and was hooked from that point on. He Nic Bianchi, Bianchi Candle Company, with a few of his products.kept on creating all natural soy candles and soon afterwards, he introduced his candle business, Bianchi Candle Company. The company did not come as a surprise to his parents because if you rewind to Nic’s younger years, you would be impressed with the young boy. During elementary school, Nic would sell toys to his classmates at recess. Later, he upgraded his little toy business with a catalog and everything was sold with a logo of his creation.  He even went the next step and employed two other children as sales reps to help him with his toy business at school. His eagerness to be an entrepreneur expanded as he entered his candle company. The candle making process is more complex than most people think. Besides having a passion for entrepreneurship, Nic enjoys the math and science subjects which is a bonus in his candle making. Much thought goes into the ratios of ingredients and the sizing of the wick to ensure a longer burn and elements of the jar and label will matter in the process since the heat of the flame could destroy them.

Bianchi Candle Company has launched many candles for different occasions or purposes. TheBianchi Candle Company motivational candle, Yes You Can candle, and the Bianchi Candle Co, purely luxurious candles, are two of the most popular brands of candles that the company sells. All the candles are natural and without any dyes causing them to be purely white, which when his last name is translated from Italian, it means white. Nic’s story is inspiring for me because he followed his passion which brought him into the world of business.

You can visit Bianchi Candle Company website here.

Hope Outfitters

Hope Outfitters is a small business started by Ryan Welch that creates cute, comfortable clothing and accessories, and then donates all of the profits to charity.  They believe that even the smallest things can add up to the biggest difference.  Part of what makes Hope Outfitters an interesting business model is that not only do they donate all of their profits to charity, but they pick a different charity every year.  I think this is a great idea because this way, they can spread around their profits and pick relevant causes each year.  I believe this also makes it more appealing to customers, drives interest and incentivizes repeat customers because if they like the new charity they will want to support it.  Most of the products on the website are made in the United States which is also a nice plus.  Hope Outfitters also provides the guarantee that none of their products have been made in sweatshops or unethical ways, allowing the customer to buy with a clean conscience.  I believe that this company is a great example of how with 25 dollar shirts, one company can make a huge impact all across the world.

Seizing opportunity – Willow Tufano

Willow Tufano

One of the biggest parts of being an entrepreneur is looking for and taking advantage of opportunities. Willow Tufano is a great example of an entrepreneur who took advantage of an opportunity that she saw coming out of a problem. When Willow was 14 years old, a recession hit Florida, causing houses that usually sold for upwards of $100,000 were selling for less than $15,000 at auctions. With the help of a family who had experience in real estate, Willow decided to take a risk and take advantage of the opportunity of low-priced real estate, she bought a house. After doing some work on the house, Willow made the home available to rent for $700 a month. She was then to make back what she spent in just over a year and a half.

Willow capitalized on an amazing opportunity she saw coming out of a bad situation. Willow was able to gain a lot of experience in real estate and make a really good profit because of her willingness to take a risk and seize opportunities. Risk analysis is an essential skill for entrepreneurship, Willow was able to seize the opportunity at hand because of her ability to take into account the possible reward in light of the potential risk. Risk-analysis and seizing opportunities are both skills that I am working on myself, it is a terrible feeling to realize you missed out on an amazing opportunity because I was scared to step out and try doing something outside my comfort zone. Willow is an example of the possible reward for taking risks.

Young Entrepreneurs: Ashley Qualls

Ashley Qualls is a bit of a throwback for me – she built her business in the MySpace days. Though I personally have no experience with the platform (and I suggest most people my age don’t either) I think that her idea is certainly adaptable to the current social media landscape.

Ashley received a lot of positive feedback for her MySpace page designs. People loved her work and creativity. She decided to make these MySpace page designs available for purchase. Apparently people truly did like her designs because they sold well – to the tune of over $70,000 a month in revenue!

There is certainly a lesson to be learned here: when people compliment you on something that you’ve created, it just might be a business idea. Ashley certainly thought so. She figured that if people liked her designs enough to compliment her, they might be willing to pay a few dollars for one of them.

The other great lesson from Ashley’s business is that the digital world offers some amazing business opportunities design-wise. After all, once a template is put together it can be sold an infinite number of times with little work and additional input from its creator. This allowed Ashley more time to focus on designing new templates and ideas instead of having to keep creating the same product again and again.

In fact, Ashley decided to drop out of school to devote more time to her business. This is another great lesson that can be learned from her story – entrepreneurs have to make sacrifices. While Ashley probably would have loved to have finished school she realized that she had a serious business and that if she continued to stay in school it would be at the cost of her business. Sometimes as an entrepreneur, difficult decisions have to be made.

In conclusion, Ashley had a great idea and capitalized on it in a way that was flexible and extremely profitable. However, she had to make some sacrifices in the process.

The Buzz for Bee Downtown

Do you ever think about bees? Small little insects with a huge impact on our world today. With the bee population dwindling every year, beekeepers like Leigh-Kathryn Bonner founded Bee Downtown to save the bees while simultaneously giving companies a new way to think about sustainability.

Companies, like honeybees, are both hives. They both have workers and a queen to serve. With this in mind and the similarities between the two, Leigh-Kathryn Bonner, a fourth-generation beekeeper in her family, wanted to find a way to unite modern day companies with her passion for saving honeybees. Her idea was Bee Downtown, a business that installs beehives on corporate land while at the same time teaching companies about creating high-quality teams for businesses. It was a unique opportunity for Kathryn. Her family had already been beekeepers for a few generations and that same love for the environment and saving honeybees was already instilled into Kathryn.

Their main service is installing and maintaining beehives on corporate campuses. This gives a place for honeybees to live in the spring and summer and drives curiosity and engagement from the employees. With the bees living alongside these companies, Bonner hopes to educate the corporate world about sustainability and caring for the environment. However, Bee Downton also offers year-round programs to satisfy employee curiosity. From Beekeeping Classes, Hive Tours, and even Honey Tastings and an Annual Honey Extraction Festival, they offer a wide variety of education and entertainment for anyone wanting to save the bees. They also partner with some of the biggest companies in America like Burt’s Bees, Delta, and Chick-fil-A. The director of sustainable business at Burt’s Bees even said, “We love what Bee Downtown is doing. We appreciate the partnership and are impressed with the professionalism and customer service of all BDT team members! Every spring, we are so glad to have busy bees again. There’s an entirely different energy in the office when they’re here!”

Overall, Leigh-Kathryn Bonner is one of the true examples of an innovative entrepreneur. She combined a passion for beekeeping and a need for corporate sustainability and combined them to create a company with a wonderful idea at its core. Not only is it educational, but it’s also just plain fun! Maybe we should look into Bee Downtown and get a few beehives on campus as well!

Nannies by Noa: The Unique Nanny Service

      Noa Mintz is a fascinating and truly inspiring millennial entrepreneur, who is currently a senior at Brown University. She grew up in the Upper West Side in Manhattan; at the age of 12 she created her own business, “Nannies by Noa”, which is currently a member of the Association of Premier Nanny Agencies. Her business serves affluent NYC families seeking well-educated and well-trained nannies on a regular basis. There are many different positions for the nannies ranging from part-time after school babysitting, to full-time 40 hours per week, Monday through Fridays.  

    According to a CNN Business article, Mintz’s idea came to her after her mother told her to “find a better babysitter.” Since Mintz didn’t like her own babysitter, she started looking for another one and later helped her friends find nannies too. She designed a thorough application process and started interviewing people for nanny positions. 

    Nannies by Noa’s application process is extensive. Understandably the application process requires multiple background checks, drug testing, but also includes three years in-home childcare experience requirement, two childcare employment references, a resume, an interview, and the requirement to be able to commit for at least one year. For example, there are a couple of active positions where some families have requested the nannies to speak French fluently. In many instances healthcare is also paid for by the families, which is unlike other major nanny services in the New York City area. Also, some families make arrangements for the nanny to have four weeks off for a vacation as well as the major federal holidays. Mintz has created a variety of different positions and services to best accommodate nannies as well as the families. 

   Nannies by Noa continues to thrive; even as Mintz is finishing up her last year studying Cognitive Neuroscience at Brown University, she continues to manage her childhood business. 

To learn more please check out…

https://www.nanniesbynoa.com/about/

https://money.cnn.com/2015/02/06/smallbusiness/nannies-by-noa/index.html

Eve Kekeh, founder of Bundlee

If you have kids, you know how quickly they grow out of clothes in their first two years. Eve Kekeh recognized this problem and started her own company to help parents seeking a more sustainable and convenient way to access baby clothes. Her company, Bundlee, is the UK’s first sustainable baby clothing rental subscription.

Having two younger siblings, Eve Kekeh experienced first hand just how quickly babies will grow out of their clothing. She says, “Babies outgrow 7 clothing sizes in their first 2 years, and seeing the amount of waste this led to made me think there had to be a better way.” While spending a year studying abroad in the US, Kekeh discovered a designer womenswear rental service. She fell in love with this idea and soon realized that this same concept could be applied to baby clothing. Through careful research and receiving useful feedback from hundreds of parents, Kekeh developed Bundlee.

Bundlee is unique as it is tailored to fit the parents’ (and babies’) specific clothing needs. You simply choose a subscription plan that works best for your family, wear the clothes with no worries (thanks to the included rental insurance), and then conveniently swap clothing as your little one grows. All returned clothes are then thoroughly cleaned through their eco-friendly Ozone sanitization method and sent on to be loved by the next family.

In order to provide the very best quality, Eve Kekeh designs all collections that Bundlee offers herself. In addition, all pieces are made in the UK in a women run and owned factory, where Kekeh frequently visits to ensure that it meets her ethical standards. While designing pieces, it’s important to Kekeh that all fabrics used are suitable for babies’ sensitive skin. That is why all clothes are made with breathable cotton and free of any harmful chemicals.

Bundlee has continued to grow and flourish over the past few years. Eve Kekeh shows true innovation as she has built a company that helps so many, while helping the planet as well.

Sprout and Lentil: The business which expanded during the pandemic  

        Sprout and Lentil is the only mom-and-pop vegan cafe on Aquidneck Island. Founded in 2019 by the husband and wife team of Carmen Foy and Matt Sole, Sprout and Lentil has grown from being a booth at a farmers’ market to having its own independent retail business located in the center of Middletown, RI. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Foy – who was born in Spain – trained at the Cordon Bleu in France and then worked for twelve years as a chef aboard yachts. 

     Foy and Sole have stayed true to their business mantra of “Food with a Mission” by serving only plant-based foods. For instance, Foy ordered granola and then returned it to the producer it contained honey. She and her husband are dedicated to a purely vegan business. Additionally, the owners have created a special niche serving their community for people who are vegan, vegetarians, and kosher. Foy and Sole know their target customers very well and have seen that there is a high demand for quality vegan products. Some may ask, “Who would ever want to pay for a $16 burger?” or “Why isn’t the 50 cent spicy ketchup included with my fries?” Without doubt, the prices are high and sauces are not included with fries, burgers, nor cauliflower nuggets. A gourmet truffle oil dressing retails for eleven dollars. Perhaps it is hard to believe here in western Pennsylvania, but their local customers – hard core vegan regulars, and tourists – do buy and enjoy the expensive truffle oil dressing as well as the $16 burgers. The customers believe that the high prices are worth the money for what they receive. Foy and Sole have created a demand for specialty vegan food.

Please take a look at Sprout and Lentil’s website:

http://sproutandlentil.com/

 

The Bridge to Success

Social media has been building bridges to new ways of innovation and entrepreneurship ever since it began. Those who have capitalized on it when it began, however, are the ones making all the money and gaining the most fame. Felix Kjellberg, or better known to some as “Pewdiepie,” created his youtube account only one year after the website was released. It wasn’t until 2011, though, that he began to post on what would become the largest account on the platform ever (owned by one person). He began by posting quite short and relatively boring videos on his account purely for the entertainment of his friends and himself. As time went on, more people began to find his account, subscribing to it, and Felix’s fanbase grew. Less than a year later he had surpassed the 1 million subscriber mark. He began to post more and more and only a year after that was at 10 million. It was safe to say that he was on the right track.

Pewdiepie began to create merch such as shirts, chairs, headsets, and eventually his own game on the app store. He was rapidly gaining fans and in the spring of 2019, the creator finally reached an astonishing 100 million followers, which meant that 1 in 15 people who used youtube was subscribed to his account. This may not seem like much, however, almost half of the country uses this platform. He is still creating to this day and after selling many products and featuring in other videos and ads, he has accumulated roughly a cool $45,000,000 from online interactions alone. Felix will forever be remembered in the industry of videomaking and for revolutionizing the world by his assistance in bridging the gap between the real and digital worlds of entrepreneurship.

Gabby Goodwin – CEO of Confidence

“My advice to other girls is to work hard, try your best, and remember NO is just an abbreviation for Next Opportunity!”

These wise words come from the 11-year-old entrepreneur, Gabrielle Goodwin. She is the CEO of Confidence, a business that sells innovative hair clips and hair products specifically targeted toward young girls. Her business came to be through her personal experience of losing hair clips. Hair accessories can be notorious for falling out of hair and disappearing, the beginning of the never-ending cycle of buying ridiculous amounts of hair accessories. Gabby was determined to fix this problem. Gabby and her mother came up with a new design of hair clips that would never fall out. Gabby’s success in her business clearly shows how real of a problem this is for mothers and their daughters around the world.

In addition to running her business, Gabby is a sought-after keynote speaker. She shares her story with others, in hopes of inspiring them to persevere in pursuing their dreams and ambitions. This is what drives her to keep running her business and making it better. Her initial idea of hair clips has now expanded into other products including: a hair product line, a children’s book, and a makeup box. Expanding her business is evidence that Gabby is not stagnant in her efforts, but she wants to continue to make her business better through hard work and harnessing her passion.

Gabby’s story is unique in showing other young girls that they can strive for their dreams like she did and still is doing. Many times, children become intimidated by their imagination, but Gabby is a great example of how ambition and drive can get you far, no matter your age. Additionally, her idea is unique in how she approached the design. She wanted the hair clip to have a design on both sides, and she wanted the clip to be effective in how it held hair. In pondering these two problems, she invented Gabby Bows that precisely solved them. Through Gabby’s personal experience, there was no other design of bow on the market that solved these problems, so Gabby decided to take on the solution herself in motivation to help her own hair needs and others. All these factors are what makes Gabby’s idea great. Through the process of coming up with a hair clip solution then arriving at the final product, Gabby showed strong entrepreneurial traits that simply cannot be taught. Her eye for the problem that needed to be solved showed her maturity and ability to carry out the innovative solution.

From Gabby’s story, I have been inspired to keep an eye out for the problems that I experience in my everyday life and to not be discouraged when I hear a “no”. I love that Gabby put such a positive spin on the word “no”, that is largely looked at as a negative. She spreads the message that when one door closes another one opens so that no one ever gives up on their dreams.

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