Many first year law students are concentrated on their studies and passing exams, not starting their own business. They are barely able to keep up with their social lives because of the immense work load. However, a young woman decided to do both. Kyle Smitley entered her first year of law school unaware of what the year would bring her.
While completing an internship in Washington D.C., Smitley realized that many companies that offered clothing made from organic and environmentally friendly materials were not all they cracked up to be. Many companies were shipping in fabrics and many used harmful chemicals while printing. So Smitley made up her mind to start her own company, one that was “accountable to the environment and to its customers.” Smitley did not want to be another “organic” clothing company, she simply wanted a company that did what they promised.
That was the beginning of Barley and Birch, a children’s clothing company that used 100% organic material and water based inks. This process is environmentally friendly and the company is stationed in Ohio, to reduce travel costs and toxic emission. Not only is Barley and Birch friendly to the environment, it also gives back. Almost half of the proceeds go to organizations that are close to Smitley’s heart. One organization that Smitley gives back to is CoCoDa, a non-profit that helps community development in Central America.
Before the launch of Barley and Birch in 2008, Smitley wanted her name out there, as many smart entrepreneurs do. She started seeking mom bloggers to review and promote her products. The mothers loved the products and Smitley received extremely positive feedback. After their launch Green Genes, an eco-friendly clothing store in Chicago, wanted Barley and Birch on their shelves. It was a major success and orders continued to come in. Barley and Birch is now on store shelves and 35 online retailers.
Somehow Smitley was able to balance law school while operating a start-up business. As many of you know, law school is not easy and takes large amounts of time and energy. Many may ask, why not drop out of law school and focus on Barley and Birch full time? This just proves the amount of dedication she has to her work, by finishing what she had started. She is an inspiration to many entrepreneurs showing them that no matter how stressed and overworked they think they are, they can keep going. Finding the correct balance between law school and owning a business requires dedication
and time management, something all young entrepreneurs need to be able to do.
It just blows my mind that she was able to do law school AND create a business! I would really like to ask her how she did both of those at once. I also admire her for seeing what the problem was in the product and finding a better way to solve it. She is a true entrepreneur!
I think her building connections with bloggers was a brilliant move to create trust for her product in a crowded and apparently sometimes dishonestly hyped market.
I think the positioning of her company as being truly organic wisely plays to the trends of what consumers are looking for with ever increasing importance on being green. However, I tried to find their website and got a notice that the page cannot be displayed. Also, their Facebook page and twitter account have not been updated in over a year, which makes me wonder what happened to this company.
Barley and Birch is a wonderfully endearing and practical idea! If you think about it…what demographic is probably the most concerned with safety in their products/purchases? Mothers. Their protective and nurturing nature require them to carefully choose their products to best benefit their children & family- Smitley is therefore not selling to children, but to their parents. She understood her product and targeted a specific market. Her drive to enlist bloggers was genius as well in that she employed a sense of ethos through a “word of mouth” marketing strategy.