Origami Owl
Fourteen year old, Isabella Weems wanted to have her own car when she turned 16 so her parents encouraged her to start a business. Weems founded Origami Owl, a custom jewelry company whose direct sales business model gets people excited which turns them into salespeople. Origami Owl takes on independent designers who buy products at a discount, then resell to friends via jewelry parties.
Weems said on Forbes.com, “I started researching and looking for ideas. The locket’s been around for a long time and I thought, ‘well, what if you could make a locket with charms?” Weems asked her parents to match $350 she’d earned for babysitting, which she spent on wholesale components to make her lockets. She quickly leveraged her network of friends to find buyers. Weems rapidly started selling her product at house parties, boutiques, and at jewelry shows.
In 2010 Weems opened a kiosk at the Chandler, Arizona mall in time for Black Friday shoppers. Origami Owl was a hit. The company adopted the direct sales platform in 2011 and generated about $280,000. The following year revenue took off like a rocket, multiplying 86 times.
Currently, Origami Owl has 50,887 independent designers and expects to gross $250 million dollars this year.
This idea is not only creative but innovative. Her determination to babysit then invest everything she earned to launch Origami Owl is impressive, especially considering she was only fourteen years old. She is an inspiration to the world in that we truly are never to young to start a business. Click on Origami Owl if you would like to check out the site.
The idea of Origami Owl as a new version of the traditional locket is great. I love the traditional locket, but I have one that has been sitting empty in its box for months because fitting and placing a picture inside of it is quite the feat. Origami Owl is creative and innovative, and allows people to display charms (with sentimental meanings, for the most part) for all to see. This is the updated version of a piece of jewelry that was widely popular in the past, and will now be popular again.
I love Origami Owl! I think that this was such a cool and creative idea; especially for girls. It’s like you feel like there are little pieces of you inside of a necklace…and it looks cute with almost anything! Great post, Conner!