Maryanne was 15 and a junior when she established her skin care business. The company
began with her interest in business and body care. She inquired about the policy
for sales at a local farmers market and discovered that she was required to have
an adult work with her. So, she asked her mom to be a partner in her business. Her
dad loaned her $400. She began researching recipes and raw materials and started
with one simple sugar scrub for sale at the local farmers market. Now her business
is growing like crazy with 12 product lines. She has won a Young Entrepreneur Association
award (July, 2007) and been featured on national websites. Maryanne also created
the YES program that stands for “Young Entrepreneur Success” to help other teens
that want to start their own businesses.
Q: Why did you choose body care products?
Maryanne: I always thought that taking care of your body is really important. But
the problem with it is that everything you try to get is so expensive and so many
people can’t afford it. So I wanted to make a really quality product that was better
than the more expensive ones and at the same time make it affordable.
Q: What was the hardest thing you encountered while starting your business?
Maryanne: It’s really hard sometimes because things just seem like they are going
so slow. Things kind of stopped for about a year and I was really tempted to just
kind of give up on it. To make a business work you have to have a ton of patience
and you have to be willing to wait for things. But if you do wait, great things
always come.
Q: What kept you going when there were challenges?
Maryanne: I had a lot of support from friends in the community and from all of my
family who were always constantly encouraging me. My mom came in and she told me
to stay with this a little longer. So I stuck with it and created a website for
it and it came through. The growth of it is amazing.
Q: How did you finance your start-up business?
Maryanne: My dad gave me a loan when I first started for about $400 so I could buy
raw materials to make products.
Q: Were you able to pay yourself from the beginning or did you have to put in a
lot of unpaid hours?
Maryanne: In the beginning I had a lot of unpaid hours. You have to put everything
into the product and into buying the materials. So for about he first year there
wasn’t too much pay but in the second year it became a lot better. I started to
work in two bigger markets and I put my products in a couple of stores.
Q: What do you like most about running a business?
Maryanne: I like the fact I can work my own hours and I am working for myself. Just
knowing that I could kind of do my own thing and be as creative as I want to be.
And just seeing how happy people are when they see it’s a quality product. It is
a great feeling to know that you are actually helping people.
Q: Does your business give back to the community in any way?
Maryanne: I created a branch of my business that is called the YES program and that
stands for Young Entrepreneur Success. I created it to help other teens that wanted
to start their own businesses. I am creating a website for it.
Q: What is the most important thing you’ve learned through your experience as an
entrepreneur?
Maryanne: Perseverance pays off. A lot of people give up too soon and it’s unfortunate
really because if you just hold on a little bit longer that it always pays off in
the end.
Q: What would your advice be to other kids thinking of starting businesses?
Maryanne: I would say to any kid who is starting their own business to just go for
it. Go for whatever you want and don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do it.
Because if you have enough will power and you believe that you can then you can
do absolutely anything.
Q: Anything else you’d like to share about your experience as an entrepreneur?
Maryanne: It is very important to involve others in what you are doing. The more
people that you have pushing you forward, the better off you are.
