'Lemental Creations: The Start
Every good story has a beginning, something that can draw someone in and captivate them, hold them. A story would be nothing without a beginning. 'Lemental Creations would never even exist if it's beginning didn't line up perfectly.
Most businesses are owned by adults who have at least some modicum of experience in business and have at least some financials to fall on if it fails, or at least their own financial supports, and some job experience. I fit into absolutely none of these characteristics in anyway. When I started this business, I was a 14 year old freshman, who had a weekly allowance from her grandparents, had never taken a business class and had doing some filing for my father as job experience. So I'm pretty sure I don't qualify as your typical business owner.
But there's a lot more people out there like me than you would expect. The national YEA program has been encouraging and promoting high school students to start their own businesses for the past 12 years. As a freshman, I too a chance and joined the program, looking to see if business was something that I would pursue in my life. Little did I know that this would be the best decision I would make in my young life.
A requirement of the program was that I needed a business idea to create throughout the 33 weeks. But I had absolutely nothing. No plan, no idea, I was hoping I could just hop onto someone else's business, just for the course though. But due to my strong social anxiety, I was unable to do that. So instead, I sat down with my mom and brainstormed trying to find an idea. I looked into my interests, and into the whole reason they brought the YEA program to my area. I've always been a crafty person, and I've had a strong interest in the beauty industry for years, so I knew it would have to include that.
A small note about my area: I come from the struggling area of Schuylkill County Pennsylvania. We're not that rich of an area, we have a lot of unemployment and the local businesses have been plummeting over the years. So our Chamber of Commerce decided that it was too late for the adults, and to look towards the youth to bring our area out of the poverty it's been in for longer than I've been alive.
I combined my interests and the need to fix my area to come up with a business, something that signifies what's great about the area and could hep improve it, was something I could make myself, and involved beauty. This lead to some research, where I found out that soap was surprisingly easy to make, and I could make soap that exemplified the natural resources of Schuylkill County. I decided to take portions of my profits and donate them to the local women's shelter, to help better the area. I built my business on the principles of helping others, honoring where I came from, and making products that are better for customers than their commercial counterparts. All while studying geometry.
I'll admit, doing this in high school was hard. I lost a lot of time that I could've spent with friends, to sit at home and write my business plan, design my website and work on my product line. But I don't regret any of it. I worked hard, and with the investment I got through YEA, I was able to turn a profit in my first year, at 15. Doing this in high school has led me to realize just how much I love this, and to realize that this is my passion, something most people don't get to realize before they even get their permits.
'Lemental Creations has been a lot of hard work. And I'm going to have to work even harder to keep it going, and just to be taken seriously by adults. It's been long nights on top of long nights, switching between budget planning and studying McCarthyism. I'd never trade this for anything in the world though. This business and this program helped me breakout of this stupid, scared shell I have, and become me, and more comfortable with who I am. This business was my first love, and I would never abandon it or give it up.
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