Everyone celebrates Memorial Day weekend in various ways. Some go to the lake, others spend time binge-watching Netflix. As for me, I spent my time off continuing work on my jewelry design business, Kinsey Designs.
This summer, I took my passion for small business and fashion and turned it into something that let me fully enjoy both. Starting off small, I sold to boutiques in my hometown while buying materials from the local Hobby Lobby and Michael’s. Kinsey Designs started off as a pastime, but it quickly grew into something I could have never foreseen.
After realizing this humble hobby I had created was growing at an exponential rate, I decided to believe in the idea that there is no return without risk, so I turned down a Dillard’s internship I had just received. The fact that I would have no other source of income that summer was the perfect motivation because I knew I would have to put everything I had into Kinsey Designs.
During the summer, I woke up making jewelry, ate while I made jewelry, and went to bed thinking about the jewelry I would have to make the next day. Filling orders and obtaining new retailers were my only responsibilities this summer, and I still put in over 80 hours a week. This was barely doable in the summer with the help of many family members, and then came August.
Back to school for me as a student means busy schedules and late nights; back to school for retailers means more merchandise and higher sales. The day I moved in, I received four new orders, and more trickled in throughout the week. Panic set in. Not only was I dealing with the stress of my last semester, but I had the added weight of maintaining the business I had poured my heart and soul into this summer. I realized balance and time management were going to be dear friends of mine this semester.
Stress is not a friend, and I needed to figure out how to keep him from distracting me from what I needed to do. The first thing I did was communicate with my retailers. I made sure they knew I had returned to school, and I increased the order turnaround time, or the amount of time it would take to have their items ready to ship. Most retailers were more than supportive of my situation, and even the ones that weren’t still continued to order because I had established a trusting relationship that allowed them to know that my products were worth waiting for.
The Beatles said it best with “I get by with a little help from my friends.” Over the summer, I had tremendous amounts of help from my family. My grandpa would work with wire and my mom would help me with beadwork. Unfortunately, the two of them declined my invitation to live at school with me, so I was out an entire workforce.
As I was a presented with this problem, I realized I had a friend group made up of fashion-forward girls eager to make extra money to pay for the abundant entertainment scene Arkadelphia has to offer. With this realization, I obtained more than enough employees to train and help me finish orders. Two broken pairs of jewelry pliers and lots of callouses later, my orders were boxed up and shipped out.
While Kinsey Designs may be the cause of a carpal tunnel outbreak within my friend group, this business has provided me with an experience unique to any other. While any internship would allow me to grow and learn, my jewelry business has provided me with a measurable adventure I can be proud of every step of the way. Through perseverance, risk-taking, and problem-solving, I have been able to continue to grow and live out the dream that started out as a simple past time.
By Ali Kinsey, Student Writer
