Ep14 Esther, Ruth, & Naomi Ferrell - 14 & 10-Year-Old Make $1,300 in 5 Months Selling Resin Earrings: The Faith & Hope Designs Story

Esther  0:00  
Say where your earrings have landed. They've gone to Italy. We've had a couple of Canadians order in the United Kingdom, all over the US

Scott Groves  0:09  
too. What are you learning about running a business,

Naomi  0:12  
working together? I mean, we've all grown, all three of us, understanding each other and figuring things out.

Scott Groves  0:19  
What about you? Ruth, what have you learned about running a business? 

Ruth  0:22  
Money,

Scott Groves  0:27  
welcome to Henderson HQ, this is the podcast where you get all the stories behind the businesses that make our community tick. Don't forget to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Hey, Henderson HQ, very special podcast today, as we interview 14 year old Naomi and 10 year old Ruth, who have started their own Etsy arts and crafts business, they brought me some free samples. Very cool, very cool resin stuff, custom earrings, the whole nine yards. My daughter's already a fan. It was a treat talking to these young business owners, as they're learning over the last six months, how to start a business, how to fulfill orders, how to do customer service. Just a really inspiring story of young entrepreneurs. So enjoy. Hey there Henderson HQ family. It's Scott groves with the Henderson HQ newsletter and podcast. I am here with officially our youngest podcast guests. We have Naomi, hope, Ruth faith and their mom, Esther. They have a very successful Etsy store where they sell, for those of you that are listening to this, instead of watching on YouTube, they do all these awesome resin toys, accessories, decorations. They were kind enough to bring me a tic tac toe board, custom made with all these little seashells in the X's and O's, very cool. So these are our youngest entrepreneurs that we're talking to, and as somebody that has two kids that like to start their own businesses, Alina is working on something my son, Gabriel, is working on a milkshake business that he sells milkshakes outside of our jiu jitsu studio on the weekends when there's a lot of people, I want to hear how you young ladies decided to start a business. So maybe we'll start with you, Naomi, because I think you were the first one to start making this stuff. Tell us. Tell us what you make and how you did it. And then, like, why you decided to turn it into a business.

Naomi  2:06  
So I make different things. I started with resin, and I made coasters for, like, the first big project, and then it went into dominoes and custom pieces. And then just recently, I've been starting with clay and making food earrings and holiday earrings. And yeah, how

Scott Groves  2:30  
old are you 1414? And what made you decide to bring in your sister, Ruth here into the business.

Naomi  2:35  
She like, she copies some of the things that I do. So she like, joined in like that. So nice.

Scott Groves  2:42  
Ruth, lean into the mic. Tell me. Tell me how old you are and why you're part of the business.

Ruth  2:46  
I'm 10, and I just because I like my family, I love my mom and my sister. And how long have you been doing this, like, for, since we started? How long ago was that, like, six months ago,

Scott Groves  3:01  
six months, six months. And you guys already have Instagram, Etsy, selling on Facebook. How many items, like, a day or a week or a month? Are you guys selling?

Naomi  3:11  
Well, this month, I think we've sold about 30 items. I would say, yeah.

Scott Groves  3:17  
So nice. And you're making these all by hand, yes. And you have, like, a little mold where you make a lot of them, or are they all one off, like, this looks very unique, I'm guessing.

Naomi  3:25  
Yeah, those are molds. All resin stuff are molds. Some of the food earrings I make are cutters. Some have molds. But that's

Scott Groves  3:36  
yeah, so is every piece, like, a little bit custom. Like, will there never be another tic tac toe board that looks exactly like we

Naomi  3:42  
some are custom, and that's it. And then those ones are we make. We can make and sell those.

Scott Groves  3:49  
Nice Mom, how did this? How did this start?

Esther  3:53  
Well, it did start with Naomi. She did get us a couple years ago. She started giving out gifts for Christmas to the our family. We have a large family. And so she started by giving them coasters, like she said. And but then she got me started. So I started also with the resin and, and although they are, you know, we can replicate some of the items, they are unique each one. And you can't ever have the same thing happen with resin. It's kind of, you know, since it is liquid, you know, it can be fluid. So it does, it doesn't do exactly the same thing every time. So it is custom for each individual item that we make nice.

Scott Groves  4:37  
And I want to ask Ruth, how long does it take you to make one thing like this tic tac toe board? Like, how much time do you guys have to put into

Ruth  4:44  
it? Maybe, like

Naomi  4:46  
two days. Two days. It can be some items can be two days. Some can be hours.

Scott Groves  4:52  
Really, it was like $1,000 to buy this tic tac toe board that you just gave me no so tell me a little bit. Naomi, I'm. I'm interested to know if, like, a young entrepreneur like yourself knows this, how much does it cost you in like material to make this? And then how much time does it take you to make it? And then, like, what are you selling it for? So like, what is this retail of retail for that

Naomi  5:12  
one is probably about 15 to $20 in

Scott Groves  5:16  
material, or what you sell it for, what we sell it for, okay, and then how much do you think it cost you in, like, the resin material? Do you think

Naomi  5:24  
probably $10 maybe 10, $12

Scott Groves  5:29  
really like that much you gotta up your price,

Naomi  5:33  
but it comes with, like, the coloring the shells. That's all extra and time. That's why we put it at that much

Scott Groves  5:42  
and Mom, are you an entrepreneur? Like, does the family have a big entrepreneurial spirit? Or, how did this start?

Esther  5:47  
We do. You know, I have my own business too, on top of what I'm helping them with, what do you give us a shout out to your resume. I do taxes, and so I'm really boring, see, yeah. So I needed an outlet to have that creativity, you know. And so I've really enjoyed being a part of their, you know, business and so, but there's times I'm the one working, and they're, they're sitting on their iPad, you know, and I'm like, wait a minute, what happened here?

Scott Groves  6:14  
Mom can't do the work for you unless you paid her exactly. Ruth, how much do you pay your mom for labor? Do you pay her anything? No, all right, you're gonna have to up those prices, because eventually you're gonna have to pay for somebody to take over for your boss, Ruth, besides loving your sister and kind of seeing what they're doing, why did you want to do part of this? Like, are you making some of the money? Do you just like working with your hands? Like, tell me. Tell me why you're part of the business.

Esther  6:41  
Tell what you do, though, yeah, tell us what

Ruth  6:43  
you do. I paint, I do clay. I try and make earrings.

Esther  6:50  
She's made some really cool magnets. Yeah, I just got her own little thing that she's like, focused on. She does painting. She does, yeah, like, textured painting, and yeah, all on her own.

Scott Groves  7:01  
Like, are you pretty creative? Do you have, like, a good eye for this stuff? I think so nice. And Naomi, what's the name of the business? So people can look it up on Etsy and Facebook and stuff.

Naomi  7:11  
It's faith and hope design. And how did you come up with that name? My middle name is Faith or hope. So her face, then hers is faith. And we were, like, trying to figure out, because we wanted something that was like us. So then we picked our middle names to do it.

Scott Groves  7:28  
So that's cool. And how long ago did the shops go online? Or how? How long have you been selling stuff?

Naomi  7:36  
Six months? Five months, I've been on Etsy for five months.

Scott Groves  7:40  
Yeah. And do you want to tell us how much money you've made?

Naomi  7:44  
We've made about 1000

Scott Groves  7:47  
to 300 Yeah? And how much of that have you put back into the business to buy more resin and, like, how much you get to keep to buy candy and fun stuff like that?

Naomi  7:57  
We're like, waiting. We're keeping it right now so then when the holidays are over, we can have more for the next season, Summer, all that stuff.

Scott Groves  8:07  
So what's next on the list for, like, summer that you're going to start? What are some other things you want to start dabbling in? Or start designing earrings?

Naomi  8:16  
I'm working on, I'm trying to get ice cream, threed ice cream earrings. Trying to work on the CRO, the cone, to make it perfect, waffle, all that. So I've been trying to work on that for like, a couple months.

Scott Groves  8:29  
And are you doing that all by hand, and then you and then what will happen after you make it by hand? Like, will you turn it into a mold or something, that you can make a lot of these? Or will they

Naomi  8:36  
all be wasp? I actually gave that idea the other day. I was like, what if we make something and buy the mold putty to make it, so I have that as a mold so I can make more. And that was just an idea. I never I want to. I'm trying to find a certain mold to make the waffle design so I can make the cone.

Scott Groves  9:00  
And Ruth. Who are you selling these things to? I'm sure your family have bought some. But who do you want to be selling to celebrities? I like where your mindset is. Celebrities don't buy stuff. You have to send them ones for free and then hope they wear it. Who would be your favorite celebrity to be wearing your earrings.

Scott Groves  9:27  
How about you? Naomi, who are your favorite celebrity?

Naomi  9:31  
Um, to be honest, Kim Kardashian, okay, fashions, because I make modern earrings too. Okay, so, yeah, it'd be, like, really cool, nice.

Ruth  9:43  
I think I would go with Taylor Swift, because if she's the bigger celebrity, yep, then more people would see that.

Scott Groves  9:49  
Yes, good point. If, if you get Taylor Swift to wear a pair of earrings, you're gonna sell a million pairs of them, and then you and your mom and your sister will be doing nothing except for making earrings. I. Are you guys fans of K Pop demon hunter? Because that is my daughter's favorite movie right now. She's sitting over there as our studio engineer. No, we haven't watched that, so it's pretty good. So if you can get, if you get your earrings in the cartoon, that would be pretty, pretty amazing. Esther, what's like your hope for all this, like we talked a little bit about, they're like, hey, they want to come on your podcast. And we'll talk about, you know, getting it out there to the newsletter so that hopefully people can buy a bunch of this stuff for the holidays. But what happens if, you know, our newsletter goes to 20,000 people? What happens if you get 500 orders?

Esther  10:35  
Well, we will have to work really hard. Okay, our goal is always to make the customer happy. I've, you know, with helping with this, we've had an order that came back, and, you know, the earrings got messed up in the delivery. So immediately we, we remade a pair of earrings for that customer. So I'm teaching them. You know, through all of this, is customer satisfaction is is key, and being able to make the customer happy is a good thing, and having that communication. When we send out an item that people have bought, we send it with a little extra gift to them, a thank you note, handwritten thank you note, and just to make that little extra touch so all of that you know is parenting and teaching them to be that way with people, not just in business, but in with in life, really so.

Scott Groves  11:24  
And why is that important for you to teach them how to run a business?

Esther  11:28  
Because that's, you know, if I had my choice, and I could go back and run a business and that be how I made my living, I would do that in a heartbeat. But, you know, having that step right now as they're so young, to see that and to be able to, you know, implement it. It's a it's a good step for them, I think, you know, and they'll be able to, not just because they have plans, you know, for what they want to do with their future. Husband and I try to push what we want for them to do the future. But you know, we want them to succeed and be successful as humans, not just the you know, in business, but in life, you know. And so I think that's a good step.

Scott Groves  12:08  
And Ruth, what do you want to do when you grow up? I know that's not a really fair question when you're 10, but right now, what are your goals

Ruth  12:13  
an architect, okay, that's

Scott Groves  12:16  
very specific. What what is it about architecture that interests you? I just like it. Yeah. Do you want to design buildings or Ferris wheels or government stuff, or what do you want to do? Tell them what you want houses, houses you want to design houses. I've never met a 10 year old that wanted to design houses whose mom wasn't a realtor. So that's very specific, very cool. I was actually just talking to Gabriel, my nine year old, about this the other day. He really likes the mark Rober kits, where you can build all the engineering stuff. And I'm like, it's great. You just gotta catch up on your reading, your math, because engineering is like a pretty tough degree, and he loves playing with his hands, but he loves building stuff. So yeah, he might be there right with you with engineering architect school. What about you? Naomi, what do you want

Naomi  12:56  
to do when you grow I want to be a forensic scientist. Okay, so also,

Scott Groves  13:01  
very specific. Tell me more. Why is that?

Naomi  13:05  
Well, you can't say my dad, he works for Metro, okay, so he's like, you really should start getting into that. And I like science. I've been working with doing science in school. And I'm like, I want to try to do that. So I think it's fun. I ask questions, like, Why? Why is this? What's that with the news too? Like, getting those things I get, I was like, what's that mean? What? But this for all that?

Scott Groves  13:31  
So, yeah, so do you watch, like, a lot of crime, crime dramas, yet? No, okay,

Naomi  13:35  
is the news, like, the art, like, those stuff, like, what happened in the news, like on TV, and, like, what's that mean? And he's like this and that, what does your dad do for Metro? He's a lab

Scott Groves  13:45  
or ammunition, yeah. And does dad get stuck making resin toys as well?

Ruth  13:52  
Takes a picture, takes some pictures. Okay, that's good.

Scott Groves  13:55  
Yeah, everybody needs marketing. So either Ruth or Naomi tell me what's been the hardest so far about owning a business and dealing with customers?

Naomi  14:05  
Think timing really making sure our deadlines are like for the holidays. Right now we're getting our Christmas stuff ready. So I'm working on Christmas stuff, and I have to make sure I get it at a certain time so it goes out, and the shipping making sure we get it so the customer is happy.

Speaker 1  14:30  
And have you had any unhappy customers yet? Think 211,

Scott Groves  14:37  
and you just got them, something out new in the mail as soon as possible. Yeah, cool. And how about you, Ruth, what's been the most interesting part about being part of this business? How many orders we get? Yeah, yeah, kind of surprised. Yeah. Are you getting most of them off of Etsy or Instagram or from people you know?

Scott Groves  14:57  
Etsy, Etsy, yeah, um. What made you want to open an Etsy store?

Naomi  15:01  
Naomi, I think just how much we've had, like, I made so many coasters, and I didn't know what to do with them. We were trying to figure it out. And then the earrings too. So that's why we really opened it so

Esther  15:16  
and in the driving force behind it for sure.

Scott Groves  15:18  
And are people just finding you on Etsy because people are looking for unique stuff, or are you like advertising your Etsy League, I never been on Etsy.

Esther  15:26  
Etsy, you have to, I've gone to a class about it. So there is marketing that takes place, and so I helped drive that part of it, because, you know, there she's just working on getting it done, right? So, but, you know, they have certain wording and certain phrases that you have to use and to get you to the top of the list. And so I've been able to do that to drive the customers to our store.

Scott Groves  15:48  
So and having just launched this a couple, like, months ago, and having proof of concept, and you're actually selling stuff, like, how big do you think this could be? Are you gonna need to enlist your friends to come over after school and do resin or like, what would be the goal? How many units of stuff do you think you can sell per month before you have to go find some help

Esther  16:09  
other than your mom? Yeah, other than

Scott Groves  16:11  
your mom, yes. So how long before you're hiring your girlfriends from school to come over every day for project time?

Naomi  16:17  
Probably maybe a couple months, maybe maybe two years, at least a year or two. I mean, I don't know. It's so much we do right now. At the pace we're at, we probably say months,

Scott Groves  16:31  
months before you need extra help, time to raise those prices. You're, if you're, if you're at high demand, just make the price go up like you might sell less units, but you'll make more money. Yeah, and how big do you think this can get? Do you think they could be fulfilling 100 orders a month, 500 orders a month? Like, I mean, I just have to think, if you're brand new in the business, and you're already getting like, 30 orders a month,

Esther  16:52  
that's a lot. Yeah, yeah. I think that, you know, I I started because I was out of work at the time, and so now I have a job, and other than the taxes, and so now this is, like a, just a outlet for me, too. So I think that, you know, if we have that, we're going to change our focus a little bit and be able to, you know, get that those orders out for people. So, I don't know, it's unlimited, really. So we're, we're open, wow, we're open to whatever happens

Scott Groves  17:22  
Ruth or Naomi. Do you know what the word margins mean when it comes to your business? Are you familiar with that word? So this is a really important word that you have to know. It's, it's the margin of basically, like, how much is the profit that you're making? So let's say it costs you $10 in material for the resin and the seashells and all that stuff. And then your time is worth something, right? So, like, whatever you want to get paid an hour, $5 an hour, $10 an hour. So then you got to calculate the hours. So if between your hours that you worked, plus the material, it's $25 and you sell it for $30 then your margin is $5 so you got to start tracking that on a spreadsheet. So, you know, like, I don't want to work for free. I've made that mistake before. I started businesses where, like, businesses where, like, a year later, I realized, Oh, I'm working for free. I didn't charge enough, or I'm spending too much on marketing, or I'm spending too much on supplies. So yeah, you got to keep an eye on that. Where are you getting all your supplies right now?

Naomi  18:15  
Amazon, Michaels and Hobby Lobby, all the craft

Scott Groves  18:19  
stores, and what's the most money you've spent on the supply so far?

Speaker 2  18:23  
Resin, whatever. Yeah. How much is resin

Naomi  18:27  
we get the gallons? Well, that's

Scott Groves  18:31  
like 32 cents an ounce. Yeah, yeah. If I knew how much an ounce was, I might be able to do the math. But it's like, Hey, Siri, how many ounces in a gallon? What else? What other products are you gonna start making, besides the ice cream earrings and like, do you want to do a whole lot of products that are unique and so you can charge more? Or do you want to get to the point eventually where you're making 500 Tic Tac Toe boards a month?

Esther  18:57  
That's up to you. I mean, whatever, really, whatever's so she's had, let me just step in here, she has some pumpkin pie earrings that she made. And at first, you know, she put them on there, and we were like, Okay, I was, you know, I don't wear earrings. So she thought of couple orders, and then, and then another couple, and then another couple. And so she started making more. And I said, What? So she actually makes a little pie and bakes it in the oven and cuts it into the slices. So right now, when we left the house, she was working on a pizza. She's gonna make slices of pizza. And so it's something unique. I didn't know there was a demand for that, but she's found her little niche for that so and people love them.

Scott Groves  19:49  
You might, you might start out with Tic Tac Toe boards, but then the market will tell you what they want. Yeah, if you're selling two of these, but you're selling 30 pizza earrings, well, I guess now you're the pizza earring girl. Yeah, right. Yeah. What do you like making the most Ruth of all the things that you guys have made? What's your favorite thing to make? Magnets? Magnets are those

Ruth  20:07  
selling. We don't have them on Etsy yet. Okay,

Scott Groves  20:10  
well, when do they go on Etsy? I don't know. How many magnets have you made?

Ruth  20:16  
Maybe, like 100 100 what's the design? Little cookies,

Scott Groves  20:21  
little Cookie Magnets. I will buy some cookie magnets from you. Okay, so send me the link. Do you want some Cookie Magnets? Selena, yeah. See a big smile on her face, yeah. So it's kind of cool, because you guys can put out a lot of different stuff, and then the market will just talk to you and tell you what they want to buy, right? I have a friend that was doing a lot of content on social media, some for business, some for where he was living in St Louis, and then what he found is when he went down to Lake of the Ozarks, where he had, like his summer home, that was the content that was getting a lot of views and interaction. So over the last two years, he's moved his whole life to Lake of the Ozarks. He only does Lake of the Ozarks, and now he's getting a ton of money, I can't say how much, but a ton to be like the go to influencer in Lake of the Ozarks and show properties, and now he's doing like the boat shows, and he's getting a bunch of contracts to highlight the restaurants and stuff. And he had no intention of moving full time to Lake of the Ozarks, but like the market, just told them what they wanted, and they wanted more Lake of the Ozark stuff. So just, you know, I would encourage you girls to put up as much different stuff as you can, and then the market on Etsy is going to talk to you and say, This is what we want, and then just make more of that. So how much money do you two want to make doing this? And what? What's the first thing that you're going to buy once you balance the budget, and you know how much money you can take. You don't know you're working you're working this hard. Yeah, you're 15, like, the cars got to be around the corner, right?

Naomi  21:52  
I have a couple ideas, but I don't know it'd be a lot to get. What I would want.

Speaker 1  21:58  
What do you want? That's okay, but chair

Naomi  22:03  
probably a car, okay, Porsche, like,

Scott Groves  22:08  
I really, like, where you has that? Like, okay, horse is gonna be like, 100 grand. That is a lot of pumpkin earrings. Let's see if you make, like, seven bucks each. You only need to sell, like, I don't know, 3000 Yeah, no, no, 30,000 sell 30,000 pumpkin earrings, and you can buy a Porsche, although your dad might drive it more than you does. But, I mean, it start with a Honda. Is your first car. Porsche is, like, a little fast.

Naomi  22:36  
I mean, like, getting somewhere where we can, like, that, like, I mean, probably small things at first. Like, I don't know what we would probably even spend it on, because, like, we're so early still. Like, that's probably in a couple of months to think of that.

Scott Groves  22:54  
Okay, perfect. Buy a portion a couple months, we're having E back on, if you buy a portion a couple months, I'll come work for you. Okay, I will quit my job and I will come make resin. How about you, Ruth, what's the first thing you want to buy with your money? Maybe not a Porsche. That might be what

Naomi  23:08  
she would want. Okay, go for it. Hockey tickets. Yeah, that too.

Scott Groves  23:14  
Hockey tickets, yeah, oh, well, you can get silver night tickets, pretty inexpensive. You might have enough money to do that. Now. Are you a big hockey fan? Yes. Who's your favorite team? The Knights. The Knights. How are you I don't understand this about Vegas, because it's so hot. How so many people are hockey fans? How did you become a hockey fan when they won the cup? Yeah, of course. Is your dad a big hockey fan? Is he from like, Minnesota or something? No, no. You just became a hockey fan. He never wanted to be a hockey fan, and you're forcing them to Yes, okay, how much do you think hockey tickets are for the Golden Knights?

Ruth  23:46  
Maybe, like $80 each ticket from far away, like $300

Scott Groves  23:52  
so to take your whole family, you're gonna have to make $1,000 on these, on these magnets. So you need to sell a lot of magnets. Yes. What else are you working on now? Like, as as part of teaching them how to run a business, you know, we were talking about marketing and having them in the newsletter and whatnot. What other opportunities are you looking at, just to kind of get the word out there and see if this can really take off?

Esther  24:14  
I've run some ads on Facebook, and actually, Yesterday, we saw one of the ads, and I took us it was on a reel, and so I took a quick snapshot of it, and I was like, look, look. And so they got so excited, you know, and just being able to have them see their work on Facebook or on in, you know, social media is something for me to sit back and and say, That's pretty cool.

Scott Groves  24:39  
That was cool. Have you guys joined? I'm guessing it's off of your Facebook. Probably don't have Facebook yet. The living in Henderson Facebook group, a good friend of mine, John Novak runs it. There are 70,000 local Henderson people in there, and John's very big and giving back to like charities and kids that are starting businesses. So I highly recommend you go on there and. And post in that group, because I think you guys could get a lot of orders just from people that are in Henderson. Okay, so are you shipping out all of your stuff? Have you have you figured out how to handle shipping? Yes, how much does that cost

Esther  25:12  
that's included in what they Etsy? Has it set up to where they include the shipping? So you could either up your price to not charge shipping or but we've chosen to include have them pay for the shipping themselves.

Scott Groves  25:24  
Perfect, yeah, increase that cost. People. People are willing to pay for specialty items.

Esther  25:29  
Say, where, where you your earrings have landed.

Naomi  25:32  
They've gone to Italy, all over.

Scott Groves  25:36  
Somebody on on Italy found you on Etsy. Wow, did you get pictures from them?

Naomi  25:42  
No, but they've gone to Canada. We've had a couple of Canadians order, um, in the United Kingdom, yeah, United Kingdom, all over the US too. It's pretty cool. It's fun to see that. See how far they go. So you should put

Scott Groves  25:59  
a little insert in your package that says, you know, please take a picture and tag us on Instagram. Do you do that? Oh, that's a good thing happened. Yeah, you should do that. Just get a little card that goes in there and be like, hey, you know, tag us on Instagram with you wearing your pumpkin earrings. And, you know, we'll give you whatever, 20% off your next order or something like that. Because people really like sharing unique stuff that they've bought, and then it helps get content for you on the Instagram who's managing your marketing on Instagram, I noticed you don't have

Naomi  26:29  
your ears pierced, you I did, and then they got covered. So yeah, me too.

Scott Groves  26:35  
I thought it would be cool in high school to have an earring, and then I realized I was not smart, so I let it close up. But when are you gonna get your ears pierced again so you can wear your own products? Soon? What about you? Is that okay with dad to pierce your ears?

Ruth  26:47  
I'm scared of it. Oh, don't be scared.

Scott Groves  26:50  
Look, I got tattoos. She's got earrings. We have to poke her ears like, because she always does take out her earrings for jiu jitsu and soccer, and so we have to, like, re pierce her ears every weekend. How many times have we infected your ears? Babe, yeah, they'll get a little red because we're constantly having to reappear some so you got to be your own model for your, like, custom, custom earrings.

Naomi  27:12  
So I had someone, actually cousin. She took the earrings and wore them to work, and she's like, so many people were like, These are so cool. So it's like, fine, so your

Scott Groves  27:26  
cousin can be like, your influencer and sell for you. Yeah. How many followers do you have right now? You know, whether it's Etsy, Facebook, Instagram, whatnot. Do you know how many people are following

Esther  27:36  
you we have? It's small, right? Because since we just started, we have like 100 on Facebook, and I'd say like 3038, on Etsy.

Scott Groves  27:45  
So there you go. Yes, good job. You're charging the numbers for now and then Instagram seems like a great place to grow for jewelry. I have a friend of a friend, an acquaintance, who started, like a modern jewelry company for men, and he somehow got his necklace around the neck of a football player, and it blew up. And then he got a million followers. And I think, I think they recently sold the business for like, 13, $14 million so he can buy a Porsche. So you guys start, you guys start getting some influencers on on on Instagram. What do you? Let me ask you. Ruth, what do you like about the business, the orders, the orders. I like you. You're, so you're gonna come work for me. You're, you're a numbers. Person, you like making the money. How about you? Naomi, what are you definitely the money. You are the money. Person, okay, cool.

Naomi  28:38  
I think it's the orders too, getting them, it's so exciting. And then making items, like, thinking like, just thinking, like, I'm making these, and then they're gonna go on someone's ear, and someone's gonna wear them, and they're gonna be like, walking around and showing them off. Like, that's exciting and cool for me.

Scott Groves  28:58  
So how excited will you be when you're just out and about at the store down on Water Street, or you're at a hockey game and you see somebody with your earrings on,

Naomi  29:06  
very excited and happy, like, I don't think I'd be able to, like, understand that they're wearing our earrings.

Scott Groves  29:14  
Yeah, that'll be cool. I can't wait for that to happen to you. Esther, what are like? What are some of the reasons why you want to teach your children about entrepreneurship, right? Because, like, they obviously already have very defined career paths. Architect, forensic, forensic scientist, like, you know, probably not going to open your own forensic science business. I would guess maybe architecture, you own your own business. But what are some of the like lessons and intangibles that you're teaching them about owning their own business that's going to serve them long term in life.

Esther  29:45  
I really think that learning how to interact with each other, they're learning how to be co workers, you know, and learning that that relationship there versus being siblings, right? Learning how to interact. Interact with people that are, you know, either, I mean, they're dealing with people that are a lot older than them, you know, sending earrings out to people all over or, or, we did a market at Tivoli village, and they were interacting with, you know, adults, and they're, they're learning how to interact with people outside of our space. And so I think that's going to be crucial for them as they get older, and learn how to interact with people, be kind to people, and, you know, learning how to how to do that. So, yeah, yeah.

Scott Groves  30:31  
There we are. You working like some farmers markets or some booth shit, like this one that you Yeah, we've do the market

Naomi  30:39  
rate, done a couple on their craft fairs. Okay, we do probably want to try. Gonna try, we're try to do a couple more.

Scott Groves  30:47  
You know, Summerlin has that farmers market in their downtown. Some of the Downtown Summerlin out there, there was a gal that was killing it. She was selling, like the 3d printed, you know, dragons and tchotchkes and stuff like that. And I mean, she was selling a lot quickly. So I don't know how much the booth is there, but you have to numbers. Girl, you have to figure out how much does the booth cost, and how many of these will we need to sell to make a profit. But that might be a cool way to get the get the idea. And if you need a salesperson, Alina is the best at talking to strangers and getting them to buy stuff. So when we do the the milkshake stand, what's that? Yes, she walked around to everybody to give them Henderson HQ business cards to subscribe. And she's very good at supporting her brother when he's making milkshakes. She'll just walk into the store next door be like, who's buying a milkshake? So if you need a salesperson, could go hustle. That's you too. Definitely her. Yeah, you're definitely the outgoing one who you get people to buy things. So you might not be an architect. You might sell architectural projects or something. What are you learning about running a business like what's been kind of surprising Naomi,

Naomi  31:54  
like working together and trying to I mean, we've all grown, all three of us, understanding each other and figuring things out. So, yeah, that's probably one of the things.

Scott Groves  32:07  
What about you? Ruth, what have you learned about running a business? Money, money. All right, you're doing the accounting now, so you're keeping track how much money is coming in.

Esther  32:18  
I love on Etsy, when we do make a sale, it makes a little cha ching, and she's the first, I don't know how, but every time it goes off, she's like, we made a sale, no? And so she's like, keeping track of that for sure.

Scott Groves  32:31  
So that's awesome. And do you have a background in, like, arts or resin, or this is all just kind of happening? Is it happening?

Esther  32:40  
Just so I followed Naomi. She taught me all about resin. So I really, I am being humble and admitting that I took lesson from my 14 year old. So at at the time, she was 13, so I was,

Scott Groves  32:54  
what got you into resin? Like, was this like a school project or something?

Naomi  32:57  
It was a gift I was working on, and I tried it, and I was like, this is actually really fun. So then I started. After that, I started making the coasters.

Scott Groves  33:06  
And who got you the first resin kit as a gift that we need to thank them for this business? My mom.

Esther  33:13  
So yeah, and so she made custom with the different teams on there, yeah, like the Dodgers and the ray i and the Knights and, you know, the so she gave those out as gifts. And so that's where started, and, and I didn't start at the time. I was like, well, that's her thing. I'm just gonna let her be. And, but when I didn't have anything to do, since I was out of work, I was like, Hey, so what are you doing there? I, you know, can you teach me how to do this and so, and she did, and so nice. Been working all three together.

Scott Groves  33:45  
So how long have you all lived in Henderson?

Esther  33:49  
So I was born and raised here, okay, and so is my husband. And so

Scott Groves  33:53  
you're, like, the only two you might be, the only you might be, the only married couple. I bet that was like, born and raised here.

Esther  33:58  
I know, right. We were both born at Sunrise Hospital. So, yeah,

Scott Groves  34:02  
so how much have you seen this place change over your years? Here? A lot. Yeah, give us a couple of insider tips, like what's your favorite restaurant, or what's like your favorite little hole in the wall hot spot in Henderson that maybe a lot of people don't know about.

Esther  34:16  
Thanks. No pressure. I don't know. So we we stay, I'm just going to be we stay inside a lot, because we also have my son, who he has Down syndrome, and he's got a lot of challenges. So to go out is a challenge in and of itself. So but just trying to think,

Ruth  34:36  
what's your favorite place to eat? Girls, McDonald's. McDonald it's the worst,

Scott Groves  34:41  
other than their Oreo McFlurry, nothing there is good for you. See, look, you like the Oreo. I like to pretend that the Oreo McFlurry is good for you, because I'm a junkie for Oreos, but I don't think that's good for us either. And where do you like to go? In Henderson, in

Naomi  34:55  
and out, pain.

Scott Groves  34:58  
Yeah, the kids just did an in and out tour. With their school yesterday, where they got to go into the kitchen and see how these made. And we found out that they sell 1000s of burgers every day, and they have to get a delivery every three days because the food is made pretty fresh. So everything that you eat there turns over every two or three days, because they just don't have enough space for the fresh supplies. They got a whole they got a whole lesson on how in and out operates. And I'm a big in and out fan. I like that. Um, what's something interesting about growing up at Henderson, that maybe the average person, business owner listening to this podcast that moved here from LA like the rest of us five years ago, that they don't know what's it? What's a good Henderson local story?

Esther  35:37  
Well, to be honest, we are Las Vegas, uh, residents, so But same thing, right? Las Vegas was what Henderson is now, to see the growth of Las Vegas in it, and Henderson is amazing to me, and we welcome visitors. I'll say visitors because, you know, until you've been here at least 10 years, I think

Scott Groves  36:00  
you're a business, yeah, six more years. I lived up here part time since 2002 we've owned a second home up here. But, yeah, we didn't move here full time till 2020 on 2021, beginning of 2022, so I gotta, I got a ways to go before I'm technically local.

Esther  36:13  
And I, you know, I know that a lot of us are, you know, oh my gosh, this traffic, or oh my gosh, all these visitors here, all these people from California. And, you know, I gotta admit, I've said that too, but our city wouldn't be what it is without you people. So I, I welcome you guys here too. So, nice. Yeah, so,

Scott Groves  36:31  
so Naomi, what's some plans to sell like, do, do you want to only sell on Etsy and, you know, through mail delivery? Or do you want to do some things to like, sell locally.

Naomi  36:42  
I think, um, I think getting our own website and going on Tiktok to start, because I know Tiktok is very small business, all that I've some of those things I get from there to help us. Are from Tiktok?

Scott Groves  37:00  
Yeah, I've heard Tiktok has a pretty robust, like, small business store, so you can sell directly on there and kind of bypass Etsy and whatnot. What does Etsy take as like, a percentage of your sales? Because they've got to make money too, right?

Esther  37:13  
They take 25% 25%

Scott Groves  37:16  
holy, those prices, like everybody's got their handouts. So yeah, if you could go to your own website. And that would be, that would be interesting. I have a friend that was actually on the podcast. He sells really high end mountain biking pedals, and he does have a store on Etsy, but I don't think they charge that much for him. So I don't know if it's because of the price point or whatnot, but yeah, there's definitely, definitely other ways to sell. And then even our, the guy that owns our jiu jitsu studio that we all go to, he built his own website so he can just sell directly and not give a percentage to anybody else. So, you know, with AI, you can probably make a website pretty easy these days.

Esther  37:52  
Yeah, I've had to learn a lot. I've had to learn to how to do all this. So it's a growing experience for me. They're learning how to do more arts stuff, but I've had to learn all the background stuff, so all the social media. I was not a social media person, and so I very rarely ever posted except family pictures and stuff. And so now it's, it's just been a learning experience. Awesome.

Scott Groves  38:17  
Who's gonna be your next employee when you get to, like, 100 or 120 orders a month? Yeah? And 20 orders a month, Dad, get your resin gloves ready. Do you have any friends at school that you could pay maybe, like, six, seven bucks an hour to help you build stuff? Yeah?

Naomi  38:34  
Maybe a couple, yeah, might join.

Scott Groves  38:38  
We're about to have a gentleman on the podcast. He was in high school when covid hit, and so he was bored. He just read a bunch of business books, and he watched a bunch of business videos on YouTube, and he started looking on AI and Google. What are things that like contractors or handyman won't do in Vegas? And so he started a trash hauling business where they tear down sheds and they they saw up Jacuzzis and just get rid of stuff that people don't want anymore, or he'll clean out garages or whatnot. And I don't think you would mind me sharing this with you guys. He's 19 or 20, and I think his business is approaching, making, like, $200,000 this year. And he bought, like, a custom, custom, I don't know what you call it, trailer that he can dispose of quicker, and it has a hydraulic lift on it. And now he hired a few of the people that he went to high school with to work for him, and he's killing it. And he's you should not decide this, because what you do, what you do want to do, you have to go to college. But he's decided he's even gonna forego college and just build this business and get more trucks and more trailers and stuff. So there's a huge opportunity out there in Vegas, if you want to sell locally, or sell on Etsy or build your own website, like I think you I think you guys can do it and make a ton of money. I see your eyes lighting up when I say that you can make a ton of money. I've been

Esther  39:54  
surprised that we haven't had anything from Etsy to our local area at all. All interesting at all. It's been, you know, the closest has been, I think, Utah or Arizona, Arizona, that's, that's been the closest. And then, yeah, out from

Scott Groves  40:10  
there time to get on those local Facebook groups. Because there's, like, there's five different Facebook groups that are like, buy or sell in Henderson, or, you know, things to buy in Henderson or Henderson locals, or Henderson local businesses. So if you two start doing some videos about the stuff you're selling and, like, kind of taking videos of the journey of you making stuff, because that's interesting, right? I have no idea how resin works. I have no idea how you made this cool little X's and O's. Like, you should start filming yourself doing some work and then putting that up. Oh, they are. We starting already.

Esther  40:40  
We have, we've started. So we're, we're getting there, nice in there.

Scott Groves  40:44  
Yeah, what happens is, business gets so big, and then you're ready to go to college, to go be a forensic scientist. Are you going to sell it? Is your mom going to take it over? Is your sister going to take

Naomi  40:53  
it over? I think we'd keep it. I think we'd all still work around it. I mean, like, that's, I think that's, I don't know. I can't imagine, like stopping because it's so much fun. I enjoy making the earrings. What would you

Scott Groves  41:07  
want people to know that are buying your your products? What would you want them to know about you, or how hard you all

Naomi  41:13  
are working, that they're definitely made with love and care,

Scott Groves  41:17  
that's good. How about you? Ruth, what do you want to say about the business, or what do you want to say to somebody that's thinking about maybe buying your stuff?

Ruth  41:24  
Please get it. Okay,

Scott Groves  41:26  
I like it. She's pretty direct. You're direct. You're just you're gonna be a good salesperson. I got when you get a little bit older, I got some good sales books for you. Mom, what are like your parting thoughts on, either how proud you are, how hard they're working, or just what's going on with the business?

Esther  41:41  
You asked them a question. You asked Naomi, what's going to happen if at college time? You know, I know that my husband and I have both talked about this. You know that we're fluid, you know, and if they choose to hold off on college, obviously, that's the direct path that everybody wants their kid to take, is go to college. And this is, you know. But we're not staunch in that. We're open to whatever God has for them, wherever their path is to go. And so we want to encourage them and be their cheerleader, you know, I'm always their biggest fan, and I'm always cheering them on and congratulating them. When somebody puts in a review on Etsy for her earrings, you know, or favorites it, and it's like, yeah, you know. And so I'm always there to help encourage, and I think that's a big thing for this age, to to hear that and to get that encouragement from their parents.

Scott Groves  42:29  
That's awesome. Does your mom ever yell at you because products aren't going out fast enough? No, okay, well, we will, um, we will put up all the links to it. What's the what's either the Etsy or the Facebook or the Instagram? Is it just faith and hope, design or faith? Hope?

Esther  42:46  
Faith, Hope designs with a Z on Etsy. So I'll have to send you that

Scott Groves  42:49  
for sure. Faith, Hope designs with a Z. And what about on Instagram?

Esther  42:53  
On Instagram is just our personal Instagram, so I haven't set up a new one for them, but yeah, Facebook has faith, faith and hope. Designs also with a Z, no, that's the thin s,

Scott Groves  43:06  
okay, okay, we'll make sure we get everything up. Go to the show notes if you want to order something. And support Ruth and Naomi and their journey as entrepreneurs. And when you guys are making like, $10,000 a month, I'm gonna have you back on to see how many employees you have and how much you've raised your prices. Okay, all right, congratulations, ladies, thank

Ruth  43:24  
you. Thank you. That's awesome. Thank you.

Scott Groves  43:28  
Hey, it's Scott groves with the Henderson HQ podcast. I hope you got something out of that episode. If you enjoyed it, please don't forget to like, comment and subscribe to the podcast. It really helps the show grow. And by the way, if you are a business owner, or you know a business owner who has an interesting product, service or just an interesting backstory, please, please get in touch with us. Email us at the Henderson hq@gmail.com, we would love to interview you, because that's what this show is all about. It's about building community, supporting local, individually owned businesses and just making Henderson a great place to live. And don't forget, go to Henderson hq.com and make sure you sign up for our newsletter. We send out a once a week newsletter, no spam, about the most interesting local businesses, hot spots, restaurants, community events. Thanks for watching the show. Really appreciate you. You Hello.