If they don’t make what we want anywhere, why can’t we make it ourselves, a pair of sisters wondered.
And so they founded Sweet Dream Girlz, proving that with old-fashioned ingenuity and new technology, there is nothing to stop kids from starting their own businesses.
Started in 2010 by a tween and her teenage sister, the Phoenix enterprise has already sold about $25,000 worth of skin, hair and facial-care products, such as Oo-la-la shampoos and conditioners, Ta-Da facial products and other items with such scents as chocolate-chip cookies, pink sugar and iced lemon cookie.
Why the food flavors? Because these sisters have already grasped one of the first lessons of retailing: know your market.
“Lots of kids like stuff that has to do with candy and desserts and stuff like that. And so we decided we should have different stuff like that. Who would know that something is better for kids than other kids?” said Halle Holmes, 11.
She and sister Brea, 18, have a website. About a dozen and a half stores in several states, especially the South, offer their products.
The young entrepreneurs also have a Los Angeles-based agent trying to get them into more stores. They’re getting business advice from Skysong, the ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center. They expect to get a plug in the February-March issue of Girls Life magazine. They even have a five-year business plan.
They came up with the idea while living in St. Louis because of dual disappointments: They couldn’t find any stores that carried fun skin-care products for a spa party they were having, and they couldn’t find any body washes, lotions or other products for Halle’s sensitive skin.
So while sitting in the backseat of her mother’s car on the way home from a store, Halle turned to her sister and said they should start making their own products.
The sisters, along with their dad, James, a mining engineer, and mother, Lisa, a personnel executive director for an insurance company, moved in May to Phoenix. Lisa is also an entrepreneur and sells her Honey Clothing for plus-size women online.
Most people don’t become entrepreneurs, because they let their doubts get in the way, said Halle, who will be 12 on Feb. 12.
“They have a dream of (having a product) that might go international, but they think they are not going to make it like everybody else. So they forget about it. And when someone else creates something that they thought of, they keep on thinking, ‘I should have done this and maybe my future would be better if I did that,’” she said.
The first thing the Holmes sisters did was get on the computer and research possible names and ideas for labels.
“We decided to have something that separates us from other people’s fragrances that would sound better and would stand out for somebody as to why they should buy our product,” Halle said.
Her father said that she instinctively understood the concept of branding.
With help from their parents, the girls then found a manufacturer in New York to make the base lotions, moisturizers, shampoos and other items out of just natural ingredients. Using formulas given to them by that company, the girls can create small orders themselves by adding certain essential oils to get the smells they like. Larger orders are scented at a factory.
The unincorporated Sweet Dreams Girlz business has been financed so far with about $6,000 from Mom and Dad.
“One thing we have tried to do is let them actually experience running a business. Mom and Dad can support you and direct you in the right direction. The logo, that’s them. The packaging, that’s them. The idea was theirs,” Lisa said.
While Halle might do most of the talking, she stops short of calling herself the chief executive officer, or boss.
Lisa has tried to establish the hierarchy, without luck.
“I have never been able to tie them down because they keep saying ‘No, you be the CEO. No, you be the CEO.’ So I would just say that they are co-owners or something along those lines because they won’t give either one of them or the other any more importance over the other.”
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