The start of success

By Alexa A

When thinking of small businesses, what comes to mind? For some people it could be someone selling clothing, sweets, makeup, etc. Most businesses are run by young adults and there are some run by teenagers as well.

But why start a small business? There sometimes has to be a purpose to start one and that

could be anything, but not for a 15-year-old high school student, Naomi Andalon.

Andalon runs a small jewelry business that started in 2020 while in quarantine. She was isolated in her home like everyone else had to be and had nothing to do.

When she decided to have a business, she would have the help of her mom with buying new jewelry such as cases of rings to start off with selling. Her plan was that after she started making profits, she would buy more jewelry of different kinds and expand the business.

After it started expanding, she started having her family work with her, which really helped her grow.

Andalon: “My dad helps me out a lot too because he’s into trucks and he has a whole crew. He knows people from the truck seeings so he promotes me on his Instagram and all his friends see it and his friends come by for me.”

Naomi is truly inspired not only by her parents but by her cousin as well. Her cousin has two businesses selling charms and does catering for parties. Naomi looks up to her as one of her role models because of everything she does.

Andalon: “She really inspires me. She gets her stuff done, she knows what to do. She's just on it, she's just on everything.”

She has been through some ups and downs between her business—at one point, she thought that she should give up because it wasn't going anywhere and she wasn't making any profits, but at the time, it was only the beginning of her business.

She had her mom by her side though, who talked Naomi into keeping on trying, and so she did.

She advertised a lot to bring attention to it and went to places where other popup shops would be so she could sell.

Naomi’s business has been running for a little more than a year and she’s made a ton of progress. She goes to a lot of popup events with people she knows. She is also well known to a lot of people and gets recognition for what she does and feels like it's really going well for her.

Andalon: “I feel like—yeah, like it is going well for me. I'm getting a lot of…not recognition, but like I feel like a lot of people know that I sell jewelry and profits coming in and I'm investing it.”

Even at Naomi’s young age, she is soaring with what she is doing. Naomi is a really hardworking and intelligent person and all of her doings created who she has become now. She knows what she's doing and she couldn’t have done it better without the help of her family, who has always been there for her and supported her with a business. Now, she's on her journey to success.