Amy was employee #1, the first person ever hired at Tower. She has gone on to build several great businesses on her own. Here's a quick interview we did with her back in early 2016, just as she was launching 2 additional businesses on top of her 1st homerun with 6D Hair Ties. One was a brilliant customized mash-up of Instagram and adult coloring books called Color Me Book. The other is Girl Gang The Label, a hip LA brand of empowered women. She would later author a "Dummies" book on branding, aptly called "Branding for Dummies."
1. How would you describe your business?
6D Hair Ties are soft elastic hair ties that double as comfy wristbands. We are able to offer a product that is kind to your hair and a stylish accessory to wear. Our hair ties are fully customizable, you can upload your own logo, text, or design. What makes our business unique is that everything is made in the USA so we are able to offer fast turnaround times, no order minimums, and competitive pricing for bulk orders.
We donate to a handful of USA based charities and also use our website as a fundraising platform. Charities design packs of hair ties to sell on our site for a 1 week to 1 month run. At the end of the run, we donate a portion of the profits to the charity.
In March 2015 we moved into our first office space. The transition from apartment to office was a major milestone for me. Our office is located in West Hollywood.
We are able to run our business with a $0 marketing budget. This is the most valuable skill I learned while working at Tower Paddle Boards. For all of our major search terms, we are ranked #1 on Google so 90% of our orders are made from inbound requests.
2. When did you launch?
Summer 2012
3. What will your revenues be in 2016?
$500,000
4. What do you expect your revenues to be in 2020?
Expected to be at $2,000,000 by 2020
5. Do you have employees? Partners?
I have no business partners and own 100% of 6D Hair Ties. I have 3 employees currently and will have 5 employees total by the end of the year.
6. What are some big brands you have worked with? Deals done? Etc.
Our clients include: Sephora, Volcom, Neff, Lulu Lemon, Elizabeth and James, Shop Private Party, and Show Me Your Mumu just to name a few.
We have an exclusive partnership with the largest online custom goods retailer, Zazzle.com. On Zazzle, you can choose from over 100,000 pre-designed hair ties or design your own from scratch. Zazzle has 3,000,000 unique visitors per month to their website.
We have done collaborations with bloggers, like Betches Love This, who have 3.7 million instagram followers.
We have been featured in Shape Magazine, E! News, and Betches Love This.
We are in 200 retail locations throughout the US, Canada, and the UK.
7. How valuable was your experience at Tower?
My experience at Tower was everything to me. I never would've been able to start my own company without my experience at Tower. I enjoy reading business books and following blogs, however, they don't teach you how to really work in a fast paced environment and improvise along the way. Tower gave me thick skin and experience to be able to scale my business, make it profitable, and to not be intimidated by the countless hurdles I had to overcome.
8. Detail any other offers you turned down to take a job at Tower?
I received 10 job offers after college, most of which were entry level sales jobs with good pay and stability. I turned all of these down because I wanted to continue learning about entrepreneurship and business development at Tower. I look at my time at Tower as getting paid to further my education in what I love.
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