It can be a kids dream to own and create a business once they’re out of college, but for junior Elise O’Leary, that dream came faster than ever.
“I wanted to create a business because I really loved all things monogrammed, and I knew a lot of other people did too,” O’Leary said.
Once O’Leary’s monograms got more popular around school, she decided to put her products on Etsy.com to sell to people other than her classmates.
“I decided to move my business to Etsy because it really started to take off after a month or so, and I figured that if so many people just at Bowie would want to order my stuff, then there would probably be a lot more online,” O’Leary said. “ I also had noticed that all similar products to mine on Etsy were quite a bit more expensive, so I felt that if I offered a more reasonable price it would encourage people to purchase my items.”
People may think that creating a whole business online is difficult, but O’Leary disagrees.
“Creating my shop on Etsy was actually pretty easy. You just make an account and say you’re a seller, then you enter in all the information and agree to a percentage that they’d tax you per order. After that you’re pretty much all set. Then you’re able to post your listings to the public,” O’Leary said.
Even though O’Leary’s business on Etsy became quite successful, she had to go through her dad first.
“When I first brought up the idea of opening my own business to my dad, he told me to present him with a business plan and then he’d consider it,” O’Leary said. “After he approved, we purchased my embroidery machine and some materials to go along with it just sort of tested things out for a while before actually starting to sell things.”
Eventually, O’Leary’s business started to take off.
“When my profits started going up, I was able to purchase bulk quantities of things like headbands and tote bags and then I could advertise more,” O’Leary said. “When my business started to take off locally, that’s when I created my Etsy account to sell on there, and I’ve been super busy ever since.”
O’Leary’s successful business on Etsy could not of been accomplished without the help of her father.
“I helped Elise understand how to run a business, things like; Cost of Goods, how much to charge for each item and make a profit while paying off the cost of materials, such as the thread, the t-shirts or headbands,” Elise’s dad James O’Leary said. ”And how to use the embroidery machine and what software was the best fit for generating the Monograms.”
Elise and James can both agree that there were some challenges when making the business.
“The hardest thing was getting a good feel of the machine and how to align the patterns and monograms to embroider, and how to put the fabric in the embroidery hoops. It was a lot of trial and error. We ruined a lot of t-shirts and headbands in the beginning, but once we figured it out it goes pretty smooth now,” James said.

Not only could Elise have done this without her dad, but her business would not have started without the help of her classmates.
“I found out about Elise’s business from her and her social media accounts. Whenever I started buying from her she hadn’t even started her Etsy yet,” junior Nora Melhem said. “I really love it. Monograms are really in fashion now and I think it’s really impressive that she started a business so young.”

Because Elise is still in high school, she has to balance her business with her schoolwork.
“She has been very successful for a home based business, we make sure she balances her school work with her business hours. Business has been steady since she opened her Etsy store “AustinMonograms”on line,” James said.

Elise’s business has been so successful that she has big plans for her future.
“In the future I think it would be so cool to have an actual shop for my business, and have employees and really big and expensive machines. It would definitely be a really great experience, especially since I’d actually get to interact with my customers,” Elise said.
Elise is excited to see where she can take her business and is looking forward to her new future owning a business.
“I’m really happy with my business and I really enjoy it, and I really love how it sets me apart from everyone else. It’s not every day a sixteen year old has their own business. Aside from being super busy it’s been very positive. However a couple employees would be nice too,” Elise said.