Laura Essig came to Rexburg in 2005 to study Art, Home & Family and Spanish at Brigham Young University - Idaho. While she was at school she met who would be her future husband. After she and her husband were married they were blessed with a little girl. With babies come a lot of “things” and “stuff” all of these items can add up to a lot of money. Part of the life of a student is being frugal and smart with money. Essig created her own design for nursing covers that covered everything and took away the stress of nursing. She says she received compliments on it frequently and decided she could have success selling her design.
In October 2009 she started selling her covers on Bulletin Board, an on-line site connected to BYU-I where students can post their own advertisements. Essig received a ton of positive feedback and soon her order list was longer than she could have ever imagined. On her initial success Essig said “I really liked the extra money and it was extremely satisfying for me to feel productive... I was contributing in a way to society, while still being a fulltime mom.”
Like most young entrepreneurs Essig has taken advantage of the abundance of technology that we have at our finger tips. After the huge response from her posts on Bulletin Board Essig created her own blog dedicated to her designs so that buyers could easily find her on-line. “Having a blog doesn't cost anything so I decided it was the best risk free way that I could begin to share my ideas and creations with others” To follow Essig’s blog or check out her designs you can go to http://www.theessigmotif.blogspot.com/. You can also become a fan of hers on Facebook. Her blog currently has 21 followers and she has 95 fans on Facebook.
Being a successful entrepreneur is not always easy though and Essig has felt her share of difficulties. Being a full time mom certainly has it’s challenges and throwing in a full time business is sure to create some interesting scenarios. “. For a while I felt like I was so backed up with orders that I could barely even spend time with my little girl during the day and I found myself really irritable as well.” With support from her husband she has been able to find a balance with her business and home life.
In February of this year another local entrepreneur Brittany Munk opened up her own Boutique in down town Rexburg. Essig was invited to be part of this business venture. “It (joining Brittany Rae’s Boutique) was a very hard decision for me because I had never really had to spend money in order to make money. I decided that I would try it for the first month or so and I did terrible. I barely made any money! This was really frustrating for me because I was so use to being successful online. I had a few hair accessories in the store and those all disappeared, so I realized that I should take my business in a different direction. Rexburg wanted hair accessories from me, not baby accessories, so for the store that is what I made.”
Essig shows that a big challenge of being an entrepreneur is adapting to your market. Essig still sells her nursing covers on-line but she now has her hair accessories on-line as well. She has found a lot of success at Brittany Rae’s Boutique with her hair accessories. “My favorite part about putting my things in a store is that I don't have to face deadlines. I can spend as much time with my daughter as I need and want, and then I do all my work on the side, early in the morning, during her naps, or when she is playing by herself. I feel peace when I have my family and my work life balanced, with the most important coming first.”
It just goes to show that even in a slowing economy it is possible to find happiness and success by doing what you love.
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