HoopSwagg

We don’t see too many teenage entrepreneurs like yourself (which is awesome) what got you started in business in your early teens?

As a younger teen I had many business ventures. None of them ever turned into anything big but they helped me lay the framework to function and do what I do today. When I was 12, I discovered eBay. This was very intriguing to me since anything and everything was sold on there so I figured, why can’t I do the same? The very first thing I ever sold was, believe it or not, a picture of my goat I had taken (Now the same goat is on a sock: hoopswagg.com/products/goat-farm). Slowly, I gained skills and learned and experimented with many different items.

Any advice for folks your age looking to try and start their own company?

The biggest thing I have learned from my experience is that you can teach yourself anything. I use so many tools daily that if I had tried to use two years ago I would have been clueless. For example, when I first started I thought you could only make artwork with a pen and paper. I spent a whole summer learning Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, but now I can make anything you can imagine. There is an endless amount of learning tools out there, you just have to take the time and effort to find them and utilize them.

What inspired you to work with charities?

It all started last fall—a girl from my school was diagnosed with AML. Local organizations began different programs in an attempt to raise money, but none were very successful. I figured, why not make a pair of socks unique to her? We started selling them at local events and on our site and would donate a portion of each sale back to her cause. Ever since, we have been working with charities from all over the country to raise money for their causes. In the near future we will even be introducing our program, “HoopSwagg Causes,” which is making this way of fundraising available to all charities.

How has ShipStation helped you with your business?

ShipStation has helped me in numerous ways. It simplifies the whole shipping process. From the moment the customer hits the order button to the moment that we drop our shipment, ShipStation is making our work easier. Before ShipStation we would have to manually input every order we received. As we grew, we knew we had to look for a better solution. With ShipStation, it automatically imports all of the orders we receive and allows us to ship them in bulk. Also, with its very handy order lookup tool, it allows us to scan through all of our shipments and find what we are looking for with ease. ShipStation simplifies our shipping process, which allows me to use the time I used to spend doing data entry, doing other things to improve my business.