PIKEVILLE, Tenn. — Most 9-year-olds are focused on schoolwork and hanging out with friends but one little girl in Pikeville is taking on a new venture, starting her own business.
We spoke with Heidi Swafford about how she got started and what this project is teaching her at such a young age.
According to Forbes, the average age of someone who starts their own business is 35, but Heidi Swafford is breaking that mold.
The 9-year-old owns Still Waters and Co, where she makes goat milk soap.
Heidi’s mother says she has been creating items since she was five. She started her business less than a year ago, after her brother started working in the family business.
“Well, my brother, he did construction with my dad, and I want to do something because it was in the summer, and construction is not really my thing. And my parents got me soap. They soap, soap stuff for my birthday. And after that, it was just like a hobby. And then it turned into something bigger, said Heidi Swafford, 9-year-old entrepreneur of Still Waters and Co.”
“She just really has a knack for the designs of the labels and the website. She’s so particular about every little picture and the colors and the fonts, and she’s just really done a great job of taking it and owning it. We got her her start, but she now funds her own business on her own, just from her sales, said Jillian Swafford, Mother.”
It’s not just how to make soap that Heidi is learning; she and her mom say it’s teaching her a lot about responsibility, too.
“Time management, because being in school and doing soaps at the same time. It’s a little bit hard. I even had to wake up early to make soap before, said Heidi Swafford, 9-year-old entrepreneur of Still Waters and Co.”
“To the outside world. Heidi can be shy, and so watching her stretch at these events and talk to strangers and bring them into her booth and draw them in has been just so wonderful to watch her grow as a person, because those are skills that are going to take her so much farther in life than just her soap business right now, said Jillian Swafford, Mother.”
Heidi tells me that she is thankful her parents pitched in to help her with the supplies until she could fund her business on her own.
