Local teenage entrepreneurs secure licensing agreements with Mattel, Disney

Da Bomb Bath Fizzers are now sold in both local boutiques and major stores like Target and Ulta Beauty.

“It’s full steam ahead, big production,” said Caroline Bercaw, co-founder and co-chief creative officer.

During the holidays, Caroline and her sister Isabel Bercaw have 230 employees making a million bath bombs a month. 

Caroline is just 17 years old, and Isabel is 18 years old. 

“We were lucky because we were the market,” said Isabel. “That really helped us in the long run because we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to do with our brand.”

Each bath bomb is made by hand at a warehouse in Edina. 

“This is how we started, in our basement or our kitchen, just from a recipe book,” said Isabel, as she showed us how the bath bombs are crafted.

It started as a hobby when they were just 10 and 11 years old. They wanted to create a better bath bomb that didn’t stain their bathtub or skin.

Then they brought them to the Uptown Art Festival.

“We spent the whole summer making around 150 bath bombs and sold out on the first day of the two day fair,” said Caroline. “It was super exciting and also super nerve-wracking.”

The second-year they attended the fair, the owner of Spalon Montage offered to sell the products in one of his salons.

“Before we knew it, we were in all three, and he really helped us figure out what wholesale was and get us started on that path,” said Isabel.

With their mom driving them, the teenagers started delivering business cards and samples to other local stores.

The teenagers also launched a website and then attended a trade show.

“We actually almost doubled our accounts, and we were like okay we are 100 percent committed to this now,” said Isabel.

At one point, they were making 20,000 bath bombs per month in their house.

“As you can imagine, it started in our basement, but it kind of worked its way up to our main floor,” said Isabel. “All over our kitchen, the only place that was safe were our bedrooms because even our bathrooms were testing areas.”

In 2016, they got a call from Target. It was a dream come true.

“We knew we could handle it, but it was definitely the biggest thing we’d done yet,” said Caroline.

The bath bombs can now be found in more than 20,000 stores nationwide, including 1,800 Target locations.

In the last year, they’ve also secured licensing agreements with Disney and Mattel.

Mattel reached out to the young women, asking for a special bath bomb to celebrate Barbie’s 60th birthday.

“We were just blown away, it was a dream come true,” said Isabel.

They’ve branched out to bath salts and published a book teaching others how to make bath bombs.

Another book is also in the works.

Isabel and Caroline are also giving back. They told us proceeds from the Earth Bomb have helped provide clean water to more than 2,000 people in Kenya.

“That includes building latrines at schools so girls can stay in school once they reach puberty and getting clean water for kids so they don’t have to spend three to five hours walking to get water,” said Isabel. “A necessity that really should be accessible to everyone.”

Isabel is now a freshman at St. Thomas and Caroline is a senior in high school. It can be a tough balance but they have help from their parents running the business.

“There is no question – we wouldn’t be where we are today without our parents encouraging us and helping us figure out problems,” said Isabel. “And our employees, that’s a huge one and our business partners.”

They offered some advice to young entrepreneurs.

“It’s okay to ask for help, you don’t need to do it by yourself and sometimes you need that help in order to succeed,” said Caroline.

Isabel said, “No matter what you do use your influence for good.”

source https://jobsearchtips.net/local-teenage-entrepreneurs-secure-licensing-agreements-with-mattel-disney/