Sarah - Today I’m here with Mandee Widrick who is a young entrepreneur who started her first business in her teens. Mandee, tell us what you’re doing, how you got started and where people can find you on the web?
Mandee - I started freelance writing when I was about 15 years old. About the time I turned 17, I started writing for various magazines and it eventually turned into an opportunity where I started writing for a Bit and Bridle magazine, which was started by a friend of mine. Eventually, I took over the magazine and it became Horse Family. You can go to horsefamilymagazine.com. You can also find me on Twitter.com/mandeewidrick. I’m also on Facebook and LinkedIn among others.
Sarah – That’s great. Tell me a little bit about what do you like most about writing?
Mandee - Well, I really enjoy just the creativity, the fact that I can come up with an idea and then turn it into something even bigger. I do a lot of marketing. I really enjoy that aspect of my business. I meet so many great people and it’s opened up a lot of doors for me.
Sarah: Where do you find advertisers and the writers? How do you go about the marketing aspect of your business?
Mandee - I’ve done a lot on the Internet. I use social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. Since I was home-schooled, I’ve been able to reach out to the home school community a little bit and say, “Hey I’ve got this opportunity.” I have found a few home school kids that want to help out with writing. There are adults that I have writing for me as well. So I’ve got a variety of ages working with me.
Sarah – What helped you come up with the idea? Were you always interested in horses or was it something you just kind of happened upon because you were writing for that friend of yours?
Mandee - Well, the magazine was started by a friend of mine and she was another home-schooled girl and so we kind of had a connection that way. She’s from Georgia and I live in New York and so we connected by email after I had gotten and email from the magazine. I’ve always been interested in horses. I’ve had horses since I was 13 and I’ve always loved them. I still have some now. I’ve got one riding horse and then I have several mini horses here on our family’s farm. So it’s certainly something that I’ve been interested in for a long time. The magazine just kind of added onto that. It was putting two interests together basically.
Sarah – Are you in college too or are you planning on going to college?
Mandee - I am not in college and I haven’t gone to college at all. I’ve utilized my local small business development center here in New York state and they have free business advisors that are paid by the government. I can go in there and meet with them and they help me. I’ve worked with them quite a bit, but I haven’t done any college and I probably won’t at this point because I’m doing pretty well for myself and I don’t really see how that would even fit in now at this point.
Sarah - Tell me a little bit about homeschooling and how do you feel like that either helped or hurt you?
Mandee - I definitely feel like it tapped into my creativity, but I can’t really say one way or the other. I was always home-schooled so I can’t really compare it to public school or private school. My mom sat me down at the table with my siblings one day and told us she wanted us to write poetry. I remember just writing a poem off the top of my head. It was really tapping into my creativity. I remember that as my starting point because she read the poem later and really liked it. I felt like I had something and I kept writing. A few months later I won $200.00 for some poetry and I’d only been writing at that time just for a couple of months. That experiences is what really gave me a kicker – seeing that I had a talent that I could actually use to make money. That $200.00 when you’re 15, is a lot of money. I was really excited!
Sarah – What do you feel like your parents did really well in supporting you? Were they totally hands off or were they really involved as your business grew?
Mandee - My mom was always very supportive of what I was doing. Actually, both of my parents were and I think that that it was important to see that they took interest. I can’t say that they could really relate to what I was doing because I don’t come from an entrepreneurial family whatsoever. I’ve been told that it is uncommon with a kid to just start their own business when the parents just have no background in it. My mom was definitely very supportive of everything I was always doing which helped. If she had said, “that’s no good”, I may not have continued doing it. Definitely the support and encouragement was very important to me when I was younger.
Sarah - What would you love to share with kids around the world that are either in business or want to be in business?
Mandee - Well, I think some of the important things are not to be afraid when you’ve got an idea. For me, I remember a lot of things used to scare me and fear is something I’ve had to overcome. It’s really just getting out there and being courageous and it’s really important to have courage when you’ve got something good and you believe in an idea. You’ve got to be courageous enough to get out there and actually start doing it. There are so many great ideas, but most people never actually follow through with them. Think about all the great things that could be accomplished and done in the world if all of these ideas were put to good use. It’s important to be brave and get out there and don’t be afraid to meet people. It’s really going to help you in the long run.
Sarah – You are so right. A lot of times fear stops people! So how did you overcome that for yourself?
Mandee - I just had to trust that things were going to turn out the way that they were meant to in the long run and have faith that I could do it and believe in myself and my abilities.
There’s a quote from Les Brown that really stood out to me just recently as well – “You have greatness in you.” That’s just something important that we all need to remember is that we all can do great things no matter what other people believe of us, it doesn’t matter how old we are.
Sarah - I love that you shared that because it’s true! I’m so glad that you’re believing in your greatness now because look what you’re doing and of all the things that you’re going to accomplish in the future as well and the inspiration that you’ll be!!
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