Thirteen-year-old entrepreneur in fifth year of jewelry business advises business class

• Tweet
• 

Lisa Lee saw creativity in her daughter the moment she came home from a friend’s house one day, wearing a shirt she had made herself.

Five years later, Mikayla Lee, 13, has tripled her savings through the creation of her own jewelry business. She spoke to about 30 students in BUS 100: Essential Business Skills, taught by instructor Susan Moutsatson.

“My parents have taught me to split my earnings of my business … 10 percent goes to my church, 70 percent go to resources for my business and I keep 20 percent, which usually goes into my savings account,” Mikayla said.

The Lee family lives in Mount Pleasant and own the furniture store Wendels, 5260 E. Pickard Road.

“My husband’s parents used to own the store and gave it to us,” Lisa said. “And now we’ve owned it for the past 43 years and the most important lesson I have learned in those 43 years is to have passion for what I do.”

And passion is exactly what Lisa has been teaching her children.

Starting her jewelry business at age 8, her parents put $400 into a savings account. The rest has been up to her — the account currently holds $1,200.

“The name of my company is Mickey Design Originals because my nickname is Mickey,” Mikayla said.

A simple corkboard adorned with tacks is displayed on the counter of her parent’s store. It shows a variety of necklaces and bracelets made by Mikayla herself.

“When I first saw her jewelry,” Moutsatson said, “I could not believe a girl of her age made something as beautiful as this.”

Recently, two local store owners asked Mikayla to expand her business and display her jewelry in their stores.

Entrepreneurship runs in the family. Both of her grandparents, her parents and even her brother starting their own business and invented saleable products at a young age.

“My father was always inventing things and at 10 years old,” Lisa said. “My son started a lawn mowing business and it was not unusual for him to have saved up $2,500 by the end of a summer.”

Clarkston freshman Shannon O’Connor said she learned a lot from the presentation.

“I thought it was a very interesting and inspirational talk because business is what I want to go into,” she said.