I was just reading some submissions on the Your Stories section of our site and came across entrepreneur Cheri Garcia, a 25-year-old who already has a patent for her product, a tanning bed invention (not the NJ woman who over tanned type tanning bed) and a few years of entrepreneurial experience under her belt.
When her moment of inspiration struck, Cheri literally raced out of the pool and jumped into her business, soaking wet. Four years later she says she wants to encourage other people, especially young entrepreneurs, to follow their dreams.
As you can see below, like other young entrepreneurs, Cheri says one of her biggest challenges was being taken seriously as a young person in business.
Cheri Garcia’s Submission
Business Name: Luminous Envy, LLC
Reason for starting: A few years ago, I was at a family pool party tanning on a pool float. Like most 21-year-olds, I wanted a quick, beautiful, all over tan. I asked my mom if I could use her tanning accelerator lotion, but she told me the bottle was empty. That’s when I started thinking of a solution. First of all, I realized since I was on a flimsy float the water would have washed off my lotion anyway. I then got to thinking that lotion is greasy and expensive to keep buying. So lying right there in the water, I came up with the idea for Luminous Envy. Finally, a way to tan more comfortably outdoors all months of the year. Soaking wet, I jumped out of the pool, into the car, and raced home, thinking I had come up with the best idea in the world.
Biggest success: My product was picked up by As Seen On TV, and I got a deal to sign to have my own reality show. Also just won the 40 under 40 award in Collin County.
Biggest challenge: My biggest challenge was finding someone to manufacture my product. Since I’m young, and had little money at the time, nobody took me seriously.
The one thing you would do differently: I would have gone through the prototype/manufacturing process slower to make sure I was getting the perfect outcome and cost prices.