Welcome to another installment of our student-propelled success stories.
Each installment highlights a current or past Stukent student and the cool things he, she or they are doing online. We hope this motivates you to see how other students from around the world are using their entrepreneurial and marketing skills to grow a company.
Meet Mahi Kolla
Mahi Kolla is 15 years old and is a rising junior at the Harker Upper School. She currently owns and manages a business called The Minty Boutique, a luxe stationery company. Mahi sells stationery products to help increase productivity and efficiency in daily work. Her company is currently at 1.3K followers on Instagram and is actively growing their Youtube channel. She started this business at the beginning of her eighth-grade year and has learned how to use social media to drive sales, how to build a brand, how to gain visibility, and much more.
Over the last three years, Mahi has worked every single day to build her business from the ground up.
She has sold in local farmers’ markets and fairs, maintained contracts with retail stores, worked with manufacturers and positioned her business as a prominent brand in the stationery industry.
Mahi has gained knowledge and made amazing connections that she is excited to share.
We asked Mahi some questions about her story to learn more about her experience of becoming a business owner. You can read her interview below:
Hey, Mahi. Let’s start off with you telling us a little about yourself.
{Q} Where are you from?
San Francisco, California
{Q} What school do you attend?
The Harker School in San Jose
{Q} What are you studying?
I am still in high school. However, in the future, I would like to study entrepreneurship and computer science in college
{Q} Why do you want to study Entrepreneurship and Computer Science?
I want to study these subjects because they have quickly become a passion for me from my company to all the coding that went on behind the scenes of my website.
{Q} What are some of your hobbies?
I really enjoy cooking new recipes and practicing photography.
Tell us about your cool venture
{Q} When/Why did you start?
I started my company, The Minty Boutique, at the beginning of my eighth grade school year. It will be 3 years in September 2018!
I started this company because I have always been really interested in entrepreneurship, stationery, and design. This company perfectly ties all three together and I have learned so much from this experience.
{Q} What’s unique about what you do?
In the stationery industry, there is a lack of tools and products designed specifically for maximizing productivity and with a minimalistic design in mind. My company offers those products for the #BOSS lifestyle through paper planners, notebooks, and other productivity tools.
{Q} What has been the hardest part working with your business?
The hardest part of working on my business has been managing all aspects of the company and single-handedly processing orders, responding to customer emails, constantly posting on social media, and designing new products. Oh, and school, other extracurriculars, friends, family, and me time. As you can see, running a business by yourself can get overwhelming. These past two and a half years have taught me so much about time management; skills that I am so grateful to have. It all comes down to maintaining a strict schedule that has time scheduled in for flexibility.
{Q} How are you marketing your business?
I am currently marketing my business through various social media channels such as Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube. We also utilize email marketing to remind customers about sales, new product releases, and projects. I think the most important part of marketing is to develop a connection with the customer so they get to know you and the company’s mission before making a purchase. This could mean associating a face with the brand or simply promoting a mission that resonates with your customers.
{Q} What advice would you give to a high school student looking to start their marketing / entrepreneurial dreams at a young age?
Do not wait for the perfect idea. Spoiler, it never comes. The only reason I didn’t create my company earlier in life was that I didn’t think the idea was good enough. Believing the perfect idea will fall into your lap sets you up for failure. There is no such thing as a perfect idea and even the best ones evolve in the development process. So look around you for problems you face, do some research, and come up with a solution. The next step: build your empire.
{Q} Do you have a favorite book, website, online tool/service that you’d like to recommend to Stukent nation?
This is definitely a well-known app/website, but not enough people actually make use of its amazing features. My go-to for scheduling and planning out my days, weeks, and months is Google Calendar. I can schedule meetings with other people, write in to do lists, and plan shop events for months to come. Having all that information synced across my devices allows me to know my schedule wherever I am. If you aren’t using it yet, I highly recommend downloading some type of calendar app and using it religiously.
{Q} What Stukent product did you use, and how did your experience using it help you with this new venture?
I participated in the Stukent Social Media Challenge. This experience helped me learn a lot about how social media marketing works, what times to schedule your posts, what kinds of posts engage your followers, and what kind of posts drive sales.
Follow Mahi
I’d like to thank Mahi for letting us learn more about what she does. For more information about Mahi’s awesome story, you can visit her Website, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube channels.
