Starting your own business is a daunting proposition, yet for some people, it comes as naturally as breathing.
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When Jasmine Benton of DeSoto, Texas, was just 9 years old, she realized that her love for creating art and refurbishing antiques was more than just a hobby. Each night in her diary she wrote about the business she dreamed of starting, bringing it to her mother Jennifer Gormer one Sunday morning to share important news.
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“I want to start my own business,” Jennifer recalls Jasmine telling her. When Jennifer looked at the journal she was astounded to see the outline of a real, sustainable business plan. “She had the name of her business, the products she was going to sell, who her customers were,” said Jennifer. “She had sketches. She had the vision. It was all there. She had her own tagline.”
Jasmine comes from a long line of female entrepreneurs. Her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother all started their own businesses, giving Jasmine a good idea of the amount of work and sacrifice that goes into being the boss.
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With her family’s encouragement, Jasmine started Precious Designs, a company that transforms “trash into treasure.” She spent her adolescence and teen years creating artwork and peddling it at trade shows and art shows in the Dallas area. Unfortunately, her friends were less than supportive of her ambitions, and she went through a dark period when her work simply wasn’t selling. Nevertheless, she persevered and never gave up hope!
“I was dealing with a lot of, ‘Can I do this? Am I able to do this?'” Jasmine said. Jennifer’s mother assured her that sticking to her vision was worth the effort and told her to ignore the naysayers. “Let’s find out what you’re good at, let’s find your passion, let’s find your goal and let’s go after it,” she told her daughter.
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Now Jasmine is 18 years old and her company is truly taking off. After working as an intern at the “Steve Harvey Show,” Jasmine was tasked with redesigning Steve’s nursery, plus she recently competed in (and won!) the Youth Entrepreneurship Shark Tank Challenge. She has also received her first bit of investor seed money after being named the 2019 E2 Winning Business Venture by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship.
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Jasmine continues to excel in her career thanks to her innate business sense and determination to succeed. We could all take a lesson from this young lady’s vision and hard work! She’s living proof that if you can dream it, you can do it. Best of luck, Jasmine!
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