You are going to love Abby Colegrove, just 13 years old, from Dallas, Texas. Her business enterprise called the The Poly Shop displays her amazing sculptures she creates with polymer clay.Her creations include handmade sculpted polymer clay jewelry and the cutest dollhouse miniatures. We’re sure you’ll love her shop and her interview.Don’t you want to just bite into that carrot cake right now?Please enjoy the interview, leave Abby a comment, and then use the Share Tools so others can read it, too. Please spread the Zibbet Love!
My name is Abby Colegrove. I am 14 years old. I am currently homeschooled and have been homeschooled my entire life. I’m in the 8th grade.I’m the only person my age I know of who has her own online business, and I’m pretty proud of that. I also love being able to control everything I do business-wise, like designing my own website, banners, and listings. I also take my own product photos, and generally ship things myself with a little help from my mom.Since I was little, I’ve been interested in business-type things and used to play heavily organized games such as Restaurant or Store. Me and my little sister would put stickers on everything we saw and put it “up for sale”. Naturally, I’d demand to be the boss or manager. 
I’m also a huge geek, and so my favorite shows, movies, and books are ones that I’m “obsessed” with. I’m either obsessed with something or uninterested in it. So I own tons of “geek” items from my favorite series, such as Doctor Who, Harry Potter, and The Hunger Games. Because the list of things I’m “obsessed” with could go on and on, obviously I can’t list them here.
Besides polymer clay, I’m interested in all types of design, and filmography, too. Colors and all the little details behind colors, such as complimentary colors, interest me greatly. I also love typography and fonts, and I love the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. (I’m an INFP, if you were interested.)One day I could be obsessed with a newly discovered hobby, and the next I could be bored with it (and then later become re-obsessed with it). It literally depends on my mood. I’m a very impulsive person.Well, because I make food jewelry, FOOD inspires me! I love looking through pretty food pictures on Pinterest and actually have a board on Pinterest dedicated to Food Inspiration. (You can check it out on my account for The Poly Shop!)I have made things I’ve found on Pinterest into miniature form, and have tons more ideas for even more things! Pinterest is brilliant. 
I definitely look up to anyone who is under 18 who has their own small business and is even moderately successful. Every time one of these businesses or young entrepreneurs catch my eye, I’ll go and read up on them, and be inspired by what they do and what they CAN do! Things like that keep my business going, otherwise I’d just give up because “I’m just a kid and it’s too complicated for me.”As I listed before, I’m interested in multiple things. Fashion and Makeup are two things I’m currently interested in as a possible future career. I’m always watching makeup tutorials and fashion lookbooks on YouTube for inspiration. I also frequently experiment with new outfit combos and makeup looks.Besides fashion and makeup, I also love digital design, as in graphic design, web design, logo design, etc. Some days I’ll sit down and just make random graphics because I feel like it. I also like playing around with my Shop’s website a lot.
I love the friendly atmosphere. Everyone is so welcoming, so positive, and so kind. Especially the staff, which I’m very grateful for. I think Zibbet is MUCH more friendly and welcoming than other artist-centric sites I’ve worked with. I also love how Zibbet supports and even encourages young shop owners, which has to be the biggest reason I love Zibbet. Not because of the amount of traffic or sales, but because of the people involved in it. I would love an iOS app, especially an iPad app. I use my iPad alllllll the time, and an app would be amazing. As the new Zibbet update is coming up soon, I’m very excited for that, because lots of features that I would normally list here will be included in that! I cannot wait!
I use Facebook as my main way of promoting, and so far it has been successful. Not successful enough to satisfy me, but I will keep working at it. As I’m writing this, I have 110 Likes on the page, and hope it keeps growing! I also use Pinterest, and pin my items as I list them.I also have a blog that I post things on. Not frequently, as I often forget to post, but I do try to keep it active.I have even used free deals that I’ve found to get lovely business cards from Moo, including the free cards that come with your Zibbet account (which are SO brilliant, by the way).Promote outside of Zibbet! If you’re involved in the Community on Zibbet, that can get you a few sales, but you should definitely spread your reach much farther than that! If you work at it, you can really get your name out there! I would HIGHLY recommend making a Facebook page for your business and promote there, linking back to your Zibbet shop of course so potential customers can purchase your items. 
…a designer, cosmetologist, director…I have plenty of options that I’d be interested in in my mind. I hope that in the future I am not working at some boring old job. The idea of having a job that I do not enjoy sounds horrendous. So any job that I truly love doing sounds great to me. The idea of being young and yet successful in my business/creative endeavors really entices me. I hope that in the next few years, my shop becomes many times more popular than it is currently. I have big dreams, which seem difficult to reach, but I think I can accomplish anything if I truly wish to. Tags: Featured Zibbeters, The Poly Shop
