3 Mormon Moms Create Multi-Million Dollar Company

3 Mormon moms, all sisters, looking to make some extra cash created a multi-million dollar company. Lyndsey Ekstrom, Christy Hepworth, and Keri Evans all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with a combined 11 children were looking for ideas to earn some extra spending money when they stumbled upon an untapped market.

Huffington Post recently wrote a story about the sisters’ surprising business sucess. All stay-at-home moms, they often thought of ways that they could work together to earn some extra spending money. “We thought maybe we could each make an extra $400 a month and buy some cute clothes,” Lyndsey said with a smile. “That was our goal. $400 each would be amazing.”

[quote_right]That was our goal. $400 each would be amazing.[/quote_right]

“We talked about starting some sort of business all the time,” Keri said. “We had tried making headbands for babies and we thought about creating homemade lotions and soaps.”

It wasn’t until Lyndsey spent a day at the salon that the gears started turning. “I was watching as they were putting a new product on my toes,” Lyndsey recalled, “and thinking, I’m paying sixty dollars for this and it took minutes. There has to be a way that I can do this at home.”

“She came over afterwards to show us,” Christy added, “and we could see that they were like stickers. We knew we had to figure out exactly what they were.”

After researching online, the sisters discovered that the stickers were a type of nail wrap that adhered to one’s nails after applying heat. The only problem was that they were only available to licensed nail technicians. To the sisters, it didn’t make any sense that such an easy technique was so limited to professionals. “I knew we’d found the answer. But I wondered how we were going to do it. We didn’t know the first thing about vinyl and nails.” said Keri.

With the help of Christy’s husband Adam and some research into materials and vinyl distributors they were able to create a product that was ready to sell. They packaged it up and headed of to the “What a Woman Wants Expo” in Salt Lake City. They hoped to make a few hundred dollars, but when the expo ended they had made $4,000!  Lyndsey Recalled:

[pull_quote_center]“It was just crazy, we couldn’t believe we made all that money! We took ourselves to dinner that night and we each took a hundred dollars. And then put everything else towards supplies — because we had to fill those orders!”[/pull_quote_center]

At their next event, a Christmas fair they made double that amount. It became clear that they had demand for their product. Soon, the little hobby turned side-business was morphing into an operation too large for them to handle. They called their company Jamberry Nails and Adam assumed the role of CEO.

Growing a business and still being a good Mom was a difficult balancing act,

[pull_quote_center]“That first year, it was hard to keep up with the growth and still be home with the children. There were days when we all wondered whether we were being okay moms and doing okay by the business — days where we wondered whether it was worth it.”[/pull_quote_center]

But the sisters were able to find the balance needed. The business brought the sisters families closer together and made it financially possible for all three families to travel and spend vacations together.

Today there are over 20,000 women around the world representing Jamberry Nails, and earlier this year Jamberry paid out 2 million dollars in commissions in one month, a record for the company. Jamberry employes over 50 people and seems to have a bright future and continued demand for their product.

All of this success has been a delightful surprise for the sisters who never anticipated anything more than a small side business. Lyndsey says she and her sisters just wanted to do something enjoyable together and hopefully make some money at the same time,

[pull_quote_center]This is all still surreal to me, we weren’t trying to make millions. We just thought it was something fun to do together.[/pull_quote_center]