A social life, good grades, adequate sleep. Pick two; welcome to college. So where does running your own business fit in?
Somehow sophomore Jill McFee has managed to successfully have all four and still have time to spare.
At 14, McFee purchased $80 worth of beads to begin her company, which she calls “Jewelry by Jill.”
“I used to spend hours reading a bead magazine and wishing I had a reason to buy some of them,” McFee said. “My dad told me he would match however much money I could come up with and I could pay him back when I started making money.”
McFee worked hard and made enough money to pay him back in her first two weeks of production. Jewelry by Jill now has an approximate net worth of $8000 after five years in the running.
McFee’s products include earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rings, pendants, buttons and much more. She also does decoupage on things like eyeglass cases, pens and bookmarks.
Prices range from $1.50 for buttons up to $75 and higher for specialized pieces.
“I’ve done jewelry for about five or six wedding parties,” McFee said. “Some of the brides found me online or at the market in my hometown of Grinnel, Iowa where I have a booth. I designed all of their pieces individually depending on their dresses and color schemes.”
McFee also has her pieces for sale in several stores. A pie shop in Maryland sells her buttons on their pastry counter. She also has jewelry at the Jane Austen Welcome Center in the United Kingdom. Both of these businesses found Jewelry by Jill online.
Although her success thus far is by no means minor, McFee has larger goals for her company.
“At home, I pay $100 and have a space in the local market for the whole season, but being in Atchison doesn’t exactly make that possible,” McFee said. “I would really love to sell more things online since I have trouble getting to my market while I’m at school.”
She also admits to wanting a bigger selection to sell.
“If I had more pieces, I could rent a space in an art and jewelry or gift store and have more consistent sales,” McFee said.
On top of hand-making all of the trinkets and accessories she sells, McFee also handles the financial side of Jewelry by Jill.
Her father is an accountant and taught her everything she needed to know to handle her own business, McFee said.
“My parents are undoubtedly my biggest supporters. My mom helps me with display design and my dad taught me finance,” McFee said.
A comment from McFee’s father emphasizes her point.
“Like any successful entrepreneur, Jill has worked tirelessly over the past seven years to ‘extend the brand’ and move into new markets as well as helping others launch their own businesses,” Lee McFee said. “She has worked hard to develop her business while balancing school, a busy extracurricular schedule, family and friends.”
The key to McFee’s schedule management is simple. She enjoys what she does, all of it.
“Making jewelry is how I de-stress. I make the jewelry and other things during my downtime and I don’t get burnt out because I love it,” McFee revealed. “It feels more like a hobby than a job.”
Her roommate, Kate Marin, gets to see a lot of the pieces while they’re being made.
“Making her products is really what Jill loves to do,” Marin said.
“I have bought a lot of her stuff and it’s so beautiful. She’s quite the artist, I know she’ll be very successful one day.”
McFee’s products can be found at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
