Institute for Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurial Education Partner
"Why not try this?" Those were Kevin Garza's thoughts as he began thinking about starting his own business.
Today, entrepreneurs Kevin Garza and Karina Warfel, both college students at EIU and recent Arcola High School graduates, shared their very different entrepreneurial stories with us. Warfel was in the 2023 Illini Prairie CEO program, but Garza's path was quite different.
His freshman year in college, Kevin Garza started his own business selling sneakers online. (Check out @kgki.cks on Instagram.) After watching some YouTube videos and using money from his savings, Garza started reselling Nike and other exclusive sneakers using social media.
"The first three people I did business with took money from me," Garza says. But he persevered and has grown KGKi.cks into a six-figure business. This year, his personal sales goal is $750,000; last year he sold over $600K.
Garza, who studies accounting and entrepreneurship at EIU, stresses the importance of building a loyal client base. "It's scary sometimes. These items aren't cheap, and you don't find someone everyday who wants to spend the money." But, if you give good service, offer good prices, and get your customer what they need, Garza has found that his clients keep coming back. "Sometimes you make a deal and don't make a lot of money, but you network and build [your] client base."
Having done his homework, he realized his first year in business was all about getting people to know who he was. He didn't make much money that year, but that wasn't his goal. Yet. Then in February 2022, "It just blew up." He went from inconsistent monthly sales to over $63,000.
Garza's business exists primarily on social media - Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook - where he has 8,000 followers. "I knew going into it that [Arcola] was small and I was going to have to figure out how to find people out of state." And he did. While he claims not to be tech savvy, he stressed that content creation on a regular basis is key. "Put some style into it," he says.
"As much as I dislike TikTok, posting reels and video content in general, and showing your face helps." Garza echoed what we have heard previously from Cassie Yoder (Cass Concepts): Share your personality, not just your product.
Karina Warfel's company is very much a reflection of her personality. Karina's Custom Cards was her CEO project company. At EIU, Warfel studies Studio Art and Spanish. Her cards are custom creations, hand-drawn then printed, then hand water-colored. While she is quite busy as a college student, she still operates his business as time allows, having just completed a 50 card custom order. That may not seem like a lot of cards to some of us, but when you hand paint the cards, it's a big order.
Warfel stressed that the connections made in the CEO program can lead in many positive directions. In fact, last summer, both of her summer jobs came from CEO connections; and, in college she has met students from other CEO programs and bonded over the shared experience.
"CEO has been more than just a class I went to," says Warfel.
She told this year's class that the upcoming Trade Show is "your shining moment". All year has been building up to this, so she advised us to put time and effort into how the booth looks.
"Sell yourself, especially the service-based businesses. [Customers] have to trust you, to like you," Warfel says.
Like Garza, Warfel uses social media for Karina's Custom Cards. "I can control the rate of business by not posting as much." That comes in handy for her during her busy times as a college student. If she does not have the time to take orders, she slows down how often she posts; if her time frees up and she's able to accept orders, she posts more frequently.
Warfel and Garza also shared some practical advice, like which payment services work best for them, how to use advanced social media features, like bots, and automated responses, and the importance of building trust.
Thank you, Karina Warfel & Kevin Garza, for meeting us early on a Friday morning and sharing your stories of entrepreneurial success! There were bits of wisdom each of us could take away and apply to own businesses today!
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