Business

Ties That Bind: Entrepreneur Combines Charity With Business

By Cinde Ingram
The High Point Enterprise, N.C.

WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) Erika Bridge launched “Knot Average” as a charitable operation, selling and making hair accessories for a variety of causes. Every other month, a percentage of sales from custom or pre-designed hair ties is donated to a different charity based on customer nominations.

HIGH POINT

Knot Average is the name Erika Bridges selected for her knotted hair tie business, which doubles as a launching pad to support charities.

Not average also describes Bridges, a 2017 High Point University graduate who donates a percentage of money she makes creating and selling handmade knotted hair ties or wrist bands to different charities her customers nominate.

Her products are available online and in High Point at Simon Jewelers, where custom packs with color schemes unavailable online can be found.

“Customers can nominate where they want money to go and what cause they think needs help,” Bridges said. “For example, April proceeds went to the Autism Society of North Carolina because it’s Autism Awareness Month. It’s part of helping the community be able to give back, too.”

Bridges, 22, first became passionate about giving back to the community because she felt fortunate while growing up in Williamsburg, Virginia.

As a student-athlete, she was “in a whirlwind of recruiting” for field hockey as she neared her high school finish line.

“I heard about High Point University and I thought I would take a look just to see because it was not for field hockey but for track, which was something that was definitely not on my radar,” Bridges said. “I was apprehensive as I walked on the campus because I didn’t have the right mindset. I was thinking, ‘I don’t know why I’m here.’ I didn’t want to run track in college. But once I met the team, coaches and administration at the university, I thought, ‘It looks like I’m running track in college, because this place is amazing.'”

For all four years at HPU, she was on the track and field team. Her demanding schedule as a student-athlete left little time for her to volunteer for the community work some of her classmates were doing and she wanted to do.

“I decided if I started my own business, then it could work on my schedule,” she said. Bridges knew how to sew and initially considered making scrunchies, but reconsidered because it would require an industrial-size sewing machine.

“It just literally hit me one day to do the knotted hair ties because there are so many options in regard to the colors and the prints,” Bridges said. “I gave myself about six months to just think about it and make sure it was something I really wanted to do. I didn’t want to get involved either emotionally or financially in regard to the business and not be completely passionate about it. After about six months, I was more passionate about it than I was in the beginning.”

She shared her business idea with her parents and received their support to start the company. As Bridges developed Knot Average, she visited HPU sorority chapter meetings.

“I partner with the sororities, and whenever they make large orders for their Greek events or rush events, 40 percent of the proceeds go directly to their philanthropies,” she said. “I managed to talk with every sorority on our campus within the last school year.”

Kathy Elliott, assistant professor of entrepreneurship and director of the Center of Entrepreneurship at HPU, recalled Bridges envisioned her business as a nonprofit at its start. “She saw it as doing something just for the right reasons and in a very social way,” Elliott said. “I think what really pushed that company forward for her was the enthusiasm and passion that she had because she had it before she thought of it as a business.”

Entrepreneurs sometimes struggle to share that level of passion for a business with other people.

“Hers just bubbled over everywhere,” Elliott said. “Along with that passion came energy. She was tireless. She worked on that business constantly. She found ways to fit it in around a very busy student schedule. She was on the track team, she was an excellent student, she just had so many things going on and yet she still had this energy to be effective as an entrepreneur. She is just such an impressive young lady.”

When the time for HPU’s Entrepreneurial School Elevator Pitch Competition arrived, Bridges had just had her wisdom teeth removed and wasn’t at peak performance. She thought the competition provided an opportunity to let more people on campus know about her company, but left discouraged because she didn’t place.

“As I was talking on the phone with my parents to tell them my idea didn’t really resonate with anybody, I heard my phone ding,” Bridges said. “I told my parents to hold on while I check it. It was an awesome email from Gary Simon just saying he really liked my company, the idea and my product and he would like to get a chance to meet with me possibly in regard to carrying my product in his store. Then I kind of hit the ground running because I thought ‘Someone else actually believes in this.'”

Simon, owner of Simon Jewelers, had supported HPU’s Entrepreneurial Fund for about 10 years. He was a judge for the Elevator Pitch Competition when Bridges was one of the contestants, and later became her mentor.

“I thought it was a great idea, the hair ties,” Simon said. “I just saw what she was doing, got to know her and said this would be great for me to have in our store.”

Customers who buy the Alex and Ani bracelets from Simon Jewelers can choose a complimentary hair tie from many designs.

“We also sell them for $5 a pack, and we give a portion of that back to the university Entrepreneurial Fund,” Simon said. “I thought it was kind of a neat match since she was from High Point University and we’re supporting High Point University.”

After the Elevator Pitch competition, Bridges managed to brush herself off and focus on the following she had formed on campus and in the community. Her track coach was supportive, although sometimes aggravated about her missing practices, she said.

By the time the HPU Business Plan competition arrived April 20, Bridges was prepared for its application process. Hosted by HPU’s Belk Center for Entrepreneurship and supported by BB&T, the five finalists compete for $25,000 in startup funds. Each finalist presents their business plan through a slide show and a five-minute pitch to a panel of judges.

“You tell them how much money you need, why you need it and how it can impact your business,” Bridges said. “That was phenomenal for me. I won $6,500, and that has completely transformed my business.”

After Bridges was awarded second place, she launched her Knot Average business as a charitable operation, selling and making hair accessories for a variety of causes. Every other month, a percentage of sales from custom or pre-designed hair ties is donated to a different charity based on customer nominations.

In addition to her energy and enthusiasm, Bridges’ willingness to accept Simon’s coaching is part of what helped her succeed, Elliott said.

“She was very receptive to having a mentor,” Elliott said. “A lot of times, young entrepreneurs have a level of confidence where they are really good at what they do and they forget that may not transcend into other parts of their business. But Erika has the entrepreneurial intelligence to know what she didn’t know. When Gary Simon volunteered to be a mentor for her, she quickly accepted that help and worked with him for quite some time.”

As graduation neared, Bridges was getting job offers from New York companies and considering jobs in Washington, D.C., but was taking her last time running track seriously.

She had accepted that she would wait until she got home to really delve into the job-seeking process when she received an Instagram message from J. Douglas Self Jr., the owner of furniture sales rep firm JDouglas.

She at first thought it was a note of thanks because she had worked helping customers shop at his High Point Market showroom. JDouglas represents 18 home brands at the High Point and Atlanta markets.

“It was actually him extending a job opportunity, right in my field of work,” Bridges said. “I’m doing inside sales and marketing. I’m in charge of sales in 37 states and anything international for our company, and the marketing side of the business also, so collateral and social media. So I’ll be back in High Point twice a year for market, which is really exciting.”

Last month, Bridges moved to Atlanta, worked her first Atlanta International Gift & Home Furnishings Market and partnered for charitable outreach with United Apparel, another small company one of her HPU classmates started.

“We basically split money on getting small things they call Blessing Bags, which have toiletries and other necessities,” Bridges said. “We put those into polymailers, those big plastic envelopes, and I took them to a local shelter here in Atlanta called the City of Refuge. It’s basically a functioning city, but it’s a homeless shelter. In some buildings they have health care and in others they have a day care or a learning center or food pantry.”

Bridges invested some of her abundant energy on a canned food drive and is planning a coat drive for when the weather turns cold again. She’s also working on the logistics of a campus ambassador program, which she hopes to roll out in September. She plans to connect with more salons and yoga studios to expand sales and community impact of Knot Average.

“It was really something that just hit me one day, and it has grown to be a lot more than I expected,” Bridges said.

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