We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kelly Neville. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kelly below.
Kelly, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?
When Kelly was a little girl we always thought that the inclusion that we fought so hard for in school would carry over into adulthood and employment. After all, inclusion was preparing ALL the students to work together and provide awareness to a new group of young individuals entering the workforce. I imagined us eating breakfast in the morning then leaving to our separate jobs and coming back home to reflect on our day. As Kelly entered high school and then transition she had vocational classes and job “training sites” that the students could try out and decide if they were interested or could see themselves working in a particular industry. The selections were limited and none really interested Kelly. Nobody was ever offered a job as these were training sites. It all became clear that employment might be trickier than once thought. We also came to realize that a 40-hour work week would be too much for Kelly and started to think seriously about what her day would look like once school was over for her. At the same time, we were trying to wrap our heads around SSI and SSDI government disability programs for Kelly as she was now an adult. It was confusing and so we went to any workshop offered on the subject to try and gain an understanding of how an individual with a disability qualifies and what benefits each provides.
Kelly landed a job at a dentist’s office and while we were thrilled at the fact that she had a job with competitive pay it was only for 4 hours a week. This would not fill her week or provide enough income for her. One thing that we learned about SSDI is that there are certain benefits available to those who earn and pay into social security. We were striving for Kelly to be able to earn enough work credits to secure early entrance into Medicare. An individual with a disability that earns 6 work credits before the age of 24 would qualify for this benefit and it was something that we felt was a goal to aim for. By working only 4 hours a week we would not even earn 1 work credit in a calendar year. I came to the realization that unless Kelly found multiple part time jobs this goal was off the table. Basically, I was challenged to find a way to balance Kelly’s interests and abilities in the job search and find a way to manage the income she received to work toward the work credits she needed to achieve this goal. Since I was working at the time and planned to quit when Kelly exited the school system it was becoming clear to me there had to be a better way to help Kelly have a fulfilled and productive life and work in an area that filled her with joy and still earn money. I also was not thrilled on what my life might be looking like after leaving a job I loved to help Kelly in this next chapter of her life.
Then came the lightbulb moment! Kelly has always been a creative person. Her love of fashion, style, bling, and sparkle were her passions and she was always crafting something or creating things. Maybe we should explore creating our own job and focus on making it fit her passion along with something that we could market and earn a paycheck from. Kelly had a lot of jewelry and people would often comment on it and Kelly used to joke that she had a “passion for fashion” and would own her own jewelry company one day. It was always a joke and now I was seeing it as something right in front of us all along! I also held a degree in fashion merchandising and used to work in buying offices, so this area was familiar to me.
Kelly and I had a lot of talks about what we wanted this to be. We settled on beaded jewelry that Kelly could design and create and decided on the name Special Sparkle® as it describes both Kelly and her jewelry as our company name. But I wasn’t sure she could do it independently, for a length of time and if she would like it. I was also concerned about how we would go about selling these creations. After a trip to Hobby Lobby and some online ordering we set it up and Kelly became the artist, creative director and entrepreneur she always said she was. It was easy for her. Her fine motor was always good and she blossomed in confidence and creativity. Above all else, though, is that she loved what she was doing. We became a mother/daughter team and work well together. We had some setbacks along the way, had to figure out some accommodations and modifications, and seek some help from Score.org for some business guidance, but we worked through each step and grew. We are in our 12th year of Special Sparkle® and we continue to learn and grow and have loved our journey since day one!
Kelly, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Special Sparkle was created to assist Kelly, a young woman with Down syndrome, in leading a fulfilled and productive life after school came to an end for her. She loves fashion, style and bling so what better way to express that than to create fashionable jewelry! We are a mother/daughter team where we design together and Kelly makes ALL the jewelry. Special Sparkle is built on the belief that everyone deserves the right to become active members in their communities for work, play and to live. By providing supports and opportunities to thrive we achieve both individual success and purpose, as well as become advocates to show what individual with differing abilities can achieve when given the chance. Kelly loves what she does and expresses herself through her jewelry. Her bracelets are all crafted by her and she stands behind her work. This company provided Kelly with the opportunity to live her best life by pursuing her passion for fashion and to be an advocate for individuals with differing abilities. She loves to “surprise people with her talents”! We learned early on at craft fairs that people were skeptical of her claim that she makes all the jewelry. Kelly now demonstrates when we are at fairs to show people what she can do. We also want to engage with people to get them to know Kelly and to raise their awareness of Down syndrome.
We are located in Illinois and sell at local craft shows throughout the year. We also developed an online store, specialsparkle.com, where we have proudly shipped to all 50 states! There are more than 100 beaded bracelet styles to choose from and we are adding new items all the time. There are also a handful of stores across the country that sell Special Sparkle now as well. This recent venture came about when we were unable to sell at craft fairs during the pandemic and it has opened up another avenue for us. Most recently we made Special Sparkle a registered trademark!
We have been asked to speak on our business to schools and organizations to bring awareness to entrepreneurship and the benefits they bring and we have enjoyed this opportunity. We want to encourage others to think about what they have a passion for and to give hope to families that there is a way to create the life you want to live. We received help along the way and we believe in giving back.
We are proud that we have been successful in making Special Sparkle® what it is today, to continue to love our time together and provide beautiful jewelry at a reasonable price and to bring awareness of what an individual with a disability can do when given the opportunity.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Over the years Special Sparkle® has become known at many craft fairs in the area. We have met and become friends with some of the other vendors over the years and we have a great time at these shows because of them. Many local customers and frequent visitors of the fairs will stop by to say hello and chat with Kelly. As we have grown and learned about different shows we have expanded our schedule and have a very busy 4th quarter. That all changed when Covid began. Because individuals with Down syndrome are at a higher risk for complications we were especially cautious. Most shows were initially cancelled and then the next year some opened but we were still unsure if we should take the risk. Craft shows are our biggest source of income. It was something that made Covid even more scary for us. Not only did Kelly’s social life change drastically, so did her work life. It was not an easy time for Kelly and difficult to understand why this was happening and when it would be over. During this time, we had to up our presence on social media, pursued several opportunities to speak via zoom, and expanded our business to sell wholesale to some businesses for in-store or gift box promotions. We also took the time to add many more items to our website. We also took time to register Special Sparkle® as a trademark. It is very time consuming to do these things but we had the time and used it to grow in different ways.
We are back now with many scheduled craft fairs, which makes Kelly very happy. Reflecting back on the past few years we can be proud about how we navigated the unknown territory of a pandemic and pivoted when life changed overnight.
Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?
When we first started Special Sparkle® almost 12 years ago we used word of mouth, Facebook and looked for local craft fairs to become a vendor. Some of our friends had home parties for us to bring awareness and we looked for any opportunity to send donations for raffles or fundraisers. We just needed to bring awareness and to create opportunities to sell items so that Kelly could get paid. We also paid someone to build us a website and someone else to photograph our bracelets. Every little step we took was new to us and took a great deal of time. We learned through trial and error which fairs were better for us and what we needed bring to the venue. We learned about shipping and taxes. We figured out how to organize our supplies and merchandise our displays. We were small and trying to find any way to grow. Everything changed the day we received a phone call about a person named Chris Ulmer from Special Books by Special Kids wanting to interview us. We knew who Chris was because he had a video that went viral from when he was a special education teacher in Florida and he recorded how he greeted his students as they entered his classroom. He came by our house with his cameras and sat down with Kelly and me and asked us a bunch of questions. He was so friendly and casual and Kelly did a great job telling our story.
As Chris was leaving our house he told Kelly to get ready and that his videos reach half a billion people! We were not sure if we heard him correctly.
A few weeks later as I was dropping Kelly off at summer camp for a week I received a phone call from Chris saying that he finished editing the piece and that he would be publishing it later that evening. We laughed at the timing of it. As I returned home I saw that we had over 50 orders, more than we usually received in a year! As the night went on the orders kept coming in. I knew something was up when I started seeing orders from across the globe! I had no idea that our website would even take international orders. We had to shut the website down at 336 orders because it was just too much and Kelly wasn’t even home! My neighbors all pitched in and we printed off and addressed all 336 order envelopes. We organized how many of each style needed to be made upon Kelly’s return from camp and ordered any supplies that were needed. It was exhilarating and heartwarming at the support we received.
When I picked Kelly up from camp 5 days later we had a joyful ride home discussing what she missed at home all week. Kelly got straight to work and we were able to ship out all the orders in about 2 weeks. In hindsight I wish I would have left our website open to orders within the USA, but I was overwhelmed. We gained thousands of followers and it was the most significant boost to our business. We will forever be grateful to Chris and Special Books by Special Kids for the impact his interview had on our business.
Since then we have grown considerably and this new-found success gave us the confidence and motivation to be more. I learned how to design my own website and take my own photographs thanks to some advancements in technology and research. We branched out into more styles and designs and took on more shows. Kelly had more invitations to speak and that is always motivating to her. It is amazing how one positive step can lead to so many more positive steps.
Contact Info:
- Website: specialsparkle.com
- Instagram: @specialsparklejewelry
- Facebook: Special Sparkle