Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gabby Goodwin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Gabby, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

My mom used to spend 15-20 minutes every morning styling my hair in pigtails, braids and twists with barrettes before pre-school. When she picked me up from school, I was missing half of my barrettes and my hair was all out of place. My mom was so frustrated and always asking me what happened to my barrettes. I didn’t know. I was just playing and being a kid.

My mom was going to the beauty supply store every two weeks to replace my barrettes so not only was she wasting time styling my hair, but also wasting money.

One Sunday after my mom went to buy more barrettes for me, she was sorting my new barrettes by color and getting frustrated again knowing these barrettes would disappear too. She went on social media to rant about how the cheap, poor quality barrettes were constantly falling off and getting lost. She asked if anyone had found barrettes that stayed. Other moms responded with the same frustrations.. Some put rubber bands on top to make them stay, but none had found barrettes that worked.

Our pastor jumped in the conversation and replied to my mom, “Sounds like a market you need to break into.”

A few weeks later, my mom was styling my hair and our pastor’s suggestion must have still been on her mind. She mumbled under her breath “somebody needs to make a bow” not thinking I heard her, but I did.

I jumped out of my seat, “Mommy, are we going to make a bow?”

That’s the question I asked every day until my mom sat down with me for what she just thought would be a science project.

We sat, studied, tested and compared different barrettes and the idea came to create the first double-face double-snap barrette we would soon call GaBBY Bows. We started working on the idea when I was five years old and we started the company when I was seven years old in 2014.

We now have three patents on GaBBY Bows and they come in 15 colors and three designs. We have sold over one million GaBBY Bows in all 50 U.S.. states and 15 countries.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Seventeen-year-old Gabby is the CEO of Confidence. At the age of seven, she and her mom Rozalynn solved the age-old problem of disappearing hair barrettes by inventing GaBBY Bows, the first, patented and non-slip Double-Face Double-Snap Barrette.

GaBBY Bows abd their other curly girl hair accessory solutions remove stress from the styling process so families can bond over beauty.

The company launched and began selling barrettes through its online store at gabbybows.com in February 2014. The mother-daughter duo has since filled online orders to all 50 states in the U.S. and fifteen countries. Confidence products are also carried in retail and beauty supply stores in the US, Canada and South Africa.

Gabby become a six-figure entrepreneur by the sixth grade. She launched the Mommy and Me Entrepreneurship Academy in 2018. More than 50 girls and their mothers from 16 states have enrolled for mentoring and started their own businesses under the Confidence brand.

The children’s book Gabby Invents the Perfect Hair Bow chronicles Gabby’s entrepreneurial journey.

Her story has been featured on The Real, Good Morning America, Aspire TV, NPR How I Built This, The Today Show, BET, HSN and QVC, and in Inc., Forbes, Kiplinger Magazine, Black Enterprise, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Free Enterprise Magazine, JET.com, Essence.com, Madamnoire, AOL and Now This.

Gabby was named a 2015 South Carolina Young Entrepreneur of the Year, the youngest to ever receive this award. The company was named a 2016 SCORE and Sam’s Club American Small Business Champion and the 2016 SCORE Foundation Outstanding Diverse Business of the Year. Gabby was also named the 2018 Black Enterprise Teenpreneur of the Year, the 2019 SpeakerCon Teen Speaker of the Year, a 2020 Women Founders Foundation Network Fast Pitch Junior Judge, and the 2022 U.S. Small Business Administration Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the state of South Carolina. She was surprised with a $200,000 investment from Marcus Lemonis and Gayle King in 2021.

Gabby manages or is engaged in all aspects of the business, from inventory to speaking at schools and business conferences and sales taxes to writing thank you notes to every customer who orders products online.

The straight “A” student loves to read and dance. Her favorite subjects are science, math and language arts. She is also serves as a volunteer in the Edventure Children’s Museum Apprenticeship Program, with various school clubs and her church youth group.

Gabby, Rozalynn and her father Comedian Mike Goodwin and younger brother Michael live in Columbia, SC.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

We care for our customers like family. I write handwritten notes to every online customer and we have a team member dedicated to customer service.

We also have a Facebook community to provide free styling tips and demos and stay connected to our customers and fans. We also have special giveaways in that community. We call this community the “Confidence Family..”

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I recorded a prime time television show in front of a live audience of 500 people when I was nine years old. It was a pitch competition for $50,000. I did my best, but I still lost and I cried on camera.

With cameras still in my face after leaving the stage, the interviewer asked me to share how I was feeling. I said something I still say a lot and believe today.

“NO is just an abbreviation for Next Opportunity.”

Contact Info:

• Website: gabbybows.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/gabbybows
• Facebook: Facebook.com/therealgabbybows
• Linkedin: LinkedIn.com/in/gabbybows
• Twitter: Twitter.com/gabbybows
• Youtube: YouTube.com/c/GaBBYBowsConfidence

Image Credits
Aaron Smalls Photography