Celebrate Small Businesses

March 29th is Mom and Pop Business Owners Day. According to Made Urban, this day was created by two siblings who wanted to celebrate their parents who created a multi-million dollar clothing business from a small hat shop. 

As a small business, we are thrilled to celebrate small businesses! We won't just be celebrating on March 29th either. It's important to support small businesses year-round. Small businesses are the backbone of the US economy!

According to a Forbes report, small businesses accounted for 62% of new jobs created from 1995-2020. Historically, small businesses have also always employed more people than big corporations. They stimulate local economies through paychecks and taxes, and challenge the status quo. Small businesses are highly sought after by large corporations because of their ability to innovate and rethink the way an industry operates. 

On this Mom and Pop Business Owners Day, think about supporting your favorite local and online small businesses! Hopefully, we can convince you to support our brand as well. Don't worry, we're going to walk you through what it means to us to be a small business. 

The Beginnings of CONQUERing

Tammy Nelson has been an innovator her entire life. She started Be Sunny Gifts, LLC in 2011 and started selling various inspirational products to her local Cincinnati community. Things really began to take off in 2020 when she, and her son Jake Nelson, put out fidget rings that changed the world. Thus, CONQUERing was born. 

Since its inception, CONQUERing has grown from simple fidget ring offerings. You can now get different types of jewelry, jewelry holders, essential oils, merchandise, and additional products that are aimed at empowering our consumers. Via, one of Tammy's daughters, has also gotten more involved with the business and has created her own jewelry designs. The Nelson siblings were even able to attend Milan Fashion Week to showcase the brand at the Artistar Jewels Exhibit!

Our team is small yet mighty. Content creators, fulfillment specialists, and more all come from Tammy's local community. Most of us have known each other for years and continue to support each other as we grow and as the business grows!

The heart of CONQUERing, besides empowerment, is innovation. The brand is constantly coming up with new designs, new partnerships, and setting new trends. There's a reason that the brand spent three consecutive years being recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest growing businesses in America. 

CONQUERing in the Community

One of the most important attributes of being a small business is being able to support our community. There are different ways we're able to do this. Being an online business allows us to support our online community, in addition to our local Cincinnati community. 

Supporting our Online Community

We are uniquely positioned as a small business because we operate primarily through ecommerce. That means our community isn't limited to our physical location. We've been able to give back to the online community in a couple of ways. 

First, our CONQUERCares program allows us to give back to charities that matter to our brand. These are a mix of nation-wide charities and local charities. Our online community allowed us to expand our local community reach beyond the Cincinnati area. We are able to donate profits to organizations like Girls for a Change that empowers girls of color in the Central Virginia area and Bernie's Book Bank that distributes children's books to underserved babies, toddlers, and elementary-aged children in Chicagoland. 

Second, we've created an online CONQUERing community that helps ensure our products represent them. Tammy frequently sets up TikTok livestreams to connect with the CONQUERing community. During one of these livestreams, customers voiced that they'd like to see some fidget designs in Braille. Tammy and Jake then enlisted the help of Ashley Eisenmenger, a blind member of the CONQUERing community, to help come up with designs and ensure the messages could be easily understood. 

As a brand, we love being able to connect with our consumers online. It's important as a business to listen to the needs of the people we serve. The mission of CONQUERing is empowerment, and we wouldn't be able to effectively empower our customer base if we don't listen to what empowers them! 

 Supporting Our Local Community

As a Cincinnati-Native myself, I would be remiss not to mention the work CONQUERing does to support the local Cincinnati community. 

As I mentioned earlier, the people who work to make CONQUERing what it is all come from the local community! Beyond those of us that work directly for the brand, Tammy also sources models for lifestyle shots from the Cincinnati area and uses a local Cincinnati photographer. 

Through the CONQUERCares program, we also directly support local charities. There's the Women's Fund of Greater Cincinnati that works tirelessly to make long-term systemic change for working women who are striving to be self-sufficient. We also support Dress for Success Cincinnati that supplies women with appropriate clothing to wear to job interviews and provides a safe space for them to reclaim their lives. We also want to call out Transform Cincy that curates new wardrobes for transgender and non-gender conforming youth at no cost. These are just a few of the amazing organizations we're able to support to make our community better. 

Tammy also speaks at local universities to supply students interested in entrepreneurship with advice. When I was a student at Miami University, I was a member of Women in Business and Tammy came and spoke to us about her career and how she got to where she is. To this day, it is one of the presentations that stood out to me. It was dynamic, interesting, and provided incredibly helpful tips on entrepreneurship. 

Supporting Small Businesses

Small businesses are beautiful in the sense that they are always looking out for each other. As our brand has developed into what it is today, we've been able to collaborate with small businesses and artists on some of our designs. 

We have a collaboration with Lion Latch, an innovative jewelry holder brand that was founded by Lerin, a mom of two who created the brand in 2015 on Kickstarter when she accidentally destroyed her engagement ring. Since 2015, the brand has been featured on Shark Tank and blossomed into a wildly successful business. We are proud to have the "Love at First Click Lion Latch®" as an offering to our consumers. 

We also have collaborated with Resin Rockers, a family-owned resin company that ensures crafters are getting the highest quality products for their projects. They also have a focus on helping beginners learn and perfect their craft. We have three different collaborations with Resin Rockers: a Fall/Halloween Vessel Collection, a Winter Vessel Collection, and a Crafting Essentials Kit.

Our Vessel spinners have also allowed us to collaborate with Chelsey Drake, the creator of Complementary Shop, and Emily Hutchinson, a Cape Cod artist. We collaborated with Chelsey on the Wildflower Vessel and the Initial Vessel. We collaborated with Emily on the Ocean Vessel. 

We also sell our rings in various small businesses across the country. Close to us in Cincinnati, we sell our rings at Sara's House in Hamilton, OH! If you want to see what other stores carry our rings, check out our store locator to see if there's a small business local to you to support. 

Beyond product collaborations, we've also been able to partner with various small businesses to offer giveaways too our products. If you can't tell, we truly want to see other small businesses succeed and thrive. 

Shop at a Small Business Today

Today, and every day, consider supporting a small business. Try out that new coffee shop that opened down the street or buy a bouquet from your local florist. Get a fidget ring for a friend or reach out to that person on TikTok whose embroidered sweatshirts you just adore. 

We hope this post has convinced you to not only shop at our small business, but at other small businesses from this day forward. We thank you for your continued support and for helping us become the brand we are today.