Hannah Dupay, Woman Entrepreneur, Goodie Girl Golf

Allison Dorst, the entrepreneur behind Pinks and Greens, sent Hannah my way.  How could I not be absolutely delighted and intrigued by Hannah who is an 11 year old entrepreneur.  What a great role model for other young women who want to start their own businesses.  I emailed her Mom and set up a time to talk before she headed off to school one morning so we could talk about Goodie Girl Golf.  

Hannah was born in Glendale California before moving to St Helena Montana at the young age of four months where she stayed until she was two.  Then the family moved to Boise where they live today.  Her fathers side of the family lives in Idaho and her mothers side lives in Montana.  Her father wanted to be an architect and works in civil engineering while going to school to an advanced degree in that area.  Her Mom not only monitors Hannahs facebook and twitter accounts she is the backbone behind the business while she goes to school to be a radiologist. 

Grandpa Max, her Mom's dad, got her into golf.  He gave Hannah her first putter at age 3.  They started to play together when she was 8.  She really took to it and got her friends to play too.  There isn't a golf team at the school but they know the high school golf team coach who is helpful.  

Hannah started playing in tournaments during the summer months at 8.  As she got older she started doing more tournaments including practicing in the winter months to get ready for the summers.  The idea for Goody Girl Golf came to her because she kept losing her ball markers.  She didn't have pockets and did not like wearing hats.  Originally she would use a leaf to mark her ball but began to use her hair clip instead.  She always wore a hair clip to keep her bangs out of her eyes.  She was getting ready for a tournament one day and she put her hair piece down and it connected to her clip that was there because of a magnet.  She took a ball marker into the hair piece and it stayed.  She loved it but wanted it to look nice so she started to design hair pieces with magnets for the ball markers.

The first prototypes were not very good.  She knew she wanted to use flowers.  Hannah went to Wallmart and bought stickers, magnets and flowers.  She continued to play around until it looked good.  Once she had one that she liked they began to contact manufacturers.  Ends up she is the first in the golf hair accessory market.  She has a patent pending on her product.  She began to get media attention when she took her first booth at the Golf Show (see the video above).

Hannah has learned a lot about business.  She said making cookies and selling them is a lot easier.  So far she has sold 800 pieces.  Orders come in over her website and they fulfill them from her home.  They are just beginning to look for distributors.  They plan on doing more trade shows in the future.  The money is going back into the business and eventually a college fund.  

Next year Hannah enters junior high school.  It is not always easy having a business because sometimes you just don't have enough time for your friends.  She works hard at seeing her friends on the weekend to make up for it.  

Hannah filled a void in her life by creating a hair accessory for golf.  Someone is producing their flowers in Montana and the ball markers in Idaho.  There will be a new line coming out that will appeal to older women.  She wants to do clothing for junior golfers too.  She has learned how to build a business and how quickly things can change and that retail/ecommerce is hard work. Hannah says iIt would have never been as big as it is now if it wasn't for her Mom pitching in.

Hannah is full of energy and life.  A very articulate young girl who is an impressive woman entrepreneur.