By Hannah Falcon
On a hot July night in Lufkin, Kimberlin Arnold couldn’t sleep. Memories of her time in Haiti, where she built wells to bring fresh water to developing communities, popped into her head. Arnold wondered what more she could do. Although she enjoyed her visits, mission trips were not enough for Arnold. While scrolling through Pinterest in an effort to turn off her mind, Arnold saw a link to a website explaining how to make tassel earrings. Arnold says it was as if a light bulb appeared above her head, and she knew how she could help. Around 3 a.m., Arnold texted her friends to ask for help in her first entrepreneurial pursuit.
With a pair of tassel earrings, a camera, and a website her friends helped her build, Arnold began her nonprofit jewelry business, Renmen Nicole Jewelry. All proceeds go toward the established charity Water to Life, which has been building wells in developing countries including Haiti and Cuba since 2015.
Arnold is one example of a larger trend startup experts have noticed. College students are choosing to give back through entrepreneurial means to solve a problem larger than just paying their own bills.
Renmen Nicole Jewelry was founded by Arnold the summer before her freshman year at Texas A&M University. In a few months, the handmade jewelry business gained recognition from local newspapers, magazines, and boutiques who wanted to put her products in their stores. Customers and store owners alike said they can relate to her desire to serve, says Arnold.
“I was scared that no one would buy anything, and it would be a waste of time and waste of an idea,” says Arnold. “I really thought I was going to be disappointed, but after the first order I was super excited. More and more came in and I’ve gotten over 100 orders now. It’s crazy to know that I’m actually making a difference.”
Although Arnold’s story is a successful one, 90 percent of all startups fail, according to Forbes magazine. Stephanie Burns, communications coordinator for the McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship at Texas A&M, says she also sees this. The number one reason Burns says she sees student startups fail is because they have not done consumer research to make sure people actually want the product. In order to avoid this problem, the McFerrin Center encourages students to use the lean launch method.
“Lean launch methodology makes you go through [your business plan] in a more efficient manner so that you save time, you save effort, and you save money,” says Burns.
Student entrepreneurs such as Arnold measure success differently than business owners more focused on making money. Julie Lenzer says success is defined by the entrepreneur’s goal for the business. Lenzer is an experienced entrepreneur who worked in the Obama administration as the director of the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship within the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration and is currently the chief innovation officer at the University of Maryland.
“In business success, the chances are actually fairly low,” says Lenzer. “It depends on what you mean by success, because everyone has a different definition of success, and I think that’s a good thing.”
For Arnold, success is not defined by monetary value, but rather by how much good she can do for the people of Haiti and Cuba.
“The goal for me was really just to help, and it turned into me providing water filters in Haiti and Cuba,” says Arnold. “I’m literally making a school function in Haiti, paying the teachers and everything.”
As a mentor, Lenzer says her goal is to grow the entrepreneur rather than the business, because whether or not the business is successful, the entrepreneur has the mindset to change the world in some capacity.
“I think the entrepreneurial mindset is something everyone can benefit from whether they start a business or not,” says Lenzer. “An entrepreneurial mindset is really about seeing an opportunity, seeing how something can be better, and then devising a solution that is so good people are willing to pay for it.”
