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While most 15-year-olds might be preoccupied with things like learning to drive, homework, or who they’re crushing on, one Beulaville teenager is hard at work, preparing her business for its next event. Madison Kornegay has been running her own business, 596 Designs, since she was 9 years old, and she doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon.
Mom Tracey Simmons-Kornegay, who also happens to be the Duplin County Health Services director, helps with the business but the vast majority of its day-to-day is done by Madison. “She does all the work, and we just help her sell it,” Simmons-Kornegay said. “We’ve had events every weekend since September.”
Madison started out making and selling earrings, and has moved on to necklaces and bracelets, as well as a few Christmas ornaments. She sells her wares at vendor events like Rose Hill’s Poultry Jubilee or Surf City’s flotilla, and also sells her jewelry wholesale to various boutiques throughout southeastern North Carolina. Products are available via her Facebook page, 596 Designs, as well, but she said vendor events are her bread and butter. This year alone, Madison has attended events in in Washington, New Bern, Kinston, Kenansville, Surf City, Rose Hill, and more.
“I do vendor events every Saturday in the fall,” Madison said.
She started her business when she was just 9 years old. “I started out with flax leather earrings, and my babysitter then, me and her would cut the leather sheets with scissors, and that’s how I got started,” Madison explained.
Earrings are her main product, but she also makes necklaces, bracelets, and other similar items. Once she got a resin kit for Christmas two years ago, she said her business has really taken off.
“I always have been kind of crafty,” Madison said. “My aunt, Beverly Sholar, she would do vendor shows and stuff, and I would go with her, and I decided this was really something I wanted to do. …After I had realized this was something I really enjoyed doing and it was a hobby for me, we decided we would try vendor shows.”
The very first vendor event 596 Designs participated in was Beulaville’s annual Hog Wild Barbecue Cook-Off, and Madison said the very first year, they sold out of almost everything they’d brought to the event. From there, it’s grown to doing events every weekend from September through December, and events here and there in the spring and summer months. She prepared for the busy fall and winter season by creating inventory in the summer, but it turned out not to be enough for the number of events she took part in. She’s already starting on upcoming holiday products for Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and Mardi Gras.
She says the very best advice she’s received was from her mom, who said, “make what you can at home and when you go to shows, put it together.” She added, “Because I’m not really a big social person, so I’ll sit there and put it together, and she’ll sell. I think it also makes people realize, ‘this girl’s actually making her products,’ because they see me doing it. That’s helped with a lot of stress this year. I’m still able to get a lot done instead of doing it [at home], doing it there.”
So, how does a teenager like Madison balance running her own business with schoolwork and playing on East Duplin High School’s volleyball team? “It’s definitely tough,” she said. “Last night, I didn’t go to bed until 12 o’clock. I mix resin and I let it set while I’m asleep, and I’ll get up the next morning early to glue the backs. While I’m at school, they’ll dry. When I get home from school, I look at what homework do I have and sometimes, I go and work for a little bit, and then go back and work on my schoolwork.”
She also gets help from her family on a regular basis, though she admits her dad isn’t a huge fan of her being a businessperson at such a young age. “He really thinks I should be concentrating on school, being a teenager,” she said. “But this is a great thing. I’ve given back to the community, I’m helping people, I’m making money for myself. I’m learning time management. So I think it’s a great thing!”
Those time management skills she’s learned will definitely help Madison as an adult. Though 596 Designs is successful, Madison isn’t sure she wants to make a full-time career out of it. She plans to go to nursing school and then law school, with the ultimate goal of practicing clinical law. So, what does that mean for her business in the future? She said she’s also always wanted to open her own boutique, so that may be a part-time gig for her once she starts her law career.
“I really think the hardest part is starting,” she said. “Once you get started, then you can kind of see like … once you’ve done a couple of things, it gets easier. You just have to find what your thing is.”
