By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | A resident of Buford has launched her own business — producing a Cookie Chemistry Lab for children eight and older. It’s already in several stores, and online, all aimed at children during the Christmas season.
The young lady, Crystal Felton, age 30, is hoping that this initial effort at selling her own product will allow her to develop new ideas….and not saying what they are, she has several in mind. She’s a budding entrepreneur, and has the confidence to become successful. Her business is named Epiphany of Chemistry, LLC.
The cookie lab kit is now in Toys R Us, as well as online at K-Mart, Sears and Amazon, and sells for $24.99. The kit contains an apron, recipes, spatula, measuring spoons, three cookie cutters, and three stencils to make icing designs for topping the cookies. There’s also plans for an adult version of the kit, without spatula and measuring spoons, which will sell for $22.
Crystal has 1,000 kits in stock, and can produce another 1,000 within two weeks. In her wildest dream, she hopes to sell 5,000 or more kits.
Felton
The enterprising businesswoman is a native of Athens, Tenn. and began college at Tennessee State. She eventually graduated in chemistry from the University of Tennessee, and has worked in a college lab job, and for DuPont in Lenoir, Tennessee.
After her parents died, Crystal and her sister, Shernita, now 33, moved recently to Buford to be closer to other family members. She used part of her inheritance from her family to initially fund her business venture.
Once she decided she wanted to run her own business, and figuring out what product she would create, plus after getting business counseling in Cleveland, Tenn., about four months ago, she went to the Internet for further help. There she found a patent attorney and got approval of a patent.
Then she found, Linda Parry, president of Product Launchers in New York, to help get her product in major stores. “They’ve really been of great help to me,” Crystal says.
Ms. Parry says of Crystal: “She has a wonderful product, which makes my job easy. It’s a good concept, and there’s nothing else like it on the market. It’s also packaged beautifully, and all we had to do was to put the marketing engine behind it, to give it the lift it needed. Hers stood out. And it’s a clever way to get the children into the kitchen. ”
Then back to the Internet. “I looked online to see which firms could make components for the kit. I found a firm in Minnesota which did a good job for me on my cookie cutters, at a good price.” She came up with the overall design, then went to a graphics person to illustrate the kit.
Crystal says of her venture: “I’ve worked at the corporate level before, and feel that I am mature enough to own my business and go into this venture. I have an ability to understand chemistry, combined this with my love for food, and came up with this science kit for cookie making.”
She continues: “I’ve got other ideas of products to make and not all these ideas are aimed at the kids. This first one is building my confidence. I don’t think I’ll go into another product for at least six months. I want to see how this Chemistry Cookie Lab does first. The patent attorney told me that there was nothing like this in our country, and perhaps some day I can go with this into other countries, too.”
It’s refreshing to see a young person go about an idea with zest, confidence and intelligence. Here’s thinking that Crystal Felton will be successful with this idea.
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