|
Mermaid enthusiast dives into business with AquaTails
Mar 12, 2010 (The Gazette - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Jerilyn Winstead hopes to make waves with her new venture.
The Colorado Springs mother of four is turning her passion for the sea and mermaids into a business: AquaTails, which makes and sells mermaid tails.
Winstead, who grew up near the ocean in Sao Paulo, Brazil, has long had a love of all things mermaid. She and daughters Julia, 13, and Shannon, 12, started hitting the pool wearing homemade mermaid costumes a couple of years ago after finding a YouTube video with instructions on how to make a basic tail.
"It's just really, really fun and it's a good workout," she says of mermaiding.
After a story appeared in The Gazette last summer on her unusual pursuit, Winstead said, "I had several people tell me, 'You should make tails, you should start a business'."
Inspired by the book "Millionaire Maker" by Loral Langemeier, and intrigued by the notion of a home-based, Internet-driven business, Winstead dove into creating AquaTails. She said she shares an entrepreneurial spirit with her husband, Sean, who is one of the founders of a software start-up, Four Roads.
Winstead got started by taking an online course on how to market a Web site. She also has turned to resources such as SCORE, which offers free business counseling.
In researching the business, she found a half-dozen or so companies already making mermaid tails. She's seeking to set her company apart by making "the best tails for the best prices." Her tails range from about $100 for a simple kid's tail to $600 or so for a more realistic, neoprene tail for "the more serious mermaider." Other companies' top tails go for about $1,000, she said.
Winstead also points to a wider selection than others in terms of fabric and design.
"I have all these design ideas just coming out of my head like crazy," she said. Down the road, she plans to sell matching swimsuit tops and accessories such as necklaces and other jewelry -- "things a mermaid would wear."
A seamstress makes the tails while Winstead devotes her time to running and promoting the business. To spread the word, she and some young friends put on a demonstration at the Downtown Aquarium in Denver -- though the buoyancy of the salt water made it a bit of a challenge, she said. She also did a demo at Divers Reef in Colorado Springs, where she's planning to hold mermaid birthday parties and classes.
"It's kind of a unique thing to watch," said Josh Kimmel, owner of Divers Reef. "I'm not sure how it will go over quite yet."
Winstead just opened her online store and made her first sale this week to a customer in Canada.
Most people, she said, haven't heard of mermaiding. She plans to change that.
"I want to be the one to tell the world about mermaiding, to bring the magic to everybody."
--
Contact the writer at 636-0272.
To see more of The Gazette, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.gazette.com. Copyright (c) 2010, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
[ Back To Homepage ]
|
Home
Featured Article Archives
eNews
RSS FEED
