Bee Happy Sunshine

We met the 5 sibling owners (Charles, 17, Alexandra, 15, Council, 14, Justice, 13, Eve, 7) of Bee Happy Sunshine at one of our Phoenix area markets recently! Read what they had to say about running their bee-themed business:

CEM: Tell us about your business. How did you first get the idea?

My business is Bee Happy Sunshine, and I run it with my brothers and sisters. We sell locally raised honey and other bee products. I have always been fascinated with trying different kinds of honey, so for my 13th birthday, my parents surprised me and bought me a bee hive without the bees. So, to get bees, I got involved with a local bee club and realized I did not have enough money to buy a nuke of bees. Around that time, my Mom found out about the Children’s Entrepreneur Market, and that was when we all started working together to create a booth to raise money for the bees by selling honey products and other bee-related goods. We also invited customers to become Bee Ambassadors by donating to sponsor the hive and the Queen, and we posted their photos on our Instagram page. After the first market, we raised enough money for our first bee hive.

CEM: What supplies and resources did you need to get going? How did you get ahold of them?

Getting started wasn’t the easiest thing in the world, with all of us trying to figure out who should do what and what each person did best. Beekeeping itself has so much to learn that you can even get a Master’s Degree for it. I am still learning with the help of our local beekeeping club, which has given me access to a couple of great mentors who have made themselves available to answer all of my questions.

We needed everything to get started, and thankfully, the Children’s Entrepreneur Market provided us with a list of everything we needed to have to set up our booth. After we had everything on their list, we needed to get the rest of our supplies, like jars for our honey and materials to make bee jewelry and other bee goods. We also set up an LLC for our business and got a tax ID number and a bank account. My parents gave us the startup capital to get going, and we repaid them with the sales from our first market and lots of backyard labor. Lol.

CEM: Do you have any advice for other aspiring kid entrepreneurs?

My biggest piece of advice would be to get a good supporting team around you… And read the Tuttle Twins.

CEM: How can potential customers get in touch with you?

You can get in touch with us and follow our journey @BEE. HAPPY. SUNSHINE on Instagram or contact us through our email at azbeegoods@gmail.com.

What in the future for Bee Happy Sunshine? We want to add another hive, and we are looking to add an Observation Hive that we can bring with us to shows and other venues. We love to share about bees and how we all can help them – an Observation Hive would be a great tool to help with this.