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April 7, 2008

North Kato woman finds success online

Homemade items help entrepreneur take off

By Tim Krohn

NORTH MANKATO — Jenna Lou Dauer’s home-based business grew out of teenage boredom.

“I was in high school and just bored so I started sewing. I ended up with so much stuff I didn’t know what to do with it.”

What the 20-year-old Dauer has been doing with her handmade purses, wallets, bags and accessories for the past two years is selling them across the country and overseas via the Internet.

The young entrepreneur has built the business to the point she quit her job and took a break from college to pursue it full time from her North Mankato home.

The key to her online success has been Etsy.com, a popular Web site that allows people to sell their handmade items.

“Etsy does a good job of promoting and helping you,” Dauer said.

Dauer, a New Ulm native, said starting and building her own business has been a dizzying learning experience. Being a child of the Internet age, Dauer got much of her business education at the computer.

“I learned a lot of what I need online. Etsy has a lot of resources and forums. I had a million questions and there are a lot of people who were willing to share and help,” Dauer said.

The key to a strictly online business, she said, is constant attention to details and customers.

“When you’re dealing online there are so many things that can be confused. You have to really communicate well with people, be patient and polite.

“I communicate with people all over the world. Just meeting different people is fun.”



For complete story, see the Monday, April 7, print edition of The Free Press or sign onto our e-edition.

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