How Kate Glantz got her first taste of the thrill of the sale

Every entrepreneur has to start somewhere. In Lemonade Stand, we profile a local entrepreneur’s first venture or first job. Tell us about yours.

Some people, like Kate Glantz, caught the entrepreneurship bug early.

The founder of Heartful.ly told Technical.ly she had a myriad of business schemes as a child, but one of the earliest was selling jewelry on the front steps of her mother’s art gallery in Arizona. This first foray into entrepreneurship tied in nicely with her first job — helping complete sales at the gallery.

“Starting around the age of 10, I was expected to help out at ‘the store’ whenever my mom was in a pinch,” Glantz wrote in an email. “She ran a super old-school operation, so there was no computer system. I would manually calculate people’s purchases and run their cards through the machine — sometimes totaling thousands of dollars. Her regulars were used to me, but new customers were always visibly nervous that a child was handling their Visa. (In retrospect, this is really funny.)”

But this wasn’t where the young Glantz’s passion lay.

“I didn’t mind the work, but as an ‘aspiring artist’ I was far more interested in pushing my own wares. When I wasn’t needed behind the register, I’d sit with a tackle box full of colorful beads and string in front of her store forcing people to literally walk around me to get inside. I let them know I could do a custom order while they shopped and that my prices were fair and thanks to two summers in the art shack at Camp Charles Pearlstein, the quality was stellar.”

Now those are some serious sales chops.

“I can’t remember how much money I made or what the jewelry looked like, but I’ll never forget the rush of the sale. The idea of creating something from nothing and convincing other people it had value — be it a bracelet, a game or an imaginary friend — is something I’ve reveled in from the womb.”

Today, when she’s not spending nights and weekends working on Heartful.ly, Glantz is lending her passion and expertise to new entrepreneurs at SEED SPOT — helping them create products and services of value.