Kinyah Briggs-Bean became a published author and the CEO of her own company, B Chill Lemonade, at the age of 8. Now at 10-years old, Kinyah, she is still running her thriving first company and is about to launch a second one — a new shoe line called Pink Lemonade!
At the age of 6, Kinyah’s father Demetrius Braddock, challenged her to open a business of her own by the time she reaches the age of 10 to save up money for guitar lessons she wanted and to teach her a simple experience for her future. He also thought that if she started young, she still has a lot of time for trial-and-error. What he did not expect is that she could create a winning idea at just eight years old!
“All you need is one opportunity to make it to where you’re trying to go,” Demetrius told Commercial Appeal. “I expected it to happen later. She hit a grand slam at the very beginning.”
Since then, the whole family supported Kinyah with her business. Kinyah, a fifth-grader, serves as the chief executive officer of B Chill. After school, Kinyah finishes her homework and goes to work for some hours each evening. Her 7-year-old brother, Demetrius Braddock II, is the store manager, and he also helps at the store after school.
Her father, who has a degree in accounting and teaches personal finance, business, and entrepreneurship at Memphis School of Excellence High, serves as the chief financial officer. Her mother, who is a former law student, handled the legal side of the company. As the business took off, she decided to drop out of law school to focus on her role as the chief operating officer and run the business during the day while Kinyah is at school.
Despite all her success, Kinyah wanted to be low-profile at school. Her classmates only knew about her business when her teacher learned that she wrote a book entitled Chillin’ My Way to Success: The Phenomenal Life of an 8-Year-Old Entrepreneur and wanted to read it to the class. She thought others might think she is getting special treatment because of it.
“I don’t like them knowing,” Kinyah said. “It could be on a positive side or a negative side. I don’t want to take a chance, so I stick with them, not knowing.”
Shortly, she is set to launch her new shoe line called Pink Lemonade to produce and sell pink and yellow canvas shoes. It is inspired by her great-grandmother, who fought with breast cancer and a portion of the sales will go to breast cancer research.
Meanwhile, Demetrius II is also up for the same challenge, and he plans to open a lawn care service next year. While their parents paid Kinyah’s startup costs, Demetrius II’s paid position as B Chill’s manager allowed him to purchase most of the equipment in his own company.
“There is a lot that comes with it,” Valerie said. “People see us, but they have no idea, as a family, the hurdles that we have crossed to get to the place where we are now.”
