Today we’d like to introduce you to Lily Warren.
Sweet Bee Sisters is owned and operated by the three Warren sisters, Lily (18), Chloe (17), and Sophie (15).
We began our entrepreneurial journey in 2009, shortly after our family started beekeeping. We were extremely excited with the prospect of turning the beekeeping project into a honey business! However, we soon learned that our hives only produced enough honey to supply our hungry family and a handful of neighbors, but that there was a surprising and intriguing bee by-product: beeswax. Was there something we could do with the beeswax so it wasn’t wasted? With the popularity of beeswax lip balm, we quickly started researching recipes. We wanted natural ingredients and a great consistency. We made a few batches and people loved it! Our parents thought a lip balm business would be a wonderful learning experience. So we ordered all the necessary items to produce our lip balms on a larger scale and we were off and running!
Over the years we’ve made all kinds of changes here and there to our business: expanding our product line, developing more great flavors, improving our brand, and building a large network of loyal customers!
Being in business as Sweet Bee Sisters is awesome. We’re learning a ton about business, working together as sisters, and providing great products to appreciative customers! We can’t wait to see where this all leads!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
One of our biggest struggles of our business has been the fact that we are kids. We have found that people often don’t take us seriously and think that we are not good businesswomen because of our age. Although this has been a big challenge with our business, we have learned more about how a business interacts with other businesses and how to keep going in the midst of criticism.
Please tell us about Sweet Bee Sisters.
Sweet Bee Sisters is an all-natural skin-care product business. We make lip balms, lotion bars, sugar scrubs, beard balms, and many more from beeswax. We started our business in 2009 when we were 5, 7, and nine years old. We are known as a successful business run by kids. We strive to use our business as a platform to promote young entrepreneurship all across the country as well as promoting bee awareness. We also have started private labeling our products for other companies to use or sell as promotional items. Some of those companies include: Snooze an A.M. Eatery, Denver University, and various other companies.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Lily: I have fond memories of visiting our friends’ ranch in Wyoming and helping them brand the cattle. We got to ride horses and we found a little kitten in the barn.
Chloe: My favorite childhood memory was when my sister and I went to Guatemala to learn Spanish for a month. We were able to really be invested in the community down there and experience a different culture for an extended amount of time.
Sophie: My favorite childhood memory was when I went to a camp in Missouri called Kanakuk for a month. I was only seven years old and I developed a sense of responsibility because my parents let me be away from them for that long. I also really enjoyed all of the activities and people there.
Contact Info:
- Website: sweetbeesisters.com
- Phone: 720-641-8148
- Email: sweetbeesister@gmail.com
- Instagram: @sweetbeesisters
- Facebook: Sweet Bee Sisters
- Twitter: @sweetbeesisters
Image Credit:
Lisa Warren
Allan Smith
Jessie Santala
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