How a pivot to hair accessories led to business success

How a pivot to hair accessories led to business successJust nowShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleZoe CorbynBusiness reporter, San FranciscoJenny LemonsJenny Lennick's hair clips are all based on food"I tell people, 'I make food-themed accessories' and boom – they get it," says Jenny Lennick.For the San Francisco-based artist and entrepreneur that niche underpins a thriving retail business.The 39-year-old runs a small Californian accessories brand called Jenny Lemons. It is best known for its quirky, colourful hair claw clips, made from a plant-based alternative to conventional, petroleum plastic.She designs the products, selling them directly on her website, and wholesale to around 1,500 independent retail stores in the US and internationally. And all the hair clips are themed around food.If you want to wear rainbow chard, a sardine tin, or a TV dinner in your hair, Lennick has a clip for that, though the company's bestseller is a strawberry."They are small, affordable luxuries that add a little bit of flair and fun," says Lennick.The company, which takes its name from Lennick's college DJ moniker, didn't begin as an accessories brand.Originally from Minnesota, and with more than six years at art school, Lennick launched the business in 2015 as a food-themed, hand-printed clothing line, based in San Francisco's trendy Mission district.She expanded the venture, opening a physical shop in the neighborhood in 2018, selling her clothes along with products made by other artists.But the store proved punishing - staffing costs were high, rent kept rising, and foot traffic never recovered after the pandemic. She closed it at the end of 2023, $90,000 (£66,000) in debt.The pivot to hair accessories began the year before when, selling her clothes at a craft fair, Lennick met a hair claw vendor who shared a contact for a factory in China. Lennick started to produce her own - food-themed, naturally - and sales online quickl...