Imagine starting a hobby at age 10, and imagine it growing into a successful business by age 13. This is reality for Bailey Blacker, a young girl who has taken her homemade bath and body products business to the stores of Boone County and beyond.
The idea for her enterprise, Bailey’s Eggs Etc., came from a surplus of her Nigerian Dwarf goat’s milk and her grandma Connie Blacker’s artistic flair. The business has only grown from there.
Currently, Blacker is selling soaps, candles, sugar scrubs, body butter, lip balm, bath bombs, deodorant and goat’s milk lotion. However, that doesn’t mean she will stop there. According to her mother, Shelly Blacker, she was even experimenting with toothpaste for a while.
Self-taught, this homeschooled, soon-to-be high schooler has learned many important lessons along the way. She credits most of her knowledge on the business to Facebook and YouTube.
“She has come across folks that are willing to help if something doesn’t work out,” Shelly said. “She puts her heart and soul into it; she really puts the work into it, and it’s not been handed to her. I think people see that and want to help.”
One of her biggest helpers is her best friend, Ashley Pyle, 11, who is employed by Bailey’s Eggs Etc. She helps Blacker make the products, but she is also good to bounce ideas off of, according to Bailey.
“We work a lot together at my studio, or I will send her a drawing of an idea to see what she thinks about the design,” Blacker said.
When she is not in her studio, Blacker is selling. She sets up shop at the Whitestown Farmers Market, as well as Millie Ann’s Boutique in Zionsville and the Sugar Creek Art Center in Thorntown. She also has her own website www.baileyseggsetc.com – where items can be purchased.
“I’ve learned a lot between this and the animals (her family owns a farm and does 4-H),” Blacker said. “How to have a hard work ethic, develop people skills…I used to be really shy, but doing this has helped me talk to people and not be so nervous.”
She says that she doesn’t plan to make the business her career. She would like to be a veterinary technician, but in the meantime, she will continue saving money for college and reinvesting in her booming business where Amber Noir, Caramelized Pralines and Jamacian Me Crazy candles are flying off the shelves.
