Emily Church hasn’t wasted any time. In 2001, at the age of 19, she started a business selling kitchen products online. Twelve years later, she has built that business into a 24-employee enterprise projected to garner $15 million in 2013 revenue.
“I wanted to start my business so I could lift myself from poverty as my family was very poor. I am the oldest of nine children, and I did not have money for college,” Church says.
Church pursued the website as a quick-start, low-cost option and hasn’t looked back. “I started the business with only about $500 and never got a loan as I was shipping the product,” Church says.
On the first full-year tax return, the business netted $100,000 in profit. Today, the company sells more than 8,000 kitchen items worldwide, with only 4 percent of sales coming from the Springfield area.
“I think this helps our local economy by bringing national dollars home to Springfield,” Church says.
The business has supported a couple dozen local jobs and allowed Church to support charitable efforts that fight the impacts of poverty around the globe.
Everything Kitchens donates a portion of its profits to World Vision and helps pay the monthly operating expenses of Grace Village Orphanage in Titanyan, Haiti, which houses 56 orphan children and has a feeding center capable of feeding 75 to 125 street children each day.
“The contrast is stark between the children there and the street children,” Church says of her 2012 orphanage visit. “It was encouraging to see that the efforts we put into this are making a true, real difference in individual children’s lives.”
This year, Church visited Ethiopia on a mission trip with A Glimmer of Hope’s Dig Deep campaign through Ozark-based nonprofit iPourLife. She participated in the initiation of a well that is bringing water to 8,500 people in Chuko, Ethiopia, and the trip allowed her to visit two of her World Vision sponsored children.
“Ever since I was about 8 years old, I’ve had a heart for children in third-world countries, so this provides a lot of fulfillment for me in my business,” Church says.
She says she knows she can’t fix all of the world’s problems, but she’s happy to do what she can mentoring others and sharing her story.
“We can do a lot more than we think if we just put one foot in front of the other, keep moving and don’t stop ourselves from what we are actually capable of,” Church says, adding she’s proud to have encouraged two others to build websites and start their own online companies. “Sometimes a person’s best quality is just that they are the one who sticks with it the longest and refuses to give up.”
This installment of Springfield Business Journal’s Architects & Engineers Project Report showcases 26 endeavors by area design and engineering professionals.
