Um Yeah, Inc. produces and sells vintage bottle cap jewelry on the website www.popartbykaren.com and through 15 retailers in 6 states, Canada and Central America.

Karen, a long time collector of bottle caps, wore her own jewelry to school. So many kids asked her to make some for them that she sold over 100 bottle cap chokers in 2 months. Encouraged by her success, in February 2004, Karen made samples and took them to three stores. All three ordered her products and they are still top sellers in those stores almost three years later. Karen very smartly put her logo and her web address on each item she sold. She emailed the editors of Teen Magazine and Teen Vogue; both magazines featured her products. Since Teen Vogue has world-wide distribution, she received more that 3,000 emails from teens around the world who wanted to buy her jewelry. The largest domestic account is the oldest Dr. Pepper plant in the world, located in Dublin, Texas. They have sold thousands of dollars of her jewelry in their gift shop, made from the Dr. Pepper caps supplied by them. Her main challenge now is controlling the growth of the business. Since she is at capacity, she is now focusing on lowering costs and increasing her margins. Karen plans to continue serving her current accounts through college in order to help pay for her tuition. She plans to study graphic design and entrepreneurship in college. After that she hopes to launch a successful career as a graphic designer.

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