Irelynn Crawford has some serious business savvy for a 10-year-old.

She’s the inspiration and face behind Irelynn’s Sassy Scrunchies, an entrepreneurial venture that had her selling hair scrunchies, key chains and other wares throughout the Kawartha and Durham regions in recent weeks.

Beginning in May, she will begin a six-month stay as a client of Handmade Heaven — a new business set to open in Peterborough’s Lansdowne Place that provides physical spaces for local artisans to rent and sell their creations.

The person behind Handmade Heaven, Sam Milne, says from the start he wanted to include young entrepreneurs to be a part of his business. He accepted applications from local youth for free space for up to six months to help them get their business ventures off the ground. 

Crawford, along with 12-year-old Ava Wood, were chosen as the first two to represent the program. Wood’s Bookmark Boutique offers handmade fabric bookmarks.

“I will always have a kids’ corner booth in the store for young entrepreneurs to showcase their talents,” Milne says.

With this program, he asked young entrepreneurs, aged 9 to 14, to send in their business ideas to be chosen for a six-month spot in the soon-to-be-opened store.

“This way, they learn the ins and outs of selling their products in the busy mall,” Milne says. “I will be having this contest open for applications every six months.”

Milne says Handmade Heaven is a great way for local artists to showcase their talents and sell their creations. And with so many artists represented in one location, they all benefit each other through self-promotion on their Instagram sites or websites, he told This Week when he announced his plans in March. He’s had connections to similar concepts in other malls across Canada.

“It’s been very successful,” says Milne, who admits to spending a lot of his youth shopping the stores of Lansdowne Place. Each of the vendors will have space to display their work, and an opportunity to drive their customers to other pieces they have on their websites or social media accounts. The vendors can keep 100 per cent of their sales, he says.

When an item is sold, there is a system in place to immediately notify the vendors. 

“It’s all handmade small business artisans … There is nothing like it in any of the malls around Peterborough.”

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