When most high school first-years were focused on school work and hanging out with friends, Riley Raymond was busy turning a hobby into a successful business. Raymond is a sophomore who currently manages Mauna Made with her two friends. Mauna Made, now almost six years old, is a crochet business that specializes in handmade clothing and accessories.

Raymond started crocheting in the fourth grade when she joined a crochet club. Little did she know that this new hobby would generate more than $15,000 in revenue during her high school career.

Raymond met her business partners through another childhood hobby: skiing. Raymond and two friends began selling crocheted hats at their ski lodge, an act that ultimately inspired the creation of Mauna Made.

Raymond and her partners eventually evolved their ski lodge sales into what is now Mauna Made. During the winter of her first year of high school, they expanded to create crochet tops that are entirely customizable. The girls grew their crocheting skills through trial and error and online resources such as YouTube as the business progressed. The tops are body-inclusive, as each design is tailored to the particular customer, who can also choose their own style and colors. Mauna Made also sells a large number of crochet bags to their customer audience today.

Raymond said that her favorite item to make is the tops.

“It’s always fun to make a new top […], we change up each row to be a little bit different,” Raymond said. “Making tops is a lot less repetitive than making bags. Our most popular tops are the Jodi top and the mountain top, which was the first top we sold.”

Raymond shared that she and her friends became excited about the prospect of marketing online and fostered a social media presence through Instagram and TikTok during quarantine.

“We made a TikTok during [the COVID-19 pandemic] that blew up,” Raymond said. “At its peak, our TikTok had 36,000 followers. We started to get an influx of direct messages – hundreds a day – for orders on Instagram, too, so we had to limit orders and hire some of our friends to help out.”

Raymond shares that creating a social media platform is advantageous for future small business owners.

“From figuring out how to advertise our business to finding the right audience to pricing our products, a lot of aspects of Mauna Made got me really excited about the prospect of economics as a major,” Raymond said. “I feel like the biggest way to grow a business is online now […], just creating a platform and finding ways to share it and get it known. For anyone else looking to start or grow as a small business, I would definitely recommend using social media to build a following.”

Mauna Made mails their orders across the country and around the world to countries that accept U.S. currency.

“I know I sent a top to Israel, which was really awesome,” Raymond shared. “Watching the company grow and expand globally was a really rewarding experience.”

For Raymond, the most rewarding part of Mauna Made is watching it grow. As a self-taught businesswoman, who had to learn everything from pricing to sales, Raymond particularly enjoys seeing the success of her business.

Currently, Mauna Made’s audience is mostly made up of University of Vermont students who purchase items at a fall sale on their campus. Mauna Made transitioned to a less demanding selling option when they split up to attend college, which largely entails their yearly sale at UVM. There, the most popular item is crocheted tote bags. Raymond mentioned that she also had a small sale last year at Colgate through Thought Into Action (TIA) project Hami-Down, an online platform for buying second-hand and re-selling goods.

If you would like to support Mauna Made, you can find them on Instagram and TikTok (@maunamade). Mauna Made continues to take orders online through their Instagram account which can be delivered to customers on campus by Raymond.