Bill Gates has nothing on Leanna Archer.
A 12-year-old entreprenuer from Central Islip, Leanna started her hair-care company four years ago, after constantly fielding compliments on her lustrous hair. The secret? A natural hairdressing formula that was handed down from her great-grandmother.
"We made fliers on the computer, and while we were walking in Manhattan on the weekend, we'd hand them out," Leanna says of her early marketing efforts on family outings to the city. "We'd stop people and say, 'Hey, try this product.' And that's how we got customers."
And then some. Today, Leanna's Inc. (leannashair.com) offers a full line of products, including shampoo, conditioner, hair-oil and deep-conditioning treatments. (Prices range from $9 for an 8-ounce bottle of shampoo to $25 for similar size of the hair dressing.) Weekends are devoted to hand-making the products. On weekdays, after homework, of course, she fills and mails orders with the help of her brothers, 7 and 16, and her dad, who left his job to manage her growing empire. Leanna expected to get only five orders a week; today, she's fielding about 20 a day.
Leanna kept her business leanings a secret from classmates until last year, when her principal read a newspaper story about her.
"They actually didn't believe it," Leanna says. "Then they saw me checking my business e-mail in computer class."
Leanna's future plans include Harvard Law School; while she's mastering tort law, she figures her parents will manage the business for her.
In her spare time, Leanna is a motivational speaker, visiting local groups to encourage other pint-size moguls.
"I let kids know that if they have any positive things that they want to do, they don't have to wait until they grow up," she says, noting with a laugh that some even ask for her autograph. "I'm living proof."
-- Denise Flaim
