Maddy Daemen of Blue Moon Boutique
Written by Anna Lewis
Blue Moon Boutique was founded in 2013. The Australian based online store has almost 20k Instagram followers, and sells its “it-look” clothing all around the globe. The store’s popularity and maturity is ever-growing, as is its founder Maddy Daemen who is only fifteen years old. The journey began in 2013 when Maddy was 13 years old. Maddy’s first products were iPhone cases and jewelry, which she sold on her Instagram account through her username: @MaddyShop1. To Maddy’s surprise, she was making a substantial amount of money, fast. Several months, if not a year, into starting her small, Instagram-based store, Maddy asked herself, “where is this going, do I want to continue doing this, could this be a career?” Maddy recognized that she was not obligated to continue running the store, after all she was only 13 years old and still in school. However, Maddy also recognized that she loved running the store and decided to continue on. She renamed the store Blue Moon Boutique which she thought had a better ring to it than Maddy Shop 1. Maddy opened up an online store on Big Cartel (a commerce-website host), but decided to use tictail.com. Tictail is an online retail platform that is essentially a shopping mall online, a mall filled with small, indie boutiques, that is. Maddy found that Tictail offered everything she needed for her young online store to grow and thrive.
In early 2015 Maddy decided to expand Blue Moon Boutique, and she began selling clothing and swimwear which are now the Boutique’s staple items and bestsellers. All of the swimsuits and clothes are very trendy, and often inspired by Kendall and Kylie Jenner’s undeniably amazing clothes. But the cherry on top of it all is that Blue Moon Boutique (as of right now) sells nothing for more than $46 US dollars (um… What?!$X@). Plus you’re sure to never miss a beat in pop-fashion because new items (up to trend) are added to the boutique every two weeks. I asked Maddy about where the clothes come from or if she designs them. Her answer; she does not design the clothes, and she exclusively works with wholesalers. In the early stages of the boutique Maddy had to do a lot of research to find reputable wholesalers whose products were of high quality. Today, research is unnecessary as wholesalers send Maddy catalogues of products from which to choose.
Now, in 2016, Maddy is ready to take the next big step -- transitioning between Tictail and Blue Moon Boutique’s own online store. Over the past three years Maddy has taken quite a few big steps, including Blue Moon Boutique’s becoming a legal business/company. As Maddy put it, “I have to do taxes now which is serious”. Running a business is serious, it takes time, commitment, and a lot of work, especially when you are pretty much running it all by yourself. So how does Maddy do it? She says, time management, a strict routine, and balance are the key factors to running a business and attending High School. Maddy has school for about 6 hours a day (boy is she lucky). When she gets home, she takes a 30 minute break, then she does photoshoots for her products for an hour, then she packages all of her orders, after that she will have dinner, and then she responds to business emails. I noticed that homework was not on the list, so I asked Maddy if she gets homework, and if so when does she possibly have time to do it. When Maddy has homework she stays at school so that when she gets home it is time to work, work, work on her business. Maddy’s work has paid off, with almost 20K Instagram followers and tons of orders coming in every day. Maddy is no ordinary teenager!
Speaking of social media, since Maddy does have 19k Instagram followers, I had to ask her about it. Maddy said that she tries to post photos on Instagram at the peak hours of user-ship, but she knows that no matter what time she posts a photo, people will see it, as she has followers all around the world. Being able to connect with followers from all around the world is one of the reasons why Maddy deeply appreciates Instagram. However, Instagram has served Maddy in more ways than one. Instagram is her only form of marketing for Blue Moon Boutique. That’s right -- Maddy has never paid for advertisements, or anything in the realm of marketing.
At age 15, Maddy has more firsthand experience in the retail fashion industry than a typical fresh college grad. One of the most inevitable parts of running a business, which cannot be experienced or taught in school, is making mistakes and learning from them, and Maddy is no exception to this rule. Maddy is lucky and grateful that at such a young age she has already had invaluable, fundamental business experiences. There is no doubt that one day Maddy Daemen’s name will be known in more circles than the one I write for. Look out for this one, she’s already on the road of success.