Seabury Startups

It should come as no surprise that Seabury is full of creative and talented people. However, it is always worth recognizing when certain individuals channel these talents into a professional outlet: small business! 

For one, faculty member Shane Richmond owns Boxes For Students. “It’s an all-in-one storage service for college students: pick up the stuff from their dorms, store it over the summer and return it at the start of the semester,” says Richmond. He stores the students’ belongings in “a secure, undisclosed location.”

Richmond is honest about his intentions. “The goal is one day it gets bigger and then I can sell it to someone else and it can be their problem.” 

Another Seabury business owner is junior Hayden Slough, founder of Speedy-Slough Automotive.

A large part of Slough’s business is networking and personally contacting clientele. “I do occasional work for some faculty, but more often than not, I end up purchasing broken cars, either from word of mouth or from Facebook Marketplace,” Slough says.

It’s clear that Slough enjoys modifying cars beyond the interest of his business. “I’ll see what happens,” Slough says. “But definitely it will continue at the very least being a hobby. If I could turn it into a . . . formal job, maybe I would, but until then it’ll probably just be a side gig.”

Junior Phoebe Ulbrick has created a name for herself in Lawrence’s art scene. Ulbrick holds booths at “City of Lawrence arts and crafts fairs,” says Ulbrick. “Currently I sell prints, keychains, stickers and clothing.”

In addition to showing her art in person at fairs, Ulbrick has also created her own website to sell art and merchandise. For sale are customized clothing and prints of her artwork.

From this experience, she’s already learned quite a bit about creating and processing online orders. “I get the order and then I make it from there rather than buying them pre-made, because it’s really expensive [otherwise].”

Similar to Ulbrick, sophomore Elyse Hammann owns an online store on Etsy to sell “prints, keychains, enamel pins, acrylic pins, stickers and all that jazz,” Hammann says.

Hammann began her shop in her eighth-grade year. With her experience, Hammann has also collaborated with Ulbrick and mentored her in the process of sharing and selling her art. Both plan to participate in an upcoming youth art fair called the Sunrise Project.

In any case, if one plans to pursue business, these individuals in our community can teach that it doesn’t have to be complicated or stressful, and often starts with a simple hobby. Hammann puts it eloquently: “Try not to overwork yourself . . . it can defeat your desire to keep going. Keep an aspect of yourself in it.”