For the week of August 5 thru August 11, 1998  

Eleven-year-old entrepreneur hopes for the gold

Youngster’s profitable Internet business funds training in Sun Valley


By AMY SPINDLER
Express Staff Writer

 5skat3.gif (5934 bytes)Jenni Ambrose, wearing gold figure skater earrings, glides on the outdoor ice arena at Sun Valley Lodge.

Eleven-year-old Jennifer Ambrose is traveling down a unique and determined avenue to reach her life-long dream of competing as a figure skater in the Olympics.

When Jennifer isn’t jumping, spinning or gliding over the smooth ice, she’s operating her own business on the World Wide Web.

Her Olympic dream is a costly one, with new ice skates running close to $800, coaches commanding up to $100 an hour and ice-time fees around $1,000 per month.

Since last September, when she stumbled upon the lucrative business opportunity, Jennifer has earned more than $8,000 selling and trading Beanie Babies on the Internet.

The profit has funded her training at the prestigious Sun Valley Figure Skating Summer Camp this summer, a trip to Colorado Springs to compete, and a skating camp in Helena, Mont., close to her hometown of Great Falls.

Jenni, who owns 50 Beanies, visited the manufacturer’s Web site and found a guest book where browsers list Beanies they wish to buy, trade or sell.

"I thought, if other people can do this, I can," said Jenni of selling the miniature and colorful bean-filled toys, a collection that ranges from octopuses to unicorns. Some of the Beanies, originally priced at $5, sell for $5,000 if not many exist.

What began as an occasional sale of less common Beanies turned into a full-time operation, with Jenni selling, trading and conducting online auctions of Beanies.

These days, Jenni spends her time scoping out the local shops in her hometown of Great Falls for Beanies, and an average of three hours a day on the Internet.

She checks out the average price for specific Beanies, which ones are available, and which ones are in demand.

Jenni’s business is fairly simple: She posts a Beanie for sale with her e-mail address, and interested customers contact her, and then sends a check or money order to her dad’s office. After she receives the payment, she ships the Beanie.

5skat1.gif (9816 bytes)Jenni Ambrose poses with an armful of Beanie Babies, her ticket—she hopes--to the Olympics. (Express photos by Charmaine McCann)

Her biggest success was selling the Teenie Beanies, which were only available at McDonald’s. She invested in more than 1,000 for less than $2 each, and sold them for $6 to $14.

"It was unbelievable that people were willing to pay that much while they were still available at our neighborhood McDonald’s," she said.

Last fall, Jenni’s dad Wally warned her not to waste her money on Beanies, but quickly changed his tune. He is now convinced that even God collects the popular toys.

Wally and Jenni’s mom Elizabeth said that while they help her with shipping and online credit references, for the most part, they just try to stay out of Jenni’s way.

That is unless the topic at hand is ice skating.

Wally and Elizabeth travel with Jenni to competitions, support her in practice and lessons, sew her practice costumes, and home-school the entrepreneur so she has more free time to skate.

"She lives it and breathes it," said Elizabeth.

"I have total confidence in her," said Wally. "If you think you can, you really can. She’s worked hundreds and hundreds of hours, and she’s made this much progress."

Jenni’s put in hundreds of hours since the age of almost three when she began skating.

Her inspiration came months before when she watched the program "She’s a Good Skate Charlie Brown," an animated Peanuts cartoon.

"Want to skate. Want to skate," she told her parents as she watched the cartoon countless times.

And skate she does.

While in Sun Valley, Jenni wakes at 6 a.m. and skates seven hours a day, with yoga or ballet classes in between her sessions of free style, moves on the field, or theater on ice classes.

Jenni hopes to pass the pre-juvenile level while she’s at Sun Valley and move forward to skating at the juvenile level. That will open the door to more competitions.

"What impresses us so much is that she really sticks with this," said Elizabeth.

How long will she skate?

Until she competes in the Olympics.

How long will she sell Beanies?

"Until people don’t want them anymore," Jenni said.

 

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