Kim Flurry was a retired educator with a passion for gemstone jewelry. Thanks to a Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator Grant from Bridgeway Capital, she’s now a “serial entrepreneur” who turns her passions into vocations.

From Hobby to Business with Bridgeway Capital’s Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator Grants

“I’ve always liked jewelry,” Flurry says. “Ever since I was a child. I can remember my first piece of jewelry.”

Flurry’s thoughts turned back to jewelry after an unexpected surgery sidelined her career as an educator. As she recovered from open-heart surgery — which required two months at home — she began putting her energy toward gemstone-beaded jewelry.

“It started out as a hobby,” she explains, “then people asked me where the jewelry I was wearing came from.”

The interest in her work convinced her that her jewelry could sell. Unfortunately, there’s a long path from a hobby to a business; fortunately, she found an organization that would facilitate that journey.

The Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator Program Empowers Artists

The Creative Entrepreneur Program, an initiative of Bridgeway Capital and Pennsylvania Creative Industries, gives “business development services and financial support,” according to a release, to individual entrepreneurs and artists — including a focus on those living in low-income communities.

The program, which will relaunch statewide this fall, has already supported 30 artists with a total $3.2 million in loans.

Flurry says the support from Bridgeway Capital went beyond money. “They gave me a great foundation that I never would’ve been able to afford. There was a photographer that took professional pictures. We met weekly … a jewelry business can be a lonely business. It brought together other entrepreneurs that had solo businesses and shared experience and knowledge.”

The grant also facilitated an appearance at popular maker market Handmade Arcade — and, Flurry says, that led to community. 

“I got to meet all kinds of entrepreneurs … It was such a welcoming environment that we watched one another’s booths. We were total strangers when the day started, but if you had to go get something to eat, your neighbor would watch your booth. That was an experience I had never had.”

Becoming a ‘Serial Entrepreneur’

Flurry has since added a second business, selling homemade bone broth — and is developing a third, drawing on her previous professional experience to offer educational consulting. “I have to explain to people why these three businesses are connected,” she says, noting that the thread is in the name she’s chosen for her collected efforts: “A Kind, Loving World.”

“That’s the arching, overall thought for them. I feel as though, since the pandemic until now, we need that support that carries us through. The world has changed, and it didn’t give us any warning.”

Flurry’s website is being redesigned at the moment; for the time being, those interested in beaded jewelry (or bone broth) can reach out to her via email, at aklwbonebroth@gmail.com.

Successful and ambitious though she’s been, she says none of it would’ve been possible without the Creative Entrepreneur program.

“Bridgeway Capital has supported me in many ways over the years — and provided that structured knowledge that you don’t really get from it starting out as a hobby.”

Story by Sean Collier
Photos From Bridgeway Capital

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