HOLMDEL – What were you doing at 17?
Elina Hsueh is realizing her dream of running her own business.
Hsueh, who just started her senior year at Holmdel High School, has been serving since March as chief executive officer – as well as the founder – of Beauteque, an e-commerce operation selling beauty supplies imported from Asian markets.
“I always wanted to be in business,” said Hsueh as she sat behind her desk.
The desk is located in a suite of offices on Route 35 in Hazlet that serves as her company’s headquarters. It is there that her 10 employees – almost all between the ages of 18 and 30 – work.
Hsueh took inspiration from her mother, Josephine Hsueh, who built a garment manufacturing business that had such heavy hitters as Macy’s, Walmart and Forever 21 as clients.
“But I didn’t know what direction I wanted to go in,” Hsueh said.
That was until a friend visited South Korea and brought back some cosmetics and skincare products.
“These things were so amazing!” she said. “I fell in love with them.”
It then dawned on her that U.S. customers didn’t have an outlet for these products and this could be what she was looking for.
The next step was getting investors. Like any 17-year-old, she asked her parents – but she did it a little differently. She sent a letter, using a fake name, to her parents detailing a business opportunity and asked to meet them one evening at a restaurant.
“They were shocked when they met me,” at the appointed place, Hsueh said.
“It took a lot of convincing” but she laid out her plan and what it would take to start her company. Eventually, they were won over, she said.
In addition to investing in Beauteque, her mother now serves as the company’s president.
Since Josephine Hsueh has begun working with her daughter daily, “we’ve become so much closer. Our relationship has become so much stronger,” her daughter said.
“I thought she would do this for a couple of months and give up,” Josephine Hsueh said. She has been happily surprised that her daughter has been sticking with it and making a go of it. “I am very proud of her. She’s been amazing about it.”
Balancing the different levels of her relationship with her parents has been taking a little time to address. They are investors. “It is the same amount of pressure it would be with any investors,” Hsueh said. But, they are also still the parents of a minor child and all that entails, she noted.
Beauteque is looking to double the number of vendors from which it gets products. Hsueh said business has been growing. She and her staff have been actively promoting the company and its website (www.beauteque.com), through social media, with a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram presence.
Hsueh also has been active in working with some area charities, such as 180 Turning Lives Around and others, by providing products for fundraisers. She skirted the issue of sales figures, when asked, but “We’ll break even by November,” she said.
One of the toughest parts of all this has been dealing with adult representatives from the companies with which she does business. “Some people think this is a joke,” she said. “I have to work three times as hard to show them that this is serious.”
Doing it all isn’t easy, she conceded. She is in her office every day, arriving after school during the week. “It means cutting down on sleep a little and another shot of espresso,” she said.
For the future, Hsueh is thinking about college. She’s looking at a number of schools with plans of majoring in business. But she is concentrating on those institutions that may take into account her continuing experience and would allow her to work with her business, too.
While that will be another balancing act for her, she readily admitted she’s willing to do it. “I really love it. This is my life.”
If it is your passion, she said, “it’s not work.”
