Owner of Enchanted Shadows
Kristen Osborne is the owner and operator of Enchanted Shadows, a small business located in Sterling, CO. Kristen’s spark to open up her business developed from a place of necessity and healing after being diagnosed with a rare illness called Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome that left her disabled and unable to work a traditional job. After learning more about her diagnosis, Kristen leaned into doing things that made her happy as a way to temper the symptoms, which can be triggered by stress. “I enjoy making things that I know other people will enjoy giving as gifts, so I started with that and slowly made my way up from there expanding bit by bit as I got comfortable.” Enchanted Shadows specializes in zodiac keychains, custom ceramic mugs, personalized merchandise, crystals, and crystal bead jewelry. Kristen would like to eventually break into the soap and candle-making market and has been researching what that would look like going forward.
Kristen joined RMMFI last spring and has since graduated from the first Boot Camp that RMMFI held in Northeast Colorado. Since finishing the program, she has developed a functioning e-commerce business, allowing her to expand beyond local shops and markets. “Now that I have my website, I can expand my reach to others in the community who know about me but can’t necessarily get to me. Northeastern Colorado is pretty spread out, and I want to make sure I’m accessible to everyone.”
Kristin initially joined RMMFI to learn how to run her business more efficiently, but she ended up gaining so much more. “The financial workbook alone has been a godsend; that thing is so helpful and I will never stop using it. It gave me the ambition to jump-start my website.” Kristen also took advantage of the capital offered through RMMFI in the form of a Seed Loan and Grant. “Thanks to RMMFI, I was able to get a loan without credit. Now I have credit, and soon I’ll have good credit because of RMMFI.”
You can check out all that Enchanted Shadows has to offer on their website at www.enchantedshadows.net or Kristen’s Instagram account @enchantedshadowsshop.
