Starting a business is no small feat and Kimberly Coyle can attest to that. The senior organizational communications major decided that her 2006 New Year’s resolution would be to start a legitimate jewelry-making business.

This is how Just For You Custom Jewelry began.

When Coyle graduated from high school in 2002 her parents offered her $2,000 for a car or $2,000 towards a retirement fund. At 18 years old, Coyle chose the retirement fund.

Her decision for a retirement fund speaks volumes about Coyle. Though Coyle specializes in making jewelry, she is not just a jewelry maker, she is an entrepreneur of many sorts.

Coyle didn’t initially immerse herself in the jewelry making business. When Coyle’s mom started making jewelry Coyle didn’t show an immediate interest.

“My mom made the cutest little bracelet, she came home and I thought it was cute and I smiled but I didn’t want anything to do with (jewelry),” Coyle said.

Eventually, Coyle did get into it. And it wasn’t long before she was knee-deep in her own creations.”I had more earrings than I knew what to do with,” Coyle said. “I had them all over the house, on the bathroom counter, in my mom’s room.”

In late October of last year, Coyle started thinking about creating her own business. After extensive paperwork she got her retailer’s license for $150 from the local city office in Elk Grove.

“It took two and a half months to get everything together,” Coyle said. “I started buying receipt books, inventory books… I was at Staples a lot!”

Even getting her business cards was an ordeal.

“I had to deal with the font on the cards, the color of the cards, everything.”

Coyle’s decision to start a business was not for the average desire of profit.

“I’m not making a big profit, that’s not why I do it,” Coyle said. “I’m not looking at it from the money perspective at all.”

Instead, Coyle insisted that she’s satisfied when she sees people around campus wearing her jewelry or people at her church donning an anklet or necklace she created. The internal satisfaction Coyle gets from knowing a bride will be wearing Coyle’s jewelry in her wedding next year is enough.

She also is passionate about the fact that she makes custom jewelry that is perfected to each client’s desire. She repeated several times that her custom jewelry is glamorous and better yet, much cheaper than at Macy’s.

“I don’t want a Web site because I’m not interested in selling in bulk,” Coyle said. “I’m not interested in getting the majority of people. I like custom. Custom is possible and I think people cherish it more that way.”

One of Kimberly’s co-workers at Eye Optics Optometry Center in Elk Grove, Sarah Gieseke, was not at all surprised by Kimberly’s business endeavor.

“I’ve worn her stuff,” Gieseke said in a phone interview. “She has a lot of good ideas and designs that are different from what you see in the stores.”

Coyle’s jewelry consists mostly of beads and stones and not metals. Though she specializes in earrings, she also makes necklaces, bracelets, anklets and even key chains. Her earrings range from $4 to $22. She even uses pink ribbon breast cancer beads in some of her works.

Most of Coyle’s promotion is done on a one-on-one basis. She meets people at Sacramento State, her church, the grocery store and her work who want to buy her jewelry.

“I’m a walking billboard for my jewelry,” Coyle said.

Coyle also frequents bead conventions in Sacramento where she buys beads wholesale. Though she has several bead stores that she visits often, she is eager to find new fashions and styles. During spring break she will be in Chicago and plans to hunt for beads there. Her mom has brought beads back from Hawaii and China.

The most admirable aspect of Coyle’s entire endeavor is her desire to bring something new to her clients. When speaking about the college students she aims to reach with her jewelry, she is especially fervent.

“Liking who you are and finding something that is custom to you is glamorous,” Coyle said. “College is your growing period and you should wear what you want to wear and enjoy being a woman and flatter your womanhood.”

In a phone interview with Coyle’s mother, Tamara Coyle said she was never nervous about her daughter’s business effort.

“Kimberly is self empowered,” Coyle’s mother said. “There’s nothing that gets in her way. She finds a way to go around it, over it or through it. She knows what she wants and she puts in a lot of effort into the enjoyment of getting there.”

Coyle speaks so fast and energetically that her thoughts often bounce from here to there without warning. Keeping track of her thought process can be difficult but never dull.

Coyle is an avid lover of the outdoors. She likes fishing, camping, her cats and skydiving. She has been sky diving 12 times, including four times solo, and talks excitedly about going again. Coyle also talks about her love of public speaking.

“My drive is to live in San Francisco, it’s my speed,” Coyle said.

Coyle is quite the modern day investment woman. She is well acquainted with mutual funds and the stock market and could talk more about them all day.

“Starting a business is like the stock market. You should start small so there is room for growth. You don’t want to invest too big because there is a chance that you will lose big,” Coyle wrote in an email.

One of Coyle’s strong points is that she is not engulfed by her business. Although she will continue to make jewelry on the weekends and during her breaks, she knows that whether her business succeeds or fails, she will always be happy with her effort.

Said Coyle: “For all I know this could be a phase, this could very well be a phase, but it’s the experience of being young and learning how to bring customers and how to start a small business.”

Chelsea Follett can be reached at [email protected]