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THE BIZNOB – Global Business & Financial News – A Business Journal – Focus On Business Leaders, Technology – Enterpeneurship – Finance – Economy – Politics & LifestyleTHE BIZNOB – Global Business & Financial News – A Business Journal – Focus On Business Leaders, Technology – Enterpeneurship – Finance – Economy – Politics & Lifestyle

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Breaking News

Kaley Young: Many Family Businesses Are Passed Down Through Generations. 

Kaley Young - Image from pixabay by Shutterbug
Kaley Young - Image from pixabay by Shutterbug Kaley Young - Image from pixabay by Shutterbug
Kaley Young - Image from pixabay by Shutterbug
Kaley Young - Image from pixabay by Shutterbug Kaley Young - Image from pixabay by Shutterbug

Many family businesses, like an heirloom or a secret recipe, are passed down from generation to generation. They aren’t usually passed down through tragedy. However, taking over two businesses before the age of 25 is a responsibility Kaley Young, now 28, says she accepted in order to carry on her parents, Beth and Keith’s, legacy.

Her mother’s Pilates studio was taken over by her. The mother died of breast cancer at the age of 19. And when Keith, a first responder to the 9/11 attacks, died of a rare form of cancer at the age of 24, she took over his cutting-board company, Cup Board Pro.

“It feels like an honor to have been able to do that,” Young said of taking over the family businesses. “They both poured so much love into what they both did.”

Hot Pilates Secret is now run by a family friend, and Cup Board Pro, led by Young, has a licensing agreement with the home-goods retailer Williams Sonoma. Young has continued a family legacy that spans generations by channeling her own grief into passion projects. 

“This isn’t just about Kaley taking over the baton from her parents. “This is who she was born to be,” said Matt Higgins, a “Shark Tank” guest judge “who put money into Cup Board Pro “There’s a lot more going on here than a family following their parents’ dream.”

From A Young Age, You Have An Entrepreneurial Spirit.

Young, the oldest of three siblings (her sister, Keira, is 18 and her brother, 24, ), grew up watching her parents pursue their professional interests. Beth aspired to open her own dance and Pilates productions, while Keith was a firefighter.

Keith had just put Kaley and Christian on the bus for school on September 11, 2001, when he learned of the attacks. He dashed to his Brooklyn station but was told to stay put. He began cooking, fueled by tense energy.

Beth’s dreams became a reality when the family purchased their dream home in Wantagh, Long Island. Before launching Hot Pilates Secret, Beth converted the backyard barn into a dance studio.

According to Young, the studio was created to help Beth cope with the loss of her own father, who died of cancer, as well as to help others heal physically and emotionally. “You have to sweat to destress,” she’d often tell Young.

Young started helping her mother with the business as a freshman in high school and was managing it by junior year. Beth was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in 2011, but she refused to close the studio and healing center she had founded. Young kept the company running and Beth’s dreams alive while her mother sought treatment.

Young enrolled in the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York the same year to study graphic design. Beth’s body was taken over by cancer in the fall of Young’s sophomore year. Young had to choose between continuing her education and pausing to support her family after her mother died. Her father still required someone to manage the studio, which helped pay the mortgage and care for her siblings.

“I felt honored that my father believed in me enough to keep it going, and that so many people in our community believed in me as well,” Young said.

Kaley Young designs - image from pixabay by GDJ
Kaley Young designs-image from pixabay by GDJ

Young dropped out of school, promising herself that she would finish her degree one day. When she returned home, she expanded Hot Pilates Secret by providing teacher training and yoga retreats. But obtaining the studio at this moment wasn’t just about satisfying her mother’s ambitions; it was also about assisting Young in dealing with her mother’s illness.

“After my mother died, I carried on her Pilates studio as my own healing,” Young explained. “I was grieving for my mother at her studio.”

Some people, like Young, process loss by channeling their negative grief energy into creative work, according to Dr. Shelley Carson, a Harvard University lecturer in an article for the meditation and mindfulness Headspace. 

From The Very First Shipments To ‘Shark Tank,’

Young’s side projects included more than just Beth’s studio. While still in high school, she lent her entrepreneurial skills to her father’s booming business, Cup Board Pro, a trimming board with a removable scrap pocket. Her father designed the tool based on his culinary experiences and commissioned Young to create a website and promotional videos.

The pair put Cup Board Pro on hold to care for Beth’s illness, but Keith was invited to appear on Food Network’s cooking competition show “Chopped” a year later. He won the show twice, which gave him the confidence to return to the company.

His first shipment of 2,000 cutting boards arrived in December 2015, the same month he was diagnosed with synovial sarcoma, a rare type of cancer that attacks the body’s soft tissues, almost certainly caused by his rescue efforts following 9/11. Keith died in March 2018, and Young vowed once more to fulfill her parents’ dream.

Opportunity Quickly Knocked – Or Called.

Young was approached by producers from “Shark Tank” about appearing on the show one month after Keith’s death. “It felt like that was a sign from our father to keep going,” Young said. “‘Shark Tank’ was the show he fantasized about appearing on.”

The episode starring the siblings premiered in October. Their story clearly moved all five celebrity investors and impressed by the product’s quality, particularly the logo, which commemorated the 343 firefighters who died on 9/11. They were also reassured to learn that Young and her siblings had managed to sell 300 cutting boards in the weeks preceding the shoot.

Daymnnd John, Lori Greiner, Mark Cuban, Higgins, and Kevin O’Leary made an extremely unusual decision to collaborate on an offer, proposing a $100,000 investment for 20% equity, which was only 10% more than the trio’s initial request. The sharks also promised to donate any profits from their Cup Board Pro stake to a charity that helped firefighters who became ill as a result of 9/11. Following the completion of filming, John assisted the trio in securing Williams-Sonoma licensing agreement.

“You think about all the inflection points that an entrepreneur goes through that affect the outcome,” Higgins explained, cofounder of venture capital firm RSE Ventures and former press secretary for New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Achieving A Personal Goal

Because of a Williams-Sonoma licensing agreement, Young was able to step away from the Cup Board Pro. She is still the owner, but she is no longer responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company. Furthermore, Williams Sonoma assisted in scaling the product by offering different colors and sizes, which retail for $70-$100.

Young returned to FIT in 2017, this time concentrating on interior design, and graduated in 2019. The following year, she decided to sell Hot Pilates Secret to childhood friend Chrissi Forde. 

“I had it for seven years, and it was a fantastic seven years,” Young said, “but I knew it was time for me to grow a little more.”

For Young, this meant finally focusing on one of her professional goals: starting her own business. Kaley Young Design, her interior design firm, will be launched in February 2020. She now has six clients, which is the maximum number she can handle as a solo entrepreneur and a waiting list of eager customers.

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