Why read this: This is a clear, human story about a small business that almost failed and then found a new direction. B1 readers can follow the timeline year by year, from a clothing brand in 2015 to a closed shop in 2023 and a profitable hair-clip business today. The text also gives students useful, manageable vocabulary from retail and online selling (foot traffic, fulfilment centre, brand collaborations) without overloading them with idioms.
What to notice: Notice how the writer uses dates and time markers (in 2015, in 2018, at the end of 2023, today, last year) to signal each step in the story. Help students mark the turning point in paragraph three, where the craft-fair meeting changes everything. Point out the cause-and-effect chain in paragraph four around tariffs, prices, and profits, since the meaning of "numbers game" depends on it.
Skills practised: Sequencing events along a timeline; identifying the main idea of each paragraph; retrieving facts and figures (debt, revenue, customer ages, share of wholesale sales); inferring meaning from context for a small set of business phrases. The two open questions practise short, evidence-based explanation and simple comparison, which are core B1 writing moves.
Hair Clips That Saved a Small Business
After her clothing shop closed with big debts, Jennie Lennick changed direction and built a thriving brand of food-shaped hair clips.
Tap any green word in the article to see its meaning.
Jennie Lennick is a 39-year-old artist in San Francisco. She runs a small brand called Jenny Lemons. The brand sells colourful shaped like food. Her shop has clips that look like a strawberry, a sardine tin, a TV dinner, and even a bowl of rainbow chard. The strawberry is the bestseller. Lennick says her clips are small, cheap treats that make people smile.
Lennick did not start out making hair clips. She grew up in Minnesota and studied art for more than six years. In 2015, she launched a food-themed in San Francisco. In 2018, she opened a small shop in the same neighbourhood. The shop sold her clothes and work by other artists. For a while, it felt like a dream come true.
But the shop became hard to keep open. Staff costs were high, the rent kept rising, and never returned to normal after the pandemic. At the end of 2023, Lennick closed the shop with $90,000 of debt. The change had actually started a year earlier. At a , she met a seller of hair clips who shared a contact for a factory in China. Lennick made her own food-shaped clips, and online sales grew quickly. The clips, she says, were keeping the shop alive.
Today, Lennick designs the clips on a tablet at home. She picks the colours, then sends the designs to her factory in China, which makes a sample. A recent shipment of 31,000 clips crossed the Pacific to a in Missouri, which packs and posts the orders. Last year, the company earned about $2 million, up from $1.7 million the year before, and it is now profitable. Around 60% of sales go to about 1,500 small shops; the rest are sold online. Most customers are aged 25 to 45. Some work in hospitals or schools and wear the clips to brighten up their uniforms.
The clips are made from , a plastic-like material that comes from or cotton. It is partly natural and can break down more easily than normal plastic. The business also has problems. New US taxes on Chinese goods make every shipment more expensive, but Lennick is trying not to raise her prices. As she puts it, running the business is a : higher prices mean fewer sales, which can hurt profits too. Some Chinese factories also copy her designs, which are protected by patent. Lennick has already taken one big shop to court and won $45,000. She also pays someone to find fake clips online and send .
Lennick wants to grow the business by 30% this year. She has added hats, socks, and earrings, all with food designs. , where Jenny Lemons makes a special clip for another company, are also growing. A big home-goods chain is in talks to stock her clips. Reopening a physical shop, however, is not . The only money she has ever borrowed is from the bank. She admits that turning her art into products has changed how she thinks of herself as an artist. But she supports her family and still gets to be creative, and she says that is enough.
Jennie Lennick is a 39-year-old artist in San Francisco. She runs a small brand called Jenny Lemons. The brand sells colourful shaped like food. Her shop has clips that look like a strawberry, a sardine tin, a TV dinner, and even a bowl of rainbow chard. The strawberry is the bestseller. Lennick says her clips are small, cheap treats that make people smile.
Lennick did not start out making hair clips. She grew up in Minnesota and studied art for more than six years. In 2015, she launched a food-themed in San Francisco. In 2018, she opened a small shop in the same neighbourhood. The shop sold her clothes and work by other artists. For a while, it felt like a dream come true.
But the shop became hard to keep open. Staff costs were high, the rent kept rising, and never returned to normal after the pandemic. At the end of 2023, Lennick closed the shop with $90,000 of debt. The change had actually started a year earlier. At a , she met a seller of hair clips who shared a contact for a factory in China. Lennick made her own food-shaped clips, and online sales grew quickly. The clips, she says, were keeping the shop alive.
Today, Lennick designs the clips on a tablet at home. She picks the colours, then sends the designs to her factory in China, which makes a sample. A recent shipment of 31,000 clips crossed the Pacific to a in Missouri, which packs and posts the orders. Last year, the company earned about $2 million, up from $1.7 million the year before, and it is now profitable. Around 60% of sales go to about 1,500 small shops; the rest are sold online. Most customers are aged 25 to 45. Some work in hospitals or schools and wear the clips to brighten up their uniforms.
The clips are made from , a plastic-like material that comes from or cotton. It is partly natural and can break down more easily than normal plastic. The business also has problems. New US taxes on Chinese goods make every shipment more expensive, but Lennick is trying not to raise her prices. As she puts it, running the business is a : higher prices mean fewer sales, which can hurt profits too. Some Chinese factories also copy her designs, which are protected by patent. Lennick has already taken one big shop to court and won $45,000. She also pays someone to find fake clips online and send .
Lennick wants to grow the business by 30% this year. She has added hats, socks, and earrings, all with food designs. , where Jenny Lemons makes a special clip for another company, are also growing. A big home-goods chain is in talks to stock her clips. Reopening a physical shop, however, is not . The only money she has ever borrowed is from the bank. She admits that turning her art into products has changed how she thinks of herself as an artist. But she supports her family and still gets to be creative, and she says that is enough.
Questions
Check your understanding
- 01
Why did Jennie Lennick close her physical shop at the end of 2023?
- 02
How does Jenny Lemons sell most of its hair clips today?
- 03
When Lennick says running the business is a "numbers game", what does she mean?
- 04
Explain why the change from clothes to hair clips was good for Lennick's business. Use details from the article.
Suggested length: ~70 words
- 05
Compare two problems that the business still faces today. Use examples from the article.
Suggested length: ~70 words
Questions
Check your understanding
- 01
Why did Jennie Lennick close her physical shop at the end of 2023?
- 02
How does Jenny Lemons sell most of its hair clips today?
- 03
When Lennick says running the business is a "numbers game", what does she mean?
- 04
Explain why the change from clothes to hair clips was good for Lennick's business. Use details from the article.
Suggested length: ~70 words
- 05
Compare two problems that the business still faces today. Use examples from the article.
Suggested length: ~70 words