The Real Lessons Our Daughters Are Learning From Starting a Business

By Catherine Pike, Co-Founder & Mom

Meet the Saltwater Sisters

Saltwater Sisters was founded by three sisters and inspired by the colors, adventures, and small moments that make childhood unforgettable. Together, they create joyful jewelry rooted in nature, imagination, and sisterhood.

There is no shortage of things being marketed to children.

New toys. New trends. New screens. New things to want almost as quickly as the last thing arrives.

As parents, we started thinking more deeply about the other side of that equation: What would happen if our daughters spent more time creating things instead of simply consuming them?

What would they learn if they had an idea and were given the space to follow it?

Saltwater Sisters began as an answer to those questions.

It started with three sisters and a table full of beads

Our daughters, Waverly, Solara, and Azalea, have always been happiest when they have room to make, explore, and imagine.

The best ideas rarely arrive through a carefully planned activity. They usually begin during the unstructured parts of childhood: a long beach afternoon, a nature walk, a table covered in craft supplies, or a conversation that starts with, “What would happen if we tried this?”

One summer, the girls began making colorful jewelry inspired by the things they loved around them: ocean water, sunsets, wildflowers, fruit stands, tide pools, and the bright colors of Southern California.

At first, they were simply making pieces they liked.

Then friends wanted them.

Neighbors wanted them.

People stopped at their little pop-up and asked where they could buy them.

Suddenly, the girls were not only designing jewelry. They were building something.

Creating changes the kinds of questions children ask

When children are consumers, the question is often:

What do I want?

When they become creators, the questions change:

What could I make?

Who might enjoy it?

How much will the materials cost?

What should we name it?

How will we show people what makes it special?

What could we improve next time?

Those are business questions, but they are also life questions.

Building Saltwater Sisters has allowed the girls to practice math, writing, decision-making, public speaking, problem-solving, and teamwork in ways that feel real to them.

They have learned that a selling price is not the same thing as profit. They have counted inventory, considered packaging costs, greeted customers, taken feedback, written thank-you notes, and experienced the strange combination of excitement and nerves that comes with sharing something you created.

The Founders Journal was designed to capture exactly those lessons, including product inspiration, business costs, profit, customer feedback, and reflections on what felt difficult or rewarding.

But the most important lessons have not always been the most obvious ones.

Confidence grows through doing

Adults often tell children to be confident.

But confidence is difficult to teach as an abstract idea.

It grows when children do something that initially feels a little uncomfortable.

It grows when they make a choice and stand behind it.

It grows when someone values something they created.

It grows when an idea does not work and they discover that they are capable of trying again.

At their early pop-ups, the girls had to speak to people they did not know, explain their designs, answer questions, organize products, and make change.

They were proud when pieces sold, of course. But they were also learning that their ideas could exist outside our family and mean something to someone else.

That is a powerful thing for a child to discover.

Nature gave them the starting point

Before there was a business, there were the places and experiences that inspired it.

Our family has always valued time outside: beaches, wandering, collecting tiny treasures, noticing color, and allowing an afternoon to unfold without too much structure.

Nature gives children an endless creative vocabulary.

A pink and green necklace can begin with a slice of watermelon.

Blues and turquoise can begin with shallow water.

Soft lavender and yellow can begin with a field of wildflowers.

A handful of beads becomes a way to remember a place, a season, or a feeling.

That is why Saltwater Sisters is not only about jewelry. It is about noticing.

It is about teaching children that inspiration is already around them and that they have the ability to turn it into something new.

We are building it together

There is a slightly romantic version of building a family business in which everyone happily agrees, the supplies remain neatly organized, and no one changes her mind after a product is already finished.

That is not our version.

Our version includes beads rolling across the floor, strong opinions about necklace names, sisters competing for the same color, inventory spread across the dining table, and plenty of ideas that are abandoned halfway through.

It also includes laughter, problem-solving, shared pride, and the rare experience of working toward something that genuinely belongs to all of us.

As their mom, I am teaching them what I know about business, customers, product, pricing, and building a brand.

They are reminding me how to experiment without needing everything to be perfect first.

That exchange is at the heart of Saltwater Sisters.

Wonder really does grow together.

We do not know exactly what Saltwater Sisters will become

That is part of what makes it exciting.

It may grow into a lasting jewelry brand. It may become a larger world of creative products, stories, journals, and experiences. It may influence the kinds of businesses the girls build many years from now.

The outcome matters, but it is not the entire point.

The point is that they are learning to see themselves as people who can have an idea and do something with it.

People who can create value.

People who can tell a story.

People who can listen, adapt, and begin again.

We wanted our daughters to know that they do not always have to wait for someone else to make the thing they wish existed.

They can make it themselves.

And sometimes, that small act of making can become the beginning of something much bigger.

Meet the Saltwater Sisters

Saltwater Sisters was founded by three sisters and inspired by the colors, adventures, and small moments that make childhood unforgettable. Together, they create joyful jewelry rooted in nature, imagination, and sisterhood.