Moziah Bridges, more commonly known as Mo Bridges by the media, is the owner and CEO of a bow making empire. However, you might not have realized that he did all of this whist balancing homework and still going to school!
We recently covered Rachel Zietz, the 22 year old owner and CEO of Gladiator Lacrosse.
Now, we aim to cover another teenaged entrepreneur, Mo Bridges, the founder and CEO of Mo’s Bows, the largest handcrafted tie company in Memphis Tennessee.
Background
Moziah Bridges claims that his whole life has been geared towards fashion. He claims that his father used to wear suits and dress smart to go around the house.
He says that it was his father’s dress habits, that gave him his first taste of the fashion industry.
Mo Bridges also recalls a memory of a time when he was nine. He recalled that he was at the local mall and he saw some very expensive bow ties on display at the mall.
He recalled that he wanted to buy one however his mother wouldn’t allow him to buy one. After ding some research, he found that there weren’t many high quality bow ties on the market.
He also did a lot of research as to where he could sell his bow ties, originally settling for Etsy.
Mo Bridges was also fortunate to have a grandmother who had worked as a seamstress. He asked if she would teach him how to sew and she said yes.
The result that was he wanted to make his own bow ties. This then became the foundation of Mo’s Bows, a company he set up in 2011 when he was only nine years old!
Mo’s Bows
Moziah Bridges originally started making his high quality ties by hand and selling them on Etsy.
Together with his Grandma, Moziah Bridges handcrafted their first bow tie, a tradition that has become a staple of Mo’s Bows. To this day, despite the success of Mo’s Bows, each and every bow is handmade by Mo and his mom.
Moziah Bridges’ mom, despite also being his main motivator, is also Mo Bridges’ business partner and assistant. Whilst Moziah Bridges is at school, she runs their business.
Mo has done several interviews talking about his school-business life. During school hours, he is obviously unable to run his own business.
As such, his mother compiles all of the orders during the day. During the day, the ties are made by Mo’s team, as the orders come in. And when Mo comes home from school, all of the orders are shipped.
In 2015, he and his mom appeared on Shark Tank, where they pitched their business to the Sharks in return for an investment. The result is what they’d hoped for, Shark Daymond John joined the Mo’s Bows team.
Not only did this give Moziah Bridges an experienced businessman to help mentor him but it also added a lot of money as an investment. It also gave him free advertising, just as what happened with Rachel Zietz.
He has also worked with the NBA. In 2015, he struck a deal with the NBA to become their fashion correspondent, in this deal it stated that Mo’s Bows had exclusive rights to use the NBA logo on their bow ties.
The result has been that Mo’s Bows has surged in popularity in recent years, perhaps even more so than it would’ve done otherwise.
Today
Today, Mo Bridges is still going strong. Moziah Bridges is still running the company he founded. Mo’s Bows has actually never been more profitable!
Mo’s Bows originally sold its products on content-selling site Etsy. However, the company has since launched its own website. Mo’s Bows also sell their products on Amazon and eBay too.
Moziah Bridges still maintains his relationship with Shark Daymond John, who became his mentor after his appearance on Shark Tank.
As for Moziah himself, he is still currently attending school, which he hopes to graduate at the end of the school year. After that, he hopes to go to college to study fashion design.
Mo’s business has allowed him to meet great people. Whilst he has had the ability to meet other great fashion designers, he has also had the ability to meet the president.
Whilst he hasn’t spoken to President Trump yet, although I’m sure he’d probably love to (politics aside), he has spoken to two former presidents: Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
In fact, when Barack Obama invited Mo Bridges to the White House (yes, the White House!) Mo Bridges gifted Barack Obama a special one of a kind bow tie, nicknamed the “Obama Blue” bow tie.
Today, Mo Bridges is a millionaire, with Mo’s Bows being worth $1 million. Moziah still runs his business with the help of his mom.
Thanks to his age and how successful his business has been, he has been featured on most major news outlets. He has done television interviews with CBS News, CNBC and Business Insider.
He has also been the subjects of articles ranging from outlets like: Forbes, Black Enterprise, Inc., Business Insider and CBS News.
What Can we Learn From This?
The story of Mo’s Bows and the story of Moziah Bridges himself can teach you a lot, not just about business but also about becoming financially free too!
Have a Niche
The story of Mo Bridges, as with many other entrepreneurs and kidpreneurs, proves this well. Mo’s Bows has a niche- it focuses on making luxury, high-quality, handcrafted bow ties.
The most successful businesses have a niche, think about Apple or Chase Bank or McDonalds. This is common with most major companies. Other companies are a jack of all trades, yet a master of none of them.
Mo’s Bows proves the former of these. They’ve spent nine years trying to conquer the handcrafted bow industry, and have made it work quite well for them too! This has allowed Mo Bridges to build an empire worth millions before he can drink!
And this is something that you can do too! If you run your own business, or would like to, you’ll probably want to be niche-focused. After all, you can’t expect to grow a multi-billion dollar business by fixing fences, chartering private jets and translating documents in one business!
Well… unless you’re fixing people’s fences whilst they’re chartering a private jet to translate some documents for you!
Be Consistent
Consistency is one of the best things that you can have in life. It can help you if you are running your own business, investing or if you are doing anything else in life!
It’s highly likely that everyday, or at least most days, Moziah Bridges runs his business. And everyday means everyday, even on holidays and weekends.
Mo Bridges likely wakes up and goes to sleep far later than his friends and perhaps many of his family members do. After all, he doesn’t have the luxury of spending 16 hours solely on his business, he needs to go to school.
Find a Mentor
Mo has been lucky to have his mother by his side. She has helped him to grow Mo’s Bows into the industry powerhouse that it is today.
And this is something that you too should do too!
The mentor doesn’t necessarily have to work in the same niche as you, in fact, you might actually want someone who doesn’t work in your niche- not only will you learn from them, but you will probably teach them a lot too!
Your mentor could be anyone, as long as they run or have ran their own business in the past. These people will be able to give you helpful hints and tips that have worked for them in the past, tips that might not be on the internet either!
Age Doesn’t Matter
Mo Bridges, just as with Rachel Zietz, Alexander Pask, Gary Dahl, Earl Crawley and Ray Kroc (and everyone else we’ve covered in our Surprising Wealth Stories segment) proves this well.
Mo started his own business when he was only nine years old. Unlike so many that came before him, he did’t let that stop him. In fact, he has likely used his age to his advantage.
Moziah Bridges also proves that it is possible to start a successful business as a kid, even whilst balancing school and homework too! He proves that it really is never too early to start your own business!
Side Hustle
We’ve seen this time and time again, with Rachel Zietz, Alexander Pask and now Moziah Bridges. When Mo Bridges first started his business, he was nine years old.
As with most nine years olds, Mo Bridges had to run Mo’s Bows and went to school too. Mo has had to juggle homework, essays and tests with running Mo’s Bows.
We have also seen that you don’t always need to be young to start becoming financially free. Just look at Ray Kroc, someone who started in his fifties and made McDonalds (yes, that McDonalds) into the powerhouse it is!
Mo is living proof that no matter how old you are, you can become financially free. For Mo, he has done it through his business, as has Rachel Zietz, however, for Earl Crawley, he has done it through investing over decades!
Has the story of Moziah Bridges inspired you? Tell me in the comments!
