At the young age of 16, Kelsey Kleinhen wasn’t like other teenagers.

By that time, Kleinhen had already decided what she wanted to do with her life and was anxious to get started.

While many other kids her age were enjoying the fruits of their youth, Kleinhen was hard at work getting her high school diploma early.

Now 19, Kleinhen started her own business and owns her own second-hand designer clothing store, called Kelsey’s Kloset with locations in her hometown of Laurel, Md. and in Sterling. The Sterling location is in Community Plaza off Route 7 and opened three months ago.

Working at such a young age was nothing new for Kleinhen, because she has had a full-time job since she was 13—working in a restaurant and as a nanny. But even then, Kleinhen wanted to own her own business selling second-hand designer clothing.

She knew she couldn’t get started immediately and it would take some time to save up enough money.

Kleinhen said she came up with idea because of the economy and seeing friends hold on to designer clothing.

“The fact the economy was kind of bad and a lot of people and friends I had would hold on to their designer things just because they paid so much money for them,” Kleinhen said. “They didn’t want to just get rid of them and they grew out of it or moved onto another brand. They took really good care of some of these pieces and the tough part for them was selling it online because of all the potential problems that come with that.

“My mother, myself and two sisters all accumulated stuff like that too. Originally I wanted to start an eBay store, but then I thought to myself, ‘we really need a storefront so people can try this stuff on,” Kleinhen said. “That is essentially what brought us to this point. We accumulated so much designer things that we put a lot of money into.”

Kleinhen admits her parents thought she was crazy when she told them what she wanted to do.

“I had to get parental consent and have them agree it was a good idea and when I first told them, they thought I was crazy,” Kleinhen says. “They told me that it wasn’t going to happen and the economy wasn’t good, but I persuaded them that this was the right market for the economy, because we buy and sell clothing from the public so we are potentially helping them and introducing something new to the area.”

The store sells clothing anywhere from 10 to 50 percent of what it is bought for, which is 50 to 80 percent off retail prices.

The store currently carries only women’s clothing and products in the store range from purses to blouses and pants. 

“Our targeted age group is 13 and up and mainly we are focused on the college-aged and young adult age groups,” Kleinhen said. “Those are the people that need the money, because they don’t have jobs and if they do they are just starting out.”

With the economy the way it has been, Kleinhen acknowledges that it has been tough for the new business.

“It has affected us and I think if it was better, more people would be out buying clothes,” Kleinhen said. “I think a lot of people are looking to sell their stuff more so than to buy from us because they are trying to save money and make money.”

“I think once people realize some of the brands we have to offer and what they are going for as opposed to what they retailed then it will definitely pick up and of course the economy is getting better,” Kleinhen said.
Not many small business owners are 19, but Kleinhen sees it as an advantage.

“What is cool about being younger is I have so many ideas, and I can go ahead with promotional ideas and things of that nature,” Kleinhen said. “I am doing anything and everything I can every second of every day to try to make things better than they already are.”

She noted in an effort to expand the diversity of her product she began selling new clothing.

“We have just recently begun selling some new clothing to go along with used clothing to have a little bit of diversity, because we found the traffic we are getting is very diverse,” Kleinhen said. “Some people look for new and some look for second-hand.”

As for her future plans, Kleinhen wants to continue expanding her business.

“This is just the beginning for us and I am only 19,” Kleinhen said. “There are a lot of things I want to continue to grow and we just need to begin marketing and advertising, because I want to be able to hire more employees, expand my brand. We have a unique product here.

“I don’t really want to necessarily franchise it, because I want to keep it small and close knit and I want it be very personable with our customers,” Kleinhen said.