BY KADE MIROS
Wadsworth High School senior, Cara Griffin, runs her own business where she customizes reusable Starbucks cups and has been very successful. People from all around the world message her on Instagram, with what they would like on their cups and within a matter of a couple weeks, they are complete!
Griffin decided to play around with some designs and customize her personal reusable Starbucks cup back in February of 2020. She posted a TikTok showing her talent and hoping others would take inspiration from it.
“Back in February, I put together a couple of cute customized reusable Starbucks cups for my friends and had them hold them up for my Tiktok,” said Griffin.“ By the next day, my video had gone viral and had received over 30 thousand views.”
The business has grown rapidly to where it is today. Griffin has shipped her products to 35 states, Canada, and Puerto Rico.
“I have been asked to ship further than Canada and Puerto Rico, but I haven’t got any orders yet. If I ship internationally, it comes with an additional charge,” said Griffin.
To place an order for Griffin’s products, people DM her business account with all the details that the customer would like on their cup. An average order ranges from 1-5 cups.
“When I get a message, I make sure to figure out what the customer wants on their cup. I also have different types of cups. I have the regular cup, a confetti cup and a color changing cup,” said Griffin.
The confetti and color changing cup are limited stock because Starbucks only sold them for a limited time.
“When Starbucks was selling the limited edition cups, I went out at 3 in the morning and drove to seven different Starbucks locations and we got around 100 cups,” said Griffin. “ I still have about 50 more and every once and a while I find more when I go on trips and vacations.”
Griffin has different original designs that she offers for her lowest price coming to $12 and they are VSCO stars, cheetah print, butterflies and a few others that are on her Instagram page.
“Custom cups and confetti cups start at $15 while the color changing cups start at $18. If a customer wants their name, it is $3 extra charge,” said Griffin.
Mazie Shaffer, 12, is one of Cara’s closest friends and has bought a couple of her products.
“I have known Cara since eighth grade and ever since I met her, she has such a creative spirit,” said Shaffer.
Shaffer was one of the girls in Griffin’s TikTok that went viral showing off her blue leopard print cup.
A high school english teacher and drama director, also has received a cup from the business.
“I got one of her cups as a gift for directing our most recent performance, The Rainbow Fish,” said Pernod. “It’s very colorful and has lots of sea creatures and the words change colors.”
In the future, Griffin wants to expand her business beyond cups and also include Tumblers.
“I’m not sure how much I would do besides cups but I have had family and friends ask me to do Tumblers for the football team,” said Griffin.
Griffin hopes to expand her business into something much bigger, or to make it a stepping stone into her future.
“The products are super cute, trendy and functional,” said Pernod. “I could definitely see the business take off and become a jumping point to something better in the near future.
Griffin does not know what she wants to do after college, but she is considering architecture or business for her major. Both majors could help her business grow and grow because architecture involves arts and business would not only benefit her sales, but how she should run a business too. The cup business is something Griffin loves and she wants to keep her business going throughout her high school and college years.
