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City where you’re from: Bridgewater, New Jersey
Hobbies: FortNite, Basketball, Movies
Favorite quote: “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” — Bill Gates
Social accounts (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn):
Tell us about Jersey Champs. How did you come up with this idea?
Sean Kelly: Jersey Champs was started in my college dorm room at Rutgers University. We are revolutionizing the jersey world with unique and trendy jerseys and replacing the current boring sports jerseys that leagues like the NBA & NFL put out. We have many professional athletes reach out to us for custom jerseys because they believe in our mission.
How have you been able to grow your business?
Sean Kelly: We started with Instagram Marketing using Influencers and purchasing shoutouts on large sports pages. We then scaled with Facebook & Twitter Ads and now we run Snapchat Ads which drives a very large amount of sales.
Which celebrities have you made custom jerseys for?
Sean Kelly: Mark Cuban, Gary Vaynerchuk, Tai Lopez, Shaquille O’ Neal Dez Bryant, Odell Beckham Jr, Logic, Khalid, Marcus Peters, Lil Pump, Martavis Bryant, Lil Wayne, Young M.A, Landon Collins, 2 Chainz, Jae Crowder, Casey Veggies & more. It’s been an honor to team up with some of today’s most influential people.
What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them?
Sean Kelly: Our biggest failure was in our first year of business. We did not anticipate such a rapid growth in sales during December due to the holidays so we ended up becoming heavily backordered and had to refund over $50,000 in orders. Ever since then, we have learned to always be ready for the Q4 spike in sales.
Our biggest success was creating our Donald Trump Jersey. The night he got elected we sold thousands, and it has sold steadily since and remains one of our top sellers to this day.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?.
Sean Kelly: Just because you sell something $50 more than what you obtained it for doesn’t mean you profited $50. You have to factor in shipping costs, advertising costs, processing fees, chargeback rates, time, website maintenance, etc. I was very naive when first starting this business.
Teach us something we don’t know about Instagram Marketing
Sean Kelly: There are a ton of great engagement groups on Telegram for those of you with over 100,000 followers. I would join these groups and create a close relationship with these members as they will be growing with you on the way to the top!
Teach us something we don’t know about Influencer Marketing
Sean Kelly: Never use an influencer marketing platform or site that sells influencer posts. You do not want to go through a middle man as they will be more expensive. Instead, directly message the influencer on Instagram and click the little drop down arrow on their Instagram profile afterwards to find similar accounts. I would message at least 25 per day if possible.
What advice would you give to other millennials?
Sean Kelly: You’re young. You have so much time in the world so take advantage of it. Instead of using your free time on video games or socializing, you should go out there and work on that business idea you have. Everyone has had an idea for a business and so many people never follow up on it.
Tell us 1 thing that no one knows about you.
Sean Kelly: I had a near-death experience when I was just 19 years old. Ever since then my life has changed and I never take anything for granted.
Check out Jersey Champs here.
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