Entrepreneurship is nothing new for sophomore tennis player, Katharina Santos. The past two years for Katharina have been a blur of opportunities for her small business, The Crown Factory. And with a room strewn with hot glue, artificial flowers, and string, Katharina makes her product right inside of her own home.

“My fourteenth birthday, I had this idea: I really wanted a [bohemian] themed birthday party. So I went on Pinterest and I looked at all of these things and I started making decorations,” Santos said. “And then, I saw this photo booth idea with flower crowns. And I was like ‘oh, I’m gonna start making flower crowns for this photo booth idea’, but I made them out of tissue paper. And everybody at the party were like ‘oh my gosh, these are so cute’ and kept saying like ‘you should make these and sell them’.”

After some careful consideration, Katharina made the decision to try her hand at being a small business entrepreneur.

“I thought about it, and I thought it was a great idea,” Santos said. “A week [after the party], school was over, and my mom and I went out and we just started buying artificial flowers and making flower crowns with them. When they were done, I would post them online, and people would start buying them- and my mom and I liked making them. So I just make them and sell them.”

Katharina’s mom, Madalena Oliveira, says that her daughter puts endless effort into her small business and continues to make a bright future for herself.

“She’s such a determined and focused young lady and I admire that of her,” Oliveira said. “Many people her age now don’t have the same mentality and aren’t really worried about their future, but she is. And I couldn’t be prouder.”

The company has been a huge stepping stone for Katharina, furthering her ambitions and ability to do what she loves.

“I’m gonna make an Etsy page, and I am getting my website started,” Santos said. “My company, has kind of sparked a new idea for me to start photography and do that for [The Crown Factory]. So it’s going really good.”

Friend Mikaela Rock isn’t surprised by Katharina’s success.

“I was not surprised with Katharina’s success with her flower crown business. She’s always been a dedicated and hard worker and I’ve always admired her for that, and she never gives up,” Rock said. “When she wants to do something well, she will put so much effort into it and she works hard to make everything better.”

The Crown Factory is just one of the ways Katharina spends her free time. She also maintains a small lifestyle blog where she posts helpful DIY projects, tips to healthy skin and even everyday thoughts on the world around us.

“People kept reading it and all my Mom’s friends, and my friends kept saying ‘oh you’re pretty good at it’ so I was just like ‘oh ok cool’ and what I like about it is that it’s like an escape,” Santos said. “I can be myself and not worry about what other people think of me because then I’ll just write about whatever I’m feeling and sometimes things you can’t say to people faces and just writing it all out.”

Katharina Santos is on the road to success with her endless ambitions for her blog, business, and her future.

“I want to start new [businesses],” Santos said. ”And my mom, she’s also really into it- she started her own business and she’s already planning on different ones and using money from different businesses to help her.”

This story has been updated with a correction. Madalena Santos has been corrected to Madalena Oliveira