Andrew Swafford turned his hobby into a successful small business at the age of 19.
Andrew Swafford’s business is buzzworthy.
At just 15, the young entrepreneur became a beekeeper. Swafford had a deep interest in agricultural science that led him to a prosperous hobby.
“It wasn’t meant to be what it was,” he says. “It started off as a personal hive that turned into a business.”
Since he started, Andy’s Beekeeping has grown into a line of natural products that rivals the well-known products company Burt’s Bees.
“Currently, I sell six different flavors of natural beeswax lip balm and six different scents of lotion bars,” Swafford says. “And then I sell three natural varieties of honey. I’m working on a hair care product line and remedies like natural arthritis cream.”
He says that after starting with one hive, the wide variety of opportunities to use honey were obvious.
“I saw the different available opportunities I had through extra wax and just other stuff that I’m getting off of the bees,” says Swafford. “I was able to produce different lines of products to ensure maximum profit.”
While Swafford has been able to grow his business, even employing two people, he cautions anyone who wants to get into beekeeping.
“You need to do a lot of research before you start—more than I did,” he warns. “I watched a lot of YouTube videos about how to do it and read a lot about different techniques. You first just have to get your equipment and the bees. Bees are hard to get sometimes, but after you do that, it’s mostly about preference.”
There is great reward in beekeeping once the technical parts are taken care of, he says.
‘There’s nobody to tell you exactly what to do, and everybody does it differently,” Swafford says. “It’s more about doing the way you feel most comfortable about the process.”
Swafford says being a young entrepreneur isn’t always the bee’s knees. When asked what his biggest challenge is, Swafford says without hesitation: “My age. People do not take me seriously until they see my products. After that, they can look past my age and are normally amazed by the products.”
Swafford plans to attend University of Tennessee and has been careful to keep school his top priority.
“I’m going into biotech engineering, and I hope to go into work for Monsanto or the USDA one day,” he says. “So, to be able to achieve that, school has to come first. My business always comes second.”
Swafford has already been widely recognized for his work with Future Farmers of America, earning three national medals for his research in agricultural science. Winning a young entrepreneur award is a significant accomplishment, says Swafford.
“That tells me that somebody out there cares not only about the future of our youth, but the future of our country,” he says. “The youth is the future of our country. If we don’t have young people stepping in and taking over the vision and being able to run new businesses with new ideas, we’re not going to go anywhere as a country.”
Swafford hopes to continue his business and work with FFA and NFIB to influence business-friendly policy issues in Tennessee.
