Today we’d like to introduce you to Kimberlee Derry.
Hi Kimberlee, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My name is Kimberlee and I have always been an entrepreneur at heart. I have had many successful and some not so successful direct sales businesses in the past and was always looking for something to pour my creative talents into and then turn into a profit. In 2008 I began my career in the field of education, teaching 6th and 7th grade Language Arts and Social Studies. After over a decade in the classroom, I decided to take a break and open my first brick and mortar gift shop. “My Dragonfly Designs” was my dream shop and I specialized in custom gifts and personalization with embroidery and vinyl. Then COVID hit. I had been taking care of my great aunt and great uncle for the past several years and having lost my aunt in 2019 just a few short weeks after moving them to Georgia from Memphis Tennessee, my uncle was quarantined by himself in his assisted living and was absolutely miserable. I had just separated from my husband of 24 years, and my uncle and I needed each other more than ever. So, we decided to get a house together and I was able to fill his last 2 years of life with fun and excitement, but most of all love and companionship. I even got him to shoot the Hooch with me at 94 years old! I lost him in 2021, and deciding not to go back to teaching, I was on the hunt for my next entrepreneurial experience.
Early in 2024, while surfing Facebook one afternoon, I came across a franchise opportunity that piqued my interest because it was nothing like anything else I had seen, and my brain went crazy with the possibilities. I started thinking back to when my own 2 daughters grew up playing travel sports and the mounds of similar looking if not identical trophies we threw away when they finished. If Shrunk3D had existed back then, I could have watched my girls grow up with every team they played for and every uniform they sported, and I would have cherished every one of those memorable trophies instead of trashing them along with their old smelly uniforms. I decided that I wanted to offer other parents that opportunity, so I investigated SHRUNK 3D a little deeper. After seeing the quality and detail that these miniatures possessed, and meeting the amazing group of founders, I was hooked. It doesn’t get any more custom or personalized than this! SHRUNK 3D is everything I wanted in a business franchise and more. It is the future of photography and keepsake memories. No more sifting through books of flat fading photographs. Now, you can display your favorite people, pets, costumes, even celebrities in full color and vivid realistic detail. I bought the franchise in June of 2024 and finally got my trailer on October 30th. I just celebrated my one-year anniversary of being a business owner for Shrunk 3D and with a business goal of 3 trailers in 3 years, I have my work cut out for me, but accepting a challenge has never been something I easily stand down on.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. There have been personal as well as financial obstacles that have tempted me to throw in the towel many times. In August of 2024, after purchasing the franchise but prior to getting my trailer, I suffered a ruptured ulcer while I was in Lubbock, Texas, helping my daughter through her own medical emergency. My 2nd grandson, Levi, had just been born and was life flighted to UMC Texas. I was there to help care for his 2 yr. old brother so mom and dad could be with him. They had to restart my heart twice in the ambulance on the way to the hospital where I was in a coma on life support for three days and had to receive 18 units of blood. My grandson and I were released on the same day. Unfortunately while I was going through all this, I missed a payment on my health insurance and was unknowingly put on a grace period and auto draft was turned off. Since my payment had been on auto draft for the last several years, when the next payment rolled around, I assumed it was going to get paid. It didn’t and they canceled my health insurance retro back to July 31. Therefor my entire hospital ordeal became “self-pay.” Then it came time to pick up my trailer and start this grand journey in a heap of debt. I fell behind on my mortgage, I had to sell my house and move into a rental, and instead of being able to invest in my new business with the proceeds from the house, I paid off a small portion of my medical bills. Fast forward a year, I wouldn’t change a thing. The struggles with affordable creative marketing, scheduling events and trying different strategies to increase profits, and brainstorming unique ways to stand out from the crowd have taught me more about being a small business owner than I ever could have dreamt possible. My dance with death has given me such a new perspective on life and I try to see every obstacle not as a challenge, but as an opportunity to grow and do better than I did the day before.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am an entrepreneur at heart. While I did teach middle school for a number of years, I have always had some sort of side gig going. My dream of opening my own business became a reality in 2019 when I opened My Dragonfly Designs, a custom embroidery and vinyl gift shop. However, that dream was short lived due to COVID. I divorced my husband, closed my shop, and took care of my great uncle until his passing in 2021. Later, in 2024, I decided to try my hand at owning a business again and that is when I found Shrunk 3D. I raised two daughters who played fastpitch travel softball their entire youth lives. One even got a full ride to Georgia State University to play ball. By the time they were done, the number of trophies that they had accumulated was enormous. While they were beautiful trophies, they all had that same golden girl with the golden ponytail holding that golden bat. And they all went in the trash. If I had had something like Shrunk 3D back then, I would still be displaying those trophies on my wall today, cherishing every one of them. I could have watched my girls grow up in softball through their victories.
Shrunk 3D has the world’s first and only fully mobile 3D scanning booth. Inside the booth there are 95 cameras that take 190 simultaneous images in a matter of seconds. Those 2D images are sent off to our designers who work their magic, transforming them into a hyper realistic exact replica 3D statue. The possibilities are endless. Our statues range in size from 3 inches to 9 inches and can come with or without a custom base. I have scanned my daughter and her fiancée to create the cake topper for their wedding cake. Everything from DragonCon to birthday parties, Christmas ornaments to desktop conversation pieces, even your pets, cars, and houses. Almost anything is possible! I love my business and the creative outlet it provides me. I have met so many wonderful people and captured so many amazing moments with my mobile 3D business.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
It’s not what you know, it’s WHO you know, and running into the right person at the right time that is willing to take a chance on you could be a life changing business opportunity. I have met many wonderful people, but I’m still waiting for my luck to hit.
Pricing:
- 3″- $60
- 9″-$255
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.shrunk3D.com/eastcobb
- Instagram: shrunk3d_eastcobb
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564192408107
