TULSA, Okla. -- Starting your own business requires a leap of faith, but it was a risk that Emily Hooker was willing to take when she left her job earlier this year to chart a new path.
The spare bedroom in her apartment has now become the headquarters for Blackburn Goods, a handmade leather goods company that she ran part-time until February this year.
"I was just tired of being in denial of doing something I really loved all the time," Hooker said. "I felt like my heart was being pulled in half."
She left her job in retail to focus full-time on designing and making all kinds of leather items by hand, including keychains, wallets, purses and other bags.
"I want to be able to enhance other people's lives through this, so I don't think it's just a business," Hooker said. "I think it's an avenue of ministry."
She said the idea for her business came after a trip she took with her parents as a teenager.
"We were at Silver Dollar City, and I bought this rabbit pelt," Hooker said, laughing. "I was so excited. I came home, and I used the rabbit pelt and some rope from an old hammock to make a purse."
She later traded the rabbit pelts for leathers locally sourced in Oklahoma. She said it's gratifying when customers across the globe, some from as far as Australia and the United Kingdom, buy her products, which range in price from $15 to $500.
"We both identify with a quality-made product. We want out personality to be expressed in this one item, and I just happen to make it," she said. "It's like we're a community. You're expressing the same idea. I felt like, 'Am I the only one who thinks like this?' And they're like, 'No, you're not. I want that product, too.' It's kind of like we're friends across the world."
She would one day like to see her products sold in stores all across Oklahoma, but she said there is nowhere she wants her business to be based but here in Green Country.
"The heart of the Tulsa people is so benevolent," she said. "I can't imagine a better place to grow a business."
She is also encouraging other aspiring entrepreneurs to pursue their ideas in Tulsa.
"There's no limit to the creativity in Tulsa, so you're in a great place to start your own business," she said. "Just reach out to the community around you to learn, and never stop learning."
To learn more about Blackburn Goods, visit this link.