The $40 Million Missouri Business Built After Bankruptcy

Posted on July 18, 2018 at 12:00pm by
Picture of Bankruptcy Stamp.

When it comes to the topic of bankruptcy, you can often hear a lot of negative stories. This is pretty understandable considering that bankruptcy is a process to help individuals and businesses overwhelmed by debt. But by that same token, bankruptcy has often been the first step of getting people on the track to financial success. Do not believe us? Here is a Missouri business that blossomed out of the ashes of a bankruptcy.

From Bankruptcy to $40 Million!

Living in California, Jenny Doan and her husband were living a modest middle-class life. However, their youngest son developed a lymph node tumor. The medical crisis forced the child to undergo many expensive medical treatments. Luckily, the tumor proved benign, but the resulting medical bills proved to be crushing. The family chose to file for bankruptcy.

Between the cost of living in California and the cost of repaying their debts, the family decided it was time for a change. They chose the peaceful town of Hamilton, Missouri to settle in and raise their family. The town also proved a good environment to recover from bankruptcy.

During those first few years, the family flourished. The Doan’s daughters got married and had kids, their son became a Mormon missionary. He would later earn an information systems degree at Brigham Young University’s Hawaii campus. These years set the groundwork for what would become a multi-million-dollar business.

After moving to Hamilton, Jenny started quilting for fun. After it became apparent that there was money to be made in this hobby, the woman teamed up with her daughter Sarah. After a second mortgage to buy a computerized quilter, and the purchase of a storefront, Jenny was expecting to make around $40,000 a year. The business would prove far more successful than their estimates.

Before long, Doan’s son Alan had started a website to help support his mother’s business. QuiltersDailyDeal.com was started, and soon Alan and his friend David had convinced Jenny to make YouTube videos to promote the site. The next thing they knew, Jenny was an internet celebrity.

YouTube fame translated into a massive boost to the family’s quilting and fabric business. What started as $4 million in annual revenue soon increased. The family bought store fronts all over town selling quilting supplies and offering a place to meet Jenny Doan. The small Missouri city soon became what Forbes dubbed “The Disneyland of Quilting”, attracting around 96,000 tourists a year.

Now, most of the Doan family and in-laws all work for Missouri Star—the company Jenny built. The company has even become one of the largest employers in the Hamilton area. It is hard to imagine that such financial success could have started with a bankruptcy, but a quilting empire stands thanks to that filing.

Bankruptcy is not the end of your financial life, it is an opportunity to get your finances back on track. To learn more about what bankruptcy can do for you, contact the Kansas City bankruptcy lawyers at The Sader Law Firm. We help people who are ready to start their road to financial recovery.



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