Home Business Promoting Kindness Weathers the Storm

"There is no demand for your product." "The economy is bad for non-essential items." "Do you know that the vast majority of home based businesses fail?" These are just a few of the comments Tina Mansfield heard as she headed into her business venture. End Quote

New York, NY (1888PressRelease) January 14, 2010 - Five years ago, this wife and mother had a desire to teach children about the importance of virtues like kindness, tolerance, empathy, respect, and forgiveness. Something she felt lacking yet greatly needed in modern society. After stewing on it for a couple of years, she started to implement her idea. Ordering pieces of sheet metal and applying skills from a college jewelry making class, she fashioned a ring. This was no ordinary ring though. It was to be used to remind the owner of a particular act of kindness according to the color of string that was weaved through it. The final result is a beautiful ring made from high quality sterling silver with two front holes and two anchor holes in back for threading which she branded String-Ring, The Kindness Reminder Ring.

"I've put a twist on the ancient custom of using a string around your finger as a tool to remember something," Tina explains. "In this case, that something is an act of kindness represented by the reminder string. The ring comes with 20 colored strings that you interchange and set in the groove of the ring." For example: red or pink is the color of love and is a reminder to be kind to one another. Blue represents tranquility, and promotes patience with others. Purple stands for empathy and is a reminder to be tolerant of the differences between us. Silver symbolizes wisdom and understanding and is a reminder to forgive. Gold is the color of wealth and acts as reminder to give…not just money, but rather your attention, time, knowledge, or even a smile. Green is a reminder to respect the environment and all other living things. Orange represents energy and enthusiasm and is a reminder to laugh - "Especially at ourselves," said the ring's creator, "It is my favorite color!"

After tweaking the prototype she found a manufacturer while her husband, Jeff, built a fully functioning website to explain the concept, note color meanings and stringing ideas. The two met in college while working on graphic design degrees. In February of 2008, she began selling the rings at her on-line boutique with zero advertising dollars and a lot of elbow grease - learning as they moved along. A blog was added a year later to share stories of kindness called The Kindness Community. Now, in lieu of the hard economic times, String-Ring is celebrating its 2nd anniversary.

"I began marketing the ring to school-age kids, donating the first 100 to the Rachel's Challenge Project. Rachel Scott was the first victim of the tragic Columbine school shooting in 1999. Her father, Darrell, travels the globe holding assemblies in hope of promoting kindness and tolerance within our schools. My mission too had been to create a kinder generation, but I soon realized the largest part of my consumer base was adult women. Just as long as the core theme is one of kindness, I'm on board!"

Selling about 1,000 rings through the U.S. and abroad, Tina comments, "It hasn't been easy and the sales are far from lucrative. But the encouraging words I receive from customers keeps me moving forward."

If you'd like more information about this topic, please email Tina Mansfield at
info ( @ ) string-ring dot com or log on to their on-line store.

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