Meg Goodman
Hi! I’m Meg, the creator, designer, CEO, and sole employee of Beaded by Meg! I started my business totally by accident as a 15 year old sophomore in high school. I kept seeing beaded necklaces everywhere and wanted one for myself, but couldn’t afford it. I decided to purchase beads and wire from Michael’s and created my first necklace in 2015! Each and every individual bead was hand-wire wrapped which was extremely time consuming. I wore the necklace to school the next day and had lots of girls compliment me. So many people wanted one for themselves and within a few weeks, I had a running list of orders on my phone. I’d make a few necklaces each night and people would meet me at my locker the next day to pick up their jewelry. I started an Etsy page around this time which was when the name “Beaded by Meg” was born. In early 2016, I started the @beadedbymeg Instagram profile to connect with customers, build a community, and post all things creative! At the time, it was still rather novel to have a business Instagram page, and everything started snowballing from there.
The summer before college, I was scouted by Atlanta Apparel and took the leap of faith into wholesale. I did my very first ever apparel market in June 2018. Since then, I’ve worked with over 150+ brick-and-mortar storefronts and online boutiques in 25 states, Canada, and Germany! Selling wholesale jewelry and working alongside other business owners has truly become my passion. I originally went into college thinking I wanted to study interior design, but my business grew significantly my freshman year. I found the process of wholesaling, buying, and trend forecasting fascinating and eventually switched my major to apparel merchandising.
With my business growing so much and also being a full-time college student, I struggled to keep up with the demand. I decided to take the Spring 2021 semester off after experiencing almost a full year of online school. I returned to exhibiting at the Atlanta Mart and the response was overwhelming in the best way possible! I got to meet so many retailers I had been working with (some for years) and also made a ton of small business friends! I started envisioning the future of what Beaded by Meg could become when I was finished with college and knew I would do anything and everything to make it my full time job.
With a few semesters of college left, I decided I needed to take a step away from running my business. It was a very hard decision to walk away from something I had been building for the past few years; it had become part of my identity. But FINALLY, after working my absolute butt off, I graduated from Auburn University in December 2022 with a degree in Apparel Merchandising, Design, & Consumer Sciences!!! I am officially running Beaded by Meg as my full time job and I have so many plans for the future of this business.
Each piece of jewelry is handmade in Nashville, Tennessee with the intention of creating style while maintaining the highest quality and affordability for everyone. When you shop with Beaded by Meg, you’re supporting a dream becoming reality!