As a precocious child, Danielle Rocha toted her fingernail-polish kits along to family gatherings, offering amateur manicures or back rubs for a dollar.
Even then, the Santa Barbara native had an inkling she would one day work for herself instead of laboring for someone else.
Rocha, 20, has since found her dream job — selling handmade bikini swimwear — and she’s hoping fellow locals and bathing suit lovers will help keep the business going.
The Dos Pueblos High School graduate has entered her business, Rocha Swim, into a FedEx small-business grant contest, which will award 10 winners nationwide with a grand prize of $25,000.
Rocha needs votes in order to stay in the running against more than 1,500 other businesses. (You can vote for her once a day by clicking here through the deadline, 9 a.m. March 17.)
“I think that’s why I pushed myself and why I continue to push myself,” she said of the desire to start her own business.
A love of fashion and weekends spent on the beaches of Santa Barbara and Montecito inspired Rocha to create her own designs, buying the proper stretchy material to sew patterns for friends at $25 per Brazilian-inspired, skin-bearing bikini.
Rocha Swim released its first bikini wear line in May 2014, and the second line launched this January, with certain styles already nearly sold out.
She learned to sew after high school by attending De Marcos Fashion Academy for six months fashioning formal evening gowns — cool, but not her thing.
“It just wasn’t exactly me,” she told Noozhawk. “I see what kind of bikinis girls are wearing.”
Rocha’s father made an investment, buying a couple of nicer sewing machines, and she took a three-month Women’s Economic Ventures course to learn the business side of things.
She graduated from the Santa Barbara program in December with honors, having learned the value of her time, networking and material costs — now she sells suit separates for $60 or $70 each — and friends there let Rocha know about the FedEx contest.
“You learn so many different things,” she said, adding that she hopes the grant could help with manufacturing costs.
Rocha Swim has sold more than 100 bikinis since its inception and has been featured in 708 Magazine and Santa Barbara Life & Style.
Rocha said her family, friends and boyfriend helped immensely with the venture, which this month opened a space within Goleta’s Foundation Press.
She’s working another part-time job and babysits on the side, but she hopes to make Rocha Swim her full-time gig.
— Noozhawk staff writer Gina Potthoff can be reached at gpotthoff@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.