Her voice sounded like candy.
Ashley Daly, CEO of BeCandylicious, started her own clothing line a little less than a year ago.
“BeCandylicious is a digitally native brand with one local office/showroom where nearby residents can purchase clothing, accessories and gifting items while also seeing new design concepts before they go into mass production. All of our designs are dreamed up right here in Pleasantville.”
Prior to her launch, Daly had been in the technology marketing field for approximately 20 years, most recently leaving a 13-year career at Experian Marketing Services, a marketing and media company.
“I loved it, I loved everybody I worked with, we worked with some of the best brands in the world, but it required an extensive amount of travel,” Daly said about why she chose to leave that career path. According to Daly, she was working long hours and felt she was missing out on time with her family.
“Once I turned 40, I thought, it’s kind of now or never in terms of starting my own company.”
From there, Daly decided it was time to pursue her dream of making clothing “that make people feel good” and bring smiles to those around them as well.
“The idea is that the brand BeCandylicious is both metaphorical and literal in terms of ‘candy is sweet,’ because it’s all the colors and senses and memories that we get when we see those kinds of things.”
Ashley Daly, CEO of BeCandylicious, began her career as an entrepreneur after her 40th birthday. She launched her clothing line after a 20-year career in marketing. (Photo courtesy Ashley Daly)
In less than a year, Daly said BeCandylicious has shipped to all 50 U.S. states and is now expanding globally.
Daly said, however, she couldn’t have done it without the support of her family and friends.
In the beginning of her career as an independent entrepreneur, she described the experience as “overwhelming” and “frightening.”
“Being an entrepreneur gets glamorized quite a bit, where people think ‘oh you get to make your own hours’ or that it’s just not as much work, and what they don’t realize is the sacrifice that you make.”
“It’s lonely at times. It’s frightening where self-doubt kicks in and you question yourself—Am I doing the right thing? Am I creative enough? Am I smart enough? Am I capable enough to execute on this?” Daly said.
However, the CEO tries to push through those fears and have GRIT, as she described. She finds comfort in relating to other entrepreneurs about the feelings that come with the territory.
The BeCandylicious brand targets a broad customer base from 12 months, forward. The clothes consist of candy-inspired logos or slogans.
“I believe the old saying ‘when you look good, you feel good,’” Daly said.
Her vision for the brand is to have the clothes not only make people feel good but to have them pay it forward.
“I believe that when you’re happy, you tend to proactively want to make other people feel happy.”
In the brand’s future, Daly hopes to collaborate with other brands and organizations on custom designs.
For its first collaboration with Break the Hold, beCandylicious designed shirts for suicide awareness. BeCandylicious is expected to donate 100 percent of the profits to the organization.
A hard launch is the “next step,” according to Daly, with changes made to the products and the packaging.
“I love the BeCandylicious line,” said Jen Gorsuch, beCandylicious’ showroom manager. “All of Ashley’s designs are original and super sweet and fun. The BeCandylicious line also represents living a sweet life by spreading kindness. Each piece of clothing just brings smiles to the faces of everyone who wears it.”