-Next on "Start Up"... We meet up with Mimi Striplin, the owner of The Tiny Tassel, a clothing and accessory shop in the heart of Charleston, South Carolina.

All of this and more is next on "Start Up."

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♪♪ ♪♪ -My name is Gary Bredow.

I'm a documentary filmmaker and an entrepreneur.

As the country focuses on recovery, small-business owners everywhere are still fighting to keep their dream alive.

So we set out to talk to a wide range of diverse business owners to better understand how they've learned to adapt, innovate, and even completely reinvent themselves in this ever-changing world.

♪♪ This is "Start Up."

♪♪ ♪♪ Selling custom handmade jewelry has become extremely popular in recent years and can be very lucrative, with more than 29 people purchasing handmade jewelry online alone.

Today I'm heading to Charleston, South Carolina, to meet up with Mimi Striplin, the owner of The Tiny Tassel, a retail concept that started with Mimi's own dangly tassel earrings and is now a thriving brick-and-mortar and e-commerce business.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ What are we gonna do here today?

-We're gonna make a pair of our signature tassel earrings.

That's what I started with back in 2015 and just grew the company from there.

-I contacted my daughter Zoey.

-Yes.

-And she requested yellow.

-Yes, we're gonna make her some yellow tassel earrings.

-Awesome.

-And they're great for all ages because they're really lightweight.

They're still a fun pop of color, but they're not too, too crazy and big like some of our other styles.

-They're like lampshades.

-They are.

-They're so cute.

What's step one here?

-Alright.

Step one, super easy.

You can't mess it up.

Just take the wrapper off.

-[ Both laugh ] -Okay, I was gonna say, don't speak too soon.

I've successfully completed step one.

-You're doing great.

So next, we're gonna take it and fold it in half.

-Okay.

-And we'll take our scissors and snip it right in the middle.

So, you'll just combine the two pieces.

You're opening them up like so.

So, next you'll take one strand that we set aside.

-Okay.

-And you're gonna do a little tight-rope situation here.

Your hands are also much bigger.

-Oh, my hands are like -- it's like a bunch of bananas.

I mean, what the heck, you know?

-Okay, so next, we're gonna take the second piece of thread here and lay it out horizontally.

-Okay.

And you'll lay your tassel on top of it, and we're gonna tie one time here.

And now on this side, we're gonna tie it twice, and just really nice and tight.

And our second-to-last step is to attach our earring hook, which we've got some here.

-I will thread the needle.

I am on a mission.

Boom.

Got it.

-Great.

Okay, so now we've got our tassel formed, and our last thing to do is just trim it.

-That's it?

-Yep.

-Oh, gosh.

-[ Laughs ] I'm, like, cringing a little bit at how you just cut that tassel, but it's fine.

-It's driving you nuts.

Your OCD is just going crazy.

-Oh, my goodness.

It looks great.

Just got to trim it up a little bit and you're ready to go.

-Those look amazing.

-Thank you.

-I can imagine you were just cringing when I was cut-- I was cringing as I cut.

-No, it wasn't that bad.

-Look at this mess.

-She's gonna absolutely love this.

-They're gonna be so great.

-And then the story behind it, too, to actually see it on film, so... Yay!

♪♪ What is the sole reason for you starting this business?

-I wanted to create a life that was more meaningful, more joyful than what I was doing before, and this company has been sort of the vehicle for that.

And even looking back over the last six years, I could have never imagined that it would be at this place, what it is now.

I don't even remember sitting down and thinking, "I'm starting The Tiny Tassel," but I managed a men's clothing store, a haberdashery here in town.

I think I just started to realize like, this is not for me.

This is not the type of life that I want, working paycheck to paycheck.

I started making jewelry and I started an Etsy shop because that was the thing to do.

-Sure.

-And it was really cool to be able to grow that business to a point where I was selling online then, through social media, Instagram, and then also doing pop-ups in markets around Charleston and really growing our customer base that way and got to a point where I could financially support myself through the business.

-And you're...

Proven your concept completely.

-Mm-hmm.

-People liked what you were doing.

-Yeah, yeah.

It was really cool to get our first few orders where it wasn't, like, a friend of a friend or a family member buying from the Etsy shop.

-When you were doing the pop-ups and doing that store, was it Tiny Tassel at that point?

-It was The Tiny Tassel, yes.

-Okay.

-And I was just making tassel earrings and bracelets and necklaces, and then started to grow the business then, creating content online through Instagram and Facebook.

And then my mom came in because we were always shooting our jewelry, but people would always ask, "Where's that dress from that you're wearing?"

And it's from some other company that I'm not making money from advertising their pieces.

And my mom has sewn my entire life, and that's where our garments came into play.

And we just thought, why not sell clothing, too, and create a whole wardrobe selection that our customers can shop from and love our brand?

-And it's such a unique style that you have.

-Yeah.

-I love it.

It puts a smile on your face.

-It definitely does.

Our pieces are for any age, any body type.

We're very size-inclusive, where we have extra small to XXXL, because we've heard a lot of customers tell us that they can't find cute things in this style with ruffles or gingham check, but in the different sizes that they need.

And so we find a lot of joy in that because we're able to reach a lot of people that way.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Tell us your name and what you do here at The Tiny Tassel.

-Okay.

My name is Keiko Striplin.

And I'm the designer, patternmaker, and seamstress.

-And mom.

-Mom.

-[ Chuckles ] Tell me a little bit about your background.

Have you been making clothes for a long time and sewing?

-Yes.

Maybe when I was like eight years old, I cut up curtains in the living room, start making my teddy bears garments.

I got in trouble.

So, since then, I can't stop sewing.

I moved to an old textile town in upstate South Carolina, so I went to big factories -- actually, textile mills.

In the back of the factory, there's a humongous trash bin with tore-up T-shirts that stuck in a machine or some, cut up.

-Yeah.

-I grabbed as much as possible, brought it home, make all kind of crazy T-shirts.

Patched, whatever.

-Yeah.

-With a borrowed sewing -- old sewing machine and start selling them out in front of the house.

-Awesome.

-Then -- "Wait!

I can make my living."

So I opened a tailor shop.

That's how I raised my children.

-Tell me about your style.

What is your style of garment making?

-Mimi loves the pink and ribbons and dresses.

She never wanted to wear pants.

So, when one day she had to go to a field trip when she was in first grade -- -Yeah.

-...she woke up with a fever because the teacher said, "You're gonna have to wear jeans.

Tomorrow's a field trip day."

-A fever.

-Fever, so she didn't have to go to school.

-Comes in handy.

-I'm like, "Alright."

Yeah.

-[ Laughs ] Good timing.

When did you actually sign the lease on this space and open?

-I signed the lease September of 2020, which was a little crazy 'cause people were like, "What are you doing?"

-Yeah, interesting time to go into in-person retail.

-Yeah, we actually were the busiest then online with The Tiny Tassel that we'd ever been, and I say "we" as in -- it was still me running everything at that point.

But it was a big eye-opening experience because our community in Charleston and all over, they just really put their foot down and said, "We want to support small businesses."

-Nice.

-And that trickled into the summer of 2020, where a lot of people just wanted to support Black-owned businesses and woman-owned businesses.

So we saw a large shift in traffic, and I grew our team from just myself kind of handling our everyday operations, to now we have a team of five really great people.

And I thought when I left my previous business, I thought, "Okay, I'm gonna take a break from retail," because I'd been on my feet in retail for years and years since high school, and I thought I'm just gonna do it at home and stick to online.

And I saw this space, and it's a beautiful corner shop, and I came in and saw it and just thought, "I can't say no to this.

Like, I can't turn this down.

I can't walk away from it."

And I'm so happy that I did it.

And some people thought I was crazy for wanting to open an in-person shop during that time, but it's worked out so well and our business has been consistently growing.

Our customers are so happy to be able to come in and visit us in person and not just have to experience it online anymore.

-Yeah, and you also need a space to make your tassels and stuff.

So, are you doing fabrication and everything here?

-Yeah, so, we make all of our tassel jewelry right here in the shop.

So that's a really fun experience for our customers.

They can walk in and see us actually creating and making the pieces, and we're able to do all of our online order fulfillment here out of the shop now.

Because up until March of this year, we were working out of my like 600-square-foot apartment.

So that was a little tight.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -What was your first brush with The Tiny Tassel?

When did you stumble upon this gem?

-My uber fashionista friend in Boston, Suzanne Daley, was following them on Instagram when they were practically nothing.

And she said, "Have you been there?"

And I said no, and she said, "Well, you must."

And I used to come and visit poor Mimi almost every day.

That's how I got to know The Tiny Tassel.

-I'm sure she loved the company, though.

-Well...maybe.

[ Both chuckle ] -We're gonna go with that.

-Okay.

-What was your first impression coming into this store?

-It's like a wonderland.

It's a great place to come.

If you're ever not happy, come to The Tiny Tassel, because you'll be happy.

-It seems like there's things that bring you back in here.

-Absolutely, because there's new stuff all the time, and who but me has fear of missing out.

[ Both chuckle ] -Right.

-The FOMO store.

-Yes.

-Got to keep coming back.

-Oh, that's a good thing.

That's a good tag line -- the FOMO store.

-Hashtag -Yeah.

-Tell me about some of the things, the products that you curate and sell here.

-Yeah, we've got everything from locally made skincare products for Motherland Essentials to other jewelry brands that are based here in Charleston.

And I love to focus on other Black- and Asian-owned businesses because we don't see that as much here in Charleston, and there's not as much access for these women to come in and open their own shop or even get to a point where they feel like they can open their own shop if that's a goal of theirs.

So I love to hold this space for them, physically and figuratively, and offer their products and share about their brands to our customers.

-What are some of the barriers of entry?

You mentioned, particularly Black- and Asian-owned businesses.

What are the barriers?

-Yeah, there's always gonna be money, there's age, and these are things that I've just seen as barriers for myself.

There's race, and we're here in the Deep South, and... -Yeah.

-...thankfully we've progressed some, but there's still so far to go.

And just being a young Black or multicultural woman here in Charleston, it's been hard.

Either people assume that you have had everything given to you or that you are kind of this token figure and you're put on this pedestal because you are a Black- or Asian-owned business right now in our time.

And it's really interesting to see that when we genuinely work hard and have the support of our customers in our community that our businesses can grow and they can flourish and we can employ other women and really make an impact in our community.

-Tell me about your own personal experience owning a business here in the South.

-First of all, you come to a different country, then you don't speak English.

We don't have anything.

Start from zero, literally.

I've been homeless twice with my children.

I don't talk about that, so they don't know.

-Would you be willing to talk about that time that you were homeless?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

What happened?

-Someone in that little town reported to the police that I'm running certain businesses that are illegal.

-Oh, no.

-Because a lot of guys are in and out at my tailor shop.

I had to deal with that for years and years.

Then I had actually harassment from the law enforcement daily, so I have to keep my eyes open.

I have to be extremely strong, then come home smiling, having a good time with the kids, don't let the kids know those things.

It was hard, actually.

-Do you think that Mimi -- she obviously had to watch you and your work ethic and your fearless sort of approach to things.

So probably a huge inspiration, I'm assuming.

-First of all, what you have to do, open your heart to the community.

Then always think what this community needs and keep pushing.

Sometimes just fake it to keep that smile.

And, you know, like... -And eventually... -Yeah, eventually you get to where you want to be.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Talk about, like, financing.

Did you self-finance this whole entire thing?

Did you bring in an investor?

How did it work?

-No investors.

I've always wanted to make sure I just really stuck to a good budget and saved money when I needed to to be able to fund it.

I do like to show other business owners that there is a way that you can do it with -- I think I started with like $300 in my savings account -- -What?!

-...when I left my full-time job and my older sister, she's an accountant, and she's kept me in shape the last few years and really helped our business grow by just advising me through all of the financial sides of a business and growing it and learning how to work smarter and not spend all of our money on cute things when we don't need to.

-Retail is very scary.

I mean, do you have any advice for somebody out there that's sort of considering it?

Marketing, social media.

How important is photography, the way you display your brand?

-Yeah, I would say photography is top of my list.

-Really?

-And I tell any business owner or anyone who's wanting to start a business.

Of course, it's an investment financially and a time commitment.

And it took me about a year or two to really understand that and to really dive in and realize that that was needed.

Gone are the days of just putting a product up and hoping that it sells because it's a great product.

You can have a really amazing product, but if your branding and marketing isn't on point, then no one's gonna care about it and you're gonna sit kind of twiddling your thumbs wondering, "Why aren't people buying this amazing product that I have to offer?"

We really spend so much of our time on branding and marketing.

-Yeah.

-Our first full-time employee was our marketing associate because that is the most important to me right now, because if we can't get our story out and our brand out and market it clearly, then -- you don't have that, you don't have a business.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Tell me your name and what you do here.

-Yes, I'm Randi Nuorala, and I'm the marketing director here at The Tiny Tassel.

-How important is it to have a Randi on your staff these days?

-I mean, I think it's really important, but I'm biased.

-They don't have to be named Randi, but... -Right.

I think especially in 2021 -- and we saw this a lot last year, too -- everyone's shopping online.

It's so important to get your name out there.

Getting The Tiny Tassel out into the world when no one's leaving their home -- like, we didn't have a brick-and-mortar at that time -- it was huge.

-People are intimidated by different social media platforms and there's something coming out, it seems, every other day.

Try to simplify it the best that you can to somebody watching at home.

-I think I can be really overwhelming.

I know I get overwhelmed by it sometimes.

I'm like, there's too much.

I can't do all of this.

-Right.

-But if you just start somewhere, maybe say, "Okay, I'm not gonna do stories, but I'm gonna do posts."

I think a lot of people do go to Instagram just to make sure our business is even still open and functioning.

And so if you haven't posted in two years, they're gonna be wondering.

So, yeah, start somewhere, I guess.

Just put a post out there and it doesn't need to be beautiful.

I mean, we didn't get to beautiful photography like professionally all the time until five years in, so... ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -What do you think of this store and what she's done with her life?

-This is all Mimi, perfectly Mimi.

She just hasn't changed.

If you knew Mimi as she was 8, you open her closet, it was all color-coded in a rainbow.

Everything from small to large, color-coded, size-wise, perfectly neat.

-Yeah, very organized.

-Yes, totally organized.

-Are you proud of her?

-Beyond my words can explain.

Such accomplishment as a young woman.

But then, same time, I expect her to do that, as a Japanese mom.

[ Both laugh ] I expect highly from my children, yeah.

-I mean, what does the future hold for Mimi?

What do you think?

What can she do with this?

-She can do anything her heart desires.

No stopping.

Anything.

She don't like to be comfortable.

So once she feel comfortable, she just persevere, one thing at a time, keep going up.

-Is there anything that you can look back since starting this business, or in general, and say, "I wish I would have done that differently, handled that differently"?

-I don't think I have any regrets in my business, but there are definitely some learning things that I could have made it easier on myself.

I think we also in society feel like we have to have this struggle for some reason, when if you actually just take a minute to breathe and to step back and not be so reactional to things that are happening in business or in life, then you can probably come up with the answer to figure it out.

But there are definitely some things over the last year when my business was growing so quickly that I was just not even taking a moment to be present and to truly be there, where if I would have just stopped and took a step back to look at everything, I could have made my life a little easier in some aspects.

-Struggle has been turned into this badge of honor.

-Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

-You know, like if you work 25 hours a day, right?

One extra hour into the next -- -And I am so anti that because I've lived it.

And I know that I'm very young, so I haven't lived a long life, but I've had to live that for a part of my life, and I hate that feeling and I'm not doing this.

I didn't create this business to work myself to death.

I think we see small business owners in this space of feeling like you have to work, work, work and your entire life has to revolve around your business.

And there will be times where that is true and you do have to work long days and long hours to make it work, but also, in the grand scheme of it, the value of our life and the worth of our life is so much more than working.

Like, we do this so that we can create a better life for ourself or a better quality of life for ourself versus working at some job that you may not love and you may not be fulfilled from.

-It should always be to live.

You work to live, you eat to live, you don't overdo anything, right?

-My life mantra over the last year has been I'm not gonna overexert myself.

Like, I work hard, but I'm not gonna overexert myself.

So, I think we all have to remember that because sometimes we may not even realize that we are getting to a place of burnout or whatever it may be in our lives, that we all need to just, like, be present and be aware of it.

-If you could do or could be doing anything else besides this, what would it be?

-Probably living on an island somewhere, doing nothing.

I wouldn't be doing anything else than this right now.

I always joke and I say this makes me so happy.

The only other thing is if someone was like, "Here is a free island for you to live on."

-Yeah.

-[ Laughs ] That's it.

-Age has absolutely nothing to do with wisdom, in my humble opinion, and Mimi is wise well beyond her years.

Her concept of not giving a business failure the power to become a personal failure is something that I learned from her today that had a profound impact on me to be fearless and take chances, especially in times of uncertainty, and to fully embrace all of the beautiful things that make you unique by letting those distinctive qualities shine through for all the world to see.

These are her words.

It's just so inspiring and refreshing.

Sure, Mimi has a successful jewelry and accessory business, and I have absolutely no doubt that Mimi will continue to accomplish amazing things.

But for me, the most impressive element of this business is Mimi herself.

The way she values and trusts her instincts and intuition.

The way that she's moved through life's obstacles with grace.

And I really hope that her story reaches the people who need to hear it most.

For more information, visit our website and search Episodes for The Tiny Tassel.

♪♪ Would you like to learn more about the show, or maybe nominate a business?

Visit our website, at startup-usa.com, and connect with us on social media.

♪♪ -♪ We got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ Got a long road ahead of us ♪ Before we pay our dues ♪ We've got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ Before we pay our ♪ Dues -...similar to this, as well.

-Is anything in it?

-Nope.

-[ Laughs ] You!

-[ Laughs ] -Was he trying to do that?

And I fell for it.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Spectrum Business partners with small businesses across the country to help them achieve their goals.

With high-speed Internet, phone, TV, and mobile services, Spectrum Business provides the tools to keep you connected with your customers.

Spectrum Business.

No nonsense, just business.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Vistaprint, a proud sponsor of "Start Up" and small businesses everywhere.