Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Hirman Ahmad. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Hirman thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How has Covid changed your business model?

Prior to Covid, I was a small business owner with 2 retail locations selling imported Japanese chocolate. When Covid happen, many retail businesses like mine were greatly affected. I had to temporarily let go my small team of employees which was the hardest thing I had to do ever. It was a challenging time and an emotional one as well. In the midst of the pandemic, while everyone was baking and pursuing other creative hobbies, I decided to launch my own brand: HIRMIE. It started with a mask lanyard to prevent mask litters and my pandemic mission was even interviewed on NBC 5 Chicago – Making A Difference. As vaccines were rolled out and things were slowly getting better, I pivoted to knitting scarfs and eventually settled on making concrete objects. My chocolate stores slowly reopen and my team returned to work. Now I juggle both my chocolate and concrete business. Like concrete objects, HIRMIE is a daily reminder for me to be strong like concrete. Like the Chicago artist Matthew Hoffman behind the viral You are Beautiful stickers, I aspire to start a community of YOU ARE STRONG via my concrete objects for everyday spaces – strength and beauty, cast in concrete

Hirman, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I love entrepreneurship. I actually stumbled upon it after burnout with my corporate job. Right after business school, I went into a corporate role that wasn’t a good fit. It led to depression and also mid life crisis. I started to question everything about what I really wanted in life and the answer was simple. I wanted to be happy. Happy at work and in an environment which was happy and positive most days. This lead me to exploring roles in the candy, ice cream and chocolate industry. I would be happy scooping ice cream or making candy. During this time, a friend offered me an opportunity to open my own chocolate store and the rest is history. I have been fortunate in many ways because I’ve gotten to live my entrepreneurship life through the help of many close friends and family members. Both my business – chocolate and concrete started out during some of the most challenging period in my life. I want people to stay hopeful, strong and positive.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Managing a team is tough. Managing different personality types are tough. I have learned a lot about myself and my management style. One of the challenge for many small businesses is scheduling and employee morale. I have worked many different jobs – a flight crew, a police officer, a waiter, an AV guy and more. I knew when I have my own small business, I wanted to do things differently. For my retail business we usually have our scehdules set one or two month in advance. There are only 4 weekends in a month. If everyone work one weekend, the rest of us can enjoy 3 weekends with family. My employees also have the options to choose the day they want to work. Everyone keeps each other updated about vacations and holidays etc. It is not a perfect system but it has worked well for me. Instead of me telling my retail employees when to work, I let them decide. At the end of the day, everyone tries to help and cover each other shifts when things don’t go as planned. I know that when I take care of my team, they will take care of the business and my customers. I have more time to focus on other responsibilities.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

My side hustle of making concrete objects is still a side hustle. It is a passion project and I have intention to eventually open a storefront and have wholesale clients. Meantime, I try to participate in as many craft shows and slowly build the brand organically via word of mouth and social media. Side hustles also mean there are many pivoting with ideas and concepts. It could be a trending color or a shape or pattern. I want to take my time to grow the brand and product offerings and growing the community via collaboration with other artists or creative. There are many learning curves and mistakes to be made. Some key milestones were getting accepted into Renegade Craft in Chicago which is really competitive to be accepted. I was also part of a workshop hosted by HERMÈS and NEST for a selected local Chicago makers. The milestone that beats of all milestones is that I build my own brand making things from my own hands that people would actually buy. I am happy and proud of this milestone in my life. If I eventually open a storefront, that’s an added bonus point.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.hirmie.com
• Instagram: @hirmie.handmadecrafts
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hirman-ahmad-8b680545

Image Credits
Photographer: Meagan Shuptar