We recently connected with Jennifer Doan and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

In my experience, my happiness as a business owner is not linear. My happiness as a business owner has definitely been the least consistent factor in the last 4 years. Fortunately, there have been more highs than lows. The highs were rewarding and the lows really felt like rock bottom, but those lessons were so important and have helped navigate me on how to better operate my businesses since I had no previous background or history in this role I was stepping into.
I can recount many stories to help paint the many humbling moments of being a business owner, but what has truly kept me wondering about working a regular job again, stemmed from changes in my personal life, more specifically the birth of my second and third son. I’ve found that the TIME you will need to sacrifice to make your business survive, but time was what I was lacking. I think the misconception people have about business owners, small or big, is that business owners get to work whenever they want or just not work at all. I can’t speak for everyone, but as a small business owner like myself, I work around the clock. Aside from physically spending my days at work (long days)- prepping, cleaning, inventory runs, meetings, overseeing staff, addressing concerns that arise. I get home and it does not stop- the admin side of the work like emails, payrolls, marketing, accounting, etc. Take that and times it by 3 because if I’m not tending to Song Tea & Poke or Happy Claw, I’m handling issues with our rental properties. It really does not stop. Days off are like unicorns, rare. My days off are spent running errands for the businesses, I’ve had days where I’m out with my kids and get a phone call and will need to cut our plans short and head into work. The struggle and guilt of trying to balance being a mom, wife, friend and perfect business owner definitely takes a toll on you as you’re getting stretched in multiple directions. In the past year, I have often joked with my husband and friends that my dream job is now Costco (I just love Costco and heard they have great benefits). On bad days, the idea of being able to clock in and out, not having to worry about bringing work back home, and not having to be responsible for every aspect of the business just sounds like a dream.
I dived into these new entrepreneurships with no experience, but was full of so much drive and excitement, but I was quickly humbled at the start of opening and operating a business of how much work, stress and time it truly takes to run a business or how impactful and discouraging one negative comment can dictate your confidence in running a business. And with the lack of time being the biggest challenge that I’m struggling with these days, I do find myself comparing life as a business owner versus employee again, but I will never not be grateful that I was given a chance to experience both sides of being a business owner and employee.

Jennifer, 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?

My path to entrepreneurship actually started from my two previous employments: the restaurant I served at and a tax and business transactional law firm I started at when I was 28 after leaving the service industry. I was a server at a restaurant for 9 years and had a regular who was a lawyer and he mentioned he was looking for an administrative assistant if I was interested and even though I had just graduated with an IT degree, I was desperately looking to leave the serving industry. With no experience and under his mentorship, I started to immerse myself in the world of business, where I learned skills such as setting up corporations for clients, learning the business tax codes and prepping corporate tax returns, etc. Majority of our clients were also business owners and being able to surround myself around individuals in that environment really helped my mind thrive. Shortly after, I got promoted to office manager at the firm, but I was approached by the owner of the restaurant that I had previously worked for, who pitched me an idea to open a poke and boba shop. I took the offer at the chance of owning something for myself. Again, under the mentorship of my business partner, I learned to operate a food establishment.
After opening Song Tea & Poke for 2 years, I shifted directions and steered away from the food business and opened Happy Claw, an claw machine arcade. While Song Tea & Poke was my first business and taught me how to be a business owner, Happy Claw is the true culmination of my career in entrepreneurship. Song Tea & Poke is also a franchise, which there is a structure that must be followed so I do find my creativity hindered there as I’m not able to experiment as much as I am able to at Happy Claw.

If I had to sum up how I got here, I will always say it’s who YOU know and who sees potential in you. I got incredibly lucky to have met great, patient mentors who guided me through this journey.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I funded my businesses from my own personal funds that I had saved since my first job at 15. Even at a young age, I was always responsible with every paycheck.
At 20, I became a single mom. I was fortunate because I was able to live with my parents while raising my son and working. I landed a serving position at a very high traffic sushi restaurant and made extremely great income there and was there for 8 years full time. Long story short, I saved and I invested my tip money. I educated myself financially by working with an financial advisor to help meet my financial goals. Fast forward to 30, I was approached to open Song Tea and Poke, I was able to fund that business with the funds I had from working since I was 15. From there, I was able to open Happy Claw from the earnings of Song Tea and Poke and got to add on another rental property to our portfolio.
While I understand that saving is not ideal for everyone, even as a single mom, I was extremely fortunate with factors such as staying with my parents to minimize the cost of living and childcare. I grew up with hard working immigrant parents who did not have the means to save for my future, but with them allowing me to stay with them + being financially aware/responsible allowed me to get financially ahead for my own future.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

My business partner were my managers and also the owners of the restaurant I had worked at from when I was 20-28 years old. We had became friends during my employment there. They reached back out to me a few years after I left to work at the law firm and pitched me the idea to open Song Tea & Poke. Since they were already successful entrepreneurs themselves, they mentored and taught me all the ins and out of running a food establishment and were so patient with me as I learned to operate and run a business. Now, 4 years and 3 businesses later, I am still making mistakes to this day but I am also still learning as I go. I am so grateful for my business partner for taking a leap of faith on me and giving me the opportunity to be who I am today.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: happyclaw_MN and songtea.slp
• Facebook: HAPPY CLAW