I've always been very protective of my mom.
I think it comes from being an only daughter to a single mother as
an immigrant family.
Two toppings there? On that one, yeah. So when she called me and
said, Hey, I want to do this, will you help me?
It was never a question of was I going to help her or not?
It was an obviously a yes.
We make ice cream every single day.
There you go.
My name is Annie Park.
I am 32 years old and I make over $230,000 a year in Washington, DC.
As a mother, most important thing is that their own child is happy.
I think Annie really enjoys this work.
And I'll get you toppings as well.
She sees her life very optimistic way.
That makes me so happy and comfortable and appreciated.
And for you hun?
Sour gummy worms? One scoop of cotton candy?
Two scoops.
I was born in Seoul, South Korea, and I moved to the States when I
was nine years old with my mom.
So we came here with two luggage and we walked into our apartment
building, which was completely empty, like not even toilet paper
in there. That empty apartment still is a very much of a visual
reminder of where we started in the States.
So music was something that I had carried on since I was in Korea.
I grew up playing the piano and when I came over to the States my
mom said, You got to pick an instrument that's cheaper because
we cannot buy you a piano right now.
Definitely got that taste of entrepreneurship when I was at the
Harvard I-lab attending a lot of the events that they had speaking
with a lot of the founders of new startups and watching all the
pitching competitions. And that's what really drove me into think I
want to be an entrepreneur too.
I just don't know where to start.
Our split is very much like, you take the gas and I'll take the
water, you take the electricity and I'll take the Wi-Fi.
So it's more categorized than the amount itself.
We pay $4,150 for this place right now in D.C.
But I think the bigger expense for me is the reinvestment into the
third shop. So I have about $38,000 left in federal student
loans, and I'm not paying it at the moment due to COVID
forbearance. Food is always a big expense for us, and going out there
is just never an end of all these amazing restaurants in D.C..
I think for groceries we probably spend about anywhere from $300 to
$400 a month, while for restaurants, it could be anywhere
from like $50 bill to like $200 bill.
And we go out anywhere from like 1 to 3 times a week.
But if it was more of an expensive month, it could be anywhere from
like $600 to $800 for just on restaurants alone.
Two, three, five.
I also I love to salsa dance.
So we started going to a local studio called Salsa with Sylvia,
and they had an amazing $80 or $100 per month and its unlimited
classes. So we would go every single day and take 2 or 3 classes
per day. So I think I calculated at one point where I was paying
like $6 per class.
That's when my mom called me and said, Hey, like, I think I'm going
to start up a new business because I'm tired of being retired.
To be honest, at first I was like ice cream shop?
Like, why are you going back into small business?
You sold that first business because you were so tired of being
a business owner all the time.
And it took a while for me to get there to realize, like, I want to
dive into this 100%.
The word of mouth in that community is amazing.
All of our neighbors showed up.
Their friends and their family all showed up.
And we saw this long line starting at 11 a.m.
when we opened. And that line did not die down until we were closed
at 9 p.m. that day.
And my mom was like, oh my gosh, now we have to make ice cream
overnight because now we don't have anything for tomorrow.
I think we went home at like 3 a.m.
and then came back to open the shop at like 9 a.m..
And so my goal is to keep expanding Sarah's Handmaid as a
recognized ice cream brand in the neighborhood.
The ice cream is super good.
What's your favorite flavor here?
Mint! I think we can definitely pursue our third shop, our fourth
shop, fifth shop in the area and just become the area's known ice
cream as the top quality ice cream that we serve and not lose our
touch with the community.
Today is going to be $8.47.
Of course, we had a little conflicting time, of course,
because we never I never worked with her before.
But working together means you have to cooperate each other.
It was not easy because I'm a morning person.
She is like a night person.
I just want her to come early, start doing something together.
But she was like more laid back in the morning.
But now we realize that who has the strength to do what.
She's very much in charge of the quality of our products and the
production. Like I always say, I'm the HR director and she's the head
of product. But one layer is going to be more than enough because you
have a ton of icing on here.
So we can go ahead and just scrape this off.
I still call my employees like my kids, as if they are my classroom
students because I think I have a very mentorship-like instead of a
boss relationship with them.
Annie is teaching them SAT.
I edit college essays for them all the time.
I write recommendation letters.
Recommendation, letters. Many, many, many of them.
Right? Yeah. That's the very, I think, impressive.
When it starts to fog.
That means we opened it up for too long.
I have my seniors now who are basically my managers on duty and
they don't need anyone else to be there with them.
I'm just extremely proud of them to see that from I've never had a
job. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do.
I feel awkward greeting customers and then you see them flourish into
these shift supervisors.
I'm not sure if this sounds cliché, but I want to be able to do
it all. I want to be able to be a successful businesswoman who is
connected with my employees and my customers, and I want to be a good
partner to my boyfriend.
I also want to be a good daughter where I'm able to treat my mom to
things and have her really this time retire.
I was divorced when she was five and I had to raise her my own.
When I left Korea, there was two bags.
Nine year-old young daughter.
Ever since then, she was my companion.
She is my life companion.
I never expected to work with my mom in this business.
And I think you deserve this.
I think every every success that we've seen, you know, no matter the
obstacles and challenges you might have had, I think that it was all
worth where we are now.
One of the main lessons that I really have learned from my mom is
her outlook and the attitude that shapes how you pursue happiness.
Even when we had that empty apartment building, she was like,
Look what we can buy now and look at your room.
Like, How do you want to decorate your room?
You can't control other people, but how you see your world and how
you fit in. And be brave.
Go out there and take those risks because no one's going to do it for
you.