BUSINESS BUZZ
Small businesses Charlie's Bows
by Shauna Ferry
BIG DREAMS
This Women's History Month, let 's take a close look at some of the big ideas local women have had for their small businesses.
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ome small businesses come to fruition after years of planning and investing, but others, like Charlie’s Bows, materialize from just an idea and a little practice. Karissa Majndle owns and operates Charlie’s Bows out of Westport. She runs her small business mostly online, occasionally selling at craft fairs and consigning at different small shops. The idea for Charlie’s Bows came as a happy accident. “I started my business in 2018,” Majndle explains. “I just had my daughter, Charlotte, and the prices of everything were so high. I wanted to buy Charlotte
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bows, but I just couldn’t budget it, so I started making my own for her, and it just grew from there. My mom and my husband, Chris, pushed me to make them and sell them and that’s what I did. I started with other moms who couldn’t afford the expensive bows, just as I couldn’t, and it took off.” Having just completed her Bachelor's degree in early childhood education, the idea of stepping away from a consistent paycheck to pursue Charlie’s Bows was daunting, but Majndle did just that and walked into the unknown with nothing but confidence, focusing on the positive aspects of owning her own business. “I choose my own hours, I choose which products I want to release, I choose how hard and how many hours I want to work each day. I get to be home with my girls and I love the flexibility of it. I do miss socializing, and I miss the work parties and talking to other adults. It’s really the only damper of it all.” Charlie’s bows started with just two styles of bows, both of which Majndle taught herself how to do. “Bows weren’t as popular when I started as they are now. There weren’t really any tutorials online. I just practiced until I got them to be what I wanted.”
March 2023 | The South Coast Insider
Majndle started with the traditional headwrap – her favorite and most popular seller – as well as the matching head clips. She now has a variety of ten different styles of head bows, all ranging in sizes and prices. In addition to bows, she offers different types of clothing, knitted patch hats, and baby accessories. Majndle attributes her rapid success to social media. She grown her following to just over 6,000 followers and diligently posts several times a day with pictures, new items, seasonal products, and more. “I take some time each night to schedule my posts for the next day. I take pictures of my products to really show how cute they can be and what to pair them with. Having children and mamas model my products really makes a difference in people being able to visualize how they’ll look.” With the bow market becoming increasingly saturated over the past several years, Majndle has kept people intrigued with her attractive and thoughtout posts. Majndle foresees even more growth in her future, potentially expanding into a storefront in addition to her website, adding a more extensive clothing line for kids. She offers advise to other women thinking of starting their own small