Super Mom: A Working Mom with a Small Town Small Business

Super Mom: A Working Mom with a Small Town Small Business

By: Anna Friesen

FLOYD, Va. – Owning a small business is not an easy career path, especially in a small town. Allie Burgin Mannon does just that while being a mother of two with a baby on the way.

             “Being a working mom is feeling like you’re involved enough and feeling like you have contact with the outside world,” said Mannon.

            According to the Small Business Bureau, there are 28 million small businesses in the U.S. Allie and Derek Mannon are the owners of one of these small businesses, Hey Helen.

            A hospitality alumna from Virginia Tech, Mannon married her high school sweetheart her junior year of college. Mannon picked up small hospitality jobs here and there post-graduation.

In December 2013, Mannon had a house fire that destroyed the first floor of her home and most of her family’s belongings. Her world was flipped upside down entirely.

 “Clothes were always a big part of who I was. I was one of those people whose closet was a collection. It was obsessive,” said Mannon. “When the house fire happened it was very humbling because I lost all of it.” She talked of the house fire with pain in her voice.

After losing all of her belongings, Mannon began living her life a little differently. “Looking at rebuilding my wardrobe, I started to do it in a unique way because I shopped local. I wanted to go to boutiques.”

She sought inspiration in North Carolina. “I found a boutique where my parents live that was just awesome. It was very personable, and it was Christian-based. I loved that you could walk in the door and there was Christian music playing, and they had scripture on the walls,” said Mannon.

This got her wheels turning. Mannon was not finding joy in her current job, but she did find joy in this new idea. She fell in love with the business model in North Carolina. “I wanted for other people to have the same experience that I had when I walked in the door of that space [in North Carolina].”

            In April 2014, Mannon and her husband began searching for a place for the boutique. In May 2014, they signed the lease for their current space in Floyd. And in July 2014, Hey Helen opened its doors for the first time.

            Allie and Derek Mannon were not strangers to small business ownership. The retail world was a completely new experience to them. It was a challenge for them to start in a completely new field, and in a small town.

            Ask any high school student in Floyd about their town and they will say, “I will never live here when I grow up. There’s nothing to do here.” Mannon had the same thought growing up in Floyd, VA.

“But I was in love with my high school sweetheart and we were engaged to be married. He had no desire to leave [Floyd]. And my job I had at that time was also in Floyd. So that kind of kept me here,” said Mannon

Mannon was learning to love Floyd as her real home. As she got older and expanded her family, Floyd became more attractive to her. The small town community and closeness of family were something she didn’t grow up with. She wanted her kids, Knox and London, to be able to experience that.

“It [Floyd] is a cool town. There’s a lot to do there. It’s not Blacksburg or Christiansburg, by any means. It’s got a different vibe and is a neat place to be,” said Mannon.

The Hey Helen boutique can be found on Main Street in the small town of Floyd, VA. Mannon sells unique jewelry and clothing out of the shop. All the clothes are ordered directly from designers. She also has custom t-shirts designed by a graphic designer, Bridget Lucas, and herself. To support her town, she features local artisans’ jewelry and home décor items.

Hey Helen isn’t just a boutique. You can order a select few items online. Mannon also runs a blog through the Hey Helen website. She posts fashion and lifestyle blog posts, including posts about her personal life.

Allie Mannon wanted to make sure her faith and family were a part of her business. She was so inspired by the way a North Carolina boutique expressed their faith. “That’s what I really wanted to do with my space, is to make it a space where people really understood that those were values are really important to me,” said Mannon

To start a conversation and be very evangelical is hard and intimidating. Mannon doesn’t want to have her store be intimidatingly Christian or out of her comfort zone.

The store is decorated by canvases with inspiring words and verses painted by local artists and by Mannon herself. Hymn lyrics and verses are printed on unique Hey Helen t-shirts. It is a welcoming and inspiring environment decorated with tasteful southern charm.

Family is something very close to Mannon’s heart. She has a 2-year-old named London and a 4-year-old named Knox along with her husband, Derek. She is also 34 weeks pregnant with a girl.

With two kids and one on the way, running a business isn’t the easiest. But that’s also what drew the Mannon’s to owning a small business. “That was a big push for us – opening the store was the idea of the flexibility of owning a business but being a mom too,” said Mannon. It is still not easy for Mannon to balance being a business owner and a mom, but she makes it work.

She makes sure to involve her family in her business. They try to help her out as much as they can or are willing to. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you may catch her two kids running around the store and helping her out.

“The 2-year-old will try to pick things out for people. She also, probably every day she’s there, takes clothes into a dressing room and tries them on. She’s ridiculous. The 4-year-old will carry things up and down the steps and things like that,” said Mannon.

This business is something Allie Mannon loves. She hopes it continues to grow as a place people love and that one day her kids might take the same path as her into small business ownership.

Allie Mannon and Hey Helen have made an impact on the small town of Floyd. She supports the community through giving back and supporting local artisans. And she receives the same amount of support.

“On Small Business Saturday, we had a gazillion people in and out of the door. I was really humbled and honored by that experience. I could probably call three-fourths, if not more, of the people that walked in the door by their name,” said Mannon.

In a small town, everyone says hi to each other and supports one another no matter what. That is one of the perks of a small town, but it can also be slightly intimidating.

“It’s very fulfilling, but there are days that I don’t see a soul. That’s just how it is with a small town. Then there are days when people feel better about themselves. To see someone leave confidently with a new outfit and to give back to people in that way is very rewarding to me,” said Mannon as she talks about what motivates her everyday.

Mannon is essentially the only employee at Hey Helen. She has an intern and a few other people help her out. Abby McGrath is one of those people. She is so encouraged by Mannon and what she does. Mannon’s attitude helps her love her job.

“Allie is such a breath of fresh air in today’s business of hustle and bustle. Even from a simple hello when you walk in the shop you can tell that Allie cares more about you than the clothes she is about to sell you,” said McGrath. “Shopping at Hey Helen is an experience that leaves your day just a little bit brighter, and Allie has everything to do with that.”

Hey Helen is continuing to grow as the Mannon family does too. As a next step, Mannon hopes to draw more college-aged women to her boutique.

“A big goal of mine is figuring out the right marketing in order to really reach that age group. For them to feel like a trip to Floyd is worth it,” said Mannon.

This was created for a feature story assignment from my Media Writing course in Fall 2015.