‘Heart Berry’ Small Business Store Steals Hearts On and Offline

CLOQUET, Minn.– ‘Heart Berry’ is a woman and native owned store, and they back in 2023.

The store was by inspired a strong desire to teach and share art with the Cloquet community.

“I started out as a moccasin maker and beadwork artist. And really quickly saw that my community really wanted cultural art. I really wanted to teach cultural art. And that’s how I started it,” said Sarah Agaton Howes, CEO and artist at ‘Heart Berry’.

They sell products such as wool blankets, earrings, and scarves that are inspired native. And Agaton Howes teaches her art classes there as well.

Little did she know, she was about to share with a much larger crowd.

“Those social media platforms are a really great way for us to tell our story, to show who we are in a way we wouldn’t get to do in any other way,” explained Agaton Howes.

‘Heart Berry’ launched their Tik Tok page back in 2021 before officially starting their business. And now, they’ve racked up 8,000 followers.

The platform gives the small business an opportunity to let them shine in a special way.

“It can be professional, it can be goofy, it can kind of be all those things. I think that’s really reflective of who we are as people. Because we are sophisticated, but we’re also, you know, things are falling and we’re tripping while doing a video,” said Agaton Howes.  “I don’t know what the magic is like with the algorithm, but eventually, it curates the audience, right? The people who like what we do, and they like cultural art, or they like Ojibwe art, or they like small businesses, they can find us. And we can find them.”

With Tik Tok narrowly avoiding a ban, they’re extra grateful for the community they’ve grown online.

“I didn’t really think it would happen. And I didn’t think it was going to happen this quickly. And we thought we had time to download all of our content off of there, and it was just gone. And we kind of you know, freaked out a little. And then it was just back. But it also felt a little bit like a stunt,” said Agaton Howes.

Right now, Tik Tok is still in a grey area. The app is currently unavailable for new users on the app store but if you kept the app on your phone, it stayed.

Tik Tok is looking for a new owner. But for now, creators are continuing doing what they love.