Inspiring Conversations with Tonja Rhodes & Heather Doskocil

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tonja Rhodes & Heather Doskocil. They and their team shared their story with us below:

Heather opened a handcrafted artisan gift shop, Over The Moon Gifts located in the Ariel Broadway Hotel in Lorain. Tonja started as a vendor at the store with her fiber art business, Rhodes Fiber Arts. We immediately hit it off. We worked together on pop events, and we became business partners in August. We also decided to start up our own pop-up business over the moon events, with our first successful pop-up in Heather’s development. We have had seven successful pop-up events since. We make events different by having only handcrafted artists in our events. We love supporting our local small business artists and showcasing handmade products. Tonja and I have also grown our handcrafted business to jams, sauces, baked goods, candles, and games, and we continue to grow our businesses. We also raffle baskets at our pop-ups to raise funds to benefit local charities. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Our struggles have been financial support and other similar businesses. opening after we began. We also have a struggles bring customers into the pop-up events. We have tried to overcome this by thinking outside of the box and offering a larger variety of artists and items. We do still have some struggles with filling the shows with shoppers do to the current economy. We are working on methods to draw those looking for unique art. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We are a gift shop that specializes in handcrafted items from artists around our area. 

Any big plans?
We are planning on expanding our business to a larger space that allows for us to grow our businesses, including a bakery, sauces, and jams along with our candles and allowing more space for unique artists to sell their creations. 

Contact Info:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090160780743&mibextid=LQQJ4d

Image Credits
Tonja Rhodes
Heather Doskocil