Blog Post #6

This week I talked to Anne Harrill about how she founded Océanne. Anne explained to me how she came from France to Cleveland in her early 20s. This was a difficult time for her because she had a lot of culture shock and felt she was treated differently from others. Based on these events she had to try and find herself. During this time, she went back to France for Christmas and learned how to make jewelry from her mom. When she returned to Cleveland, she continue to make jewelry as this was a connection to her mom. This made her feel close to home in a new place.

A few years later she started doing jewelry shows to display her work and to make some extra money since her husband was just starting a nonprofit. She wasn’t able to get a job anywhere because of her new baby. As her business became more successful she rented a shared space with some friends so she could have her own studio. 


She started to expand her work/designs into T-shirts. Every time she expanded into things beyond jewelry it was based on collaborations with other businesses. For example, the T-shirts started as something she did with her husband‘s nonprofit events. She then incorporated shirts into her own business, such as her empowered women shirts. She created this to help empower others since for a long time she felt like she had lost her voice.


When she first opened a store around 2017, she was still doing shows and had to start hiring people. Although it was mainly friends who would watch over the store. The business continued to grow and she started to expand her materials. Throughout this experience, the hardest part was the risk and investment. She saw a lot of her friends try to create businesses and fail which was worrying. Anne says the way she was able to get her business to this point was to keep pushing through the challenges. One thing that also helped was to focus on adding to what she had currently. This helped her to push forward. 


Now Anne has two stores, one in Gordon Square and the other in Pinecrest. She still does shows but now has a whole team of people to help her. Anne currently doesn't really make the products since she has hired jewelers. She mainly designs the products and manages the company. 


Through being at her company now I see all the effort she has put in. I'm very grateful I have been able to talk to Anne about her experience.

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