Entrepreneurial spirit and parental advice don’t always jibe, but sometimes mother does know best. It was Heather Key Tiller’s mom, Susan Foxworth, who in 2001 noticed the FOR RENT sign on an empty store at 47 John St. as the two left a nearby French restaurant. At the time, Tiller worked as an office manager at a local jewelry store while also designing her own pieces at home and selling them on a wobbly card table at the Saturday farmers’ market in downtown Charleston.
The Vanderbilt graduate also took road trips up and down the coast, selling to galleries and stores; after two years of trips she had placed her jewelry in 80 stores throughout the Southeast. “I vowed that I would figure out a way to make it a career,” recalls Tiller, 38.
Still, Tiller was wary of taking the next step. “I almost wanted the rent to be too expensive and the lease to be too long,” says the Charleston native. “But everything fell into place — space, layout, costs, terms — so I said, ‘Damn, I guess I have to do this.'”
Business took off after she opened Filigree, her brick-and-mortar store, in 2001. She grossed more than $200,000 in each of the first two years.
Her business plan changed when her son, Whit, was born in 2003. Tiller didn’t stop working, but she did trim her hours to fewer than 40 per week. Today her annual sales hover around $150,000, but Tiller is now a mother of two (daughter Eva Gray was born in 2006) and is quite content with her current work-life balance. “I’ll work more when my kids are both in school,” she says.
Image by Catherinette Rings Steampunk