Alumni
Grad Launches Online Retail Business EyessonYou
Born in Seoul and raised in Los Angeles, Joanna Lee graduated last fall from FIDM with a degree in Apparel Industry Management. Thanks to a lead from the Career Center, Joanna scored a position as a stylist at Amazon in Los Angeles in the middle of the pandemic. Now, the 2020 graduate has made one of her longtime dreams come true with the launch of an online retail business, EyessonYou, which debuted this week. We spoke to Joanna about becoming an entrepreneur, how she balances her job at Amazon with running a new business, and the advice she’d share with anyone who’s ever wanted to start their own business.
Have you always wanted to start your own business? Yes, I always knew I wanted to start my own business, but I always had a fear to actually start. I’m sure a lot of readers can relate. In high school, I made the “Steps to Be My Own Boss,” and if I followed those same steps I wrote in high school, I would have started my own business at 30 after landing a stable nine-to-five job and had made enough money from there. The one thing I value in life is freedom — freedom of time, income, and decisions and being your own boss allows access to all that. So I thought, why not start young and do something I’m super passionate about and make it a living. Hence, why I created EyessonYou.
How did FIDM help prepare you for entrepreneurship? FIDM helped me prepare for my entrepreneurship because I majored in Apparel Industry Management, a course that teaches you how to build your business from scratch and allowed me to get hands-on experience within the industry. FIDM offers classes that cover everything from knowing fabric content to teaching me about all the legal documents and files to run your own business.
Tell us about the types of pieces you’re selling: I’ll be selling women’s contemporary. We sell everything from dresses to outerwear to loungewear to pants to sweaters, you name it. When I choose the pieces I want to sell, the color and silhouette is what catches my eye the most. It’s so important to know how the clothes will fit on each customer and which colors are currently trending and will be trending for the next season.
Who are you selling to? I’m selling to all the queens out there! I don’t want to put a label on EyessonYou and say it’s only for a specific group of customers because I believe clothes are a way of self-expression; age, gender, race, body type shouldn’t matter. I want everyone and anyone to treat pieces at EyessonYou like their second layer of skin. What I mean by this is: Our clothing is yes, of course, going to make you feel sexy, confident, like a queen, but it’s only adding onto what is already in you!
How do you manage your day job at Amazon with EyessonYou? It does get challenging to juggle both Amazon and EyessonYou, but I found a way to make it easier! I asked to get scheduled for my shift at Amazon early in the morning so from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., I’m all in with Amazon and right after that, I’m doing everything for my business. It’s truly a blessing.
Anything else you'd like to share? If any of you wanted to start a business and you’re pushing it back like I was, don’t. Just go for it and you’ll figure everything out along the way. Trust me. Have a business plan, your goals, and vision, and manifest that!! I made the mistake of overthinking and counting all the “what ifs,” but you come to realize that it’s all useless. Ninety-nine percent of your worries will not happen. Owning your own business comes with a lot of self-discovery and development and it truly is the best part. You start figuring yourself out more along the way and it’s eye-opening. You will have great days and days you feel like crap, but at the end of the day, you’re pursuing your dream.
One last thing, please go check out my small business. It’s my baby and I’ve been working so hard on it so any support is so greatly appreciated! I know they’ll be something for all of you queens! We have a 15% off our entire store right now in celebration of launch week so go take advantage of it before it ends!
Learn more at shopeyesonyou.com and on Instagram @shopeyessonyou.
Categories: Apparel Industry Management Alumni
