Business Spotlight
Hanna's Connection
Hanna Balkin is the colorful personality and huge heart behind Hanna’s Connection, a small women’s clothing boutique situated within Cabin John Mall in Potomac, Maryland.
One of the cornerstones of Hanna’s career – and life – is her community. A tight-knit, kindred group of women who have come together through Hanna’s business but remain friends for life. In any conversation with Hanna, she rarely calls her clients “clients” but rather refers to her clients as her “girlfriends”. It’s the kind of thing that Hanna, who at one time was the manager of operations at a bank, never could have dreamed that she would be able to create. Hanna’s mother owned retail shops in Mazza Gallery and Montgomery Mall that offered new and unique clothing finds. When Hanna’s mother became pregnant later in life, she asked the then-19-year-old Hanna to help her with managing and running the shops – a turn which eventually became Hanna’s full-time and lifelong career.
Hanna, a Potomac native, spent 15 years operating her mother’s store at Montgomery Mall. She opened the store each morning alongside her mother, and eventually was also closing the store in the evenings. Hanna was absolutely the face of the store – in addition to sourcing unique, new items for her customers, she began curating choices for some of her more regular clients as a kind of personal shopper. While it was a lovely experience, the stress of working in a mall atmosphere amidst other hurdles of owning and operating a small business came to be too much for her, and she swore she’d never do retail again. After closing the store, Hanna switched to picking and selling antiques on eBay, a hobby that she found could offer a reasonable income and that allowed her a flexible, functional schedule. It was at this moment that Hanna’s Connection truly started.
One of the cornerstones of Hanna’s career – and life – is her community. A tight-knit, kindred group of women who have come together through Hanna’s business but remain friends for life. In any conversation with Hanna, she rarely calls her clients “clients” but rather refers to her clients as her “girlfriends”. It’s the kind of thing that Hanna, who at one time was the manager of operations at a bank, never could have dreamed that she would be able to create. Hanna’s mother owned retail shops in Mazza Gallery and Montgomery Mall that offered new and unique clothing finds. When Hanna’s mother became pregnant later in life, she asked the then-19-year-old Hanna to help her with managing and running the shops – a turn which eventually became Hanna’s full-time and lifelong career.
Hanna, a Potomac native, spent 15 years operating her mother’s store at Montgomery Mall. She opened the store each morning alongside her mother, and eventually was also closing the store in the evenings. Hanna was absolutely the face of the store – in addition to sourcing unique, new items for her customers, she began curating choices for some of her more regular clients as a kind of personal shopper. While it was a lovely experience, the stress of working in a mall atmosphere amidst other hurdles of owning and operating a small business came to be too much for her, and she swore she’d never do retail again. After closing the store, Hanna switched to picking and selling antiques on eBay, a hobby that she found could offer a reasonable income and that allowed her a flexible, functional schedule. It was at this moment that Hanna’s Connection truly started.
Shortly after closing the store at the Montgomery Mall, Hanna began receiving phone calls from her clients while at home. “We can’t do this without you!” they’d tell her – referring to selecting items and outfits for their wardrobe – and she eventually began seeing clients in her home. This started to take over her life – racks of clothes in every room, clients knocking on the door at dinnertime, clothing selections occupying her shower. There was absolutely no divide or balance between Hanna’s personal life with her husband and 3 boys and Hanna’s business life, which became incredibly taxing. It started as just two people, then three, then five, then ten… and on and on it went until Hanna was seeing nearly two-hundred clients within her home, at which point a neighbor of hers started complaining to the county, and she knew she absolutely had to make a change.
When she was finally ready to move the business to its own location, she struggled to find retail space that both met her needs and was cost effective for her business. Many spaces were far too large (and therefore too expensive). A local commercial real estate agent sought to help Hanna as she saw great value not only in Hanna’s business model but in her devotion to serving the community and her being a woman-owned small business. They listened closely to her needs and called her with an offer of a space that would need about two months to complete but was otherwise perfect in every way. In order to help Hanna transition the business out of her home, the commercial agent provided a temporary space in an existing building. Having finally settling into her space, Hanna was truly at peace with the legacy she’d built and was excited to have a permanent home for her business. “I suffered for 15 years but in the end, I won. It’s because I love it. This is my happy place,” Hanna says with a smile.
When she was finally ready to move the business to its own location, she struggled to find retail space that both met her needs and was cost effective for her business. Many spaces were far too large (and therefore too expensive). A local commercial real estate agent sought to help Hanna as she saw great value not only in Hanna’s business model but in her devotion to serving the community and her being a woman-owned small business. They listened closely to her needs and called her with an offer of a space that would need about two months to complete but was otherwise perfect in every way. In order to help Hanna transition the business out of her home, the commercial agent provided a temporary space in an existing building. Having finally settling into her space, Hanna was truly at peace with the legacy she’d built and was excited to have a permanent home for her business. “I suffered for 15 years but in the end, I won. It’s because I love it. This is my happy place,” Hanna says with a smile.
Today, Hanna provides not only a client-focused, bustling personal shopper and retail business, serving champagne and snacks at appointments, but a caring, tight-knit community space where a diverse group of women have found kinship. She adores the diversity in her little community – all individuals from all over the world, who have come together in their love of fashion and now form a company of friends that seek each other’s company outside of Hanna’s doors. “It’s so cool that they’ve formed a friendship,” Hanna offers, continuing that her clients are not only friends with one another, but with her as well. Her clients have, at times, called her “the therapist” because she is so personal, and personally invested. “My clients mean a lot to me. I would not have made it through the pandemic were it not for my clients and my store.”
The pandemic was a truly unique and difficult time for Hanna, but with the comfort of her friends and community, they made it through as one. Her business slowed – she did not make money, but didn’t lose any, and managed to pay her bills on time. Her group of regulars (after a brief break), continued to meet on Saturdays and formed an even stronger bond through the struggles of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We were there for each other,” she states, explaining how the group meeting helped to relax all of them and offer a peace and tranquility amidst the anxiety and uncertainty caused by the pandemic. Hanna sadly shares that one of her beloved clients had recently passed and offers her sadness and grief; “We’re all in mourning. We’ve been crying like it’s our family because it IS our family.” Her clients are far more than that – they are both friends and family first and foremost.
What makes Hanna’s Connection different is that client-focused, family/friend relationship. She comes to understand her clients on a personal level, which allows her to provide options that not only meet her clients’ spoken needs, but also match their more implicit preferences. She loves both living and working in Potomac, and filling a niche not otherwise occupied in the area. When asked for advice on how best to operate a new business in the area, Hanna describes the importance of word of mouth, “Make sure you have some kind of referral base.” Hanna continues that in this area, the community loves welcoming new businesses but that a new local business has to be good enough that Potomac’s residents will want to share it with their friends and network. It’s why Hanna feels she has been so successful – she offers something different, and successfully serves her clients in a way that they feel comfortable recommending her to their friends and family. It’s how she’s become a mainstay in Potomac, and a Local Legacy.
The pandemic was a truly unique and difficult time for Hanna, but with the comfort of her friends and community, they made it through as one. Her business slowed – she did not make money, but didn’t lose any, and managed to pay her bills on time. Her group of regulars (after a brief break), continued to meet on Saturdays and formed an even stronger bond through the struggles of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We were there for each other,” she states, explaining how the group meeting helped to relax all of them and offer a peace and tranquility amidst the anxiety and uncertainty caused by the pandemic. Hanna sadly shares that one of her beloved clients had recently passed and offers her sadness and grief; “We’re all in mourning. We’ve been crying like it’s our family because it IS our family.” Her clients are far more than that – they are both friends and family first and foremost.
What makes Hanna’s Connection different is that client-focused, family/friend relationship. She comes to understand her clients on a personal level, which allows her to provide options that not only meet her clients’ spoken needs, but also match their more implicit preferences. She loves both living and working in Potomac, and filling a niche not otherwise occupied in the area. When asked for advice on how best to operate a new business in the area, Hanna describes the importance of word of mouth, “Make sure you have some kind of referral base.” Hanna continues that in this area, the community loves welcoming new businesses but that a new local business has to be good enough that Potomac’s residents will want to share it with their friends and network. It’s why Hanna feels she has been so successful – she offers something different, and successfully serves her clients in a way that they feel comfortable recommending her to their friends and family. It’s how she’s become a mainstay in Potomac, and a Local Legacy.
