Small Business Tour: Mott Street Girls

Let’s start by having you each introduce yourselves.

Chloe Chan: Hi, I’m Chloe from Mott Street Girls. I'm one of the co-founders. Anna and I started Mott Street Girls around March of 2020. Previously we were actually tour guides at the Chinese American History Museum, which during the pandemic unfortunately closed down.

Anna Huang: Hello, my name is Anna. I'm the other co-founder of Mott Street Girls. Like Chloe said, we met at the local museum here in Chinatown, where we learned about Chinese American history. We thought it was really important to spread that history to the public.

Tell us about the meaning behind Mott Street Girls and how you guys came up with that as your name.

CC: It actually took a lot of work! I feel like that's one of the most important parts of the business. It's memorable, it's catchy. Our original idea was Overheard on Mott Street. But we were making our emails and our Instagram and we were like, you know what? That's kind of clunky and long.

Then we thought of Mott Street Girls, because it's not only named after one of the historic streets of Chinatown, but also the acronym is MSG which is a condiment frequently used in Chinese cooking, but also in other cuisines as well.

Had either of you thought about starting a business before the pandemic?

CC: I personally never saw myself as an entrepreneur because no one was an entrepreneur in my family. My dad always told me just get a corporate job—you know, work there 9-to-5, get your 401K, get those benefits. And I think even when Anna and I started Mott Street Girls, we didn't see it as a big deal. It was kind of just like a passion project, you know, maybe something we do on the side. We didn’t anticipate growing to this scale.

AH: Similar to Chloe, my parents taught me like, oh, you know, your American Dream is to climb up the corporate ladder. So I never thought that being an entrepreneur would be like a route that I would even consider. And like Chloe said, when we started, it was a passion project because we love Chinese American history. That's why we wanted to volunteer at the museum, and when the museum closed, we missed giving those tours. We realized that there is a need in the public—there’s not a lot of people that know about Chinese American history. So it's very important. 

What would you want people to know about Chinatown?

CC: Obviously Chinatown is a tourist destination, but it's also a working class community and a lot of people here live below the poverty line. I think it’s important to take into account that beside being a tourist destination, it is also a Chinese ethnic enclave with a lot of new immigrants here.

AH: There’s a lot of rich history in this area. Even before the Chinese immigrants came over, there were a lot of immigrants that came over, like the Germans, the Irish, the Italians. They all came through the Lower East Side first.

CC: Chinatown has so much to offer beyond food. Definitely come here for the food, but stay for the history, stay for the fun activities. Stay for the people here. There are so many things going on in Chinatown right now.

AH: It's a beautiful place. And you can see, there's a lot of people who are fighting for this community. It's a really resilient community. When you come over here, obviously eat and help the small businesses, but understand the history behind it and the importance of everything that's going on right now. 

Walk us through a day in your life and how you balance everything with your day jobs.

CC: We both have separate full-time jobs, so usually we work on Mott Street Girls after work— responding to emails, DMs, partnerships. It’s a lot of working after hours and then on the weekends usually we'll come to Chinatown to meet with the small business owners. That's another integral part of our social media is that we actually interview small business owners and amplify their stories on our platform.

AH: I think working from home definitely has helped to save a lot of time on commuting. That really helped push the business forward.

What’s your advice for other new business owners?

CC: Don't be afraid to take the first step. When we took the first step to make our email and make our Instagram account, we never thought that would lead us to all these amazing opportunities. We just thought that Instagram would be a place where we would promote our tour, but it has led us to so much more. Amazing friends and amazing connections. So don't be afraid to just do it.

AH: I think time management because you are juggling a lot. Knowing your priorities and knowing what drives you. Because at the end of the day, if it doesn't suit you, then what does it mean for you? I think that's really important to figure out early on. Because it’s easy to burn out when you're juggling a lot of different things, so you have to understand what drives you. What's your passion?