A Risk and Hard Work Lead to Sweet Success

What started out as a search for a part-time job turned into Peachtree Corners resident Diana Hsieh becoming the co-owner of The Chocolaterie at just 27 years old.

The Chocolaterie is an artisan chocolate shop located in the oldest remaining building on Main Street in Historic Downtown Duluth. It has a beautiful assortment of luxury chocolates, gourmet ice cream, handmade fudge and unique gifts.

Humble beginnings

Diana was just two years old when her parents moved to Atlanta from Vietnam. When her family arrived, they moved into a one-bedroom apartment across from Turner Field and her father worked two jobs to support them.

“Growing up, I fell into the trap of the Asian stereotype and believed that in order to be successful in my parent’s eyes, I had to become a doctor, lawyer or engineer,” she said. Her parents fought to make it to America and worked extremely hard to raise her and her brothers. She didn’t want to disappoint them.

Over time, she realized that her parents didn’t have those expectations at all. They just wanted her to be happy and successful.

Finding her way

In 2015, Diana graduated from the University of Georgia, where she majored in Public Health and Sociology. “The plan after college was to get my Master’s in Public Health and go into disaster management,” she said. “I was frustrated with not finding a job in my field since the positions I was interested in required years of experience.”

Because of this, Diana had to move back home with her parents. “I was pretty disappointed with myself,” she explained. “I really thought that I wasn’t where I was supposed to be. I watched all my friends moving on with their lives and I thought that I should be doing that too. But instead, I felt like I was going backwards. I felt as if, at that point in my life, I should be done with having my parents help support me. I wanted to be out on my own and not depending on someone.”

Over the next couple of years, Diana bounced around to more jobs, got married and she and her husband Calvin bought their first home in Peachtree Corners.

“We kind of stumbled upon the home and knew it was more than what we could afford and bigger than what we were looking for at the time, but it was a great deal,” she said. To help them, Diana’s parents gave them money for their down payment and Calvin’s parents matched the gift.

Pathway to destiny

Once settled into her home, Diana began looking for another part-time job since she had just enrolled in Kennesaw State University to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science. She saw a post on Facebook that The Chocolaterie was hiring.

“I applied and got the job. Right when I was hired, the owners, Mike and Elizabeth Ashworth, made it clear that they were looking for someone to take over the store.”

Diana saw people coming often to meet with the owners, but they were never a good fit. “Everyone was interested in the store for its prominent location,” she recounted. “However, they didn’t want to keep the chocolate business.”

One day, when Diana and Elizabeth were working in the store together, Diana said, “Elizabeth casually asked me what I thought about buying the store. I was surprised by the question, but told Elizabeth I would give it some thought.”

Over the next month, Diana thought hard about the opportunity. After going back and forth with the idea and trying to convince herself that she could take on this challenge, Diana’s brother told her, “It sounds like you already made your decision, I don’t know why you’re doubting yourself.” That’s when Diana finally decided that she was ready.

The time is now

After Diana made the decision that she wanted to be the next owner of The Chocolaterie, she approached the store’s manager, Nancy Rangel, about partnering with her on the opportunity. “I was super nervous bringing it up to her,” Diana said. “I knew there was a chance that she wouldn’t go in on this with me, which is fair because I was asking her to make a big commitment.”

Nancy told Diana she would think about it and get back to her. “That took a couple weeks, but once she got everything in order, we had lunch at Fox Brothers where she told me she’d love to do this with me.”

Diana and Nancy went back to Mike and Elizabeth to let them know they wanted to buy The Chocolaterie, and their parents helped them with the capital to purchase the store.

“From there, we really hit the ground running,” stated Diana. “We had lunch in March and by April, we were incorporated and got all of our licenses in order. By the end of June, we were finalizing everything and took over the store on July 1, 2018.”

Never give up

After a little over a year of getting up to speed on the business and finally getting in their groove, COVID-19 hit and forced Diana and Nancy to temporarily close the store for in-store shopping for almost four months.

“It was so stressful,” said Diana. “Everything happened so fast during the shutdown there was almost no time to think; it was just do.”

Diana was worried about how they were going to continue paying their staff because they didn’t want to lay anyone off. “We continued to have them at the store taking the phone in and online orders while Nancy and I worked on getting a PPP loan and figuring out how we could convert the store to allow for in store shopping again,” she said. “Shutting down the store was just not an option. It never crossed my mind during the shutdown that we weren’t going make it through this somehow. The store was my livelihood, Nancy’s livelihood. I just knew I didn’t want to fall back on depending on someone to take care of me again.”

Now, Diana can’t help but reflect on the challenges she endured to get her to where she is. When asked about her decision to buy the store, Diana said, “It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I learned so much in the short time that I’ve had this store. I obviously learned a lot about the business side of things and how to manage and operate a business. But I also learned a lot about myself. About how much I could achieve once I got over the idea of doing things because I thought it was expected of me, to doing things that I wanted,” she said.

“To this day, I still think I’m crazy for buying the store but I’m forever grateful that Mike and Elizabeth, my parents and Nancy believed in me.”

Diana finding her own path and purchasing the store changed her relationship with her parents. “It brought a deeper understanding of what they wanted for me all along,” she said. “To be happy and successful no matter what it was that brought that success.”

After the initial experience of being frustrated and unsure of her career trajectory, purchasing The Chocolaterie gave Diana the confidence boost she needed. “I feel that the business is going to be just fine. I feel like, after dealing with COVID, I can handle anything that comes my way.”