The app helped Iowa creators Linda Tong and Brittany Brown grow their businesses, and now they’re eyeing other projects.
DES MOINES, Iowa — A recent report from TikTok shows that in 2023 the social media app generated $15 billion for small businesses across the country. That same year, just in Iowa, small businesses contributed $200 million in GDP through TikTok.
Iowa creators Linda Tong (@lindatongplanners) and Brittany Brown (@imperfectinspiration) both say the rewards of catapulting their business outweigh the privacy risks associated with TikTok, the main reason behind the ban. The two of them are looking at a plan B after the app became unavailable on Saturday night.
In 2020 Tong, who’s from West Des Moines, started sharing her hand-drawn planners on TikTok. After a couple of her videos went viral, she turned a hobby into a full-fledged business called Linda Tong Planners.
“It literally made me a full-time business owner during college,” Tong said. “Honestly, it was a really big impact. I don’t know what my business would be without it.”
With about 250,000 followers, Tong now sells on average 2,000 planners every year, mostly through online sales.
“Something that really surprised me with having a business online was the community that I was able to grow,” Tong said. That’s something that’s really important to me.”
Brown, who’s from Des Moines, also found success on TikTok. She designed one of the first ADHD planners, which went viral on the app. She then launched an online stationery business called Imperfect Inspiration that made about $1 million in sales in its first year.
“I would not have had that company without TikTok, not to the level or the success or monetary value that I did,” Brown said.
With the TikTok ban in effect, Tong is looking to shift her focus to her other social media platforms like YouTube and direct all of her followers there.
“My YouTube does fairly well in views, and I do get a good amount of people watching the videos on there, so I’ll really have to see,” Tong said. “It did take a lot of hard work to get to all those followers on TikTok.”
Brown’s priority is creating community locally through her new brick-and-mortar business The Glitter Factory, a DIY craft space.
“I learned how to market myself by using a really supportive, cool community,” Brown said. “That’s what TikTok gave me, even if I’m never on it again.”
The two creators say they are open to exploring new alternatives to TikTok like RedNote and Neptune.
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