Live Interview: On the Radio

1st Radio Interview - Friday 15th November

I was recently invited by Upstarts for a 30 minute interview on Dublin City FM. It was one of the most exciting tasks I have done in my career!

Nervous smile

You can hear my voice shaking as I have never been one to enjoy public speaking, but Kelly and Andy from Upstarts were fantastic at keeping the conversation going and making me feel as relaxed as possible.

Now I'm talking!

Once I got talking, there was no stopping me. I actually had so much fun on the show, I would love to go back on again. There is such a rush from it! Anyone looking for radio interviewees?

Looking coy.

You can listen to the podcast for my interview below. It's quite funny and light hearted. Find out about my title of Miss beautiful baby of Drogheda 1982, how I got started in my business and some of the wonderful people that helped me along the way.

Listen now

Let me know your thoughts on my first radio interview.

3 Steps To Getting Financial Support

Many people may be put off setting up their own business due to tight finances. But with some savings and a bit of financial support from the government, your dreams can be within reach!

How I got financial support:

1. Applied for the Back To Work Enterprise Allowance,
2. Prepared a detailed business plan,
3. Applied for the Short-Term Enterprise Allowance with the Tolka Partnership.

          Weekly allowance approved!

After I left my job, I knew that I wanted to set up my own business. This will be a slow process as there is a lot of set up work and I will not be bringing in much money within the first couple of months.

To overcome the lack of income in the early stages of my set-up, I applied for the Back To Work Enterprise Allowance (BTWEA) otherwise known as the dole or scratcher. This is a fund for people who are unemployed. Until I've created business viable products, I considered myself to be an unemployed person pursuing on a VERY expensive hobby/idea. On that basis, it is fair for me to avail of this fund.

Recently I completed my online shop set up on Etsy, and made some sales, so it was no longer fair for me to be on an unemployment allowance. I have since successfully applied for the Short-Term Enterprise Allowance (STEA). This pays the same as the BTWEA and for the same nine month period, but rather than coming out of a pot for unemployed people, it is for start up entrepreneurs. 

Benefits of STEA over BTWEA

• Money is paid straight into your bank account.
• No need to sign-in anymore at the unemployment office.
• No need to attend meetings with case worker.

Note: You cannot get the STEA grant if you are registered as a sole trader.

The resources I mentioned are only available in Ireland. But there should be support in most countries. Remember, Google is your best friend for information!

Resources

Read more about Irish government support and process > here.

Application for STEA form > here.

How to apply for STEA:

- If you live in an area covered by a local development company (xls) (LDC), apply to the Enterprise Officer.

- If you do not live in an LDC area, apply to the Jobs Facilitator in your social welfare local office.

How to Win an Award - Then brag about it!

How to Win an Award in 3 Steps

Step 1: Be in to Win!

Find a competition in your field/industry/business that you feel is worth entering. Most importantly, one that you feel there may be a chance of winning. 

For me, as a new start-up business based in Dublin, Ireland I wanted to establish myself as a reliable business. At this launch stage I don't have the results yet to prove myself for a national award, nor do I have the fan base for a big support. So I opted for a local business competition that no one really knew nothing about, Key To The City. 

Key to the City is a competition for Dublin businesses. Winners are the top three businesses with the most votes via a Facebook app. This sounds like a competition that I can win as initially there were only 40 entries, plus the business at the third of the league only had 170 votes. I know that if I put in the work, I stand a real chance of beating this. 

Step 2: Spread The Word

Promote your entry. Even though you are only at the nomination stage, share it across all social media. Fans want to hear about your business. Plus, they want to know how well you are doing.

If you entered an online voting competition, then this is the perfect opportunity to spread the word about your business to everyone, while asking for votes!

How I asked shamelessly asked for votes:

- Post on my Facebook business page

- Post on my Facebook profile

- Called all my friends to ask them for support & to vote for me

- Emailed EVERYONE on my email address book

- Messaged individually every Facebook friend

- Post on Google+ page

- Join & post on Google+ communities

- Post on Twitter

- Post on Twitter & tag community pages when close to winning

- Ask all families & families of friends

- Post on forums

- Post on LinkedIn

- Message everyone on LinkedIn

- Post on community forums (Etsy where I sell have their own forum)

- Join & post on relevant Facebook communities

- Join & post on communities for all educational institutes attended

- Invest in Google Adwords to promote

- Invest in Facebook Advertising

- Write a blog about it!

I also asked everyone I met. There is no limit as to who you can canvas votes from. You just need thick skin.

While conversion rates for votes can be low, when you do everything, it all adds up. Plus every time you mention your business, you are spreading the word about your brand. This is particularly good, if you are looking to sell internationally. I would really only do this at the early stages of the business, you want to be careful not to cheapen your brand. I wouldn't canvas this way regularly either, it will get very annoying!

TIP: When asking for votes, make sure to provide a motivation for the public. For my competition, the organizers are offering a €100 shopping voucher for all voters. I lead with this when I am doing a generic post on my Social Media walls. If there is no prize, then maybe you can offer a prize of your product/services.

Step 3: Brag About It

If you picked the right competition and put in the hard work, hopefully you will come out on top. Even if you don't get the award, you can still be a 'winner'. I intend to promote my result even if I'm just in the top 10 - 'Top 10 business nominated for...'. If I do win, I will be incorporating the words 'Winner of The Key To the City Award 2013' to my marketing materials, both digital and print! 

Of course I will also be entering jewellery making competitions as that is the industry that I am in. I have entered two so far, hopefully I will win one soon!

Aside from the honor of winning an award, there are also other benefits.

Benefits of Award Nomination:

- Improve your credibility to customers & investors,

- Improved brand awareness (to voters & other nominees),

- If your business fails, an award or good result will look on your CV, 

- Can improve your website search results as the host should include a link to your page on their website.

I hope you found this post useful. Do you have any suggestions on winning awards or gaining votes? Please do leave a comment as I would love to hear your thoughts.

Endorsement is Important - Online Startups

To all start ups I would advise you to seek endorsement where ever you can. It will make your new business look more official and reliable to potential customers. This is especially true for a start up business based solely online.

By endorsement, I mean joining an organisation that promotes your business. As a jewellery maker, I am in the crafting industry. Recently, I have been accepted as an Associate Member of the Crafts Council of Ireland. Just to be clear, this is an organisation formed to promote skilled craftsmanship, it is not a gathering of witches (yes, I had to explain this to a friend!). 

Needless to say, I am delighted with my membership. I had to submit a detailed application which then had to be assessed by a panel that only meets a limited number of times a year. This endorsement is a big deal to me. On top of obtaining a greater sense of pride for my work due to official recognition, there are also many practical benefits.

Benefits of Endorsements

• Improved SEO - Membership/Endorsement may include a bio about your business and a link to your website. If the organisation has a good website then they may rate highly with Google and a link from them to your site should improve your page ranking.

• Trust - Even if your potential customer has not heard of the organisation that 'endorsed' your business, it can help develop trust and faith in your company.

• Increased Awareness - By featuring on another page or becoming a member of an organisation, more people will immediately know about your business (even if it is just a handful, depending on the organisation).

• Learn from others -  By joining a good and relevant organisation, you should gain access to information that will be beneficial to helping your business specifically. 

• Support - You will be connecting with like minded people in similar situations, you never know, you might meet someone who can help and support you.

I hope you found this post helpful. If you are in the crafting industry based in Ireland, I would highly recommend you join the Crafts Council of Ireland. You will receive much useful information. www.ccoi.ie/

Author: Shen Wong

Maker of Fun Loving Jewellery at www.ShenWong.com

7 Questions to Ask Before Quitting Your Job

The 7 Questions...
...I asked myself before I quit my job to set up my own business

This month I finally took the plunge and quit my day job so that I can focus 100% on launching my jewellery business.

Before I came to the decision of leaving my full time job, I had to ask myself 7 questions:

1. Have I stayed motivated in developing this business for at least 3 months?
2. Do others believe that I have the skills, and does the market has the need for my business?
3. Has at least 3 people purchased something from me?
4. Can I sustain 4 months without a salary and still pay my mortgage?
5. If the business failed to take off, will I be able to find a job within 4-6 months?
6. Will I regret it if I don't take this chance?
7. Will I be a happier person if I pursue this business?

After I confidently answered 'Yes' to all these questions, I knew that it was the right decision.

The most important question to me was number 7. To me happiness is the most important consideration as there are ways to work around everything else.

Is there anything you would add to this list?

Welcome and Thank You

На все мои русские читатели, добро пожаловать и спасибо!

すべての私の日本の読者には、歓迎していただきありがとうございます！

Om al mijn Nederlandse lezers, welkom en bedankt!

An alle meine deutschen Leser, herzlich willkommen und danke!

--------------------------------

I just wanted to thank all my international readers out there. It was so interesting to find out that many of my readers are from Russia, Japan, the Netherlands and Germany.

Please keep reading, and I promise that I will get better! I am attending the Dublin City Network Enterprise for Women where there will be a talk about BLOGGING! I am sure that I will learn loads. Looking forward to it.

If you understood the message above, I would love for you to leave a comment in either English, or your own language. But even if you didn't understand the messages, I would still be delighted if you left a comment, it would let me know that real people are reading this ^_^

Written by Shen Wong

Re-branding to Shen Wong

After a lot of careful consideration and discussion with friends, I have decided to re-brand my business and blog from Dublin Designer to my own name, Shen Wong. Renaming is always scary, but I think nothing shows more confidence in the products you make than putting your own name to it. I have become so proud of all my creations that I want people to know I made them.

It was a lot of work amending everything, but fortunately/unfortunately for me, I decided to do the change before anyone knew much about the business at all, so there was no audience attachment.

All my Social Media pages had to be changed. Due to ShenWong already been taken on most platforms, I had to add a little extension, but with the character limitation of Twitter, I had to keep it short, so ShenWongCo is the alias I choose.

I also had to rename my Etsy store, frustratingly, ShenWong was taken, so I had to come up with another extension. I couldn't go with ShenWongCo as Etsy is dedicated to handmade crafts, so I didn't want to sound corporate, you have to think very carefully about your audience. In the end, I settled on ShenWongJewellery as it is relevant and can improve my search rankings for 'Jewellery' (some day maybe, there is a lot of competition).

My wonderful cousin helped me create a new logo using my name. I LOVE IT! Leave a comment to let me know what you think about my re-branding or new logo. If you ever had to re-brand, I would love to hear of your experience.

We're in Business! Etsy Business

I just closed my first sale today and I had to share it with the world.

After spending so much money on new tools & stock I must admit I was starting to panic a little. But Aoife (my first customer), you have given me hope! Thank you. 

I now know that there is a market out there for my jewellery and  I am right to keep going. 

Being able to sell something that you crated with your own hands is just the best feeling in the whole world. To everyone out there who are setting up their own business, don't give up hope, keep at it!

by Shen Wong

4th of July Inspirations

With the big 4th of July American celebrations coming, I was inspired two create two pieces with the colors of the American flag. To ensure that the pieces can be worn on other occasions, I also used a range of other colors that go well. All the colors of the rainbow have been included and then some more!

Just to make them extra eye catching they are both double layered. This was a particularly time consuming collection as I added wire wrapped detail to each piece of crystal and pearl. I was up until 4 am in the morning finishing the necklace! But it was worth it.

I would love to know what you think.

by Shen Wong

Packing it all up - Handmade jewellery boxes

For jewellery, the packaging is it's first impression. If you receive jewelry delivered in a plastic wrapped, ripped envelope, it can completely ruin the whole experience and make everything inside feel cheap. Jewellery is supposed to make you feel good about yourself, from the outside in and it all starts with beautiful packaging!

Preparing something that will make my customers smile before they even see their jewellery is what I have been thinking about and working on for a while now. After a few days of working with different materials, folding and cutting away, I think I finally have it. Simple hand folded origami jewellery boxes and ribbon tied, hand cut 'Thank You' labels. There is a LOT of work involved with doing everything by hand, especially when you use heavy paper but I think the end result is worth it.

I am absolutely delighted with my boxes and cards. Now just patiently awaiting my first customer. Hopefully I won't have to wait too long.

Credit Due: Learn how to make these lovely boxes on Pintrest. Thank you JasminBlancBoutique! Click here to view tutorial.

by Shen Wong

The Great Gatsby Inspiration

I have gone crazy for the Ziegfield Collection from Tiffany & Co as inspired by The Great Gatsby.

Using the primary black and white colors from the collection, not to mention the stunning white pearls, I decided to create my own version using Swarovski Elements.

Laying out the materials for some ideas.

First bracelet of my Great Gatsby Collection.

Simple elegant earrings.

I will be adding these to my Etsy Shop during the weekend. Just need to get some great pictures and redo the bracelet. I think the crystal drop will look better hanging from the center of the bracelet. Thinking about how I should arrange the necklace for the collection.

Comments are always welcome, especially in my 'inspiration' posts.

Pearly Gatsby Trend Alert!

It's official, The Great Gatsby is driving us into the high end jewellery stores! Jewellers like Sheils and Tiffany & Co. are enjoying higher than expected sales with the launch of the blockbuster.

Tiffany & Co. launched it's stunning Zigfield Collection back in April. Inspired by the movie the collection is based on Tiffany designs from the 1920s. The jewelry collection heavily features pearls which is characteristic of the era.

I must admit as soon as I saw this stunning collection in Brown Thomas, I couldn't resist and bought myself a pair of earrings for €450!

Jump right on board the fashion trend train and get yourself some pearls. Nothing will make you feel more feminine and elegant than wearing a full set of pearls. For something a bit more modern, yet still classy, check out my Etsy shop. Pearls are the focus of all my pieces.

Watch this space, I will be working on my own Gatsby inspired collection soon.

Ziegfield Collection Pearl Earrings

Still of Carey Mulligan in The Great Gatsby

by Shen Wong

Product Photography

One of the most important elements of making your jewellery attractive to buyers is good photography. After doing a lot of research online, I found one of the best affordable SLR cameras for jewellery is the Nikon D3000. So straight off to Argos I went to pick one up for myself. I am not the type to procrastinate when it come to shopping!

On top of getting a good camera, there are also a lot of techniques and other equipment required, including a product tent, daylight lamps, micro lens etc. In time I will build up to getting a full product studio, in the meanwhile I will just have to make do with a good camera, homemade light box and good sunlight. A light box is important when photographing jewellery as it eliminates harsh shadows. But to counteract the dimmed filtered light, it is necessary to have a strong light source. Sunlight with lack of angle flexibility just doesn't quite cut it.

There is a great tutorial on how to make your own product light box. I know mine is not the same, but I have actually purchased a cheap one on eBay, just waiting for it to arrive. To view product light box tutorial by Jeffery Bail on the Digital Photography School blog, click here. It's so good, I just had to share.

Here is my first photo studio. Photos are not to the Tiffany standard, but that will have to come in time when there is income for new equipment!

To keep up to date with my progress and my jewellery inspiration posts:
- Like me on Facebook
- Follow me on Twitter
- Follow me on Pintrest
- Follow me on Instagram
- Subscribe to my Blog

Please do comment if you have anything nice to say :)
I value all your support.

by Shen Wong