Creating a Jewelry Brand to Empower Individuality
Taryn Courland, co-founder of LVBT, shares her startup story with the SmartUp ‘Fashion Founders’ community.
Taryn Courland started LVBT — or “Love by Taryn” — a brand that brings together unique jewellery and accessories from around the world. Her mission is to empower, encourage and support individual styles and personalities. Here, Taryn shares her inspiration for creating LVBT, lessons learned from starter mistakess along with the importance of social media, and why every customer is important.
JEWELRY AS PERSONALITY, IN TIMES OF ADVERSITY
My mum was always a role model to me. She was such a socialite. When she walked into a room, she would light it up. Sadly, she passed away from cancer a few years back. She did, however, leave some incredible values behind.
During her struggle with cancer and chemotherapy, she lost all her incredible hair. I asked if she wanted a wig, to help her feel more comfortable. She refused — and told me that hair didn’t define who she was.
“I’m me, I’m myself” she said, and told me to always be your own kind of beautiful. Instead, she would express herself with a piece of jewellery, statement earrings or a necklace, something that would really show her personality.I found that really inspiring.
I think we’re so caught up in a culture of wanting to be somebody else. So I began to think about how I could take my mum’s lessons, and share them with other people.
THE INDIVIDUALITY OF ACCESSORIES
I wanted to focus on accessories, because I think accessories can tell a story about who you are, without having to say many words. And I always enjoyed how you can take a simple and plain outfit, put in an incredible statement necklace, and turn it into a form of a masterpiece, something unique and different.
I started LVBT in 2015 — and in this past year, I’ve just really been learning the ropes. We do need more time, we’re learning as we go along, but we’re getting approached by the most incredible people, saying “We love what you stand for and we’d love to be a part of this.”
BUILDING A DESIGNER POOL, WITH INDIVIDUAL FOCUS
I’ve decided to take all these different designers from around the world and put them into one hub, because even if they’re different, they all beautifully complement each other. It really allows you to be creative, and pick what you want to wear.
Before I start working with different designers, I look into their background stories, how they started, to make sure that it relates to us. We don’t want to be working with brands that are too much about “be someone else, be this celebrity.” This research took a lot of time and was quite challenging, trying to get as much information as possible from the designers, before we went to represent them.
GETTING THE MESSAGE RIGHT — AND THE TROUBLE OF RUSHING
It’s very important to exactly understand what I want to do and how I can send a message that is for everyone, and comes across in a correct way.
It was also about building right product, and which messages we’re going to fit with what the brand is trying to represent. I think that I rushed into building the website. We were so excited and eager to just launch and get out there. It looked good, but the content wasn’t right — and it left many people very confused.
They either thought the jewelry was made and designed by myself — or that it was brought from China or India. They didn’t really understand the actual story — that our jewelry is from designers around the world. But now, with the re-launch of our new website, it’s completely clear, and people understand it.
THE NEED FOR PHYSICAL STOCK
We’ve started out by keeping all the designer accessories in our office space. While we’re building the company, I want to make sure that everything is under control and coming out perfectly.
It’s also been good for photo shoots. I do a lot of product shots — because people don’t just want to see a plain simple shot. A lifestyle shot tells more of a story, and gives them more inspiration.
Lifestyle shots come to me, sometimes when I’m just sitting at a café with my coffee and taking a snapshot of bracelets I’m wearing. I don’t want anything to be forced, or too structured — because it’s a lifestyle, and everyone creates their own.
HOW FREE RETURNS CURE ONLINE WORRIES
One of the issues with jewelry is that when you’re online, you can’t touch, feel, and see what it looks like on yourself. That’s been one of the biggest challenges — and I think it made people concerned about ordering a lot of products. A piece of jewellery is an investment piece and people want to be sure its right for them.
We’ve recently introduced a free returns policy — so you can buy it, try it, and fall in love with it — or return it. It has changed everything. People can now order five or six things, and not have to stress about getting their money back. It’s a question of loyalty, and trust.
A PERSONAL STORY, A PERSONAL TOUCH
When we send products to customers, I always include a little note, for everyone. Because even though it’s not my design, it’s under the LVBT family. We consider our designers family.
And it’s important to show love to all of our customers. We want them to feel special. That’s why I personally send every single person that places an order an email to talk about the product. It’s giving them a little bit of guidance and information — and we find that people really appreciate that.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
For our business, social media is huge. It reaches so many people across the world, it’s the best way for us to reach out to audiences from the UK to South Africa, India and beyond. It’s been a great passageway for us.
And you can put up a picture, hashtag a few things to catch different audiences. It’s been one of our best ways of selling.
WORKING WITH BLOGGERS
Each blogger is very different. I usually research bloggers from different age groups, depending on whether I’m targeting customers aged 23 to 25, 25 to 30, or 30 to 35.
Our products come in different price ranges and not everyone at 25 will spend £100 on a necklace — but maybe they’ll spend £50. So it really depends on the blogger’s audience.
I contact them through social media if I feel that they fit what LVBT stands for. I feel that it has opened a lot of doors for us.
THE LVBT BLOG
On our LVBT blog, we talk about fashion — say, Coachella festival trends and what people are rocking there, from celebrities to our clients who are at the event.
We’ll talk about the jewelry they wear, or what’s popular this spring, what one should be seen wearing — and then relate our products and designers to these blogs.
We decided to change the blog into more of a lifestyle blog — and now we’re thinking of LBVT Travel, LBVT Health — so it also touches a different audience, a wider audience.
3 PIECES OF ADVICE FOR ENTREPRENEURS
1 — Do your research, and really understand what you’re trying to establish.
You need to make sure that the people that are going to be seeing this understand what your brand is about, or what your business involves.
2 — Don’t be disheartened by the downs — and there will be a lot of those.
You have to hit your lows to learn, adapt to move ahead — and also, just enjoy it.
3 — Meet as many people as you can. Networking is a huge area that people need to focus on.
Believe in your brand, meet people, and get the word out there.
