Handcrafting Dreams: A Silversmith’s Entrepreneurial Journey
- Interviewee name: Abigail Engelking
- Interviewee Title:
“Owner and Operator of Peacock Jewellers, Professional Silversmith.”
- What Products/Services do you offer?
“I run a custom jewellery boutique featuring gemstones, supplies, silversmithing lessons, and jewellery repair services.”
- Who are your markets and customers?
“I appeal heavily to artisans, students, connoisseurs, and other small businesses who want bulk rates.”
- What would you say is your competitive advantage?
“I offer numerous speciality services backed with 30 years of experience as well as little to no local competition for my products and services.”
- What is your number of employees?
“I currently have 5 full-time employees and no part-time employees.”
- How many years have you been in business?
“Peacock Jewellers has been open for 7 years, but I have been silversmithing for over 10 years and making jewellery for over 30 years.”
- What is your mission?
“My mission is to fulfil my dream to teach others the dying art of silversmithing artisan pieces. I also strive to provide a unique business and service for the community.”
- What is your vision for the business?
“My vision for the future is to start a local silversmithing guild and host a community of students there.”
- What are your corporate values?
“I would say that quality, compassion, and reliability are my main values.”
- What traits would you say you possess that drove you toward entrepreneurship?
“I have always been a very determined person. But discipline, organizational skills, and a mind for accounting are also things that have really helped me during my journey as a business owner. Being capable of leadership and training has also been very valuable for both running the business and teaching the classes.”
- Regarding entrepreneurship, what are the biggest lessons you’ve learned?
“The biggest lesson I’ve learned during my journey so far is definitely the importance of having a reasonably priced location with the right amount of people in the area. However, in emergencies like Covid-19, large amounts of diversity and creativity are required so you can keep your business alive. Having the right insurance coverage is also paramount. Lately, finding competent trustworthy staff has been more difficult than I could have ever possibly imagined it would be.
- Advantages and disadvantages of entrepreneurship in your life?
“For advantages, having the freedom to be financially stable while doing the thing I love is definitely the biggest advantage for me. But being self-employed is also marvellous for freedom of schedule, which is particularly important when you have children. Disadvantages I would say are obviously the unpredictability of the economy and regulations. Covid-19 almost made me need to close up shop. There is also a constant difficulty in keeping up with the ever-changing trends in the market. If you call a trend wrong and order too much of a product, you could have a surprising amount of trouble offloading it. But the biggest disadvantage of all is probably just the amount of effort it takes to keep the door open. You have to be present in your business 24/7. Being able to step up to the plate and be the one-man show that is required to run a business is definitely not for everyone.”
- What is the form of legal ownership for Peacock jewellers?
”It is an incorporated limited company. I am the director and 100% shareholder.”
- Why and how was that form chosen?
“The nature of my business is a high-risk liability with the teaching of dangerous activities involving open flame and hazardous fumes. Through an incorporated limited company, I can’t personally get sued if a customer injures themselves. I can also pay myself in dividends. Dividends are more flexible and allow me to choose how I save for retirement.”
- Do you feel the most appropriate company form was chosen? Why?
“Yes, protection from liability was the number one goal. The nature of the business includes a significantly higher likelihood of injury and property damage.”
- What are the specific advantages the company has realized due to the chosen form of ownership?
“On top of protecting me from personal liability, it also gives better tax advantages for the company. This form of ownership also allows for easier franchising in the future and for you to publicly trade your company if you desire.”
- Any disadvantages?
“Having to renew yearly is tedious and costs money. It also costs more to do your taxes. However, the most problematic thing I’ve run into so far is if you want to switch provinces and need a continuance. It has been like pulling teeth with the amount of hoops I’ve had to jump through.”
- Did you prepare a business plan before opening?
“Yes, I did.”
- How did you research the feasibility of your business?
“I started by comparing competition and researched the local populace per capita. I looked into the annual income and age. I compiled an initial supply list and compared rent costs for the city vs town locations to get a startup cost. I also calculated parking, gas, and time for transportation to and from each location I considered. I then calculated how much money needed to be made daily to decide how many days I should be open. I’d also looked into whether teaching at local schools was an option before setting the goal to open my own.”
- What were the benefits of preparing this plan?
“Having this plan laid out gave me confidence about the investment. It also helped sort out exactly what knowledge and training I still needed to gain before opening the doors. Having the numbers crunched on a clear list also isolated all the financial requirements for the startup.”
- Do you feel developing a business plan was useful for the company?
“Of course! Without a plan, you will fail. Especially for something as complicated as a business start-up. There are more factors involved than someone could ever possibly imagine before they start to open a business. Having a place where all that information is compiled for easy access is a necessity. It can also be difficult to get a loan without a perfect business plan; especially if there aren’t any pre-existing comparable businesses.”
- How did you finance your initial startup?
“I financed through saving and personal investments.”
- Why did you choose this form of financing?
“I chose this form because of my business plan. I knew exactly how much it would cost, so I made the decision to support the cost with my investments and personal assets since I could afford to do so. I also didn’t need to wait on getting credit approvals, which allowed me to open sooner.”
- What are the advantages and disadvantages?
“It was a nice advantage that I didn’t need to pay a bank loan on top of all the other expenses while I was starting up. However, I was taking a massive personal risk by using my own assets. Also, because I didn’t get a loan, there wasn’t a way to reapply to the bank for more money. Because of this, I had to really crunch every dollar to ensure that I was on budget while opening the doors.”
- What are the biggest financial challenges you have encountered since the start of the business?
“Covid-19 had a massive negative impact on my business. With the economic collapse, people were losing their jobs and didn’t have money for hobbies. This affected my product and service sales heavily. It has also been getting increasingly more difficult to find reliable employees. The recent raise in the minimum wage caused me to have to lay off my part-timers as I just couldn’t afford to have them with the reduced sales I was making. Credit cards also charge business owners a surprising amount for customers to access their service through your store. Finding a good accountant to help me keep the accounts balanced has also been a challenge. It has also been difficult to navigate how and when to have sales.”
Goods and Services Production & Technology
- How did you originally plan for the production of goods and/or services?
“It was always the plan that I would be handmaking the primary product line in the shop location as well as teaching the classes and managing a regular student schedule. Students create customers to purchase the supplies, so I planned to maintain a healthy student base through regularly refreshed classes. Supplies were always to be ordered from bulk suppliers.”
- What inefficiencies have been realized and how were these resolved?
“Massive unpredictable supply shortages have been a bigger issue than I could have expected. To solve this, I am constantly researching a wide variety of suppliers that supply exact or similar products in case of supply shortages with a preferred supplier. During Covid-19, there were unprecedented mass supply shortages. My regular supplier list basically quadrupled just from trying to maintain my basic inventory.”
- What is your company’s value chain?
“The value chain for Peacock Jewellers starts at the mine. After mining the silver, it’s shipped to the manufacturing plant to turn the raw silver material into usable products. From there, I make the bulk purchase of products from the manufacturer (primarily sheet metal and wire). I then fabricate the bulk products into fine jewellery or repackage the bulk goods into more consumer-friendly quantities. And finally, is the sale of the finished goods to the customer.”
- What would you say is your source of competitive advantage in this chain?
“There is a competitive advantage that comes from buying from the manufacturer directly. Three decades of experience in the fabrication step also ensures a competitive advantage as well.”
- In regard to components of the supply chain, what are the bottlenecks in the chain and how is technology used to manage the supply chain?
“A frequent bottleneck is the mine to manufacturer with supply and demand. Market value prices need to be paid. If you can’t purchase at a low market value, then you have to either wait or mark up your products. I use stock-sharing website technology for precious metals daily to track the market value of silver and gold for restocking. The Google algorithm technology also helps find new suppliers for speciality goods.”
- What are the major management challenges you’ve had to overcome as the business grew?
“I’ve already mentioned it a couple of times, but finding, hiring, and training staff has been a continual hassle. Finding reliable competent staff has been a hurdle since day one. It has been difficult to create effective training documentation. Expansion to a new location in a new province has also been challenging as well. Managing in a new province means familiarising yourself with all of the new local rules and regulations. Analysing a new local social structure for advertising has been overwhelming with everything else required to expand. It’s basically like starting at square one all over again. With the expansion of the team, communication requirements changed suddenly. Keeping everyone on the same page is surprisingly difficult even though we have a group chat.”
- What strategic goals were originally set for the organization? How was the strategy determined?
“My main strategic goals have always been increasing revenue and maintaining profitability. I always strive to diversify my revenue streams. I also constantly strive to reduce production costs through learned efficiency tactics and better time management.”
- Has the strategy changed to manage these challenges and what were the key lessons learned?
“My main strategic goals haven’t changed, but my focus on certain areas of the company has. Through experience, there is learning. The market shifted over Covid-19 and many people moved online. That rapidly became a much greater focus of the business than originally planned. An offered delivery service was also never expected for the jewellery industry but was required due to unforeseen social trends. Through this diversification, our business has maintained relevance for our customer base.”
- And lastly, may I get some images to include in this article to showcase your work?
“Yes, of course!”
~End of Interview~
……………………Lessons Learned & Recommendations……………………
- What are the three most important things you learned about starting and operating a new business from this interview?
1. Abigail’s issues emphasized the significance of having a well-structured onboarding process for new employees. Proper onboarding should cover company policies, job expectations, and role-specific training. Without it, new team members may struggle to understand their roles, leading to inefficiencies and misunderstandings. This can lead to issues with the business’s operation and dissatisfied customers, which can hurt customer retention in the future.
2. Abigail highlighted the need for adaptability in response to changing market dynamics. She talked about how Covid-19 prompted a shift to online sales and the introduction of a delivery service, showing the importance of adjusting business strategies to stay relevant and meet customer demands in an ever-shifting market. Markets can shift at any time, including during the fragile initial months of a business.
3. Abigail emphasized how important it is to prepare for the amount of research required not just for the planning phase, but the maintenance of a business. Creating a business plan involves navigating local regulations and social structures, rent and transportation costs, and copious amounts of product and supplier research. This is on top of any training and skills that may need to be gained to run your business. This can get quickly overwhelming, so having a clear layout and managing your time while doing the research phase to avoid burnout or decision fatigue is necessary. Continual research on market trends will be required for the maintenance of the business, so setting up a research routine and developing a list of trustworthy sources to regularly reference will save time and help ensure business success.
- Do you agree/disagree with the entrepreneur’s business strategy and why or why not?
Abigail’s strategy seems sound. She emphasized adaptability, cost and time management, and diversification of revenue streams, all of which are critical for business success. Abigail showcased the importance of diversifying her business by offering various products and services ranging from custom work, gemstones, supplies, lessons, and repair services. This diversification allowed her to cater to a broader customer base and more easily adapt to the changing market conditions when some of her services were suddenly outside of the regulations. Abigail also conducted plenty of research on her target market during her business planning phase which allowed her to clearly identify her customer base. This allowed her to appeal more accurately to the artisans, students, and other small businesses that use her services. Her ability to tailor products and services to meet specific customer needs led to more success for the business. Abigail’s choice of an incorporated limited company as the form of ownership reflects her commitment to managing risks, which offers stability to the company. Abigail also recognized the importance of adapting to market changes, especially in response to the challenges posed by Covid-19. This flexibility in her business strategy reflects her ability to respond quickly and creatively to unforeseen circumstances. This planned flexibility in her strategy is what protected her personal assets during this emergency. Her focus on comprehensive onboarding and the recognition of the challenges in staff hiring and training also demonstrate her commitment to quality service. Abigail acknowledged the need for continuous learning in a business by addressing and filling her skill gaps early on. This shows a commitment to both personal and professional growth, both of which are essential to expanding a successful business. This readiness to improve is also an essential skill for adapting to the ever-changing conditions of the business market.
- What are your most important recommendations for the entrepreneur based on the content you have learned in BMC 205 to date?
~ Onboarding is where you set your new employees up for success. it is important to ensure everything including company policies, job expectations, and role-specific training during their first few weeks on the job are covered extensively. Smaller teams often feel less of a need for a structured onboarding process. It can feel challenging to dedicate the resources to training a new hire, but without proper onboarding, it’ll take your new team members longer to learn protocols and expectations and may create more situations where a new hire has to guess what to do. Should a new hire guess incorrectly, you’ll have to step in and course correct, which is frustrating for management, other employees, and customers alike. Given the challenges of finding reliable employees, Abigail should consider refining her hiring process. She should take more time to develop and implement more rigorous screening and interviewing procedures to identify candidates who are the best fit for her business. Spending more time doing interviewing can be tedious, but will further help to ensure that a poor fit isn’t hired for the role. Hiring a poor fit for a company often costs the business owner thousands of dollars, so taking the extra time during the onboarding phase to ensure the applicant meets the well-defined requirements for the role is worth the effort.
~ Improving communication and training within the team is essential for the success and growth of a business, particularly when expanding to a new location. To improve communication and training within her team, she should consider implementing more technology. She mentioned using a group chat, but video conferencing tools such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams are easily accessible ways to provide training sessions and discussions where you can ensure that the team understands and also has a place to ask questions. This is especially valuable when team members are dispersed as it offers face-to-face interactions and maintains a sense of connection that may be lacking for staff teams who seldom see their boss in person.
~ Branding appearances and advertising are an ongoing process that is crucial for the long-term success of any business. These require not only an expansive understanding of the current state of the market but also creativity from the business owner to find ways to make their product seem new and exciting to the customer base. Staying tuned into changes in consumer behaviour and preferences will help her to properly adjust her marketing strategy. Abigail should strive to continuously refine her marketing and branding strategies to both maintain and grow her customer base. Using more digital marketing and social media engagement strategies are both good ways to appeal to the youth markets who are less present in her business demographic. Maintaining a constant social media presence on relevant platforms like TikTok can help to build a brand image that resonates with her target audiences. Social media advertising through Facebook and Instagram is location-based, which means it can be an effective tool for reaching her brand awareness to the local populations in her new province and help to build up her new customer base.
- What are the most important lessons you would offer to someone starting a business?
~ The importance of planning thoroughly. Before starting up your business, it is clearly imperative to create a comprehensive business plan that includes your market research, financial requirements for location, transportation, and stock, as well as a finite understanding of the local competition. A well-structured plan is not just crucial for securing financing, but also for building your own confidence in the success of your start-up. A business plan offers a clear roadmap that helps the business owner stay on track while opening the doors of their new venture.
~ The requirement for the ability to adapt. Before opening a business, one needs to ensure that they are prepared to adapt to the ever-changing market conditions and consumer preferences. Flexibility in your business strategy is key to staying competitive and relevant, but also adjusting in an emergency.
~ Recognizing the value of investing more time into onboarding. A well-structured onboarding process for new employees ensures further success for the company. Effective onboarding ensures that new team members understand their roles and responsibilities, which leads to increased efficiency and job satisfaction and a decrease in staff-related mishaps that could hurt company productivity or customer retention.
~ Planning ahead to diversify your revenue streams. Exploring opportunities to diversify your revenue streams during the planning phase reduces dependence on a single source of income when the business is starting up. This can help your business weather economic downturns or unexpected disruptions, which can be especially difficult if they affect your business during the first year.
~ The usefulness of continuously staying informed. Staying informed about industry trends, regulations, and market dynamics is something that a business owner needs to stay on top of. Ongoing learning and adaptability are essential for long-term business success as trends and dynamics can shift suddenly and threaten your business in unforeseen ways. Staying ahead of these market shifts through constant research ensures that your business is more likely to have the ability to shift with the market rather than unintentionally against it.
Abigail has shown me that with well-prepared hard work, you can achieve greatness and success while making your dreams into a reality.
Bibliography
~ Colleges, B. F. from O., & Managers, eCampusOntario P. (2018, June 1). Fundamentals of Business: Canadian edition — Chapter 14. Fundamentals of Business Canadian Edition. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/businessfuncdn/
