We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jenny Sifontes a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Jenny thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?
I was lucky and had the support/push from my friends and family to start my business and I didn’t have to ask but I don’t think that it’s inappropriate to ask for friends or family support. I don’t believe you should force them. Support should come from a genuine place. We live in a very virtual world today where most things are seen online and I think it’s ok to ask them to support your online accounts by sharing, liking, etc.; the free stuff. I don’t believe you should ever ask them to buy something from you. People can sniff out when people buying items or people’s reviews of your items are disingenuous. I’ve been able to create a bit of a community of people who genuinely love my earrings and that circle might not be huge but it’s enough that when I have a bad month of sales or maybe I’m struggling with creative block, they are right there supporting and rooting me on. That’s because their support is genuine, not forced.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am a polymer clay jewelry maker. I love to create beautiful earrings that can add a smile to someone’s face or be that staple piece they grab everyday to put on. I’ve always been a crafty person and have always loved trying new things. I first began working with resin in 2019 and created badge reels, keychains and earrings. I became pregnant and started looking into non toxic things I could work with to create jewelry, which has always been a passion of mine since I was a little girl. I came across polymer clay while scrolling social media, went to the craft store to pick some up and as soon as I started working with it, I knew this was it. The possibilities with clay are endless and I love being able to try new techniques with it. I love the range of creativity it gives me, that I didn’t have with resin. I am a full time working mom and I work my small business at night when my son goes to bed or on the weekend when he is napping. It’s been tough at times, but I’m most proud of being able to have success in doing this and set a good example for my son.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.
I actually just launched my own website this year. I used Etsy when I first started and it was a great way to begin. They give you a space to show your products to the world and people trust Etsy so they are more willing to shop on Etsy than someone’s random website because they know if something goes wrong Etsy will make it right at the end of the day. It was a great way to earn the trust of customers, and to show them that I made a good product and that they could trust my customer service. But ultimately, I wanted some thing that I could customize a little bit more myself and I found myself driving most of my traffic through social media. Because I was driving most of my own traffic I couldn’t justify the fees on Etsy‘s website anymore and ultimately decided to leave.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
When I first started out making polymer clay earrings, I started out making everything everybody else was because that’s what I thought people wanted. We’re always fed through media what’s trendy and what fashion is popular. But when you make some thing that everybody else is, it’s not speaking to who you are and you just become another person making the same thing they’ve seen 50 times already. I had to unlearn the idea that everybody wants to wear the same earrings because that’s what’s trendy and that’s what everybody else is wearing. I had to trust my inner creative voice and let it lead me to create pieces that I love and I enjoy. Some of those pieces might be things that other people are creating already, and some of them may be very unique to me, but either way at the end of the day, I’m staying true to myself, and what I want to create.
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