We recently connected with Blanca Venegas and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Blanca thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

From the very beginning, I knew didn’t want to be a copy/paste shop where the accessories I sold were the same as many others found all over Instagram. So when I finally narrowed down the kind of accessories I wanted to sell, I wanted a name that implied uniqueness, individuality, boldness and that it would describe a business that wasn’t following what the rest of the online jewelry stores were doing. I wanted a name that said “We are independent, contrary to what you see everywhere, and are not following specific trends”.

I also wanted people to quickly figure it out was an earrings boutique by its name, so I thought of words that meant earrings but didn’t want the exact word in it. In many places in Latin America, earrings are also called “pendientes”, which means pendants. So it clicked! I married the two words: Independent and pendants, which gave birth to the name Independants. It’s also pretty cool to me that the name means independent in French, as well!

Blanca, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Independants was born during the 2020 chaos. The idea was born after spending way too much time on social media and looking at jewelry shops online during our quarantine. I felt mentally tired of being locked in my home doing nothing and needed to get my creative juices flowing, so I began thinking about opening a small business online that would grant me the opportunity to be home with my kids but also allow me to have fun and be creative.

I noticed in my daily searches that many Instagram jewelry shops offered the same kind of jewelry: the golden hoops, layered dainty necklaces and tiny golden earrings. Although I love these styles and find absolutely nothing wrong with them, I felt there was not much out there that offered glamorous, unique statement earrings that packed that “wow factor”.

I was also tired of seeing overpriced pieces everywhere. So this inspired me to move forward and find unique, fabulous earrings to sell online at affordable prices,

I pay close attention to top designer runways and take note on what type of jewelry they choose and how they style their outfits with it so I can find similar pieces to help my clients’ outfits look like a million bucks for less than $30.

I am a strong believer that bold jewelry, especially statement earrings, are an effortless way to make any outfit look well-thought out and glamorous, and you definitely don’t have to pay a fortune to achieve it.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Definitely word of mouth. Having my customers recommend my products to friends and family, giving them as gifts to co-workers, and even uploading stories or photos wearing our accessories and tagging us has helped us grow.

Social media is also a great way to showcase your products in very creative ways, such as clever reels and beautiful pictures.

How did you build your audience on social media?

We built our audience by investing lots of time, a huge amount of patience, and observation. We began following jewelry and high-end fashion brands we admire on social media and took lots of notes on the ways they photograped their items and created clever and entertaining “reels” of their products.

We didn’t want our customers to feel they were looking at the same photos and vids everyone else had, so, based on our observation, we grabbed ideas from several jewelry businesses here and there, and compacted them into one, just like a puzzle piece. You will notice many of our pictures have the same feel, colors, and style and that is how we came up with our signature “look” of our social media, which has also helped lure customers in.

We are still learning because there is so much creativity and high-quality content out there to compete with in terms of grabbing people’s attention. We don’t own any sophisticated equipment so we have to find ways to work with an iPhone and some cool editing apps.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shopindependants.com
• Instagram: @independants_shop
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/shopindependants

Image Credits
Independants