We were lucky to catch up with Dawn Higgins recently and have shared our conversation below.

Dawn , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

“I get it from my momma.” my love affair with jewelry that is. My mom gifted me at an early age with beautiful silver bangles. That is why my favorite piece of jewelry to wear, and handcraft are bracelets. I loved the way the bracelets and bangles dance around my wrist. It absolutely puts a smile on my face!

Like many others, my business was birthed during the pandemic. We were locked in, so I had plenty of time to sit still, think, reflect, and talk with God about dreams and ambitions. When I was a young girl, I used to play jewelry store. I mean, I had the complete set up. I would place my mom’s jewelry on the ironing board, pretend I had display cases with all the beautiful pieces and even had my mom buy me the coiled keyring that I would always see all the sales associates wearing on their wrists to keep the keys for the display cases. I would place the fine jewelry on a towel and present to my friends, “my customers.” I would then box up their purchases and thank them for their business. Those were fond memories.

It was time to stop playing jewelry store and to start an online jewelry business. Since I have always enjoyed creating things, I thought it was only fitting to open a handcrafted jewelry company. I would look at different pieces while shopping and think “I can make that.” There is something about taking varied materials and findings and assembling them to create a beautiful piece of wearable art.

When, God, my husband and mom said go for it, I launched Made U Smile Jewelry in January 2021. I could have easily just done this as a hobby and not worry about all the steps necessary to start and maintain a business, but what fun would that have been. I have always wanted something of my own and there was no better time to start. I decided to go for it and open shop. An online shop. This went from idea to execution in about four months. I would spend my evenings researching how to start a business, deciding on a name, what items I wanted to make and watching tutorials on how to craft jewelry. My mom and I came up with the name together and I designed a logo, which I later had a graphic artist refresh. We came up with the name because when someone gifts you an exquisite piece of jewelry, ones’ first reaction tends to be a big smile and that is what my “Smiles,” this is what I affectionately refer to my jewelry as, make you do.
Starting a business so much work. There are many parts involved that I was not aware of but thank God for Goggle and a few friends that are entrepreneurs to help me navigate. There were some days I would tell myself, “Just make it a hobby and be done already.” Then I realized I would be letting myself down if I did not go for it and see my dream realized. I gave myself permission.

After landing on the name, I was ready to choose my business structure, register my business with the state, and secure my domain name. I was able to set up my online business using Shopify. This e-commerce platform has been great in providing a lot of insights to running an effective business. I wanted the site to be as simple as possible for now, as I am still learning and growing in the space of entrepreneurship.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Welcome to Made U Smile Jewelry, an online jewelry boutique where handcrafted beaded jewelry takes center stage. I’m a self-taught handcrafted jewelry designer. I’ve always been a lover of jewelry and part of going into business is doing something you love.

Each “Smile” is a fusion of creativity, precision, and passion, meticulously crafted with quality stones and findings. Explore a collection of bracelets, necklaces, and earrings in vibrant colors and designs. Two of my favorite items are our Smilefirmation bangles, adorning inspirational messages, and our Breast Cancer Smile Box. Our Breast Cancer Smile Box was inspired by my mom and Aunt Terry, both breast cancer survivors. This box is a small token with a big impact to those fighters and survivors. My Smiles are some of the prettiest things you can wear.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

I use Shopify as my Ecommerce. Shopify has been a great platform for my business needs currently. For starting out and learning this business as I go, the ability to use free templates already created to build my store was fairly easy and it made it quick for me to get the store set up and look professional. However, I would love to see a little more variety in the free templates before the choice to jump to a paid theme. The platform does provide some basic analytics like sales and customers, which is helpful to analyze my business to some degree but again, you must pay to get the detailed and advanced reports or the added apps. As a small business owner, there is this constant battle on getting all the tools you need to be successful to run your business and having a low budget. With a limited budget and sales not being what I expect right away, the costs of transaction fees on top of monthly platform fees can add up quickly. This can cause you to question, is my dream worth it, but my faith says continue despite the growing pains.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

I love participating in local pop-up events around town and be part of the community. I’ve been able to meet some awesome people. Building new Smilers and exposing them to my handcrafted jewelry is important for my sustained growth. While I am on social media and post about my attractive pieces, I do find that most of my new Smilers come from word of mouth. Word of mouth is still one of the best sources of marketing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.madeusmilejewelry.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madeusmile_jewelry
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Madeusmilejewlery

Image Credits
The photo of me photo credit: Vernique Mays, Brand V Photographie Product photos are done by me (you can probably tell!)