Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Erik Lopez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Erik, thanks for joining us today. Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?

I like the idea of vacations but I have a difficult time taking a step back from my work. I only take very small breaks, every few years, for a few days at a time.

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 background and context?

I curate a revolving selection of new, pre-owned and vintage watches. I believe that collecting watches can be fun, as well as a fruitful investment in an asset class that often goes overlooked by many. I assist in the procurement of watches for private collectors from around the world. At our Coral Gables boutique, I offer advice and have the ability to assist in acquiring fine watches from a variety of sources including auctions, brokers, authorized dealers and private sellers.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I was fortunate to already have the location where my business operates, as I run a complimentary business out of the same boutique. By trade, I am a jewelry designer, and I have been passionate about watch collecting for nearly two decades. Clients would regularly visit my boutique to design jewelry and the conversation would lead to watches organically. After hundreds of conversations with my clientele about watches, ranging from them asking me my opinion on a timepiece they were considering purchasing, to them asking me to help source a special watch for them, I realized that there was a business that could be built around my passion for watches. I had a nice collection of personal pieces that I had collected over the years, and started the business by simply putting them on display next to my jewelry. I would use them as conversation starters, often with guys who were in the store to buy something for their spouse as a holiday gift… and, often, I’d wind up getting asked to hunt for a watch for them. After about 10 years, I decided to create a brand around the watch business – and I began marketing my two businesses independently.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The internet, specifically, online watch trading platforms, has grown my business tremendously. On the jewelry design side of my work, I really spend little to no time working on exposure. We have been in business for 37 years, and our client base is predominately local. We don’t advertise and we have just been very fortunate to have a long stream of great word-of-mouth referrals. So, that business runs on its own. But, when I started Guarded Crown, I knew that I’d need to get the name out in order to scale the business. I followed the same methods as most small businesses, by starting an instagram page and a a facebook page – I’m not a strong marketer but I take pretty good pics and I post once or twice a day. I also found that posting watches for sale across the spectrum on venues such as Chrono24, eBay, Marketplace, OfferUp, Craigslist, etc. afforded me an opportunity to reach a wide spectrum of potential clients. Some platforms are more useful than others, and I certainly focus more on the ones that net me the highest conversion rates. But, while figuring out which ones worked best, I devoted a substantial amount of time on all of them, and put a lot of effort into maximizing my listing quality, both with extremely detailed descriptions and multiple images.

Contact Info:

• Website: guardedcrown.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/guardedcrown
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/guardedcrown
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/guardedcrown
• Other: https://www.chrono24.com/search/index.htm?currencyId=USD&dosearch=true&maxAgeInDays=0&merchantId=12830&pageSize=60&redirectToSearchIndex=true&resultview=block&sortorder=5

Image Credits
Erik Lopez