We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Erin Sabatine a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Erin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
I’ve learned being successful isn’t a one size fits all kind of answer. I feel like there are typical ideas of what being successful is, such as making a lot of money and having a big house. However, that isn’t how I measure success. Sure sales and making money help, but that isn’t my main goal with my small business. When I started my business it was really to try it out and see how it went without any real expectations. A few months into getting started, I felt that this could really grow. I found other handmade jewelry businesses and realized there’s a market for this. When I really decided to start thinking of my jewelry as a business, I sat down and thought about my goals. This was both professional and personal. I feel that my brand is very me and very much a part of my life. To be successful to me is to have the lifestyle that I want. I thought about what would make me happy and what I would want my typical day to be like. I use this as motivation as well, to help me get through any slow or rough patches. I think if you want to be successful, you have to define what that means to you. That way you have a more personalized goal to achieve which is also great motivation. This might be different from everyone else and that is fine. Everyone has their own journey.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m Erin, owner, designer, and maker of Silver Prophecy Jewelry. I craft handmade sterling silver jewelry that is subtle yet unique in design. I focus on minimal design that is lightweight. I only use silver as that is my favorite precious metal but it’s also very affordable and will hold its worth. My signature style is hand-hammered textures on my silver pieces. I don’t really use any stones which I think I lot of handmade jewelry businesses do, so I wanted to stand out and focus on a different creative aspect with my jewelry. My brand is about empowering the wearer of my jewelry to feel confident to take the day on while not having to fight with their jewelry. I want to make comfortable jewelry that is also beautiful and unique. I am a self-taught silversmith (although I’ll joke I graduated from the University of Youtube) and mostly learned by trial and error. I’ve always been a creative hands-on person, so when I started silversmithing as a hobby I took to it naturally. I love creating things and when I started this, I wasn’t doing anything creative in my life at the time. I desperately needed this as an outlet and have since learned that creating greatly improves my life. I’ve been creating sterling silver jewelry for two years now, and have had my business for one year now. I’ve never had a business before, and honestly, I had never considered being an entrepreneur. It wasn’t until friends and family asked if I was selling my jewelry that I decided to give it a go. I am most proud of my NC Regions collection. I am a North Carolina native and have always appreciated that we have the mountains or beach to visit within a day’s time. So I created pieces consisting of earrings and necklaces that feature the three geographical regions of NC. I also have one necklace that has all three together. These are made with solid sterling silver wire that is cut, formed, and soldered into a permanent piece. These also showcase my signature style as I hand-hammer the whole piece to get it that extra character and sparkle.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
When I started to really focus on my craft as a business, I looked for resources to help me learn the business side of things. I found Flourish and Thrive Academy that is all about helping people start a jewelry business. They offer free masterclasses and general advice in addition to programs you can buy. After following this account for a while, I recently purchased their base program. What I love about it, is at the very beginning it’s all about having the right mindset. After going through the first module, I had a mindset that I’m running a business first and creating second. This really helped me focus on the business side more, such as opening business financial accounts, speaking with a CPA, and thinking about marketing. It sort of clicked in my head that I need to focus on the business aspect more because that’s how I’ll get to continue to do the fun creative part. One of the major key points in this was also learning about my dream client and to who I really want to sell my jewelry. When you start selling anything, I think it’s natural to say I want to sell to anyone who will buy my product. Yet I learned that’s not the case. It’s actually better to repel customers that are not your dream client so that you can focus on customers that are. I’ve always been a bit of a people-pleaser kind of person, so this realization was hard at first, but now it’s very natural in my thinking.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
When I started to really focus on my craft as a business, I looked for resources to help me learn the business side of things. I found Flourish and Thrive Academy that is all about helping people start a jewelry business. They offer free masterclasses and general advice in addition to programs you can buy. After following this account for a while, I recently purchased their base program. What I love about it, is at the very beginning it’s all about having the right mindset. After going through the first module, I had a mindset that I’m running a business first and creating second. This really helped me focus on the business side more, such as opening business financial accounts, speaking with a CPA, and thinking about marketing. It sort of clicked in my head that I need to focus on the business aspect more because that’s how I’ll get to continue to do the fun creative part. One of the major key points in this was also learning about my dream client and to who I really want to sell my jewelry. When you start selling anything, I think it’s natural to say I want to sell to anyone who will buy my product. Yet I learned that’s not the case. It’s actually better to repel customers that are not your dream client so that you can focus on customers that are. I’ve always been a bit of a people-pleaser kind of person, so this realization was hard at first, but now it’s very natural in my thinking.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.silverprophecyjewelry.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/silverprophecyjewelry/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/silverprophecyjewelry/