We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jorge Diaz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jorge, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?
hand made things are more expensive because they are one of a kind and most of the time people can not afford to pay the price or simply don’t want to pay for a quality piece. a lot of the times people will comment how bigger chains sell similar products for much cheaper, not knowing that their base materials can be not that eco friendly or safe for your skin.
Jorge, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Jorge and my business came to life at the beginning of the pandemic, i was very sick and needed to find something to do, started a new hobby and i saw the potential to become more, we added and removed many products, and we didnt have an identity, we became members of the AZHCC and began working with professionals to find who LemonDesign25 was, and after much work we created the luxury cultural shop we are now.
Now we create high end necklaces with hand made ceramic beads from puebla mexico, pearls and gold or silver pendants and accents, clutch bags and hand bags, we have designed from the embroidery pattern to shape and size of the bags and we put a lot of care into the little details.
One thing that set us apart is the love we pour into every creation, we want to make sure you get unique high quality items and that you can wear your culture or love for my culture every day.
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
last year I was invited to a national convention very last minute, and i took one of the bags that i created with me and some digital business cards that i could program for other people in case they ran out of paper cards, i was not planning on selling them, but give them out to business owners i know on a personal level, this made them introduce me to many others and i sold out on about 150 nfc cards on the first day. At the end of the first day i had people reaching out because they wanted to see my bags and wanted me to bring them the second day to the convention, but i was technically not allowed, so i put them on my truck, and called the people to come to the parking lot, in less than 15 minutes i had sold every single piece i had made in 2 months, this was insane but is an experience that ill never forget.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
2 years into business our sales were the lowest they have ever bee, there was so many people selling similar products to us and i couldn’t figure out a way to get more sales, i had tried every single thing i knew and nothing was working, this was the time i had to unlearn everything i knew about business and sales and reinvent my whole business, letting go of the thing i had fun creating and re-branding, dropping products and starting to make new ones was so difficult since I had a routine, but this was the best thing that could have happened to us, and here we are almost 4 years into the business that brings joy and representation to my people, and my culture in the US.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lemondesign25.com
- Instagram: @lemondesign25
- Other: https://sprouter.app/lemondesign25