We recently connected with Stephenie Bjorkman and have shared our conversation below.
Stephenie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you as a business owner?
First off, I never thought I would work in the fine jewelry industry. From the age of 6, I have been a cowgirl to the core. Boots and hat are my style not dresses and high heels. My mom on the other hand is exactly what you think of when you picture a jewelry designer. Creatively dressed, colorful, and loves to show off her gems. My mom Sami, has been in the jewelry industry since her 20’s (she is now 75). She would have loved it if I was born more like her, but instead she had me, a tomboy! Long story short, I stayed out of the family business until I was 17 years old. I wanted to be a horse trainer when I grew up, and working in the jewelry industry was far from my dream. But, my mom needed me. When I was 17, my mom now only was going thru a terrible divorce, but during her divorce she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She told me that she didn’t care that I didn’t fit the typical “jeweler image” and that she needed my help at the jewelry store. I quit my job selling cowboy boots and started working for her. It wasn’t my dream job at the time, but she needed me! Fast forward 25 years. I STILL WORK IN JEWELRY!! I still wear my jeans, and cowboy boots (I have girled up a little LOL) but I have made the jewelry store my own. Who knew that I actually had a passion gemstones & diamonds and that I actually love what I do!
Now that you know the back story, I will tell you why my previous job made me the store owner and sales person I am in today. As you could have guessed, before jewelry I worked with horses. My first job (before I could drive) was teaching a summer cowboy camp to kids. My mom dropped me off at the barn at 6am (before her work) and then picked me up at 6pm (after her work). So getting up on time and working a long day for me, started at a young age. Plus when you work with animals it doesn’t matter if you are sick, tired, or have other plans, they come first! I could go into lots of details about what animals have taught me, be I think that for todays discussion The Code of the West suites the topic best. One thing you learn when you work for cowboys is the “code”. These are non negotiables, and once you know them, this code sticks with your for life. The code of the west is a list of unwritten rules that cowboys follow and have followed for a 100 years. I will give you the top 10 rules that I think apply to being not only a good employer, but a good manager, or an outstanding store owner. If you follow this, I truly don’t know how you cannot succeed in life and in business…
CODE OF THE WEST
1. Live each day with courage.
2. Take pride in your work.
3. Always finish what you start.
4. Do what has to be done.
5. Be tough but fair.
6. When you make a promise keep it.
7. Ride for the brand.
8. Talk less and say more.
9. Remember that some things are not for sale.
10. Know when to draw the line.
Stephenie, 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?
My name is Stephenie Bjorkman, and I was born in 1980, in Phoenix, Arizona. I am native to Arizona and have never had the desire to leave the valley of the sun. I am a second generation jewelry store owner. My mom Sami has been in the industry since the 1960’s and I started working side by side with her in 1997. My mom, retired in 2013 and I purchased the destination jewelry store, along with our client base, jewelry and store fixtures. Our business continues to grow each year, and we have a huge future ahead.
I think that the coolest thing about my jewelry store is that it is not what you think of when you think of shopping for jewelry. In fact Instore Magazine (a National Jewelers Magazine) named Sami Fine Jewelry One of America’s Top 5 Cool Jewelry stores. What makes us the best, isn’t just our unique designs, huge selection, customer service, but the fact that we like to have FUN. Yes, I said FUN! It is fun to buy jewelry, and it is FUN to shop as Sami’s! If you like being sold jewelry with some dude in a suit and tie calling you sir and mam, then we are not the store for you. We are down to earth, laid back, and we dress business casual. Our store has lots of natural light that makes the jewelry realistic to what it looks like when the client takes it home. Plus our greeters are two french bulldogs, Jewel and Gemma! Our staff really cares, we genuinely love to get to know you and who you are buying for. Our jewelry is creative, our stones are rare (such as our American mined gemstone collection) and we help pick out jewelry that actually fits the lifestyle and look of the wearer. We also love t0 help our clients come up with original ways to gift the pieces they buy. We are more like a romantic advisor! Myself and my staff make shopping easy! In fact the vast majority of my personal clients don’t live in Arizona, and don’t ever come to my store. They trust me, and I work by phone, text, email, or social media.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
In 2013 for medical reasons my mom needed to retire from working in the jewelry store. But at the same time, since she had gone thru a terrible divorce so she didn’t have a retirement fund to actually be able to afford to retire. She basically told me that I needed to buy the business from her or she would need to sell it. I was very young, and only 33 years old and the time. Buying a multi million dollar business was a scary thought on so many levels. I was still at a point in my life that I couldn’t afford not to have a paycheck every week, and summers were really tough in Arizona for retailers. I remember plenty of times my mom didn’t take a check so she could pay the staff. Being a business owner has tons of responsibilities that I wasn’t sure I could handle. Besides how was I even going to afford to put a down payment down or pay her monthly? This seemed scary all the way around. With all this being said, my accountant asked me a very important question that made me think… “What do you have to lose?” He was right on many levels. I decided to buy the business! Even after I said yes, it wasn’t easy for me to buy. Borrowing that kind of money at a young age isn’t easy. None of the banks wanted to let me borrow the money. It seemed like I was just getting hit with roadblock after roadblock. I finally borrowed private money, it was interest only, and a super high interest at that. I felt blessed to even be able to borrow the money, so I took the high interest rate. I was all in, sink or swim. From this point on, I worked really hard, and after two years of owning my own LLC and making solid payments, the banks knew I was good for the money they gave me a loan. I was then able to get out of the interest only one, and start making real payments towards my business and building. Now 9 years later my business has grown huge, and we are hitting goals I never thought was possible! Sometimes you just have to make the jump, and hustle til it works!
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
A very smart business advisor told me once that the face of your business is your staff. This is so true! If you don’t have the best team possible, then why are you even paying for advertising? When a client walks thru your door it probably costs you hundreds of dollars in marketing money. You must have an amazing team of employees to make sure they get treated awesome, buy your product, come back and refer their friends. Getting this team together and keeping up he morale is not easy. I go with the slow to hire, quick to fire! Get the right people. Do your homework before you hire someone. Call their references, interview them multiple times, do a trial period. We do the DISC profile on all new hires so that we make sure they fit our culture. Then once you get them on board, keep them. Retaining a staff that stays with you over 2 years is a hard task these days. I have managed to do it! My jeweler worked for us 25 years before he retired. The jeweler we replaced him with has now been there 9 years. My store manager has been there 17 years (and she is only 37 years old), one of my sales associates 20 years and so on. I like to think I am able to retain a great team for many reasons. Number one, you must be a good leader. I follow the “code of the west”. To sum up this “code” basically means that your word is your bond, there is no job to small, keep your promises and know when to draw the line. I lead by example. I also make sure and have daily 15 minute staff meetings. These meetings set your day, set the tone, and keep people on the same page. We also like to talk about fun things in these meetings. We also have weekly one hour staff meetings, which can be educational, team building, etc. Yearly I have special guest trainers to switch it up. All of this is accompanied by quarterly reviews. If you take the time to talk to your staff, then they don’t bottle up their emotions and you can cut things off ahead. Making sure you put money in “their emotional piggy bank” keeps and maintains a high morale. Besides all of this, the entire team is awarded with store bonuses and individual ones. You must recognize a a job well done. Then when they are “naughty” you have invested enough time in them to be able to talk to them about it, vs just having them get mad and quit one day. If you actually care about your staff and treat them well, there attitude is great and they are proud of where they work.
PS- We also have two french bulldogs, Jewel and Gemma that not only make our customers happy, but our employees LOVE them.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.samifinejewelry.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samifinejewelry/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/samifinejewelry
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/samifinejewelry/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/samifinejewelry
Image Credits
Sara Goodnick