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Founder@ Interview
Interview with Supriti Vaidya
Credit@ Mary Doggett
“Be disciplined and take small steps every single day. Business success doesn’t happen overnight; it’s the steps you take today that will shape what happens in the future..” – Supriti Vaidya
Today we feature Supriti Vaidya, the founder at Halo Jewellery UK. We hear their story in their own words, their successes, their challenges and their insights.
Let’s start by getting to know you. Can you please tell us a little bit about you and what you do?
I’m Supriti and I’m the founder and owner of Halo Jewellery UK. I design and create handmade sterling silver and enamel jewellery, and donate 50% of Halo’s profits to charities that support the learning and education of disadvantaged girls. I’m a lifelong learner myself, and I believe that there’s no better way of creating strong, independent women with real choices in life.
A great introduction and start to this interview. Can you please tell us, how did you start, from what age, and what made you decide to change direction and start?
My background is in Maths and Computer Science, and started my career by working in the financial services industry back in 1988. In 2010 I went on a weekend beaded jewellery making course on a whim, and enjoyed it so much that I went on several other courses. Then in 2015 I went on a six weekend metalsmithing course in central London. I found the process of being able to melt silver, make it change shape, and join pieces together and make something beautiful out of just a silver sheet or piece of silver wire totally magical.
It was then that I truly fell in love with jewellery making, and knew that I wanted to do “something in jewellery”.
That thought stayed in my head and refused to go away, so I set up a workshop at home, and practised as much as I could. I went on to do more jewellery making courses and eventually gained a diploma in jewellery design. By about 2017 I knew I had enough basic skills to start a jewellery business, and only needed to pick the right moment to start.
Thank you for that insight. So can you tell us…What does your business do and where is your company based?
At Halo Jewellery UK, I design and create handmade sterling silver jewellery. All my jewellery is made from sterling silver sheet or wire. I make as many components as I can by hand, including most of the clasps, because I’m not happy with those available in the market.
I try to ensure that every piece of jewellery that I make is meaningful to the wearer, other than being just a beautiful piece of handmade jewellery. This may be because it’s your initial or zodiac sign, or a symbol or colour that means something to you, or simply that it holds meaning because you identify with Halo’s strong charitable ethic. Whatever the reason, I try to make each piece an expression of the wearer.
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My current ranges include an enamel range, a zodiac range, an initials range and I will be introducing a gemstone range later in 2021.
I try to use recycled silver wherever possible, and am constantly on the lookout for suppliers of recycled silver for those bits that I can’t buy recycled as yet.
I also recycle all my silver scraps by melting them down and converting them to sheet. I can’t use the home-recycled silver for customer orders because I can’t guarantee it to sterling silver standard, so I use it for my prototypes and experiments.
I make all the jewellery out of my studio at home in Greater London, and I sell online through my website.
What’s the story behind your success? What led to your aha moment? how did you get to where you are now?
My aha moment came when I watched a live interview with Mary Berry in central London. She talked about upcoming books, TV shows and so on, and at one point the interviewer asked her “How do you manage to do so much?” Her answer was simple. She said “I love what I do.” And that was the moment I realised that instead of waiting desperately to retire, if I did something that I loved so much, I would never want to retire. And so, I decided to give up my job, and start Halo Jewellery UK. It still took me over a year to work up the courage to give up my corporate job, but I eventually took the plunge and have never regretted it.
I started the business in April 2020 and in the time since I started, I’ve met a huge number of incredibly helpful people, who are so generous with their time and their advice. Luckily I’m a voracious learner, but no two businesses are the same, so every business has to go through what I’m doing, which is learning as much as they can from others’ mistakes, but also making some of their own. I also think that it’s really important to be open about your struggles and ask for help when you need it.
Thank you for sharing that. What’s been your life’s biggest lesson so far?
I think my single biggest lesson from my first year in business is that if you don’t ask you don’t get. And it’s quite astonishing what you can get if you do ask. I’ve been given a chance to do a radio interview, a guest post, a collaboration and get featured in a magazine, all in less than a year, simply because I asked. As a new business, nobody is going to come looking for you. You have to go looking for opportunities.
My biggest challenge has been simply to get the word out there that Halo Jewellery UK exists. With no background in marketing, knowing how to market, when to market and even who to market to is a real challenge. I’m taking as much advice as I can from other small businesses. Clubhouse, networking groups, and organisations such as Enterprise Nation and Small Business Britain are wonderful places to get help. Of course, most importantly, I have to try things on my own and see what works and what doesn’t for my own business.
I’m also fully self-funded, and although that helps because I’m debt-free and also free to make my own decisions, it means money is always tight and every cost needs to be justified.
I wish I’d known what an amazing experience running my own business would be. For the first time in years I’m using my whole brain, and every bit of resourcefulness that I have. It’s as if my brain has been sent off to boot camp, and if I’d known it was going to feel so good, maybe I would have started earlier. It may not be as lucrative as my career in financial services, it may be a huge amount of work, but my goodness it’s fun!
If you were to go back in time, what piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
I think that the biggest piece of advice that I would give my younger self would be to be brave and to simply ignore the nay-sayers and the doubters. By all means learn from those who are more successful than you. Learn even from those who have failed. But absolutely ignore the ones who have never tried, have no real idea what it takes to run a business and still insist on giving advice and voicing their opinions.
I would say this is particularly true for product based businesses like mine, which have a set of challenges that only those who have actually run a product based business would understand.
We’re nearly halfway through our interview so it’s a great time to ask how does your business run. What three tools make your business run better?
Creating handmade jewellery is an ancient art, so the tools required are not particularly high-tech, and i would say my polishing and soldering tools are an absolute must. Other than that, I simply can’t do without good photographs, particularly because I’m an online only business.
What do you know now that you wished you had known before?
I wish I’d known what an amazing experience running my own business would be. For the first time in years I’m using my whole brain, and every bit of resourcefulness that I have. It’s as if my brain has been sent off to boot camp, and if I’d known it was going to feel so good, maybe I would have started earlier. It may not be as lucrative as my career in financial services, it may be a huge amount of work, but my goodness it’s fun!
What has been your greatest or proudest achievement or moment?
My proudest moment to date was when I was chosen as one of the Small Business 100 in 2020 as part of the Small Business Britain campaign.
The Small Business Britain campaign chooses 100 inspiring small businesses each year to champion and promote for the 100 days in the run up to Small Business Saturday. I had started my business barely five months before, and decided to apply just so that I could get some practice at the application process. To my utter amazement I was chosen, and this gave me a huge boost in confidence. It told me that someone else who had no idea of who I was had looked at the business and felt it was worth talking about.
What future life goals do you want to achieve and why?
My mother instilled in me the value of learning and independence, and I’m a huge believer in both. So if my dream comes true and Halo Jewellery UK grows as I would like it to, I’m hoping to employ women from disadvantaged backgrounds, and train them to do some of the tasks that need to be done in my business, so that they can earn while they learn and go on to becoming financially independent women.
To finish our inspire questions…”We believe that sharing inspiring words can inspire others.” If there was one positive thing you would say to someone to inspire and empower them what would it be and why?
Be disciplined and take small steps every single day. Business success doesn’t happen overnight; it’s the steps you take today that will shape what happens in the future.
“Thank you it has been great learning more about your founder story and Halo Jewellery UK”
To learn more about Halo Jewellery UK Visit https://www.halojewellery.org.uk
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