The Business of Modern Jewelry: Gold, Copycats and Margins w/ Marisa Hordern

From Hot Girl Finance · 01:05:31

Show by Hot Girl Finance with Poppy Jamie and Aave

How do you build a jewelry brand with no plan and no training? What do you do when gold passes $5,000 and your customer has a price ceiling? And why does the founder of Missoma say sales are vanity and margin is everything?Marisa Hordern left a corporate job she was miserable in, started Missoma at her mother’s kitchen table and has spent nearly 20 years building it into a demi-fine jewelry brand with its own stores, its own warehouse and more than 100 staff.She walks Poppy through how the business was built and the mistakes and setbacks along the way, from the early investors she bought out and the supplier she had to cut off, to the hires she got wrong and the copies she is still fighting. In this episode:◼️ The seven years she calls the wilderness, and what it takes to find your customer and the price they will pay◼️ Why she builds a personal relationship with every supplier, and the factory of 15 years she caught selling her designs on Etsy◼️ How to keep staff costs low early on with agencies, freelancers and part-time experts, and when to hire in-house◼️ Why she tells founders to hire people with the opposite skills to their own, after hiring too many loud creatives and too few process builders◼️ Why she hired a CEO to replace herself, and the first rule that CEO gave her, sleep on it before you react◼️ Why chasing too many markets, categories and messages at once has been one of her biggest downfalls, and why she now does less, better◼️ How she spreads risk across factories, sales channels and countries, and why she thinks a store can now cost less than digital ads◼️ How a record gold price raised the cost of a year’s stock, and why she turned to new materials and new factories instead of raising prices again◼️ The bad deal she signed with investors in 2011, and why she thinks chasing sales at the expense of profit is over◼️ How an 11-year partnership with influencer Lucy Williams began with a one-page letter, and why she thinks commission beats paying influencers upfront_________Chapters: 00:00 Starting Missoma with no plan01:24 Seven years to find the customer11:00 The factory selling her designs on Etsy17:28 Copycats and counterfeits24:37 Hiring, and replacing herself as CEO30:59 Marketing without a big budget37:01 What $5,000 gold did to the business49:18 Never rely on one factory or channel54:28 The bad investment deal of 201159:22 Lucy Williams and influencer deals1:03:02 Save or Splurge_________💜 Stream on Spotify: https://tr.ee/hgfspotify💜 Stream on Apple Podcasts: https://tr.ee/hgfapple💜 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hgf/💸 Powered by Aave App. Start saving smarter: https://aave.com/app

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