Voice on the High Street: Alyssa Smith Jewellery

Name: Alyssa Smith Jewellery Location: Sparkle Towers HQ, Hertfordshire Year established: 2010 Number of staff: 4 When was Alyssa Smith founded? Alyssa Smith Jewellery was born in 2010. I started with nothing but a tiny, cramped bedroom floor for a workshop and a degree in marketing and applied arts. What kind of jewellery do you sell? The company is divided into three distinguishable categories - the Alyssa Smith category, Motorsports Jewellery and Bespoke Jewellery. You started the brand when you were quite young, how did that happen? I was 23. I had no prior business training, but I did have a lot of determination. I knew I could make jewellery and sell it. I never wanted to do anything else. I did car boot sales to raise money for basic tools and raw materials. I got books on how to start a business. How has your brand evolved over the years? When I first launched the company, I remember making things that I liked, so I assumed other people would too. However, if I didn’t do something really different, I would never make a name for myself. I realised that social media was starting to become quite big so I took inspiration from the Twitter bird to create my first best-selling collection. It contained the ‘tweetie bird’ necklace; a hashtag symbol necklace and various other social speak designs. It was at this stage that I started making things that people asked me for - including a ‘follow me’ design and people’s twitter handles. When Suzi Perry landed the job as Formula 1 presenter in 2013, she asked me to create some jewellery for her to wear on TV. Soon, I was making jewellery for every race track Suzi was presenting F1 [then], the ‘Smith & Perry’ motorsports jewellery collection was born. What is the secret for your continued success? The ‘face behind the brand’ - our business revolves around social media. We have built a strong online community and are hugely interactive online. [Also] keeping on top of designs and new releases, staying one step ahead of the game and never letting things get stagnant. We give back to the community and we donate select proceeds from our Smith & Perry motorsports jewellery to children’s charity Promise Dreams. What's next for Alyssa Smith Jewellery? Nurturing it and helping it grow in the right way is the most important thing. We are growing very steadily and aim to take on four new members of staff over the next two years including two new apprentices - a huge part of our growth strategy is to take on young people. We have a few collaborations and we will be upsizing our workshop. This feature first appeared in the June 2017 issue of Jewellery Focus