About Eva
Founder of Inari Jewellery, that represents all the strong successful females out there by creating beautifully crafted pieces, specially handmade for customers
Ex Management Consultant, who has worked in large transformation programmes across financial and retail sectors
Certified Scrum Master, a Kan Ban Practitioner and a jewellery designer/maker.
Key takeaways that made us go ‘a-ha’
Running a business is a mindset shift - you need to be brave and actively work on putting your work out there. Building something alone is not enough!
“I realised that I need to work on my mindset and go out there to met people. The hardest thing about doing something that is handcrafted and starting your brand is that you tag your self-worth to it. So it’s a lot of working on your self-worth and confidence”
Build a team that caters to your business, and also to your leadership style and preferences
“My first couple of hires actually know all my hires right now. It’s like word of mouth….you kind of know when you can no longer do it yourself. I try and hire part timers rather than full timers, and it is a deliberate decision because I like my flexibility to do what I need to do outside of the business too”
Bootstrapping is a great way of preserving autonomy - be clear on the type of business you want to build, and choose your funding wisely based on that
“I wanted a lot more control in how I build it. And if you were to go out and get funding, I know for a very fact that that would mean that you have investors to be accountable for and you might not be able to build a business that you have envisioned. And I knew for a fact that that's not what I wanted”
Use your past experiences to your benefit - they have lessons that you can use to best prepare yourself for entrepreneurship
“My experience as an entrepreneur before this (really helped), because I was doing it part-time and also I was doing it while I was in consulting. So, I learned along the way what was possible and what's not possible and what I liked about different business models”
There is no perfection in running a business, it is always a work in progress
“There is never a moment where you feel I have the perfect business plan. It's all these small moments and information that you collect along the way.
And then that is used to refine your business plan or figure out where you want to take the business next. When you get to the end point, you look back and realize all the changes you’ve made but it is not very clear in the moment”
Eva’s advice to women who want to start businesses on their own terms
“Do what you think is right rather than what people tell you is right. In the beginning when I started my business, I was asking everyone, from those not in my target audience to random strangers on the street about what you think…the answers they give might not be what you are looking for…. So do what you think is right for yourself because you know what your vision is the best, and you know what you want to achieve the best!”
Eva Woon, spreading the love of sustainable demi-fine jewellery