One-to-one 9 Month Business Mentoring
for Jewellery Graduates
Case Study | Eleanor Jones Jeweller
After graduating, I felt a sense of isolation and confusion about my next steps in developing my jewellery business.
However, when I enrolled onto the mentoring programme, it gave me a sense of purpose and motivation to continue growing what I loved.
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After the 9 Months of mentoring, I have doubled my Instagram following, set up an online shop, developed my Facebook business, learnt how to invoice and book keep, developed my own collection pieces, developed my packaging, and become more confident in my field. This, in turn, has allowed me to carry out more commissions and sell more of my collection pieces than I ever have before.
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Overall, the mentoring programme was so beneficial to my confidence and my jewellery business’s growth.
I would highly recommend it to any postgraduates or people starting to grow an independent jewellery business.
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The programme really has been a brilliant kick start to my career!
See below for Eleanor's full Testimonial
The Jeweller | Eleanor Jones
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Eleanor Jones is a recent Graduate of Birmingham City University School of Jewellery. Her studio is based in Bournemouth where she combines the use of hand-made traditional bench skills with the use of CAD technologies to create fine Jewellery using precious metals, diamonds and Gemstones.
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Eleanor's Jewellery brand "Jones Jewellery" promotes her unique design aesthetic, informed and inspired by the geological landscapes and formations near to her studio.
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Instagram @jonesjewellery
Facebook eleanorjonesjewellery
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Eleanor Jones | Testimonial
What I needed help with
The one-to-one mentoring sessions Dawn and I had together, covered a wide range of topics regarding starting a new jewellery business. The main area I needed help with was
Expanding my online presence/following to boost sales and growing my brand.
Dawn helped me set up manageable checklists in each mentoring session which I needed to carry out to achieve this goal. This really helped with my time management skills, something which I have always struggled with.
The checklists Dawn created for me included the following steps;Planning good Instagram content; Understanding my target market and interacting with them; developing my collection pieces; pricing my collection pieces; getting onto other social media platforms (Facebook and Tiktok) and setting up an online shop (Etsy).
Dawn gave me advice when I was unsure of how to tackle these tasks and we would discuss why these would benefit my jewellery business.
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My real-life negative customer experience
I had a real-life negative experience with a customer during the mentoring programme and Dawn helped me through it. Additionally, Dawn gave me lots of information about the potential customers I may encounter during my career, and how I should approach them and deal with their expectations.
I also received lots of advice and help sheets regarding bookkeeping, invoicing and estimates. I was completely overwhelmed by this side of running a jewellery business, however Dawn was a calming and knowledgeable mentor who helped ease me into this area.
Dawn’s expertise throughout the mentoring programme was relevant and helpful to myself because she became an independent designer/jeweller after graduating from Birmingham School of Jewellery where I also studied. She then worked at the school for many years and now runs her own bespoke jewellery classes utilizing industry experts. I think Dawn was the perfect person to mentor me as a post graduate due to her vast knowledge in jewellery design, jewellery making and business management.
How I benefited from Mentoring
After graduating, I felt a sense of isolation and confusion about my next steps in developing my jewellery business. However, when I enrolled onto the mentoring programme, it gave me a sense of purpose and motivation to continue growing what I loved.
Dawn was encouraging, patient, funny and wise during the entire programme, and went above and beyond her role as a mentor.
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After 9 months of mentoring, I have;
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Doubled my Instagram following
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Set up an online shop
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Developed my Facebook business
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Leared how to invoice and book keep
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Developed my own collection pieces
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Developed my packaging
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Gained a better undertanding of customer expectations
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Become more confident in my field
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Carried out more commissions
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Sold more of my collection pieces than I ever have before
During the programme, Dawn sent me lots of documents via email. These ranged from learning documents with lots of information on, to documents with an overview of our most recent mentoring session. Dawn would kindly type up the overview and send it to me after our session had finished. This was incredibly helpful because It allowed me to focus on the mentoring session at hand and then refer back to the notes afterwards.
Overall, the mentoring programme was so beneficial to my confidence and my jewellery business’s growth. I would highly recommend it to any postgraduates or people starting to grow an independent jewellery business.
The programme really has been a brilliant kick start to my career!
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Jewellery Business Mentor
Dawn Meaden-Johnson is the Director and Founder of The Bespoke Jewellery Training Company and is a training consultant with over 25 years industry specific experience.
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Originally a graduate Silversmith of the prestigious School of Jewellery in Birmingham, Dawn has a wide variety of experience over her career in different industry roles. After graduating she began a 10 year stint of experience working at Jewellery Retail sector giants Signet Group, initially working in sales then moving into Branch operations, export, marketing and merchandising via their HQ in Birmingham. From 2004-2014 Dawn was short courses and external training project manager at the School of Jewellery Birmingham City University (BCU) working with UK and International clients.
Dawn founded The Bespoke Jewellery Training Company in 2014 and her priority now is providing clients and Companies with private tuition access to professional standard industry training in the studios of some of the most experienced and finest of Britain's Goldsmiths/Jewellers and Industry Specialists.
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For the past five years Dawn has been supporting Graduates and Designer Makers via Jewellery Business Mentoring. In 2017 The Bespoke Jewellery Training Company became an a graduate award sponsor at The School of Jewellery at Birmingham City University (BCU), where upon graduation two graduates per year are selected to receive a 9 month Graduate Jewellery Business Mentoring programme each, delivered by Dawn.
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In 2022 Dawn became a member of The Guild of Jewellery Designers, Ethical Good Practises Forum.
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On occasion Dawn does still make contemporary Jewellery and in recent times her work was selected for the "Beyond the Blue" exhibition at Gill Wing Gallery in London.
Mentor | Industry Testimony
