Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Annie Kines. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Annie, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
In business and in life, you certainly have to learn to be resilient. Alongside the journey of growing my business, I’ve had acute autoimmune issues that have tested my patience, taught me ways of coping with not being where I want to be at a certain time, and inadvertently have taught me resilience. Certainly in business there are seasons of growth and times where it feels like things aren’t moving in the direction you want them to, but after several years working for myself, I’ve learned that after the slow moments come the moments of growth and expansion. It’s cliche, but riding the waves of it all is the best way to go about it; knowing that it all ebbs and flows. Sometimes you don’t see the benefits of the work you put in for some time, but it eventually shows up!
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I aim for my jewelry brand to have an aesthetic of ease and lighthearted sophistication. I never want my jewelry to be fussy or overly trendy, rather authentically beautiful and long-lasting. I’ve really enjoyed honing my styles lately to be easily layered together & minimalist but also beautiful each on their own. I have recently begun working in interior design with my husband who is a builder. Together we are building, designing, and styling homes and this expansion into another realm of design is really informing my jewelry and has me feeling more creative and inspired.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Craftsmanship is, to me, the most important skill in having a creative business. You must understand your craft well, have tested the longevity of your products, and have an attention to detail that is consistent among your products. Persistence is certainly another skill that will take some practice, but is necessary to grow a business from the ground up. I’ll add that being persistent in achieving what you want from your business is key, not what you think you “should” want or “should” be doing. Sticking to a vision for your brand is extremely important as well. You need a sort of theme for your work, or you can overextend in different directions and lose the thread of what you wanted to achieve in the first place. For example, I used to work with tons of different stones in lots of different styles and I made pieces in both sterling silver and gold. Eventually I realized I needed to streamline all of the above. I now work only in 14kt gold-fill and have a collection of stones that I use predominately. The more I streamline, the better my pieces sell. It helps customers to see the vision of what you’re creating and makes the brand a little more “aspirational” when there is a clear aesthetic.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
The challenge for me over the past several years has been finding the balance between wholesaling my products to stores versus selling directly from my website. I have some amazing accounts who have sold so much product over the years and brought in so much new business. Of course, selling wholesale means not making the full value of the pieces, but the advantage is that you’re selling a large quantity all at once and getting your pieces in front of more customers. Ideally, I’d like to get to where I can have even more products available for wholesale, and still have plenty of inventory to sell directly to customers on my website. Like everything else, that balance will become easier to achieve over time and I’m so thankful to both my wholesale accounts and customers who have supported me all this time!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.tidaljewelrybyannie.com
- Instagram: @tidal_jewelry
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/tidaljewelrybyannie
- Other: To follow along with my interior design projects, follow me @tidal_interiors on Instagram
Image Credits
Instagram: @stephaniemarksphotography
