We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Ramsdell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jennifer, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
I attribute much of my confidence to my mother. As the oldest of three children, I have always been in awe of the strength and resilience she has had raising three children as a single mother after being widowed at a very young age.
In the late 1980’s, I became the first female police officer in a local Connecticut town. Being in law enforcement teaches you confidence, self-respect and respect of others, strength, and builds self-esteem.
I took that confidence and started ShipShapeStyles in 2018 with my mother as my business partner. Together we have grown and thrived over these past six years.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
In 2018, I started ShipShapeStyles, a nautical cultured seaglass jewelry line. My mother and I had taken a cruise and after having such a wonderful vacation spending time together, I realized that it was important to me to spend more time with her.
When we began, we were exhibiting at local craft fairs and had not yet discovered our potential to grow the business. Our local sales were good, but we wanted to grow. We began taking on reps to carry the line. We started with one CT rep, and we have grown to 16 reps across the country from Alaska to Hawaii, California, Florida, and all along the Northeast.
As we continue to grow, we are exhibiting at larger trade shows. This year we will be exhibiting at the Ocean City MD show, the Grand Strand show in Myrtle Beach, and Surf Expo in Florida. Our reps also show our jewelry at the Las Vegas Market, the Alaska Wholesale show, and the New England Apparel show.
The most exciting part of the business is spending time with my mother. We design new styles, assemble most of our pieces, and just enjoy each other’s company. Animal advocacy has always been our passion and we donate a portion of our sales of some specific styles to animal welfare organizations.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
As a business owner, you need resilience, a tough shell, and the motivation to succeed. I was told in the beginning that our jewelry line was not good enough to sell in retail shops and that we needed to ” stick to craft fairs and Etsy”. That was my motivation to push ahead and become the best that we could be. We decided we wanted to produce the best quality jewelry that we could, and we are an all USA made product.
My advice to anyone starting out is to believe in yourself no matter who tries to knock you down. There will be disappointments but stay the course.
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
he number one challenge we face are supply chain issues. We need to be certain that we have enough vendors to draw from in the off chance that one supplier may not have the material that we need. As our season starts to get busy, it is imperative that we are able to fill all customer orders.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.shipshapestyles.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shipshapestyles
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shipshapestyles
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/jennifer-ramsdell-488b32164
