Personal Branding 
One of the lessons that I’ve learnt through my first business is Personal branding. I knew what branding is about and I was very meticulous about my jewelry brand. However, I neglected to establish myself as a brand, if you know what I mean? 

When family, friends and colleagues first came to know about my handmade jewelry business, some of them were eager to help me. They will tell me what kind of designs or styles are trending. Or they would tell me to look at and be inspired by this so-and-so jewelry maker. Being a self-taught handmade jewelry maker, I could easily be inspired by other designs and come up with my own. And because I could, I started to make jewelry pieces that are in trend or using specific kinds of materials, such as semi-precious stones. 

When I took a step back and looked at my designs, I realized that I had deviated from my original idea – I wanted to combine leather, silver and beads and create a style of bracelets call leather wrap bracelets. It can be a single wrap or multiple wraps. It can also be in the size of a cuff bracelet. 

That’s the reason why I was not feeling it. When I look at my products, I couldn’t see Julia Chong in it. Sure, it’s nice. It’s pretty. But it didn’t have the attitude and flair of who Julia Chong is. 

No wonder my business was suffering. Because I was not clear of who I am as a designer / creator, my ideal clients are confused about me and my brand. And with this experience, I started to work on my Personal Brand. I realized how important personal branding is and have been passionate about this topic ever since. 

Didn’t focus on selling 
The other lesson I’ve learnt is that I didn’t focus on marketing and selling my jewelry. I was spending my time and energy, designing and creating new pieces every 2 weeks. After that, I spent another week to take pictures, upload to my website, create content and post it on my social media. 

I was not focus on promoting my products or create a brand story around the products. 

I didn’t know about using funnels or creating more awareness of my brand and jewelry. 

In my current business, I have successfully learnt how to create funnels that draw in the right kind of fishes that would pay me for my services. I begin to learn more about content writing and story telling to help me be better in my sales & marketing. Of course, these skills are then transferred to my clients as part of my coaching program. 

Resilience 
After going through an unsuccessful first business, I realized that my resilience level has increased. Of course there were many times I wanted to give up and take the easy way out by going back to the workforce. Furthermore, there’s a guarantee of having a stable income at the end of every month. 

But somehow, something in me tells me that I must try until I can make it. I still have enough strength in me to keep fighting and I know that my breakthrough was just round the corner. 

I am thankful that I didn’t give up because I dug deep and use a forgotten talent that I have and became a Content Marketing Coach.

Once in a while, I would ask myself this question, “Should I revive my handmade jewelry business”. The answer is yes but not in the near future. I would need to think it through carefully and plan & strategise it with a good brand story. This handmade jewelry business will have to be a social enterprise and I already know who to look for to help with making the pieces. 

When I look back at my business, it is never a failure, but a good training ground and a lesson that helped me grow as a person.