From Hobby to Thriving Small Jewellery Business: Bottlebee’s Journey

Today we’re sharing the story of small jewellery business, Bottlebee! 🐝 Bottlebee started off as a creative outlet for its founder Seena. She never dreamed her hobby would turn into a thriving small business. But several years later, and with a little help from Mila Kunis(!), Bottlebee is a fully fledged small business. Here’s how Seena turned her passion into a successful business👇

A creative side project

As a child, Seena was always surrounded by creativity. She fondly remembers making candles with her mother in the kitchen and being fascinated by the process!

As she transitioned through life, she never lost that spark of creativity and love of creating.

She built an incredible career in TV production, but she missed some of that early creativity. So she started making beaded bracelets and necklaces as a hobby.

Seena enjoyed it so much that she was inspired to take a silversmithing course to hone her skills even more. She slowly started to collect tools and materials to explore her new hobby. But she remembers thinking at the time that it was ‘just a little hobby […] that’s all it was’.

From Side Hustle to Success

What started as a hobby slowly evolved into something more. Seena registered Bottlebee as a trademark and registered for hallmarking too! When not at her day job, she was creating jewellery and uploading small amounts to her Etsy store.

She recalls how excited she would get when a ‘cha-ching’ notification came through from an Etsy order!

In 2016, an unexpected breakthrough happened. “I was at work, and it was just a normal day, and my phone kept on going off with this Etsy ‘ching’,” Seena recalls. She later realised that Mila Kunis had gone viral with an interview where she shared that she’d bought her engagement ring from Etsy 💍

With a spike in searches for rings on Etsy, Seena received more orders and gained confidence in her small business!

“Etsy got me started, and then I just slowly built it up and started making more. And the more orders you get, the more confident you become”

With the arrival of Covid, Seena took the leap to quit her TV career and focus on her business full-time. And the rest is history!

Finding support to grow a small jewellery business

Now working full-time in her business, Seena realised she had more time on her hands to learn key business skills!

She stumbled across Digital Boost on Instagram. Seena tried out a few Masterclasses and saw that applications were open for a 6-week Small Business Jumpstart course!

Seena wasn’t sure what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised to find that the course ‘led [her] down a whole different route of spending more time on [her] business’.

From reviewing her website to learning about SEO and keyphrases, Jumpstart helped Seena understand and spend more time on areas of her business that needed some love.

“I didn’t really know a lot about Digital Boost at the time and how powerful it was and how much help and how supportive everyone is”

How mentoring helped Bottlebee get seen

Armed with newfound knowledge and confidence from Jumpstart, Seena threw herself into revamping her website and focusing on getting sales through organic search.

Although happy with the website she’d carefully designed and created years before, Seena had a breakthrough in a mentoring session that changed everything.

Her mentor reminded her that a website is just a digital storefront. So she needed to be clearer in directing customers where to go and ensure they had a great shopping experience. With a few small tweaks, Seena was able to improve her website experience thanks to her mentor’s advice.

“Before Digital Boost, I didn’t have a clue. […] Digital Boost and the mentors are helping me implement and make sure that I get higher visibility.”

Finding community

Having come from the world of TV production, Seena was used to having a team around her to bounce energy off. She admits ‘that working by yourself is very solitary’ and that she missed the ‘companionship’ of being in a big team.

Although Seena wasn’t expecting it, in Digital Boost she found not only support but community! 🩵

“Digital Boost has been a bit like a community,” Seena explains. “When you’re doing the masterclasses, there’s 50 people on the call. When you’re doing one-to-ones, you’re talking to someone about your business […] It was just nice to meet people who are all in the same position.”

Advice for aspiring small jewellery businesses

“I would say, if anyone’s just starting out, use Digital Boost. Use all the mentors. You can have as many mentors as you want. Try them all out. Just find one which you gel with, which gives good advice and persevere. And it is a support network. So if you’re not sure of anything, there will be someone to help you, whether it’s another small business owner or a mentor, you’ll find help.”

Conclusion

We’re so inspired by Seena’s story! We’re all guilty of wanting overnight success, but Seena’s story is a great example of what steady and sustainable growth looks like. From pure passion project to honing her craft and steadily building a loyal following, Bottlebee is a triumph and we look forward to supporting Seena for many years to come 🥰

If you’ve been inspired by Seena’s story to turn your passion into a business, why not tap into our free support?

From 1:1 mentoring sessions, live Masterclasses, and accelerator programmes, we have so much support here for you 🚀