Jackie Mack Designs founder and creative director Jackie Damelian discusses how she adapted her semi-fine jewellery business to the COVID-19 environment.
While we always aim to see the positivity at Jackie Mack Designs, COVID has been a hard, unprecedented time for everyone.
For small businesses this has been a time to adapt our strategies, plans and goals.
Without such adaptations, we simply would have sunk. This is how we adapted during COVID to beat the crisis.
1. We adapted to low stock levels
Throughout the pandemic one of my main issues has been a lack of stock due to lockdowns across the world creating shipping and production delays.
This created delays with orders and put us severely behind with the launch of new collections.
We never truly realise how much we rely on globalisation until something like this hits.
2. We ensured that our short term planning was effective
We have learnt that short term planning is key due to the market uncertainty during COVID.
It has helped us to set small goals and look at the near future, not getting ahead of ourselves too quickly.
Short term goals allow our business to plan in a more efficient way.
Not only has the short term planning helped during the pandemic, it has helped us realise that it is an important tool to take with us when the world returns to normal.
For Jackie Mack Designs, short term planning allows goals to be more clear and allows us to ensure that they are met in the most efficient manner.
3. We partnered with familiar people to make things easier
One thing we did to adapt was partnering with familiar people who know our vision and are easy to work with.
We tapped into the Sydney creative network to create a campaign and simplify the process.
During this time, it was all about making the process as seamless as possible and working with people who had a vision that aligned with ours.
It made us realise how you can simplify shoots and get the same results!
4. We set new and realistic launch dates for new collections
With a new collection that was set to launch in April 2020, we had to adapt our strategies when we understood the delays there.
In order to help make up for this loss we looked to target new customers and restock our best selling products.
Due to this we had new customer acquisition costs which set us back as well.
There is always a light at the end of every tunnel, and luckily we have finally gotten to launch our new Bolero collection in August after much planning to get it here!
But, we are still reaping the burdens of COVID, with our July collection that has been postponed until the end of the year.
5. We took advantage of the luck we had
Luckily, our pieces are timeless and more or less seasonal, so that won't affect our ability to launch.
However, we understand the pain of designers who have scheduled seasonal production and collections and have simply missed that time frame due to COVID.
Next year's trends may not match what they were planning for this year so they run the risk of having excess stock that won't sell.
I have found that I have been busier than ever this year.
COVID has thrown a lot of new challenges our way which has made the days longer and the hustle harder.
I have found myself searching for new suppliers and establishing new relationships to stay afloat.
This has been very time consuming and exhausting. I know that every small business owner will know the struggle right now!
As we take it day by day we have learnt a lot from the crazy year.
It has taught us at Jackie Mack Designs the importance of adaptation, creativity and tenacity!