Cat Stacey Jewellery
Cat is an artisan jeweller, based in Penryn in Cornwall. She set up her business ‘Cat Stacey Jewellery’ in 2019, after making jewellery as a hobby for many years.
Cat makes jewellery out of silver, gold, brass and a variety of gemstones, crafting exquisite original designs. Sales are through her own website, Etsy and local art galleries. Cat built her original website herself.
In 2022, she turned to Superfast Cornwall for support to take her business to the next level and increase the value of sales.
Cat says: “Superfast Cornwall have been superb and made a huge difference to my business. Their support has established the springboard I needed to take my business further. As well as providing useful grant support for hardware and software, the mentoring support has made a profound difference. It has completely transformed the way I view my business and provided me with the tools and skills I need to ensure the business continues to grow.”
Superfast Cornwall provided grant support to enable Cat to buy a new laptop and new editing software. Cat says: “Creating visual impact online is vital to the success of the business and the new editing software is making it so much easier for me to achieve this, both on the website and across social media channels. The new laptop is also making it easier for me to manage the online sales and keep my website up to date, as well as manage the business administration.”
In addition to the grant support, Superfast Cornwall provided Cat with free business mentoring and advice.
Cat comments: “The mentoring support was outstanding. It helped me discover how important it is to find time to work on the business rather than just work in the business. I have now increased my strategic focus and improved my prioritisation skills. The advice has helped me improve the current website and also refine my plans for future development. As a sole trader running a small business, you can feel very isolated and it can be hard to know where best to focus your attention, in order to grow the business. It has been fantastic to benefit from insights from an expert, who has taken the trouble to know my business from the inside and has been able to show me how to make the most of superfast technology to keep the business on track.”
The mentoring support provided by Superfast Cornwall has been wide-ranging, including helping Cat improve the user experience on the website, pricing strategy and search engine optimisation. It also helped Cat improve website design, website navigation, conversion rates and the brand messaging.
Cat explains: “My website now captures the essence of my brand story in a way that it did not before. I believe that purchasing jewellery should mark and celebrate experiences along life’s journey – be that as an act of love for others, an act of self-love, celebrating special occasions or marking the challenging events that are also part of life’s rich tapestry. For example, my new Birch Leaf collection celebrates the discovery of latent strength, growth and renewal to enable us to thrive in harsh conditions and nurture new beginnings.
“The mentoring support helped show me how this kind of symbolism and story- telling could be woven into my brand proposition. My website is now telling a story which sparks people’s emotions. Overall, this is adding value to my jewellery range.”
Cat continues: “The blog feature on my website enables me to continue to build my brand story and will be easy for me to keep this updated with the new laptop and editing software. Superfast Cornwall also helped me to streamline my use of social media. Although I was already using Instagram and Facebook, I was not using LinkedIn very effectively. Superfast Cornwall have helped me to add this channel into the mix, which will help me build relationships with gallery owners and other jewellery trade targets. In this way, I am now using digital channels to help build my offline sales as well as my online sales.
“In future, I aim to source more of my business from my own website (rather than third party sites such as Etsy) and to increase the number of gallery outlets which stock my products. I will now be able to make the most of superfast technology to deliver strategies to achieve both these objectives.”
Cat concludes: “Fundamentally, Superfast Cornwall has given me the launchpad and the confidence to take my business forward. I now feel I have a solid grounding from which I can develop further and make my business succeed in a highly competitive marketplace.”
