Jewellery maker rakes in fortune from bedroom workshop
A WOMAN who launched a handmade jewellery business in lockdown now makes in £13,500 a month.
Tisha Pruthi, 21, set up the business making personalised bracelets, necklaces and rings. She waited five months before receiving a single order, but soon her products, which she hand-makes in her bedroom, were in high demand.
Miss Pruthi, from Wolverhampton, took two gap years after the company, called Chikaag, finally took off.
She has never paid a penny in marketing but gets up to 600 orders a month after her business went viral on TikTok.
The young entrepreneur plans to grow the business but wants to juggle the fulltime job alongside a degree at university in September.
She said: “I always imagined myself running a business, so I decided to just do it.
“For the first five months, I paid £200 for my initial stock and then got no orders.
“I was so stressed, thinking I’d made a mistake and wasted my time and money.
“When my videos started to go viral, I gained lots of followers who converted into customers.
“Suddenly I was getting so many orders, it was amazing. For anyone wanting to take the risk in starting a business, I’d say do it. If you want to do it, work hard and you’ll get what you want.”
Miss Pruthi decided to launch her business in 2020 and ordered £200 of stock from Amazon to allow her to make personalised bracelets and necklaces.
She deferred her place at university and decided to take a gap year to grow the business.
Using YouTube videos, she learnt how to engrave pictures and lettering, starting by using stamps and a hammer to imprint the shapes onto the jewellery.
She opted against paying for marketing in favour of promoting the brand on TikTok and Instagram – and soon she saw sales flooding in as her videos went viral.
Her shop now offers a variety of handmade jewellery and accessories costing less than £20.
Now, her account – chikaag_bebright1 – boasts a 76,000 followers on TikTok and a combined total of 4 million likes.
She has just completed her best business month yet – raking in over 600 orders in May.