Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Ford
Hi Lauren, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Lojewels initially began on Father’s Day of 2015. It was a relaxed summer afternoon at home when I had the random urge to create something. After searching fashionable jewelry on Pinterest, I decided I wanted to make my own wrap statement bracelet. I began searching online and proceeded to buy light gray leather and a lavender druzy stone. I had just graduated from high school and was about to attend Texas Christian University, so I wanted to make the bracelet purple to wear for game days. Once my materials arrived, I put it all together and was obsessed with the bracelet! I loved it so much that I decided to post a picture of it on my VSCO account. Some of my followers saw my post and immediately asked if I could make them one of their own. After I realized how many friends were interested in my product, I decided to create a jewelry account on Instagram. This is when we created the brand name, “Lojewels.” My younger sister actually came up with the brand name, and it seemed fitting because most of my closest friends and family call me “Lo.” After creating the Lojewels Instagram, a blogger/influencer friend of mine saw the wrap bracelets I had made. She immediately wanted one for herself, and proceeded to post her new bracelet on her Instagram platform. This brought in a tremendous amount of orders and sales which led to my business taking off so quickly! I knew that this was the start of something special, so I took advantage of the opportunity to grow my successful business over the course of the past nine years.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
In college, the biggest obstacle I had to overcome as an entrepreneur was juggling all of my other responsibilities: a full-time college student, member of the TCU Showgirls dance team, Tri Delta sorority member, and photographer. I have always enjoyed having a structured schedule and keeping myself busy, but sometimes it was overwhelming to keep up with all of my priorities at the same time. While in college, I learned how to overcome any obstacles that came my way one day at a time as well as how to focus more on creating schedules for myself and for my business in order to be more organized and prioritized. It’s also been a challenge keeping up with the constant evolving trends throughout each year and season. Now, 9.5 years later, I am married and have moved away from my hometown. I am still a full-time photographer (Lauren Godby Photography), which has come with its challenges balancing both businesses.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Over the past 9.5 years, I haven’t heard of any other company or brand where one individual in their twenties completely manages every aspect of the business on their own. Given my knowledge of photography, marketing, and my creative skills, I turn my products into something extraordinary throughout social media in creative ways. I market every aspect of Lojewels on my own, completely built my own website, manage social media daily, keep track of accounting, photograph products and model the products ourselves, create all the content, as well as many other tasks. Therefore, I have never had to hire any outside help besides the selfless help of my mother and sister!
A fun fact that I am proud of is that Lojewels supplemented 100% all of my spending money as a college student at TCU. After the first year after Lojewels started, I could have completely paid for my college tuition entirely on my own. This continued throughout the next four years in college. Becoming a business owner at just 18 years old, I was able to truly learn how to appreciate having a business and the extra money to help out my parents, which was a true blessing.
Evolvement has been a huge key to our success as well. Fashion trends are always changing throughout the seasons, so I always have to keep in mind how to evolve the different pieces to keep up with these constant evolving trends. We have continued to evolve from selling jewelry, to selling our popular scarf tops, my sister’s butterfly art, my instagram presets, and now clothing. It’s crazy to believe that something as simple as a wrap bracelet evolved into what my boutique is today.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
In all honesty, I am not 100% sure where Lojewels will be in the next 5-10 years. Since getting married, moving away from Fort Worth, and focusing a lot of time into building my photography business, I have experienced a lack of time to pour in all of my energy into Lojewels. What I do know is though, I will continue to grow with the business as I get older — and I do have some plans in store for how to evolve and transition the business. I will continue to utilize the skills I have learned and will apply them toward Lojewels’ future growth, whatever that may be. With proper planning and utilization of all of my advertising, creative, design, photography, and management skills, there is not a limit to where Lojewels can go! I believe Lojewels can only go up from here and has the potential to rise to something even bigger.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/lojewels
- Instagram: lojewels
Image Credits
Lauren Godby Photography
