"Setting realistic short and long term goals is paramount" with Colleen Montague
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While Colleen Montague may be considered “new” to the jewellery industry amongst most of her peers, she is actually a veteran lover of jewellery. In keeping with her passion and business acumen acquired as a top performing real estate sales producer, Colleen began running a successful home-based jewellery business. It was stumbling across moissanite gemstones, by chance, that changed everything.
Colleen instantly recognized how other people would also be stunned by the sparkle and outstanding durability of the stone. The added benefit was that it provided a solution to the upward trend in demand for a diamond alternative gemstone, which appealed to the ever-increasing number of clients looking for ethically sourced, sustainable, and affordable pieces of jewellery. Moissy Fine Jewellery was born.
Four years into her venture and three brick and mortar stores in both Canada and the US, Colleen shows no signs of slowing down. She was recently featured on the cover of Canadian Jeweller Magazine, the first Black woman in the publication’s 135-year history. Colleen has also lent her gem expertise to Canada’s national morning show Your Morning as well as Brides, Ottawa Wedding Magazine, and The Wedding Ring.
Can you tell our readers about your background?
Sure thing. I’m a 40-year-old mother of 4 who’s been running my own business for many years. I’ve always been fond of jewellery and took the plunge in starting my own at-home jewelry business.
What inspired you to start your business?
I know that there are so many others out there who share my genuine love of jewellery, but are unable to take a step beyond window shopping or browsing online due to astronomical prices! I wanted to create a lane for those who shared my passion by designing and selling affordable, sustainable jewellery. I discovered moissanite online by chance - I bought it to upgrade a natural diamond ring that I had. I loved how the gemstone performed, the sparkle and the durability were outstanding. I loved the compliments that I got on it daily! However, it was a challenge to find a jeweller who would work with these stones and even harder to find any finished pieces. That’s when I realized there was a void in the industry that I could fill. There were people who loved moissanite just as much as I did, but I was going to have to educate and showcase moissanite to them.
Where is your business based?
Moissy Fine Jewellery has three locations. One in Arizona - the birthplace of moissanite - and two of the only stores of its kind in Canada in Toronto and Ottawa. In the current climate, however, we’ve been taking virtual bookings with our clients.
How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?
Beyond researching the market, looking into what similar businesses were offering, and figuring out how to buy moissanite jewellery, I launched a small market test via Kijiji and Craigslist to gauge interest in the product. Shortly after, I decided to test the waters with social media and created an Instagram page.
What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?
It has to be social media! Posting consistent content on my social media pages and really showcasing the brand has been invaluable in raising the awareness of my business. Running Google Ads has also helped a lot.
My favourite way in which awareness of the brand has risen though is through referrals. Happy customers really are the best referrals for your business!
What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
Being a woman of colour in an undiverse, male-dominated industry is definitely up there when I consider the ongoing challenges that I face. However, gaining the trust of suppliers and converting any doubt about the seriousness of my business to support, has really helped me navigate the industry.
How do you stay focused?
For me, setting realistic short and long term goals is paramount and being able to reference those goals keeps my mind in sharp focus. Another small but significant thing I like to do is to write my thoughts and ideas down. This not only helps me to keep track of all my ideas, it helps me to prioritize them.
How do you differentiate your business from the competition?
We really went out on a limb by creating a brick and mortar showroom for moissanite and it’s the only one of its kind in Canada!
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
Again, social media has really been one of the best tools we’ve had at our disposal and Instagram Ads have been particularly effective for us. The use of Google Ads has also helped us to grab the low hanging fruit.
What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
Unless you enjoy the nagging “what if?” question in the back of your mind (which I’m assuming most of us don’t!) actually trying out your business, even on a small scale, is the initial step in testing whether your business is viable. You have to try in order to know if it will fail or fly.
Having a positive mindset is also required. Pushing forward without assuming or expecting your business idea won’t work is a mindset for success. Bringing your passion for your product and service to the table is an obvious prerequisite, but being intentional about every single aspect of your business, regardless of whether it’s the business cards or products or service itself, is essential.
I would lastly encourage aspiring and new entrepreneurs to not rush the process, making sure to roll their business out when it’s perfect in their eyes and not sub-par.
What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?
Becoming by Michelle Obama is my all-time favorite book! I hope that one day I’m able to inspire other entrepreneurs from the words of my own book!
Michelle was able to connect people ALL over the world to her journey, all the while being fearlessly transparent with what others may perceive as failures and reasons to quit. In her book, Michelle teaches us important lessons about having resilience, strength, and ambition, among so many other things.
What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?
Have I already mentioned Instagram in this interview? Lol! Right now, Instagram is not only my favourite social media tool, but it’s also my favourite business tool!
It’s fun and easy to use, it engages my customers and can be used in a number of effective ways. I’m really looking forward to using it more to connect my audience to my business.
Who is your business role model? Why?
It has to be my husband. He has over 15 years of experience as a self-employed realtor. He literally walked out of his secure job one day and said, "I'm going to do real estate and make it work" - and with that, he did! It is a big risk to leave what you know for the unknown, but I also think it forced him to be intentional about every step he took with regard to his business - because he needed to put food on the table.
How do you balance work and life?
Probably not so well lol! I would definitely say that establishing this balance is an area of development for me. Having said this, however, I always remind myself that there is a season for everything.
When I first started this, I recognized it was a season for me to put in an enormous amount of work to get the business going, the sacrifice was the time I was able to spend with my children. The silver lining is that as time progressed and the business became more successful, I was able to give my children more time, and we can also afford to do more things as a family.
What’s your favorite way to decompress?
I would have to say the gym. I love being alone in the gym for an hour or two - it’s how I like to unwind.
What do you have planned for the next six months?
The plan is to expand more showroom locations across Canada and partner with more eCommerce platforms. One of our goals is to become the household name when it comes to moissanite jewellery.
How can our readers connect with you?
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook, @moissyfinejewellery or
reach by email at Colleen@moissyfj.com
