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September 15, 2008 New Entrepreneur

Wearable art | A chat with Davida Newman of Dalet Designs
 in Windham

By Stephen Doane

Founded: January 2008â€&Copy;
Employees: Newmanâ€&Copy;
Startup Costs: $5,000â€&Copy;
Projected revenue, year one: $30,000â€&Copy;
Projected revenue, year two: $60,000â€&Copy;
Contact: 899-6848
32 High St., Windham 04062

www.daletdesigns.comâ€&Copy;

What is Dalet Designs?â€&Copy;
I make jewelry — silver jewelry that I have capped — and the theme behind my jewelry is incorporating the symbolism of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet and each one has a lot of symbolism. So what I do is I read about that symbolism and I interpret it as how it might affect or be a part of my own life. I create my designs from that.â€&Copy;

Why did you decide to start your own business?â€&Copy;
I’ve always wanted to have my own business. It’s kind of been a path I’ve tried to go down many times. I’ve been looking for the right venue and the right inspiration, and this has just been it — jewelry kind of chose me. I’ve always been an artist, done a lot of different mediums, and about three or four years ago, I decided I wanted to start making my own earrings. I had ideas and sometimes couldn’t find what I wanted in stores, and I took my first class and one thing just led to another.â€&Copy;

Tell me about where you work.â€&Copy;
Well, I work out of my house. We moved here about five years ago. I have a son who I like to be home for after school, so working out of my house felt like the best way to do it.â€&Copy;

Who are your customers?â€&Copy;
I’ve got a pretty broad niche market. My focus is towards, one, people that are Jewish, people that are buying something for someone that they know who might be Jewish, or people who are interested in spirituality. There’s been a lot of emphasis in the media lately about Kabbalah and there’s a strong connection between my work and that area of Judaism. â€&Copy;

How do you market your company?â€&Copy;
Marketing is right on my plate right now. My website went up in the middle of May, which I felt was a crucial factor. When I talk to people, being able say, “Check out my website, see my whole line,” you can get a lot of information there. So that went up and I’m in the middle of creating a marketing plan for how to optimize the holiday season as well as looking at a retail market and approaching shops and galleries and museums. â€&Copy;

It’s kind of a learning process, and what I’ve found is that having direct contact through home shows or trunk shows and small gatherings is, for this local Maine area, what works for me right now. I’m going to be having my jewelry in a shop in Ellsworth and I hope to work the coast a little bit, from Bar Harbor down [to] the major, more upscale tourist areas.â€&Copy;

How did you finance your company?â€&Copy;
I’m financing my company through my own savings so far.â€&Copy;

What has been your biggest challenge this year?â€&Copy;
Well the website. I didn’t design it and put it together myself, but I knew it would be a daunting task. It was more work than I imagined, getting that up and going, and figuring out all the variables and the things that I needed to have on there. My biggest hurdle right now is the steep learning curve of learning how to market, learning how to optimize the Web — not necessarily for Web sales, but for other avenues of interaction and connection and getting word out there. So publicity and marketing, those are what I’m dealing with right now.â€&Copy;

What are your future plans?â€&Copy;
I feel like it’s not a matter of “if” but “when” with my business, with the feedback that I’ve got and the niche that I feel is wide open for me. I don’t want to build my business too quickly; I’m a one person shop and I don’t want to get overwhelmed, so I’m working slowly to the level of being able to approach wholesale and being able to incorporate a few wholesale shows a year, a few retail shows a year and individual gatherings. [Getting] as much diversity as I can in reaching people is important while I slowly build and I feel right now that my imagination and inspiration is unlimited and I feel the same for the business.â€&Copy;

Interview by Stephen Doaneâ€&Copy;

New Entrepreneurs profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to editorial@mainebiz.biz.

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