Ananda Khalsa launched her career as a jewelry designer while living in Boulder, CO, where Todd Reed was an early mentor. But her dream was to do more than design jewelry for other stores to sell. She wanted to own and design the store itself and everything In it.
Unlike Todd who had a clearly defined aesthetic around raw diamonds and random patterns, Ananda’s designs were a bit more eclectic, often incorporating colored stones but also tiny paintings on paper.
From the time she was a child, she dreamed of owning a shop in Northampton, a college town a couple hours west of Boston near where she grew up.
By the time she was ready to take the leap, she’d been running a jewelry business for 15 years and she and her husband had relocated to her hometown with a young son.
She leased a space just off the main drag, gutted, renovated, and opened in 2018 with a studio in the back and her name over the front door. Her dream was realized.
By the time we connected early this year (for a panel I was moderating on opening a storefront), Ananda had been a shop owner for two years – about half of it during a pandemic.
Not only was she surviving, she was already planning store #2.
Did you have any retail experience when you opened your store?
Not much. I sold mostly wholesale. My website was my only retail. I did a couple retail shows but mine was mainly a wholesale-based business.
Retail is a lot more of my business now that we have a showroom and a strong social media following. It’s incredible the way you can get immediate direct-to-consumer contact, especially with Instagram. But I still sell wholesale as well.
Is it only your designs in the shop?
The jewelry is all mine. I have some paintings and handbags by other artists, but I design most of the small non-jewelry items too. I had a private-label candle made with essential oils, some ornaments. I’m testing other products which has been fun.
But jewelry makes up 90 percent of the inventory and it’s all mine. That works because I have a very expansive collection.
I’ve always made a ridiculous amount of designs. In the past, I’ve tried to rein that in. I have bridal, charms, beaded jewelry, painted pieces. When people come into the store, they think they’re looking at a lot of different people’s collections.
So you do whatever you want. It’s your store, why not?
That’s one of my favorite parts of owning this shop. I get to make whatever I want. If I took this work to a tradeshow, I don’t think this would work. The beaded collection, for example, doesn’t fit the rest of collections. But in a store, you can make whatever you want. It comes natural for me to do lots of different jewelry. The store allowed me to expand that more creatively.
But I’ve been focusing more on bridal and 18k gold with colored stones since the shop opened. As my business grows, It gets harder to do one-of-a-kind things like painted paper jewelry because you can’t train anyone to help you produce it.
How much of the store did you design?
That was all me. I’ve been thinking about it for 10 years. For a creative person like me, that was the ultimate end goal: to design not just the jewelry but where it’s displayed, so it all fits. I’ve been making jewelry and seeing it in others stores for 15 years. Sometimes you see your jewelry in stores and think, oh no, what have they done to it? It’s just not your taste. So, to be able to design the store from top to bottom was a joy.
How much work did that require?
A complete overhaul. This place was a birdfeeder store that had been here for 25 years with brown carpet and a drop ceiling. It needed total renovation. I took out a $100,000 loan and we spent every penny. We could have done it cheaper but we also could have spent a lot more. We pretty much gutted it. We moved a bathroom, built an office, added windows, put in walls with sliding doors. Most people don’t need to spend that much.
Describe the décor and how it reflects your brand.
I’d been designing displays for shows for many years, so I already had an aesthetic developed over time with jewelry cases and booths. I wanted the store to be minimalist, the walls very dark, the cases well lit. Natural materials, clean and simple so the jewelry pops. I wanted the spotlight on the jewelry.
Another important thing: I’ve been moving more high-end in recent years, so I wanted the store to feel like a fine jewelry space. That is a huge thing. If you want to sell expensive things, people need to know it’s expensive just by walking in the door. You can’t sell diamond rings in a funky art space because people will expect the jewelry to top out at $200.
You have a big following on Instagram. I bet it helped during the shutdown having online sales and wholesale too.
Oh yes. This year made me thankful not to have all my eggs in one basket. That is my #1 business advice: Don’t rely on one revenue stream. People who only sell at shows were hit hard when those shows didn’t happen last year. You have to try to diversify so when unforeseen things happen, you can rely on something else for a while.
It seems like owning a shop leads to custom work. Do you do custom design?
More and more since the store opened. A custom piece has to be within my design vocabulary. We often repurpose stones from heirloom jewelry into my jewelry. That sentimentality is such a big part of jewelry.
If a designer came to you and said they want to open a store, what advice would you give?
It depends so much on where you open, how many customers you have, and what you love doing. Do you love showing your jewelry and helping people or do you want to focus on designing and making and managing in the back? I love being able to hear what’s happening with customers, maybe come out and meet them from time to time.
For me, it works well to have the studio and store in the same space, but I like having somebody working in front so I can focus on what I’m doing in the studio.
Find more on Ananda visit her website or follow her on Instagram. If you’re in Northampton, stop by her shop at 15 Strong Avenue and tell us what you think!