Chains By DM
Interview #47 - Chains By DM
Good evening everyone and welcome back to this week’s blog post with another great business. I can’t believe it has already been one year since I created Business Anthropi, the journey has been outstanding, and the opportunity to meet and speak with so many new people. I am grateful for everything that has come my way so far and am excited about what the future of this blog holds.
For this week’s business, I had the pleasure of learning more about small business from the Mornington Peninsula, Chains by DM. The business, even though relatively new, specialises in creating handmade glasses chains for both sunglasses and regular glasses, aimed to spice up your outfit and boost your confidence. The owner and creator behind the business, Deanna, started the business only this year in January wanting to create a product that both herself and other glasses wearers will enjoy.
MEET DEANNA!
While speaking with Deanna, she was telling me all about her sunglasses collection and how she has a small addiction to buying different pairs for different outfits, much like me with my glasses, I love having options. Like most people our age, festivals of the sorts are a considerable part of social culture, and the decision to start the business for Deanna was two reasons. The first being that she didn't ever want to lose a pair of sunnies at a festival and secondly, she also wanted to create an accessory that no one else would have or that you can't find anywhere else. Since all her pieces are handmade and crafted, she wanted accessories to show personality and character so that her outfit, even when going to a festival, is that little bit unique from everyone else.
All her life, Deanna has been surrounded by those invested in their own business, and with her parents owning their own business, so the concept isn't unfamiliar when she started Chains By DM. So when she pitched the idea to her parents initially, they were all for it, because just like myself, they nor I have seen a business like this. Everything has been a learning process along the way, even with her parent's help, the business models are varying, but it is something that Deanna is passionate about making everything worthwhile.
One of the great things about her business is that no one person will use her products more than another. Everyone and anyone can benefit from using a chain, whether it be for functionality or only style, from young kids to those in their sixties love them. The glasses chains in generally were in fashion for a while, as seen through many Vogue magazines, and Deanna is continually bringing them to life.
Has this been something you always wanted to do?
“I have always planned on having a business or having something for myself, to be self-driven and self-motivated in order to succeed and obviously I do see that through my parents and that’s something that is important in my life. I didn’t know what I could make or do in order to have a business but of course, when that stuff came along and I knew what I wanted to do, I was like yes this is me, I’m going to do it and a lot of people that I know go this is so you it’s ridiculous!”
With every business, you want it to grow and strive to make it something you can live on for the rest of your life and Deanna believes that her business has this potential, but of course, it’s not going to happen overnight. At the current moment, her goal for Chains By DM is to get the name out there in the small business community and beyond. As a kid, Deanna has always loved playing with beads and making all sorts of jewellery pieces, and to this day, she could never picture herself doing business out of it. But even in saying that, there is no creative limit or rule about what you have to do to start your own business, look at what Deanna has been able to accomplish so far.
While speaking with her for the interview, I could tell how much she loves what she does, and even though she does this along with her studies, there is always time to make something unique for someone special. As a new business owner, there are so many milestones to accomplish, and just as so, every customer that purchases through her is just as exciting as the next. A few months ago, Deanna had gotten her first interstate order to Townsville, and it was so amazing she told me she screamed!
What tips would you give to someone starting their own business?
“Go for it, you have absolutely nothing to lose. Personally, for me, I am not a popular person and don’t have heaps of people that like me, so I think for me, I feel more confident is when I have people that I don’t even know supporting me and liking what I do. You do see some people who are just popular and they launch their own clothing brand and everyone follows them and everyone posts about them and stuff but I think truly, a good person who runs a business starts from absolutely nothing at all. That’s my main idea and my main source to keep going.”
As someone who has been wearing glasses since I was about nine years old, I haven’t seen a business like Deanna’s, let alone a product like chains for glasses. Her business is independent and so individualistic, it allows her to think outside the box for what she can create, especially with custom orders she receives. What makes Deanna so relatable to her customers and unique is that she knows what they want from her and can read the customer to understand their preferences in a product and what they intend for it to be.
However, especially being a new business, it is not always a straight road and can often have bumps and downfalls along the way. There is the constant challenge of being able to get the name, Chains By DM out there and also to be able to think of new styles and ideas for chains. There are many resources that Deanna has available to her, searching through Pinterest for hours is my personal favourite, because who doesn’t love Pinterest, but also her mum has been an enormous help in the ideas bank. Especially when she started the business initially, there was that feeling, like with most people, about whether or not she would grow in time or that people would be interested in buying her products at all. More so, her doubt was about whether or not she would succeed or not.
And I think I can say first hand that she has been able to succeed, even though there is still significant growth to be done, always being in her first year of trading, Deanna has been able to establish a great support system around her. The feeling of fulfilment and excitement radiating as she made her first chain and every step of the journey since has been with the same feelings.
I can’t wait to see what the future has in store.
How would you describe your business in one sentence?
Unique, out of the box thinking
Thank you for tuning in for another business this week. I know my updates have been a bit irregular lately but hopefully, once the majority of my university assignments are over with and out of the way, I will be uploading more frequently, giving you all more amazing stories.
In the meantime, make sure you go follow Deanna on her Instagram page HERE to see all the new products she will be creating or click the link below for her Etsy store to get a pair for yourself!
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