Q&A

Where did the idea for the business originate?

We both love fashion and jewelry and weren’t finding exactly what we wanted at other stores. So we thought, why not just open our own business. We get to search different jewelry shows, mostly around Boston, and form a collection based on the season and what we find. The fall and winter collections are made up of darker colors while in the spring collection we introduced scarves and more nautical themed pieces.

Is it what you expected it to be like?

It’s a lot of work. That goes without saying. Especially cause we’re students too. Aside from going to people’s houses to put on jewelry shows, we have people ordering product from our website too. Keeping track of inventory, shipping things out and organizing orders is a lot to handle. But in the end, we love it. We really do. We had an idea of what we were in for, but actually executing a business comes with these unforeseen circumstances. At our first show at a sorority house, we brought enough bracelets for each girl to get one, assuming that maybe some wouldn’t be interested. Within a few minutes, the bowl of them was cleared out. That was our first lesson in product supply and demand. We had to feel a lot of things out and we’re still learning how to do things in the most effective way.

How has the balance between entrepreneur and student been?

We know that schoolwork has to come first, but our business means a lot to us. We don’t want to stop here. We have dreams of an eventual storefront and selling different things, like clothes.  Cal is a business major so there is a lot of overlap there and it’s actually cool that she gets to practice what she’s learning in her classes. While the balance is difficult, the business is time consuming to say the least and we have other jobs too, our schoolwork somehow always gets done.

What are some future goals?

We want to open our own storefront. That has been a goal since the beginning. With the winter or spring collection, we want to slowly introduce boutique style, upper end clothes. That’s a whole new learning curve. We were just getting use to the jewelry and now we’re upping the stakes even more. This will be much more of a cost investment. We’re currently looking into product and figuring out if this next step is realistic.

How has the business developed already from when you first started?

In the very beginning, we just sold bold, statement piece necklaces. This is what we liked to wear and owned in our personal jewelry collections. Then we added earrings that matched necklaces or were sold by themselves. Bracelets were next. They’re called Allie bracelets and they were an idea made to support UNH student Allie Pearl who was running the Boston Marathon on the Dana-Farber team. 20% of all proceeds went to her cause. Scarves came in the spring collection and next, hopefully clothes. We are really happy with how quickly we’ve found our place, established ourselves and built our collections. The support has been truly helpful and surely appreciated.

-Ashley Rozumek and Caleigh Adler, A La Plague owners