Meet Chloe and find out about her life as a jewellery designer at ChloBo. Part of our Bitesize world of work series.
Chloe Moss - Jewellery designer
I provide all inspiration and creative ideas and themes to produce all our products. That involves working closely with my designers to produce an appealing range that we know will be on trend and that will sell well.
I left school at 16, I wasn’t very academic really at school, I left with about 5 GCSEs but I did love drama and art. At 17, I went to work for my dad in a travel company, I worked for him until I was 21 and at 21, I thought ‘I don’t want to work for my dad for the rest of my life, I’m going travelling!’
I saw a lady one day making jewellery at the beach; she was literally just beading and making bracelets and I was like a magpie, I ran over to her and I was like ‘wow! What are you doing?’ I was just so inspired, I just, something clicked, a light switched on and I just thought ‘that is what I want to do’, bought loads of stuff back and started making bracelets around my kitchen table and that was like 15 years ago.
So advice I would give somebody wanting to get into the jewellery industry, first of all would be to believe that you can do it, believe in yourself, believe that you can achieve it. You have to have a creative mind and an eye for detail, an eye for fashion, I mean I’m not really the best drawer, I’m not great at drawing but I have a head designer so I’ll give her all my ideas which comes from my creative mind and I’ll give her my ideas and she’ll kind of draw them and bring them to life! You know being creative I wanted to do everything and design everything and have it all right here, right now but like your cash flow and the business side of things doesn’t allow you to do that so I’ve had to learn patience that I can’t do everything straight away and you know just learning about cash flow, learning about wholesale prices and retail prices and margins and you know, coming from not a business background, it’s been tough!
The thing I love most about my job is seeing people wearing my jewellery, seeing them wearing it and enjoying it and getting you know getting joy from it! And also it’s also a big buzz obviously when we get it on different celebrities, I remember when Cheryl Cole wore it on The X Factor and then she was pictured in every magazine wearing the big Moss Rosary so that was a big buzz for me as well so yeah, just seeing people wear it and enjoy it!
The thing I love most about my job is seeing people wearing my jewellery, seeing them wearing it and enjoying it.
- Chloe works closely with designers and sales people. She comes up with the creative ideas, and her head designer will draw them and bring them to life. They want to create an appealing range of jewellery, which will be on trend and sell well
- Chloe says she wasn’t academic at school but she loved Drama and Art. She got five GCSEs and worked for her dad for four years, before going travelling and finding inspiration from a jewellery maker on the beach
- Chloe says it’s been tough not coming from a business background. She’s had to learn about cash flow, wholesale prices, retail prices and profit margins
- Her advice for anyone wanting to make it in the jewellery industry is to believe in yourself, to have a creative mind, an eye for detail and an eye for fashion
- And it’s a real buzz for her when she sees her jewellery on celebrities – like Cheryl Cole on The X Factor!
Check out the National Careers Service website for more information about how to become a jewellery designer.
What to expect if you want to be a business owner
The salary and working hours when you own a business can vary enormously but what's most important is that you work hard and love what you do.
Working for yourself looks different for each person and each business, but in general it means you:
- run your own business and are responsible for its success
- can decide how, when and where you do your work
- charge an agreed, fixed price for your work
- sell goods or services to make a profit
- can hire people at your own expense to help you or to do the work for you.
You can be both employed and self-employed at the same time. You can work for your employer during the day, for example, and run your own business in the evenings and at weekends. It’s important to contact HMRC for advice if you’re not sure if you’re self-employed.
You can get help with setting up or developing your business, through the government’s business support services, for example, for advice about tax or about how to find funding to start your business.
This information is a guide (source: GOV.UK).
For careers advice in all parts of the UK visit: National Careers Service (England), nidirect (Northern Ireland), My World of Work (Scotland) and Careers Wales (Wales).
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