Interview with Kimberli CEO

I started with a “handicraft” production and a debt of $5,000, now I am making diamond jewelry for a hundred stores in Ukraine.

Business means to create. Now my company makes diamond jewelry for more than a hundred stores in Ukraine. We have a showroom in Kyiv and Bar Kimberli with premium jewelry and sophisticated bar art.

Because of the war, we have to overcome difficulties, but I'm not afraid of them. I started with "handicraft" production and went through crises and falls. And still, my team and I continue to work. Here is my story.

Diamonds as a niche

Creating beauty from precious stones is in my blood because my father was a jeweler. I lost him at the age of eight - right in the midst of the nineties.

The times were hard: the depreciation of money, rapid inflation, and mass unemployment. My mother pulled the family as best she could.

I was a difficult teenager: frequent brawls between the guys, regular "punishments" from my mother and grandmother - there was everything. Although I studied well at school: I knew mathematics perfectly, and I dreamed of being an economist. Mom only smiled sadly when she heard about my dreams because we didn’t have money for quality education.

In high school, I volunteered to be an apprentice in a "handicraft" jewelry firm. There I studied the basics of jewelry during my summer holidays. I figured it out like this: I won’t be able to get a normal education, so at least I’ll get a craft that can feed me. But, to be honest, at first, the jewelry business turned out differently for me than for my father.

At the age of 20, I ventured to borrow funds and open my own business in my native Vinnytsia. I mustered up the nerve to go to my godfather and ask for $5,000 for a business.

At that time it was a huge amount of money, I am still grateful to my godfather who believed in me. Before that, I had been working in a jewelry store for several years, I understood the basics of this business.

It was the beginning of the 2000s, the heyday of entrepreneurship. Everything changed very quickly - and you either have time for this train or you don't. I succeeded.

In 2005, I rented a small room in an old building next to a large jewelry factory.

By that time, I already understood all the processes of creating jewelry and did almost all the steps myself. But for some processes, I simply did not have enough equipment.

For example, casting equipment was very expensive, I didn't have it. That's why I chose the neighborhood with a large jewelry production. I paid the masters separately for their part of the work, and everyone benefited from this.

Over time, I was able to take on an assistant, and I myself concentrated on the volume of sales. And since the jewelry business was, in a certain sense, a niche in which everyone knew each other, it was necessary to somehow stand out in order to interest jewelry stores. I chose my profile - diamonds.

Unsuccessful partnership with a happy end

I liked working with diamonds, but I worked as a contractor. I carried out the main orders for a large company with which he concluded a lucrative contract. Then I realized that a lot of money was asked for my work on the market, so this contract was beneficial, first of all, for the contractor. Still, it got me started.

And then the crisis year of 2008 broke out, and everything stopped, including the business of my partner.

When you have caught the wave and things are going up, it is not up to determine the margin. And then the crisis knocks, everyone rushes to calculate it, but it turns out that there is nothing to count.

For about a year, my business worked by inertia, but then it became clear that a new path had to be found. It took investments of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and I found them, although not on very favorable terms for myself.

Two investors and I divided the shares by 33%, although all the work was on me. Now I understand that with such a distribution, I should have claimed half of the business.

In addition, this particular company laid the foundation for a truly large-scale business. We named it "Kimberly". Kimberley is a "diamond" city in South Africa, where the largest number of diamonds is mined in the world.

Today our company is the largest wholesale manufacturer of gemstone jewelry. If you buy a branded diamond engagement ring, there is a good chance that it was made by Kimberly.

During all this time we have had many losses and victories, ups and downs. And they taught me not to be fascinated by ups and not to panic during crises.

Now most entrepreneurs, especially start-ups, are in difficult conditions. But the secret of success is not to be afraid to work, not to be afraid to lose money and believe that you know how to earn it.