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Meet Aksaya Sivakumar - The force behind Tedora Jewels

30 Jan 2022

  By Mahika Panditha  —  As someone who has many, many piercings and a shopping addiction, buying jewellery is one of my favourite things to do. I have not done so in a while, but a few of my girlfriends came across this beautiful little brand called Tedora Jewels and I just had to know more. About a week ago, I got the chance to speak with Aksaya Sivakumar, the 19-year-old behind the brand!  Aksaya is currently studying at Deakin University, majoring in marketing and minoring in economics. She has just moved to Australia to complete her degree and is also running her business, Tedora Jewels: “I have always had the passion to start my own business and demonstrate all my ideas and creativity to the world through my brand. Hence why I chose marketing as my major for my degree as I would be able to gain more skills and the experiences required to run my own business.”  Check out what she had to say to Happinez earlier this week.    Tell us about Tedora Jewels!   Tedora Jewels was born in early 2021 amidst the pandemic. The goal for my business was to create a brand everyone would remember, not just a marketplace to purchase goods. Thus, a lot of effort was put into how I wanted the brand to be portrayed to the world. Tedora Jewels mainly focuses on the most aesthetically pleasing array of jewellery and accessories. The idea came about while I was completing my Advanced Levels. However, I knew my parents would not encourage the idea, thus I had enough time to work on the brand until I was done with school. Eventually, Tedora was launched on 28 January 2021. Tedora Jewels consists of all kinds of jewellery, from costume to luxury stainless steel pieces and other accessories like bags, belts, etc. We also do custom gifting for customers if they would like to gift Tedora Jewels to their loved ones.    What inspired you to start the brand?    The inspiration behind the brand, name, and logo is the Greek aesthetic. The name Tedora means ‘god’s gift’ in Greek and when I stumbled across that name, I instantly knew it was going to be my brand’s name. The three main values I wanted the brand to associate with is uniqueness, aesthetics, and quality. As I initially started on Instagram, I wanted the feed to consist of more than just the products. I wanted customers or anyone who views the page to catch a glimpse of the aesthetics and beauty of jewellery and how it elevates a simple outfit. Moreover, to keep it engaging, I wanted to add behind the scenes of packing and delivering the packages. Overall, I wanted Tedora to be an elegant experience for any customer. Most importantly, the content on Tedora is 100% authentic, with no material or images taken from other websites or the internet.   What has been your favourite product thus far and why?   You could say that the collection available for purchase on Tedora Jewels is honestly taken from my ‘favourites folder’. Out of the hundreds of designs available, I pick out a few of the most beautiful pieces and those I later get my hands on, to put out on Tedora Jewels. Hence, I believe every one of the products in the store is my favourite.    Can you share what has been one of your biggest challenges to date and how did you overcome it?   It is extremely competitive out there for an online jewellery business, as multiple businesses started emerging online after the pandemic. In order to survive amongst the competition, a unique selling point is required for any business. The complication starts when you establish a USP, and other businesses simply imitate the same ideas and replicate the content. My friends would send me multiple business accounts, some of which would go to the extent of making the exact same promotional videos as mine, but with their brand names. In the initial stages, it used to bother me a lot; my creativity and hard work being copied by others. Eventually, I realised it’s a sign of weakness and the actual competition for Tedora Jewels would be other businesses with new, jaw-dropping ideas. I re-invented Tedora’s aesthetic and put my entire focus on bringing down exquisite, designer wear pieces that would be hard to find elsewhere.    Do you have any advice for people who want to start businesses?    Firstly, like everyone says, you need the passion to start a business. But along with passion comes commitment and creativity. You can wake up one morning with the passion to start something, and you could actually do it if it requires minimum startup costs. However, the success for any small business lies within: 1) commitment – regardless of any hardships faced, either personally or business-related, it is upon you to ensure it does not affect your business operations and your customers. No sacrifices must be made of your business values either. 2) Creativity – where creativity is lacking, so is success. Instead of trying to build a business to sell goods/services to customers, try building a brand so valued by customers that even with hundreds of substitutes, they still choose you for the uniqueness and flexibility you provide.    Are there any new ventures of yours that we can look forward to?    As Tedora is heading towards its one-year anniversary this month, we will be launching a website, making it more flexible for both us and our customers to purchase their selections at any time of the day. Moreover, I am looking into diversifying the brand Tedora, which was previously known as Tedora.lk. Renamed to Tedora Jewels, I believe there is potential for the brand to explore other markets such as fragrances in the future.   Where do you hope Tedora Jewels will be in the next five years?   In the next five years, I see Tedora to have sustained growth and expansion. I hope in five years, Tedora will have its own store(s) in Colombo with a wider range of accessories. Regardless of the pandemic, Tedora Jewels has all the potential to reach multiple milestones!   PHOTOS © AKSAYA SIVAKUMAR, TEDORA JEWELS


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