EntrepreneuHERS: Angela & Shelley Roberts

Hey Ladies! Tell us about yourselves, what do you do? How long have you done it? How did you get started?

Hi! We are Angela & Shelley Roberts, Sisters, Designers and Owners of AngieShel Designs, LLC.

We design jewelry, and we’ve been running our jewelry business part-time since 2005. As we

were growing up, we always enjoyed arts and crafts of all kinds, and like our mom, we loved to sew. The funny thing is that we NEVER had any interest in beading, but one day in 2003 that changed when we were at a store simply looking for lawn furniture. There, we discovered that the store had a huge lower level filled with all kinds of arts and crafts supplies, including sewing and beading supplies. So, we ended up buying beads and other supplies to fix pieces of our jewelry that we had purchased that had broken, and eventually, we began making our own jewelry in whatever colors and styles we wanted. As we wore our jewelry designs, strangers started stopping us, complimenting our jewelry pieces and asking where we got them. When we said that we made them ourselves, they often told us that we should start a jewelry business. Also, we started making jewelry as gifts for family and friends because we enjoyed personalizing each gift to make them feel special, and they, likewise, started to tell us that we should go into business. We finally took the hint, met

with someone at the local New Jersey Small Business Association to find out the legal steps to start our business, and named our company, “AngieShel Designs, LLC” (combining our nicknames, Angie and Shel). We started doing home jewelry parties and were vendors at local street fairs and corporate companies, and later, we took the next step of getting a website.

Wow! That's amazing! If you could go back 5 years, what advice would you give your younger selves?

Surround yourself with positive people. Don't listen to the naysayers or allow negative comments from others to cause you to doubt yourself or to stop striving to be the best you can be. Sometimes you can be your own worst enemy and get in your own way and talk yourself out of doing something that could potentially be a great experience for you.

What tips would you give an aspiring EntrepreneuHer who wants to be in your industry?

Put in the research, and talk to a business expert/coach who can walk you through the legal steps needed to start your business. Do the work that is necessary to build up your confidence and your business. Do not allow fear to cause you to hold yourself back. Recognize that you will make mistakes, but don't let mistakes discourage you or cause you to lose your joy because having joy in what you do increases creativity. If you make mistakes, learn from them and move forward. Be patient and analyze ways that you can make improvements, and then, implement them. Also, it is always very important to remember to make your customers feel special by putting great care into the way that you package your items that your customers have purchased. Presentation makes a difference. We always love to receive items that are packaged nicely and professionally, and we want our customers to feel the same way. Set your own standard of excellence, and follow through on it. Don’t change your standards or compare your business to someone else's. Everyone is unique and your unique talents and ideas will set you apart from others in your field.

What has been your greatest accomplishment in your business and personal life?

Regarding our business, we had the honor of having our jewelry designs included in gift bags

given to celebrities who were presenters, nominees and attendees at the Oscars, the BET Awards, the Kids’ Choice Awards, and the Teen Choice Awards. Also, we had the privilege of being asked by a singer to design a jewelry set for her to wear to an award show where she was nominated for one of her songs and won. It was so exciting to see the video footage of her on the red carpet holding her award and wearing our custom-made jewelry. As for our personal lives, even though we’ve faced difficulties, challenges, setbacks and disappointments, we have not allowed them to stop us from putting God first, having a positive outlook on life, and staying determined to keep learning and making improvements. Looking back, we see our progress even if, at times, those improvements were “baby steps”. Each step has helped us to gradually reach our goals, and we continue to set more goals for ourselves making sure not to allow negative opinions, advice, or experiences from others with scary “what-if” scenarios to hinder us. We just keep learning and growing. There’s a saying, “Sometimes you win. Sometimes you learn.”

So tell me, what's next for you two?

We will be working on new jewelry designs, and we are also looking into starting a jewelry subscription box so that customers can be surprised with a small selection of our jewelry pieces every so often. Last but not least, we recognize that, with anything, there is always room for improvement. So, we will keep learning new things and working on making more and more improvements with our business.

How can someone reading this get in touch with you? Do you have any information about you or your business you would like to share?

We can be contacted through our “Contact Us” page on our online jewelry store: www.angiesheldesigns.com and we are on Instagram at www.instagram.com/angiesheldesigns as well as other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest, which you can find the links to near the bottom of our website pages. Other information that we would like to share about our business is that we do custom designs, and we also offer the opportunity for shoppers to host virtual jewelry parties/E-parties and invite their family and friends to shop on our website for a specified number of days using a special discount code that we will create specifically for the host and guests to use as many times as they want to on our website during those days. Afterwards, based on the sales generated from the virtual party, the host will receive a huge discount, and possibly, even free jewelry.