ANAITA THAKKAR - ON MOMPRENEUR

It’s pretty clear when you first meet Anaita Thakkar from the stunning jewellery brand Lustre, that she absolutely loves what she does. And why wouldn’t she?  Anaita’s passion in working with gemstones shines through in her work and we managed to pin her down for a few minutes for a quick chat. This is what she had to say:

We love your work, can you share with us how you got started in the jewelry business?

I got started with Lustre Jewellery after I had been in Singapore for a couple of years. In all that time, I realized that there were a whole load of people doing really beautiful fine jewellery, and a couple of people who had businesses that brought in jewellery from China or Korea and marked it up significantly. But there was no one doing jewellery using natural stones, at a reasonable price point. Having always been fascinated with Semi precious gemstones, on a family holiday to Sri Lanka, I went gemstone shopping. When I came back to Singapore, I started the process of figuring out a niche, and Lustre was born.

How do you juggle the role of Mommy & CEO?

I have 2 kids, who are currently 9 and 11, and I started Lustre when they were much younger. I work from home and an office showroom at Amoy street, However I am always here when they get back from school, at their concerts and juggling their extra curricular activities. Having said that, I survive on caffeine. And the 4 hours between school and bed, are off limits to my business – that’s my family time.

Let’s face it, it’s not easy being a Mompreneur. Tell us about the some of the hurdles and how you overcome them?

Probably the toughest thing about being a Mompreneur is that I can be very Type A and find it hard to let go. That means that I do everything with Lustre myself. Right from the designing, sourcing, photography and all the website back-end. Asking for help is incredibly hard for me, but I am learning slowly. Sleep suffers, and definitely my social life does too.

What advice do you have for other Moms out there who are thinking of starting their own business?

For moms starting their own business – I would say that whatever it is you want to do has to be a passion. It has to be something you are happy to breathe, sleep and live with . If it isn’t, its actually easier to work for someone else and come home and not to think about your job.

OK, time for the shameless plug, tell us why we should buy your product.

All our stones are natural. None of them are hydro, glass or plastic. Each piece is handcrafted. And all of this at an extremely reasonable price point. The average price for all of our pieces remains staggeringly fair at around S$100.

Taken with permission from the Mompreneur Magazine.