The success of betsy & iya, a jewelry retail and wholesale business owned by Betsy Cross and Will Cervarich, is tarnishing Portland’s laid-back reputation. After all, isn’t Portland supposed to be the place where young people go to retire? Armed with college degrees in drama, the couple could have followed the lead of hundreds of other liberal arts majors who languish on Etsy, the sales website for all things crafty.
BY SUSAN HAUSER
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// Photo by Adam Bacher |
The success of betsy & iya, a jewelry retail and wholesale business owned by Betsy Cross and Will Cervarich, is tarnishing Portland’s laid-back reputation. After all, isn’t Portland supposed to be the place where young people go to retire? Armed with college degrees in drama, the couple could have followed the lead of hundreds of other liberal arts majors who languish on Etsy, the sales website for all things crafty.
But here’s the difference: “We’re from Virginia,” says Cervarich. “There might be a little bit of East Coast mentality that contributes to part of our success.”
Whether it’s due to East Coast moxie or plain old perseverance, Cross, 32, and Cervarich, 31, have taken a tiny one-woman studio and grown it into an artists’ atelier, where a team of jewelry makers fashion mostly brass and silver-plate earrings, bracelets and other jewelry from Cross’ original designs. Fans of her work, which include designs inspired by Portland’s bridges, can now purchase her jewelry three ways: at the shop in Northwest Portland, from the website (betsyandiya.com) or at about 100 external retail locations across the U.S. At their shop, they also carry scores of other local lines of jewelry, clothing, soaps and gifts.
Business has doubled nearly every year since 2008, when Cross launched a design business named for her and her big sister. Sales in 2012 were just north of half a million, and on the strength of their business alone (no collateral or guarantors), Umpqua Bank recently floated them an $85,000 loan for an expansion, which will more than double their size, now a cozy 800 square feet, and allow them to add to their current seven employees.
“There’s got to be like 1% of people who use their theater degrees,” notes Cervarich. But knowing how to engage an audience has helped the couple build their customer base, just as skills they’ve learned along the way have contributed to their growth. There was Cross’ job at a bead store while she was in graduate school in California; her brief gig at a wholesale company in Portland; not to mention Cervarich’s useful skills from a job at a title insurance company.
“He’s a genius at Excel,” brags Cross. “No joke.”
It also helped that Cross, struggling to get her design business off the ground, qualified for Portland State University’s Business Outreach Program. With the help of business students, she put her dreams on paper in a business plan. By the time Cervarich joined her in 2010, she was ready to have him map out some long-range goals on spreadsheets.
“We’re constantly planning,” says Cervarich. For them, goal setting leads to brainstorming and problem solving. “Whether or not we’re writing it down, we’re constantly planning and talking. Betsy yells at me from the shower things she’s thought up.”
“That’s where I get my best ideas,” Cross says.
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// Photos by Adam Bacher |
Their approach may be unorthodox. For example, when they wanted to enlarge their wholesale customer base, they piled into the car with their dog, Gingham, and took a cross-country road trip, visiting shops and showing Cross’ jewelry designs along the way. But for them, the personal touch is a vital ingredient in their business. On their website, blog, Facebook page and in face-to-face encounters with customers visiting their shop, they strive to build relationships.
“It’s always a genuine story that we’re putting out there,” says Cross, “and I think that allows people to relate to us, and us to them. I feel that is one of the main reasons that we have been successful, being able to relate to people.”
Cross says one of her greatest challenges was turning over the actual creation of her jewelry to the artisans they had hired. “I’m a perfectionist,” she says. “That was really hard for me to let go of.” But even more wrenching was the recent discovery that one of her most popular items, a brass cuff based on the design of the Fremont Bridge, had apparently been copied as a cheap knockoff. “It did feel really bad,” she admits. But even her pain became an opportunity to build more relationships. After she wrote about her disappointment on the betsy & iya blog, there was an outpouring of sympathy and support from loyal customers across the country.
The couple came to view the unsavory incident as a challenge to overcome. They could use it in their favor as a means for reaching out to more people. The plan they hatched was to hold a $5 customer raffle for three custom-made, gold-plated Fremont Bridge cuffs. “I personally stamped the word ‘Original’ on the inside,” says Cross.
The response was phenomenal. Now they’re ready to move on and look forward to a future that includes a larger shop, expanded online sales and, yes, more Portland bridges that figure in Cross’ designs — although it’s still a secret which ones.
And if there was ever any doubt that these former Virginians weren’t a perfect fit for Portland, they now have two dogs, Gingham and Maurice, ready to greet customers at the door.
