Business Showcase: Glitz n’ Pieces

Glitz N’ Pieces was launched in 2013 by two friends and business partners Ellen Weber and Grace O’ Sullivan who are passionate about fashion. Displaying entrepreneurial skills beyond their years, creating and running a business is evidently another passion that the girls share.
Chatting to Grace, we found out more about the company and how things have been going.

Q1 Hi Grace. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Can you tell me about Glitz n’ Pieces and what services or products you offer?

Since November 2013 myself and business partner Ellen Weber  have started our online sales from our website www.glitznpieces.ie, where our full range of accessories and products can be viewed and purchased online with free shipping worldwide. We also operate and trade a market stall in Marlay Park, Rathfarnham every Saturday, weather permitting. Between our market stall and online business we sell a range of women’s accessories such as necklaces, rings, bracelets, hair bands, phone accessories, scarfs and we also have launched a small beauty range selling fake tan and lashes.

Q2 When was the company set up?

November 2013.

Q3 Can you tell me some more about who’s involved?

At the moment myself and Ellen work quite hard running our online business with great help from our web designer company JCiT. We gained a Brand Ambassador and not just any Brand Ambassador but Blogger of the year Samantha Johnston owner of award winning blog website www.allthebuzz.co.uk. This has been a great achievement as we work with Samantha and she promotes us at any events that she attends and does some brilliant blog posts about Glitz n’ Pieces.

Q4 How did you come up with the idea to start this company?

We are both 19 year old students in our first year in I.A.D.T in Kill Avenue studying Entrepreneurship. As part of our course we participated in a market stall on campus. This is when Glitz n’ Pieces was developed as we had to create a mini business. Both myself and Ellen are passionate about fashion and we wanted to provide fast, efficient, easy access to an affordable fashion accessories online store for all women. We originally started buying small amounts of stock and then we decided to go ahead and contact a web designer to create a website for us.

Q5  What are the biggest issues or hurdles you have faced since setting up the company?

Our biggest hurdle to date would have to be funding for our business. As we are only 19 we didn’t have a large amount of money to start our business with so we had to work with a tight budget!

Q6 What advice would you give someone in a similar situation who may be thinking of starting a business?

Definitely go for it! Since we have started our business we have met some great people and have learned quite a lot about different businesses and have gained quite some experience.

Q7 How has business being going for you?

Brilliant! We are really happy with how our venture has developed within four months of launching! We have had many great opportunities in Public Relations such as appearances on TV3 Boost My Business and on radio station RTE1 Joe Duffy’s Fiver Friday. We also got some airtime on Newstalk. We also got an invitation to participate in our college Enterprise Society’s “Dragon’s Den Competition” where we got fantastic exposure and public speaking experience for our business. We attended a charity  business  networking event for “Baby Max Foundation” which opened many doors for us by meeting new business contacts such as Fiona Reid who is owner of ” Cool Events” which has now subsequently approached us to supply the fashion accessories for top “TV3’s Xposé’s” personality Lisa Cannon’s  engagement party. On Saturday we also were filmed for R.T.E’s programme Nationwide so make sure to tune in on the 24th March at 7pm guys!

Q8 What’s the best way for people to get in contact with you?

Email us at sales@glitznpieces.ie or contact us on our social media sites; Twitter, Facebook or Instagram! We love hearing people’s thoughts on our business and website.

 

 

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase get in contact with me on John@IrishTechNews.net