rebranding my small business 🌀 becoming fully ethical + huge refresh

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]Over the last 2 years, my small business has grown a way bigger than I expected it to, and with that, there are some foundations of the business that I've realized I don't really align with anymore. [music] So, today I'm giving my business a full refresh.

[00:00:14]>> [music] >> When I started the Instagram account for my jewelry business back in February of 2024, I had no expectations at all. I remember how excited I was to hit like 500 followers. I was like, "Oh my gosh, that's crazy." And now that I've hit 10K, I am so, so grateful for each and every one of you, and it made me take a moment to reflect and kind of think about the state of my business right now. And since I'm growing my business, I really want to grow it in the right way, and make sure that I feel great about everything that I'm doing, and making sure that I really am an ethical small business. remember from my where I get my beads video, I did used to source some beads and charms from Shein, but no longer, okay? From now on, I'm going to be a fully ethical small business, and I'm going to source most of my beads from other small businesses on Etsy. I have always said that check glass beads from Etsy were my favorite place to source beads, so that's going to be predominantly where I source my beads from now on, with occasional bits and bobs from Michael's or Hobby Lobby. And I figured since my business is growing, it's the perfect time to kind of do a business refresh, a rebrand, and change where I'm sourcing my beads. I understand that Shein isn't a great place to source anything, and so I really wanted to make this change long-term for my business so that I don't feel guilty with the items that I'm selling. My long-term vision is to have pieces that are whimsical and a lot of nature and floral and celestial inspired beads from other small businesses, so that my pieces are super unique and completely ethical. I feel like this aligns better with me in general and with my values, and I just feel like I can't be making super planty naturey stuff and have that nature aesthetic if I'm literally supporting Shein. Like, it doesn't make sense. I wasn't inspired by some specific jewelers over on Instagram that I admire a ton. And one of my YouTube commenters that I also really appreciate. So while I previously stated in my where I get my beads video that I sourced charms and beads from Shein, I will no longer be doing that. Of course different materials have different costs and sourcing majority of my beads from Etsy is going to make my items more expensive just because my materials are going to be more expensive. But I'm willing to take on that change and kind of revamp [clears throat] my bead inventory and change my business structure [music] so that it aligns more for me long-term.

[00:02:32]Turn on my little salt lamp. Ah, so cute. Okay, so part of this change is revamping my entire bead inventory and I didn't want to just throw away all of my Shein beads because that kind of defeats the purpose of being sustainable. So with my remaining Shein beads and charms, I decided to make some bead soups so that I could re-home these beads and charms and make sure that they're still being repurposed and reused. And so that hopefully they could go to some of you guys who would give them new loving homes and use them in your jewelry projects. So I made six total bead soups. Two were red apple themed, two were green apple themed and one was Neapolitan ice cream themed.

[00:03:06][music] Just kind of putting together some of the charms I still had from Shein and throwing in some extra beads, a couple of my glass beads as well. And I am so grateful because as soon as I put them on sale for $5, all six sold out in the same day. They're going to three amazing jewelers who I am sure will take great care of them, put them into adorable projects. I'm really glad that I was able to curate some bead soups which I've always just wanted to do for fun and also give these beads some new life.

[00:03:33]I have also always wanted to make single strand necklaces and I feel like we should never become stagnant in our creativity, especially cuz my small business is such a creative thing making jewelry. I always want to be learning new things and experimenting and I never really want to get stuck. And so another aspect of this small business refresh and revamp is I want to learn how to make single strand necklaces. I've always been the thick wire girly. All of my tutorials, I'm like, "Buy that thick spool of wire, loop every single bead."

[00:04:01]And that's also how I've been making necklaces. However, I really want to learn how to make single strand so that there isn't any space between my beads.

[00:04:08]It's not really like a cluster look, but it is that maximalist look of like there's no jump rings, there's no space between the beads, like they're all pressed together. And I really want to learn how to do that. So, that's another aspect that I am bringing into this small business rebrand. So, with everything that I've said in mind already, all of these different aspects of rebranding my business, I did go to Hobby Lobby and try to shop for all of these little things. I was looking for crimp beads and wire and all of the stuff that you need to make single strand necklaces. I was looking for a canvas to be the new backdrop of my product pictures because I also want to revamp my product pictures and some extra little accessories for product pictures like colored paper, props like seashells and mosaic glass, and also a new little ceramic bowl for bead soups.

[00:04:55]I was also looking for a ceramic little spoon for bead soups. So, this was just like a shopping trip for everything. I was able to find everything that I need to start making my first single strand necklace. And I did find a bunch of stuff for taking brand new product pictures, which I did use for the bead soups. And that's why they have these fun multi-color backdrops. And I did find a new little bowl for the bead soups, a ceramic bowl with this pretty like shell patterned edge on it. It's so cute. And I wasn't able to find just a plain white ceramic spoon for like my bead soup videos and my scooping videos, but I'm going to keep looking for that.

[00:05:28]And now for using those Hobby Lobby supplies to try to make my very first single strand necklace.

[00:05:35]>> [music] [music] [music] >> For my first single strand necklace, I wanted to go with kind of a sea siren edgy dark blue type of vibe. And then I quickly realized that I don't have like any black beads or any super dark beads.

[00:05:59]So I had to do a little bit of a lighter blue color scheme, but still with that ocean theme and that shell theme. Here I am designing the necklace and it was so fun to lay out all the beads without having to worry about leaving space for jumpers. It was super fun to just press all the beads together and I was having the time of my life designing this one.

[00:06:14]I tried to make a lot of high contrast areas where it was like white next to blue beads or light blue next to dark blue beads because I really like that look of the varying colors throughout the necklace. And with the design done, I'm placing down the crimp beads. I had to learn how to use crimp beads for this and it was actually super easy. So this isn't like a super full in-depth tutorial because this is literally my first time making a single strand necklace, too. But basically, instead of using the super thick wire that I always use in my jewelry, we're using a more bendable wire that's covered in nylon.

[00:06:45]And that, you thread the end through a crimp bead and then you can use the crimp tool the bead so that the wire stays in place, basically. I also use these little like half circle pieces to kind of strengthen that end of the wire on either side, the part that holds the lobster clasp. As you can see here, I've added the lobster clasp at the end and I've crimped the crimp bead and now I'm about to use the crimp tool again to kind of fold the crimp bead over itself so that it's like super secure. Again, this isn't like a super detailed tutorial. I'll probably give y'all one at some point in the future, but I'm just kind of briefly running over it.

[00:07:20]And here is a crimp bead cover, actually, which you just kind of slide over the crimp bead and then you close it. And then it just makes more of like a round solid silver bead instead of like the tiny little crimp. And then once all of this setup is completely done, actually threading the necklace together is super fast, which was super refreshing because necklaces take me literally forever in my old style where I'm putting every single bead onto wire and connecting them all with a jump ring. So, this part was super fun.

[00:07:47]Literally just sliding all the beads on was so much fun.

[00:07:53]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Now, every single bead is threaded onto that wire. I'm just going to go ahead and get the main statement bead onto a wire with a little sphere end.

[00:08:24]>> [music] >> So, with these necklaces, you want to thread the extra wire at the ends through all of the beads. However, I didn't really plan super well. When I was shopping, I chose literally the thickest bendable wire that I could find. So, the wire actually didn't fit into the very last bead. This little flower-shaped blue bead at the end, the wire is actually going around it. So, I really hope that it stays. It goes around that bead and then it does go into or like through the other beads right after it. So, hopefully that's enough to secure it. But, yeah, that's just a little quirk. Of course, it's my first one. So, we're learning, we're learning. And after adding that [music] extension chain on the other side, tada!

[00:09:06]The necklace is finished. I'm so, so happy with how this necklace turned out.

[00:09:10]I think it's so beautiful. I ended up naming it Fisherman's Daughter, which I think is so perfect with the blue and the white. It's obviously a little different than the inspiration we started with, like the sea siren vibe, but I do really love how it turned out.

[00:09:21]I ended up making a little mood board for it and kind of the inspo for the Fisherman's Daughter name. And I did post it along with two other single strand necklaces as my very first single strand necklace drop and also my first summer necklace drop of the year. That necklace drop is live on my website right now and one of them has sold, but Fisherman's Daughter and one of the other ones are both available. If you're interested in just checking them out, my jewelry shop is aussiesjewelry.bigcartel.com, as most of you know. Here's a little try-on, and I'm so happy with how it looks. I love how it can sit like tight to the neck and kind of give a little bit choker and sit like right at the base of the neck with a little charm going right into the collarbone. I feel like that's super flattering. It's so pretty seeing the blues of the necklace next to that blue light that I turned on earlier and the original interest aboard. I just love how it turned out, and oh, I'm so excited for summer. Oh my gosh.

[00:10:12]And lastly, you may have noticed something a little bit different about today's YouTube video. I got a camera.

[00:10:17]Look right there. Since content is also such a big part of my business, and I love making YouTube videos for you guys so much, I thought I would upgrade my filming setup. That's y'all for real.

[00:10:26]Also reveal that I'm literally wearing sweatpants.

[00:10:30]So, I got the Canon EOS R50 as my first filming camera. Here she is. She is so, so beautiful.

[00:10:41]>> [music] >> I did a lot of research beforehand, and this is supposed to be a very good starter content creator camera. It has the little flip-out back, which is super helpful for filming. You can see in this little window as you're filming, which is super helpful to know if you're in frame and everything. Oh my goodness, hello. There I am.

[00:11:00]>> [music] >> And of course, I also got a little mic and a tripod stand.

[00:11:08]Here she is.

[00:11:13]>> [music] >> So, this first video with my camera has been a really fun way to experiment with some of the different angles that it can do. I'm going all around my room in all those different angles and just having fun. This right now is handheld, so I'm literally just holding the camera. So, yeah, I'm super excited because filming content is such a big part of my business, and I love filming these YouTube videos for you guys. I'm excited to play around with this camera and bring you guys higher quality stuff. So, all of that wrapped together [music] is the entirety of this brand refresh. I am so excited for this new chapter. This sort of ethical shift towards completely ethical sourcing, this kind of creative growth of starting to make single strand necklaces and branching out into new items, and also this little content upgrade for you guys of upgrading my filming setup finally. So, I'm so so excited for what the future holds, and I'm so excited to bring you guys along with me. Thank you so so much for 10k on Instagram, and we're super close to 10k on YouTube as well. I'm about to hit 9k as of filming this YouTube video, and I'm so so excited and so grateful. I love each and every one of you. This is so crazy, but I literally hit 10k in the duration of editing this video, so we actually hit 10k on YouTube already, and I am so so grateful. Thank you guys so much. I'm just so excited to grow into this next version of both my business and my YouTube channel and just myself with you guys. Love you guys so so so much. Thank you for watching this video.

[00:12:34]If you enjoyed, please like and comment this emoji if you watched up until the end. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. And subscribe for more small business content and to stay in the loop for this next chapter. Okay, I'll see you guys in the next one. Bye.

[00:12:48]>> [music] [music] >> Bye bye bye.