Meet Miné Esen | Entrepreneur, Product Manager & Jewelry Wholesaler

We had the good fortune of connecting with Miné Esen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Miné, other than deciding to work for yourself, what was the single most important decision you made that contributed to your success?
Asserting control of my business and making my business work for me have been the greatest contributions to my business’ achievements. When my husband and I began our jewelry business, Anatolia Arts, we pursued every business opportunity that came our way. We spent two years attending every trade show and tabling event that we could access, and our sales grew rapidly. That growth came at a significant cost to us both physically and mentally. Hauling and setting up a professional jewelry display takes a lot of work. The more shows that we attended, the more our bodies would break down. Worse still, we felt that we needed to attend every event in order to attain our desired long-term growth aspirations. Our business was slowly consuming us, and our Work-Life Balance was becoming greatly imbalanced. We turned our attention to striking a better balance between the needs of our business and the needs of ourselves. We shifted our focus to the aspects of our business that drove the greatest profitability and required a low amount of physical exertion. We found that while our products did well and were profitable when sold at the retail level, we were much better suited to sell our products at wholesale. Although we don’t make the same level of profit for every piece of jewelry that we sell, we more than makeup for that difference in volume and increased distribution channels. Our business has continued its growth trajectory, and our Work-Life Balance has steadily improved.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Fine Turkish jewelry is very popular, and consumers travel from across the world to purchase jewelry from Turkey. With so much demand and so many consumers, quality craftsmanship and unique design often take a backseat to poor quality and copycat designs. One of the strongest reasons I founded Anatolia Arts was to proudly showcase my Turkish culture with consumers that might have never experienced it otherwise. Producing and selling low-quality and ordinary jewelry just simply did not fit with my business aspirations. If I want to have consumers fall in love with my culture and jewelry as I do, I knew it was imperative that my business only produces quality and unique jewelry pieces. My family and I have invested years of our lives developing and cultivating relationships with the best jewelers that we can find. It is their fined-tuned skills and commitment to producing quality work that drives our business success today. As long as we continue to produce top-quality work, pay people responsibly, and retain a modest profit for ourselves, we believe that our business will continue to be profitable and serve us well.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My favorite parts of Colorado would be the natural beauty of the outdoors and all the activities that can be enjoyed. My ideal day would be to visit a mountain town like Salida, ride down the Arkansas River in a tube, and then grab lunch in-town. Winding down at a hot spring of our choice is a perfect end to a fantastic day.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My brother Zafer has been one of the most important factors in my entrepreneurial success. His knowledge of fine Turkish jewelry helped educate me on the industry, and his encouragement to pursue my passion validated the belief that I have in myself and my expertise. My husband, Chris was also imperative in helping make my business dreams into a reality. As a financial advisor, he helped me evaluate the viability of my ideas. He has shown support not only in creating time and space for me to pursue my passion, but he has jumped in with both feet in serving as my business partner. I would not have ever gotten my business off the ground nor achieved that success that I have enjoyed without the love and support of my brother Zafer and my husband Chris.

Website: www.anatoliaarts.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/anatoliaarts/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnatoliaArts