Blending creativity and a savvy business mind, Adi Vaknin is known for serving up stunning, high-end jewelry and designer watches to her elite clientele in South Florida. Adi is a renowned style expert and founder of Lev Jewelers, a high-end retail jewelry and watch store that offers unique and custom items.
With a family history in jewelry that dates back 50 years, Adi applies the experience and knowledge passed on from years of knowledge and infuses it with her impeccable eye for trends that will last the test of time. But what truly makes Lev Jewelers stand out is the premium customer experience and around-the-clock availability, an art that has been slowly lost in the industry.
Adi aims to educate, inspire through style, and help others celebrate life’s most special moments through jewelry.
Please tell us a little bit about your company.
Lev Jewelers is a high-end retail jewelry store and watch store. We sell all-natural diamonds with gold, platinum, and a bit of silver jewelry. Everything is designed by myself as well as other designers in the store. We also have a jeweler on staff who creates most stuff in-store or we have manufacturers make them with our design in mind.
We sell high-end watches, such as Rolex, Cartier, Richard Mille, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and many others. The motto of our store is to be more fashion-forward. It has less of the older standard jewelry, which we do carry as well. I’m more focused on different jewelry designs for my customers that won’t be seen on every person.
We also make very unique things, as far as briolette diamonds. We use regular diamonds as well, but we specifically create a briolette cut that makes the jewelry more unique and different. Our store is more of a Miami vibe, both with the glitz and glam as well as style and class.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
Going back about 17 years, I was in school for pre-med and on a completely different path. However, my family has been in the business for about 50 years. My father started in manufacturing and my mom in designing. My brothers also went into the business about 30 years ago.
After finishing college in two years, my father thought I could use a break and I took some time off before applying to med school. From then, it rolled into being very comfortable working with my family and having a passion for design and fashion. I suppose it brought out a spark I didn’t know I had in me. I worked with my family for about 14 years and four years ago, we sold the big and well-known jewelry store we had in Hollywood. After that, I gave birth to my son and took a bit of time to myself. In the last year, I’ve been prepping to open my store, come out of mommy mode, and get back into career mode.
My history in jewelry is rather extensive with my family manufacturing all our merchandise to picking all the diamonds, colored stones, and anything we use for our products. Everything was always designed in-house by my mom who was the main designer. I believe I got that experience and knowledge from her because the jewelry she’s made has always been one-of-a-kind. I’ve learned a lot from her and have now taken it my way with my creativity, design, and taste. That is ultimately what customers see when they come into my store.
What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
Find your purpose, determination, and perseverance. I would even say to always be fearless. A lot of people ask me, “Why are you opening a store, especially during times where the market is so unknown and everything is a question mark with COVID going on? How are you not afraid to go into retail and how do you know what’s going to happen tomorrow?”
Well, I just had this passion inside me. I wanted to have my own company, career, and something my son would be proud of. That’s been the biggest push for me along with determination. I also thought not to be afraid of anything and just open up my store. This is something I love to do. I love fashion, jewelry, putting the two together, being able to sell it to women, and seeing them wear it. It is a very big deal for me.
What are your plans for the future, how do you plan to grow this company?
We’re taking it one step at a time. When I had the idea of opening my retail store, my mind went to my last company that was just strictly retail and not online. We did sell a little here and there on eBay, but we didn’t have anything that was e-commerce. I know today the world is mostly sold online, where you can get groceries to any household products that you need. To most people, it’s a lot easier to buy jewelry and other things online. Our focus is to grow our e-commerce along and open more stores within Florida.
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
Customer service, 100%. I feel that a lot of retailers have lost a sense of customer service. Nothing is done out of the goodness of people’s hearts and everything is done to make another dollar, especially in the jewelry industry. Everything has been very cutthroat. I would say that customer service for me has always been number one, whether it’s being constantly available to my clients if they have questions or they have a birthday and it’s tomorrow. I do whatever I can because things happen and life moves forward. Sometimes people forget their significant other’s birthday or anniversary, so always being available and trying my best to make things happen for them sets me apart. Considering client feedback, having a jeweler and watchmaker on staff do things for customers right away sets us apart from competitors that don’t offer that in-store service.
What were the top three mistakes you made starting your business, and what did you learn from them?
My biggest mistake was not listening to my intuition. I should have opened my store a lot earlier instead of waiting three years. While in mommy mode, I felt I needed to devote time solely to my child and not to myself. I think this is a big mistake for women because you can do both. As long as you know how to separate things correctly, you can have it all.
Another mistake was not being very open. When I opened my store, I was very quiet and afraid to tell everyone about it. I didn’t want to sound insensitive to the current situation in the world, especially when some people weren’t doing well financially. However, I should have been more proud of what I was doing and my plan for my future. I don’t know if I have a third mistake, but I’ll learn eventually if I’ve made others.
Tell us a little bit about your marketing process, what has been the most successful form of marketing for you?
Social media has become a number one strategy of marketing for most retail businesses. You’ll see somebody wearing a shirt, jeans, watch, or piece of jewelry online and get a visual of what it would look like on you. As a consumer myself, a lot of things will pop up on my Instagram and I’ll look at them. When it comes to retail and materialistic goods, social media has been huge for us.
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your business?
I didn’t know about the effects a woman opening her business would have in all aspects of life. Today, most women are starting to come out on their own and create their businesses. This is intimidating, especially with vendors you’re working with. I should’ve better prepared myself emotionally to have more of a thicker skin than I do already.
Can you recommend one book, one podcast, and one online course for entrepreneurs and authors?
The one book I consistently go back to is Blitzscaling by Chris Yeh and Reid Hoffman. It’s phenomenal. It’s not for every business, but it gives ideas about the speed of growing your business, how to grow your company from nothing to something, and how to not have fear if your business is going to work or not.
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new business, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
On a Rolex.
What is your favorite quote?
This is a good one because my son has been saying this to me a lot.
“You get what you get and don’t get upset.”
You have to be happy about it all, whether it’s the number of customers that come through the door or the number of sales you make. It doesn’t matter where life takes you. Good or bad, you just get what you get and don’t get upset.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
To be 100% fearless, to move forward with what you love and believe in, and to be determined.
How can we get in touch with you?
You can reach me by visiting my website levjewelers.com or via social on Instagram: @levjewelers and Email: info @levjewelers.com
Founder Interview: Gemma Bonham-Carter Says “Start Before You’re Ready!”
