Free of charge Google tools drive sales of their jewellery courses
Sandra Pampín and Gimena Caram came to Spain over a decade ago seeking better futures. They are from Venezuela and Argentina, respectively. Instability and the lack of job opportunities in their countries of origin led them to undertake an endeavour of which they are extremely proud.
Both embarked on the journey alone with the aim of seeing their dreams come true, and ended up fulfilling them together: they studied jewellery design and opened their own jewellery shop.
“Being an emigrant gives you strength, even if you don’t realise it.” Gimena left Argentina with the plan to become a jewellery designer. The first years were tough. She had to work in a restaurant until she had enough savings to invest in her education at a jewellery design school in Madrid. For her part, Sandra wanted to continue her career as an architect and she could do so for a period, until the crisis of 2007 arrived and she decided to reinvent herself. She also started at the jewellery design school – in her case out of curiosity – which is where she met the woman who would become her partner in realising her vocation. Since then, the paths of Gimena and Sandra have merged together, although it wouldn’t be until 2016, two years after completing their studies, when they decided to become entrepreneurs and found the jewellery workshop and school Studio Squina.
“The space has evolved organically.” During the initial years, they combined their artistic production in the studio with other jobs that let them finance it, until two years later, when they finally managed to devote themselves 100% to their project. Sandra and Gimena create bespoke pieces, do repairs and design their own jewellery collections. They also teach a range of different courses on jewellery design in which they show their students the processes and techniques that artisans use to create their pieces, unlike other studios, which makes them innovative sets them apart. “Today it is essential to show artisans’ trades to spark interest among people.”
Although “the space basically survives from the classes”, they also offer different types of personalised courses that they themselves teach. Guest teachers and artists round out the programme at which both monographic and long-term workshops and classes are offered.
They took advantage of confinement during the pandemic to update their website and promote their courses online. Until then, they did not have online sales and now the number of students has gradually grown, since the sales process is much faster and streamlined. “We also created a Google Business Profile, which increased the visits to our website by more than 67%.”
They believe that having a Google Business Profile has been essential for their growth and publicising their business. “The Google tools have helped us and they are completely free of charge. This was definitely one of the best ways to reach our potential customers without doing campaigns. I recommend to everyone I know who is an entrepreneur and starting a company to have a Google Business Profile. It is a free of charge tool we think is fundamental.”
In addition to incorporating digital tools into their business, these entrepreneurs created ‘Arte y Parte’, an initiative to design and craft brooches. The project, created for their students to thank them for their unconditional support during the pandemic, became a “solidarity souvenir”. The complete collection was exhibited at Studio Squina, where the samples could be purchased.”‘It helped us generate profits to keep moving forward,” they conclude.