Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 by
Hannah Vasicek is a 22-year-old Australian creator of a successful jewelry line and an expanding online clothing boutique.
Hannah reveals that she became interested in jewelry at a young age: “I grew up in a really small town in New South Wales, where there was nothing to do. One day I was walking down the street and I saw a little bead shop so I saved all my money and started playing with beads.”
When she was 13, she started selling hand-made earrings for five dollars a pair at the local market. They were her first success. Subsequently, her family moved to Hobart, Tasmania, when she was 16. She got a stall at the well-known Salamanca Market, a weekly outdoor market, held every Saturday, attracting both locals and visitors. She confesses: “Salamanca is just amazing. People underestimate how many people go through there in a day and the feedback that you can get straight away. So I can trial the market with a new product just for a day and see how people react.”
When she was 16, she created a jewelry collection called handmade by Hannah, using mainly earthy stone. The collection is still selling well today, but, at the moment,the young entrepreneur is focused on her more recent collection, Francesca, which she began in 2011 and which has outsold her previous line. She markets her line as “rich, classic, timeless and powerful”. Within her Francesca collection, the young Australian created a couture range. She stated: “All the couture is handmade using Swarovski crystals, pearls and semi-precious stones.” Her products are currently sold in the Maro of Salamanca shop, which is consistently selling them out.
At the beginning of 2012, Hannah also opened an online clothing boutique, displaying a range of brands, with her sister. She recounts: “Pilli and Rose is just a bit of fun with my sister. Pilli-pop is a nickname that I used to have when I was little and my little sister is Rachel Rose. She was in my ear about wanting to have her own little business so I worked with her. We saw that there was a lot of monopoly in the market and we wanted to bring some stuff to people for cheaper.” She is also a model and won 12th place in the 2010 Australian Miss Universe Pageant. Hannah donates some of her jewellery to charity organizations, which gain 100 percent of the profit.
In 2012, Hannah was chosen as Australia’s Global Student Entrepreneur and went on to participate in the Global Student Entrepreneur competition held in New York. In preparation for the New York competition, Hannah created a logo and brand for her Francesca collection. She ended up in the top 10 global student entrepreneurs. Reflecting on her experience in New York, Hannah reveals that it was inspirational, because she had the opportunity to listen to speakers from all around the world and took part in life coaching sessions and workshops.
Hannah was also selected as one of Australia’s 24-delegation to attend the G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance Summit in Russia, reuniting entrepreneurs from the G20 countries to highlight the importance of young entrepreneurs and analyse the key problems facing them currently.
Hannah, who recently obtained a Bachelor of Science and Law, never expected her business to be so successful. While she was discouraged by some to pursue her business, stating that she couldn’t support herself, and she was scared by the prospect that the business would not take off, Hannah stood up to her doubts and decided to keep pursuing what she loved.She confesses: “Even though I’ve done law and science, I think that will probably be something that I’ll do down the track, because at the moment I just love business.”
Time is the only thing that the young entrepreneur does not have enough of. But she says she is pleased that her schedule is as intense as it is: “Some days I just want to cry, because I have so much to do and I’m running back and forth always saying yes to more jobs and more things. I literally plan out every 15 minutes of my day. I’m also the sort of person who can’t just sit down and do nothing. It kind of suits my personality. I’ve managed to stay sane so far. I think I’d be bored if I didn’t have jam packed days.”
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