Jewellery talk, not on gold, this Saturday

The topic for PAN July sharing session has changed from gold to jewellery; both are favourites with us women, entrepreneurs or not. The earlier designated speaker, PAN member Monica, has a family emergency so another member Amee Philips has step up to take over the rostrum.

Yes, the speaker is the Amee Philips of the famous Penang jewellery house that has gone national as well as international as of this year. So free up your Saturday afternoon tomorrow to listen to and spend some personal time with this rising entrepreneur.

At the 6^th Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards earlier this month, Amee won the Most Promising Entrepreneur Award 2012. This particular award requires for the nominees to be entrepreneurs leading a registered business for no less than one year, and with a turnover of no less than USD1 million in the past one year.

The Most Promising Entrepreneurship Award is for entrepreneurs who have displayed promising accomplishments in the past and present and have the vision and potential to advance their companies to be leading businesses in the near future. They are deemed to hold the potential to make it big and inspire the young minds to follow their footsteps in becoming successful entrepreneurs in the future. 

Amee (L) receiving her Most Promising Entrepreneur Award

And Amee has been judged to fit that bill. So come prepared with questions to ask her over a cuppa. PAN sharing session is normally quite intimate with just 20 women or less chatting together.

Here's some Amee's basics to entice you further. 

She hailed from Nibong Tebal and got into the jewellery business by accident. She was in Germany and received a gemstone in the mail from mom, who asked Amee to send home more of the same.

At the time Amee could only afford costume jewellery to wear. “I didn't even know what gemstone my mom had sent. I took it to a crystal shop and look for its look-alike and bought some to send back home.”

Her mom shared the gems with friends and soon was asking Amee to get more, who then started sourcing them for much cheaper from wholesalers.

That was how her gems wholesaling business took hold, supplying to the jewellery shops along Pitt Street (now Lebuh Masjid Kapitan Keling) in George Town. “I walked door-to-door asking them to buy but they only agreed to sell the gems for me on consignment.”

“I develop good eyes for the good gem stones as I go through thousands of them daily. And I started designing jewellery too and was lucky enough to have sold every piece.” She opened her jewellery production studio in 1992.

 

With the 1997 Financial Crisis, the wholesaling business took a dive. Amee shifted her focus entirely on producing jewellery and hasn't look back since. Year 2012 brought the Amee Philips brand to the international arena through a smart partnership with Zhang Toi, a fellow Malaysian who is now a world renown fashion designer based in New York.

Amee Philips became an international brand overnight with Zhang Toi, she said. It all began with them meeting as participants in the George Town Festival 2011. She counted that among the lucky moments or breakthroughs in her business.

 

Amee Philips is looking forward to become a world renown brand in no time because, she said, “I'm the best in coloured gem stones, I love them, I believe in innovation and creativity, I'm a big dreamer, a doer, and have no worries about making mistakes.”

Awesome words and resolve; don't you wish to hear more from her in person?