Small Business Project: How a jewellery start up navigated a down market
Monday, 8 June 2026
The Small Business Project is a weekly series that shines the spotlight on Kiwi small businesses doing interesting and unusual things in their industries.
At a time when consumer wallets are under pressure and retailers are finding it hard to make sales, Carlo Tonin ‒ one half of the brains behind Auckland jewellery e-commerce brand By Tonin ‒ says he’s seeing sales tick up within the demi-fine jewellery space, a category that bridges the gap between affordable costume jewellery and high-end fine pieces. The first-time business owner tells Aimee Shaw his business has doubled within that specific market segment.
What has your venture set out to achieve?
By Tonin started as a personal project of my wife and I. Mia is a creative person and artistically talented, and the brand originated as a canvas for her artwork, as well as a celebration of what jewellery means to us as a couple. We both shared the belief that jewellery is all about the memories, the milestones, and the feelings pieces can take us back to. Early on we had this very clear image in our mind of someone getting ready for their day and then putting on their favourite piece and having that wonderful feeling of ‘OK, I'm ready now’ - and that's the confidence and ritual we want to bring.
We noticed a lot of everyday brands lack that kind of intention that we want to bring. Websites feel very crowded with hundreds of designs to the extent it makes the experience feel a bit transactional, and we wanted to do the opposite to that. We wanted to offer a small range of products, selected designs that have a connection to us first, and give our customers the feel that they are receiving something that has been curated for them and is not being mass produced, and that’s why we started this journey.
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How much time and money have you invested?
Mia and I have been working behind the scenes since 2024 and we officially launched the brand in July 2025. We bootstrapped By Tonin from the ground up using our personal savings, and just before the official launch last year, Mia made the jump to focus on the business full-time. I carried on with my full-time corporate job in data and analytics, but dedicate my evenings and weekends to work on the business. It’s not just about financial investment, it's the sheer amount of time and sweat equity.
What’s the biggest challenge your business is facing?
The market right now is challenging. We’re seeing a massive surge in raw material costs, as well as the compounded cost-of-living crisis, so it's a challenging time to start a business.
In the last 12 months the price of gold went up 36% and the price of silver up around 129%, which are the two core materials that we work with, so it's a challenge industry-wide.
But at the same time I see this as an opportunity for us. This whole economic environment that we are in right now forces us to to build a resilient strategy from day one rather than relying on an easy market, so we're doubling down on the things that we can control, like our strategy around stock, offering a small but curated range. We have three collections, between 25 to 30 pieces.
Are you confident the market has space for another jewellery brand?
I’m really confident in the future, we’re putting everything into making By Tonin a success story. We believe the economy in general will recover in the next couple of months. People want to celebrate their milestones, they still want to create memories, and that is not going to change.
The market we operate in is demi-fine jewellery, a niche category that sits between fashion jewellery and luxury fine jewellery. Our pieces use a base of sterling silver and are finished with a thick layer of 18K gold, and this is essentially a combination that allows us to create the look and feel of solid gold, but at a price point that is more accessible than high-end luxury jewellery; it's still very high-quality jewellery, but something designed for daily wear.
What’s next for By Tonin?
We are celebrating our first anniversary next month, and we've got some exciting initiatives we are working on, including launching a new collection, our first venture into solid gold and lab grown diamonds. This will start a new phase for our brand; a piece of jewellery that will last forever because of the solid gold, so we want to tap more into that heirloom space so the piece can be handed down.
In three years’ time you will be …
When I look at the long term, or the next three years, we want to double down in the experiential side of the brand. Jewellery is a tactile and emotional accessory, and we want to invest in a physical space, whether through a curated pop-up store, and eventually a flagship store as well.
What’s one thing you wish you’d known before starting the business?
There were a lot of lessons in the first 12 months that we learned. One was the seasonality of the business, specific dates in the retail space that you've got to have your product and marketing strategy ready ‒ Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and end of the year are key dates in our calendar. Another we're still refining is how long does it take us for us to go from design to the finished product.
Understanding that seasonality is something that was really important for us, and we wish we knew it before launching.
Most helpful piece of advice you have ever received?
We were thinking about starting as sole traders to test the water and see how it went, then a person close to us guided us towards setting up as a company from the very beginning. At the time it felt like a big leap, but I have to say that it completely changed our mindset towards the business, and forced us to look at By Tonin as a serious, scalable brand, instead of just a hobby that we were doing on the side, so the bets advice is to have that long term mentality from the start.
If you would like your business to feature in The Small Business Project, email Aimee Shaw at aimee.shaw@stuff.co.nz