Alara is Co-Founder of EMILA, a UK based jewelery marketplace curated with high-end and contemporary designers from the Mediterranean. She is also a freelance journalist covering business, technology and startups.

Her morning routine

I try to wake up around 7am each day and start with a form of gratitude. Starting my day by acknowledging three things that’s positive in my life completely shifts my mindset. Many of us, including myself, are guilty of reaching for our phone the moment we open our eyes; however, just focusing on your own life and extending appreciation, no matter how small, has been such a key habit in my mornings. 

Apart from that, every day is quite different. If it's nice outside, I like to get some fresh air and go for a walk. I think especially during lockdown walking has been such a savior - it helps me mentally frame my day around what needs to be done. I always do the most difficult things first thing in the morning, or else I'll just put them off. 

On her information consumption

Working as a journalist over the years has taught me how to handle information consumption and differentiate between the facts and report from an unbiased opinion. This also makes researching the most important part of your work so that you can compartmentalize, and better understand different perspectives.

The way we consume information, what we take from the data and the facts, and how we put that into a story is really important––something that I've had to work on for a long time. Being a good storyteller starts with genuinely understanding what you’re working with.

Getting in front of the customer as a digital business

If you're a digital business, you need to get in front of the right people. People buy from people. I’ve learnt through experience that it’s really important to not only have all the visual esthetics, but also to actually know your values and why you started your business. Being able to send that message through each touchpoint with your customers is key.

On creating a marketplace

When we started EMILA, we knew that we wanted to be a multi-brand jewelry platform, curating designers and smaller brands from the Mediterranean and also globally. First things first, we got our site up and running using Shopify.

Before we launched, we engaged the market to see if these brands were interested in our concept. My recommendation to any entrepreneur would be to test your minimum viable product and see if there is a market for what you want to do. Understand if there’s an interest before you launch your business or brand.

We approached brands that we wanted to work with and said, this is what we're thinking of creating in the UK, and we'd love to have you on onboard. All the brands we reached out to were like “absolutely, these are our terms, can you just let us know your terms.” My business partner and I sat down to create our terms specifically for our business and how we wanted to scale and grow in the future. It's important to understand that no two businesses are the same, and creating your business terms is the foundation of how your business will operate going forward.

So, my business partner and I sat down and wrote out a contract with the terms and conditions for the brands we’d be working with. We launched with a couple of brands from Istanbul, and it did really well. Once we saw the interest, the next key step was to scale by investing into the business. This stage can sometimes be difficult and quite scary, because you don't know when you'll get that investment back, if at all. But if you truly believe in the business you have to take that leap of faith and drive it to the next level. We’re now growing month-over-month and it’s a really exciting time for us to be scaling a business.

EMILA’s ethos

We always try to get to know the brands we work with, deeper than just their jewelry collection. We can only work with people we feel close to, whose values align with ours, so we like to get to know more about their team and designers. 

We want to stay far from transactional relationships, and focus more on nurturing deep,  authentic relationships with the brands that we do work with. This is something that we will always keep close to the business as we scale. 

Breaking dreams down to actionable steps

In order to scale a business successfully it's really important to have a plan in terms of milestones and tangible KPIs to accomplish. I find it therapeutic to write these down and have it in front of you visually, not on a laptop or your phone, but actually on a piece of paper. It’s great to brainstorm and ideate, but it's also important to be actionable by focusing on one thing and seeing progress and growth from it. 

For example, if our goal is to work with 20 new designers then we would start with understanding what that would look like when you break it down into a daily process. Or if our goal is to grow our social media platforms, what does that mean on a day to day basis? Does that mean posting more, engaging with more people or experimenting with your strategy? Really understanding your business, its drivers, and being able to make key decisions each day towards your vision is just as important, if not more, than dreaming your vision. 

On the people she's learned most from

My parents. My mom is really motivating when it comes to business, she really knows the ins and outs of the logistics of building a business. So, in terms of making key decisions, she’s the one I’ll often turn to because of her straightforwardness. My dad, on the other hand, is super emotional and has a unique way of understanding people. If I ever have something on my mind, he'll help me arrive at an answer by thinking much deeper than what’s on the surface.

I'm also constantly learning and motivated by those close to me. I've learnt that being a good listener is also extremely important in business - I've interviewed a lot of people as a journalist and the most important aspect for me is to listen and learn something new from each individual I speak to.

On challenging the norm

Over the years I've challenged what a traditional career path looks like. A belief that many of us may have is that the traditional path to success means having a good job and working for a good company, and that's enough to make those around you proud of what you do. Whilst yes, to an extent that is true, if your work is not fulfilling you mentally, challenging you, and if it's not something you wake up and want to do, that's quite dysfunctional.

It’s not just about where you work or what you do. I've met some incredible people who have had very unconventional career paths––and they're extremely successful and interesting people. In terms of the path that everyone thinks that they should be on, they graduate, and they have to get a job, and hit a certain milestone by a specific age is quite a dysfunctional belief to have. I hope the younger generations steer away from that. There’s a lot of paths to success - you just need to find yours. 

On the essentials we’re under-investing in 

Mental health. I know a lot of people can make their life look perfect on the outside, but when you really start talking to them, you quickly realize that's not the case. 

We need to invest more in exploring ways to improve mental health through daily fulfillment, whether that be by means of what they spend their time doing or who they spend time with. One of my favorite sayings is “you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”