Why Samantha Wills is “going out on a high” and closing down her $10 million jewellery brand

For Samantha Wills, the decision to close her nearly 15-year-old eponymous jewellery brand was in part inspired by the "Seinfeld model", with the young founder saying she wanted to "Go out on a high" Wills started the business off the back of $80,000 in credit card debt and first sold her jewellery from a couple of stalls at the Bondi Markets in the early 2000s The Samantha Wills jewellery business will shut down in January 2019, but the founder's other ventures - including Samantha Wills Bridal and the Samantha Wills Foundation, which has a mission of supporting and inspiring women in business - will continue.

Wills says she did consider selling the popular jewellery brand, but that decision revolved somewhat around the name of the brand itself "In the last 15 years many people have asked what my exit strategy was, and if I had one And to be honest, if I had named the brand anything other than Samantha Wills, I would have one," she says.

Despite the name stymying any potential sale, she says she doesn't regret naming the brand Samantha Wills, with her goals for running a business never being about money Starting back in 2004, one of the biggest changes Wills says she's seen in the jewellery industry is the increase in number of "Costume jewellery chain stores", which she thinks the market became oversaturated with midway through her business's journey. . Source