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Clear Cut Founder Shares How Her Diamond Business Reached $1 Million In Sales Per Month

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Weddings, even during the pandemic, still symbolize hope, joy and love. Everything from the perfect dress to the picturesque venue to the memorable engagement gives couples moments to remember. Although the wedding industry experienced a loss in 2020, The Knot reported that the 2020 national average cost of a wedding was $19,000, a drop from 2019’s average wedding cost of $28,000. Now, factor in the cost of the engagement ring. According to The Knot 2020 Jewelry and Engagement Study, the average cost of an engagement ring is currently $5,500. But it’s just not about the cost of the ring. It’s about the right cut of the diamond, the style and the size.

Olivia Landau, founder and CEO of The Clear Cut, a NY-based direct-to-consumer brand known for specializing in diamond engagement rings and fine jewelry, helps couples design their diamonds and educates them on the process. 

“The diamond industry, in general, has always had a reputation for being a bit more opaque,” Landau states. “You don’t really know what the prices should be, or what qualities are, and a lot of information is held from the customer. That doesn’t cater to this generation, and it wouldn’t cater to me as a client. From the get-go, The Clear Cut in its name encompasses transparencies. It was always education first and putting out as much information and minute details as possible to give our consumers the power to feel like they’re making an informed decision.”

What started out as an informational diamond blog morphed into an Instagram ecommerce store; 70% of sales are done directly through Instagram. In 2019, the company tripled its sales and sold a $200,000 engagement ring. The brand had more sales in Q3 of 2020 than all of 2018 combined. Landau and her team also celebrated a milestone of reaching $1 million in sales a month. 

As a fourth-generation jeweler, Landau grew up learning about the diamond industry. Although they had their own antique jewelry store, her father and mother advised her to never go into the industry because there was no future in it. She always had fun dressing up with the jewelry but never saw this as a career path. 

Landau attended New York University with the vision of working in media or fashion. Through various internships in fashion media, she realized that was not what she wanted to pursue. In search of continuing her education, she applied to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), which is the industry standard for diamond grading. She started working at Tiffany & Co. in the engagement department while attending school.

She met her now-husband and cofounder, Kyle Simon, who had founded a fair trade diamond mine in Africa. Due to the Ebola crisis, he returned home and attended graduate school. As his friends at school prepared to propose to their significant others, they would ask Simon about what type of diamonds to purchase. Simon referred them to Landau. 

“I would educate them, walk them through how to pick their diamond and design their ring,” Landau shares. “From that, I realized that most people were super lost. They didn’t know the first thing about buying a diamond. That’s what led me to ultimately start The Clear Cut as an educational blog, mainly geared for just like our friends and Kyle’s classmates to read about the do’s and don’ts before coming to work with me.” 

From the blog, she started the Instagram account to feature some of the rings she designed. As her audience’s interest grew, that’s when the business launched. 

“At that time,” Landau smiles, “I was really focused on getting people to read the blog and educate themselves. I was interviewing other people in the industry. I had a full-time job at the time. I didn’t go into it with an entrepreneurial mindset that I would start a business. Naturally, people started following the account. Strangers started DMing me, asking if I could also make their rings. I started making things for people across the country as a side hustle.”

After two years of treating The Clear Cut as a side hustle, Landau realized that she wasn’t dedicating the appropriate amount of time to either her full-time job or her growing business. Simon became her cheerleader to focus solely on The Clear Cut. In 2018, Landau and Simon were accepted into an accelerator program through TechStars. 

Over the past year, Landau made an effort to pioneer the diversity and inclusion efforts at her organization and within the industry. The company launched The Clear Cut Scholarship Fund, which sponsors the tuition for a BIPOC woman who has demonstrated desire to work in the industry to attend the GIA graduate diamond program each term. Additionally, the scholarship offers a six-month paid internship at The Clear Cut. 

As Landau expands her company, she focuses on the following essential steps:

  • Lay the groundwork. Gain as much experience as possible before jumping in full-time.
  • Make the first move. Don’t the fear hold you back; let your excitement and curiosity drive you to take that initial step.
  • Understand that you may have to take a lower position than the one you’re at now. That’s ok. You’re in the growing phase of achieving your goals. 

“Don’t underestimate yourself,” Landau concludes. “Know that everyone else feels like an imposter as well. Feel confident in whatever you’re building and that whatever skills you have. ... Now more than ever, it’s better to be a female entrepreneur. There are so many more resources, so many more mentorship programs and so many more networks.”

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