Crystals, Gems & Stones not just help a person & an individual as a luxury or fashion items but are also equally important part of our astrology.
There are many gems & stones which are our birth stones and play a very important role in our life for holistic point of view. Many Astrologers suggest people to wear their birthstones with a proper process and rituals.
While buying stones & gems, we must always focus on the quality of the stones. Most important part in deciding the cost, quality of a stone is the place of its origin, its cut, shape, color & clarity.
Meet David Cropley who has a passion for gems, crystals & gemstone. He is not just a dealer of gemstone but also a person with a passion, obsession for stones & gems.
David Cropley the proud owner of Completely Crystals Limited is one of the largest dealers for all kind of gems, crystals and stones in the UK market.
His stones & gems are not just in demand in UK but entire Europe and other continents like Australia. In his business circle, he is better knows as gemstone king. He strongly believes in Holistic Healing and his stones are much more in demand as gifts.
Let us explore his venture, his entrepreneurship journey and more specifically his love for the crystals and stones.
1.What is the Name of Your Venture?
Completely Crystals Limited
2.Who is your target Audience?
Everyone with an interest in Crystals, Holistic Healing, Aromatherapy and Gifts.
3.Where is your venture based ( city, state, country) & What are your target areas?
Poole, Dorset, United Kingdom. We sell mainly to the UK but also worldwide., in particular, France and Australia.
4.What problems does your venture solve? What are your products or services.
We provide affordable crystals to the world, with a large choice of gift ideas too.
5.Share the idea or story behind the venture. How did it come to an existence?
My partner had an interest in crystals and I was looking to start an online business as I am trained in Computer Science and did well in business subjects.
6.How did you identify your co-founder?
Although I am the original founder, you could say my partner is part of the inspiration.
7.What expansion plans are you looking for the next 2 years, next 5 years?
We are looking to greatly increase our inventory to provide even more choice, particularly in the area of crystal minerals. We also hope to increase public awareness of our company.
8.Where do you want to see yourself in next 5 years?
As a bigger company, employing more people (we love investing in people). Although we don’t have much in the way of resident staff, we do employ a few people from India and other locations for programming and data entry work.
9.Have you raised any funding? Or have any plans for the funding?
We have not raised any funding as we are reluctant to hand over any ownership to investors. We would much rather hold full control unless there was an over-ruling reason to do otherwise.
10.What were the problems you faced during the starting days and how did you resolve them?
Initial website creation was hard until we discovered an open source e-commerce cart with the help of our domain hosting company. From then we stuck in and worked on growing our range, subject knowledge and marketplace visibility.
11.Are you married, single or in a relationship?
In a loving relationship.
12.What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?
I love to listen to music and to read fiction or learn about new things.
13.Whats your favorite food & holiday destination?
I love Italian food. Climbing the Eiffel Tower on my birthday was great! Any place with hot weather is good!
14.Whom do you consider your idol or biggest motivator?
Sir Clive Sinclair – although he did not achieve much fame or fortune, he did break barriers in terms of what is possible in a very subtle way.
15.What do you feel is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else?
To be an Entrepreneur you have to take risks with time and money that most people who work for someone else simply would not do.
16.If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
Start my own business from as early an age as possible, one thing that can be frustrating is that it can take time to really grow a business and to learn some of the pitfalls as an Entrepreneur. There are always some things in life that you can never be prepared for, but if there is something there telling you to do this when you are younger, I would say that good things will come of it in time. It is still possible to build an Empire at a later stage in life though as your knowledge of working systems is better and setbacks can be easier to cope with. Maybe there are less distractions too!!
17.How has being an entrepreneur affected your family & Social life?
It is nice to be able to put a hold on things as a boss when you want to, that is something you don’t get sometimes when you work for someone else. Socially I am the same – still a hermit!
18.Anything, you would like to say to our readers or upcoming entrepreneurs?
Some people think being an Entrepreneur is about doing everything by yourself, I certainly felt that when I started out. Eventually you realise it’s not a one man band and you need other people to complete the jigsaw puzzle. It also makes you realise how big companies work. I’d say also that every failure you make is key to a new beginning in the next chapter of you Entrepreneurial book and you really will be all the more wiser from your lesson learnt.
19.Tell us something about your education & family background.
I went to a grammar school where I got 98% in my A-level Computer Science and did well in other subjects. I studied a degree in Computer Science but took ten years to graduate due to a period of ill health. I qualified with an Aegrotat degree qualification.
20.What is your USP which makes it unique & different from other start-ups in similar domains.
We focus on giving real value to our customers, from sourcing high quality products, to the best possible and most friendly customer service we can give. We work our best to keep prices affordable for all budgets. We strive to improve customer satisfaction by making a visually pleasing, usable interactive website and to share positive success experiences with our staff and business partners.
21.Please share complete name, address, phone number, email id & website of Your Business & Contact Person
David Cropley BSc. (Hons.)
Founder and Managing Director
Company phone: 0800 9755916
Address: 2 Hermitage Road, Parkstone, Poole, Dorset, BH14 0QQ.
Email : [email protected]
Website: www.completelycrystals.com
