Reinventing the Family Business To Achieve the Couple’s Goals, Chat With Vega Chang

Yasi: So, welcome to Fast Track Podcast, Vega.

Vega Chang: Hi Yasi. Thank you very much for having me. I’m thrilled to be part of your Podcast as I have been a big fan ever since the first episode.

Yasi: Thank you so much. And I’m curious more about your Jade business and your international career and from like traditional corporate world now inheriting a family business. So let me start with my first question. I know that you’re running a Jade Artisan, but I want to know how you decided to give up like 14 years working in the consumer electronics industry and take over your parents’ business.

What is that turning point that made you go this way?

Vega Chang: Well, I think to give up is a very big word. I think it’s more about focusing on different priorities at different stages of your life, which is a very natural evolution for me personally. I always work in the corporate world since I graduated from college.

And as you know, my parents used to run a few antique shops in Taiwan, where they saw Chinese antique, like vase painting, teapot, jet jewelry, et cetera. And I actually never thought of taking it over even I’m the only child in the family. And when I got married two years ago, my parents get me some really nice Jade jewelry as wedding presents.

My husband Will is from England, and it was his first time seeing this type of gemstone, and he was totally amazed. He was like, Oh, these are really beautiful jewelry. And every piece has a very unique story behind it, how come you never thought of taking it over from your parents? And I was like, this is old fashion stuff, nobody likes it, is so boring, et cetera.

And then he was like, no, not at all, this is definitely interesting for some of the international audience. And there are always some people who are after this, like unique and special jewelry, which has a special meaning. And at that point, it really planted a seed in my head and made me start taking this idea more seriously because I could see this from a totally different perspective.

And shortly after we got married, together we made a five-year plan. We talk about what we want to achieve, and then we clarify what are the critical things for us as a couple to focus on, as a couple and as individuals, and we really set goals and strategy to achieve them. And during that process, really by coincidence, we both wanted to grow a side business in the next couple of years.

So then one day, if we wanted to leave our corporate job, we will have the option to do so. And we started doing a lot of research on our ideas, and then we start to realize that, actually, the best low-hanging fruit is to do this. Jade jewelry business from my parents because we already have a lot of knowledge, resources, and connections to make it work.

So it’s kind of a long story short, how we started this idea of getting into this Jade business.

Yasi: Well, I liked the fact that you and a husband planned together, so you have incorporated this career transition as a family. So I really liked that part. Can you explain a little bit more, how did it impact you as a couple? How did you actually go through the planning process?

Vega Chang: So the five-year plan sounds like a big word. Actually, the idea is coming from a very good friend of mine, Matthias, who you actually interviewed during the second episode. Once, you wrote an article about how he and his wife did a five-year plan together and how they have been keeping track and adjust along the way as they evolve from a couple to now a family of four.

So the concept is actually very simple. So, you both write down what you want to achieve in the next five years, and you reconcile and prioritize them according to the five-year timeframe. And then, you make some action plans and strategies to achieve each goal. So it’s actually a very, very simple concept, and it all sounds very nice and making a lot of sense, but you will be really surprised that not many couples actually have done it or even discussed it.

So a lot of us just live the day-to-day and get really caught up by the routines. And it’s very easy to let things go even when we know that it’s very important. So the impact on us as a couple, I think we feel the connection and bonding between us was becoming stronger because we better understood each other’s streams, which I think not many couples actually spend quality time doing that.

And I think during that process, after that as well, we have more conviction of things, what we wanted to achieve. So, for example, we have the idea of creating a side business. At that point, we don’t know what that could be, but what we know is that, okay, we want it to grow longer terms so we can have the option to leave our corporate job if one day we choose to do so.

And then we arrived at this idea of okay, taking over my parents’ business. It makes a lot of sense after all the research that we have done. And then also emotionally it was very meaningful for me because finally, I’m kind of taking it over, as a very nice heritage from my parents.

Yasi: And did you start this Jade artisan from scratch? Like you reinvented it, or you learned it from your parents and then took it over and modified it a little bit?

Vega Chang: Yes and no. So I was brought up in this business. My parents, they used to have shops in Taiwan ever since 1989, but by no means I would describe myself as a gemstone expert. They taught me a lot of things from their 30 year-experience.

And there are still a lot of things for me to learn. However, when we bring this business, now we take it over. It’s very different from their generation because we are bringing it to a digital world and to social media, which doesn’t exist 30 or 40 years ago. So for me, this entrepreneurship journey is really about knowing your strength, having access to the skills that you need to make to make your business work. So, for example, within the family, we know how to design, we know how to produce Jade. We know how to produce the products, we have the knowledge of digital marketing, for example, from my husband. But there’s always some gap because we cannot know everything and believe it or not, sometimes we have to hire an hourly consulting service on Fiverr, I don’t know if you know this website where you can get advice from people who have different expertise in any sort of field.

And sometimes, when we want to solve a problem quickly, we go there to find a quick solution. So, for example, none of us is a good videographer, and we try to find a local influencer to help us to fill the gap.

And this is really how you get resources from where you can get to fill the gap when you run a small business.

Yasi: This is how to become an entrepreneur, basically.

Yeah. I saw your website, it is very beautifully done.

And also your social media, it looks very fashion, high-end and beautiful.

Vega Chang: Thank you.

Yasi: How is it like running a family business? Do you feel that you are under pressure just to keep it going? Because it’s not the same as you’re running a side hustle with your husband on any random topic or business, this is like you carry over from your parents.

Vega Chang: Yeah. So, I know. Well, the pressure, I think, is not so much of running the family business. I think because we both know that this is part of our five-year plan. This is our decision as a couple to make this work for the longer term. But obviously, it doesn’t mean that it’s always a walk in the park. You know, my parents sometimes, and we always have a clash on many different topics because we have different ways of working, we have a different way of looking at the business and social media or digital world didn’t exist at their time. So, we always have different ideas of how things should get done. And with my husband, actually, he has a full-time job to focus on Monday to Friday, and he could only help me over the weekend.

And throughout this journey, sometimes we put in some friends who help us without getting paid, and the challenge of working with your own friends without paying them is that you can’t really tighten up with deadlines because they actually have other life priorities. So I guess the overall pressure is not so much of running a family business, but more of running a business with very limited resources and try to maximize the results.

Yasi: It’s so understandable. All the entrepreneurs out there, when you listen to what Vega just said, I’m sure you will agree with her 100%.

Vega Chang: I think, I guess.

Yasi: Yeah, for all startups. Yesterday I was recording a video with my co-founders, and we talk about doing marketing for startups, and yeah, this is a common problem we’ve seen in the industry. You just have limited resources.

Besides limited resources, I want to ask the other challenge about selling Jade jewelry outside of Asia, because, for the audience who might not have known that Jade is traditional, like the decorative piece as a jewelry in many Asian countries, but not so much in the Western world.

So how is it like for you to sell this jewelry to other parts of the world?

Vega Chang: That’s a very good question. So in Asia, people are more familiar with Jade and Jade jewelry. So our challenge is to build credibility and to build trust in our brand. Outside of Asia, we clearly need to do that as well, but more importantly, we need to provide a lot of educational pieces about Jade because people that are not familiar with this gemstone always thought, okay, Jade, meaning green.

But that is not always the case, actually Jade can come in many different colors. So the challenge is really to know your audience well and create a different communication strategy accordingly. So I’ll give you an example. So one of our collections is called the Precious collection, and the design is around a hand holding a ball.

I mean, literally is like that before, the Asian culture is actually a Buddha’s hand holding a Pearl in his or her hand, and a story behind it is not. Okay, in English, there is this saying called you are the apple in my eye, in Chinese, we say, you are the Pearl in my hand. It literally means the same thing.

So the storytelling becomes really critical to the Western audience because they didn’t understand what it means to have a hand holding a ball, but then you tell them that, okay, this is exactly the same meaning to show that someone is very precious to you. Then they certainly get it, and then it becomes a very meaningful and interesting piece to them.

Yasi: This is so interesting because I never thought about that. You’re correct, you’re the Apple in my mind and a pearl in my hand. And now we talk about Jade because a lot of pieces, the way how it is designed and the meaning, it carries almost always, always has a certain story behind it as part of the culture. And now you need to translate this cultural element’s meaning to the international market.

It’s challenging, it’s difficult, right?

Vega Chang: It is. And it’s very interesting also along the way. And my husband is always my Guinea pig. I will try to like try my storytelling on him first. And if it gets it, then I’ll feel much more confident that, okay. I think I can sell this to other people.

Yasi: But it’s also interesting because it has this a little bit exotic and mystique feeling attached to Jade.

But since it’s not so widely accessible in the Western world, if you are bringing it online, yeah, then everyone can buy it from your shop. It’s Jadeartisan.com.

Vega Chang: Correct. Exactly.

Yasi: What are the biggest lessons you learned after becoming an entrepreneur?

Vega Chang: Ah, good, very good question. I think the most important thing is that you have to believe in yourself.

It’s definitely not an easy journey, but I don’t think it necessarily is harder in a corporate world. I think we just have different sorts of challenges, and you just have to have faith in yourself and make a very solid plan and stick to it. And obviously, you learn, you adjust along the way. And you have to test and test and tests, you know, like for example, I, or nor my husband, we are like Facebook advertising experts.

So we have to test many things: we have to test the caption, we have to test the image, we have to test the video to see what resonates, right? And you just have to be patient along the journey and don’t be shy to ask for help. Sometimes we ask for help from our relatives, our friends, sometimes, as I mentioned before, we go to some websites and get hourly consulting services and get help from people who actually have the expertise.

So I think many people, they could lose themselves, lose their idea or forget about their plan along the way. And I think it’s super important that you have that faith in yourself and carry on and focus on the bigger picture.

Yasi: And that’s so true. There are so many lessons that you can learn it being an entrepreneur, just it’s endless.

And what are the types of Jades in the market? Just for the audience, you know, a little bit of education. Yes, it’s green, what are the other options? So what are the other types?

Vega Chang: So, they are many different colors of Jade, there are white Jade, there are purple Jade, there are yellow Jade. So they all come in different colors because as a Jade was naturally formed, there are different chemicals kind actually get into the gemstone.

That’s why they reflect different colors. And actually, you will be surprised that actually many countries in the world produce Jade. Some people, they know that Myanmar Jade is very famous, but actually in the United States, in Russia, in even in Japan or in New Zealand, many places actually produce Jade, like China as well, but people don’t know much about it.

And the thought like Jade from Myanmar is the only true and real Jade, but it’s actually not the case. So I think there are many options in the market and that you can choose from. You just have to make sure that you choose from a trustworthy source.

Yasi: Is there a certificate attached to Jade, how people know it is a real one or a quality one?

Vega Chang: So, if you first pick up a Jade, if it feels cold in your hand, it normally is real. If you feel no temperature like plastic, then it is usually fake. And second, you can look at the Jade, if you only see one color, then it’s usually plastic or with some color injection as well. But if you see some color variation, sometimes it’s a bit lighter, sometimes some angle is a bit darker and is a bit transparent, and sometimes it’s a bit less so because it’s naturally formed. So then the color, the color variation actually changes as you look at it from a different angle with a light source. So real high-quality Jade will have this variation.

And lastly, if you place it on a light source, the lights will actually bounce off it. It’s like a light bounce of water. So, if you place it under a light, it’s most likely to be a real piece. But of course, if you don’t trust your own judgment, you can always buy from a trustworthy source, like Jade artisan, for example.

Yasi: Yeah. Where do you source your Jade?

Vega Chang: So, we buy our Jade normally from Myanmar and China.

Yasi: Aha, okay. Yeah. It’s a family business. So, your family has been doing it for so many years.

Vega Chang: Yeah, exactly. So, my parents, they used to go to these two countries often, and they have a connection there, so we just leveraged the existing connection to buy Jade from these places.

Yasi: And did you design the pieces yourself, or you work with other designers?

Vega Chang: So, sometimes I would draw some ideas, and, of course, I will have to meet with a decorator, like who usually put 18k gold or silver on top of it, and then we have to discuss, and then we will draw together and try to do some experiment to make sure that okay, what comes out is how we wanted.

So the communication is really key to make sure that every centimeter or even down to millimeter is precise because it’s a very small piece of object.

Yasi: And is it done manually or with small tools and machines, how is each piece produced?

Vega Chang: Yeah, so it’s all done manually.

So, because all the Jade or gemstones that we use, they are naturally formed, so because they are naturally formed, for each piece, the color is different. So even if we put them, we sculptor them in the same shape or same design, they will still look different because the color was formed naturally different.

And when we put gold or silver around it or any sort of material around it, it has to be handmade. So it’s a very heavy craftsmanship kind of work that we are doing behind the scenes.

Yasi: Yeah. I saw on your website, you have now pieces that appear to more than female, cause, you know, in my mind, Jade is really old fashioned that you always have this design that was Buddha or with elements related to Buddha or with animals.

So I always find it’s very old-fashioned. So I liked that how you modify the design a little bit and appear to modern females or modern shoppers.

Vega Chang: Thank you so much. It’s really flattering to hear that.

Yasi: But it’s true, right? In the past, if you receive Jade jewelry from your family or people buy it, it’s always a similar design, this Buddha, Buddha’s hand or this rabbit, or this, I don’t know, peach or something like has a meaning with prosperity or blessing. It’s more like a religious piece rather than a decorative piece.

Vega Chang: I think most of the Jade jewelry, they are designed with a good meaning behind, you know, good luck or fortune, good prosperity. There’s usually some good story behind it, and I think what makes us different from some of our competition is to really communicate that story.

So that’s what I said storytelling to our audience is very important. We explained to them why it is like this and why Jade comes in different colors, and how do you tell if your Jade is real or fake, et cetera. So this kind of things built our credibility over time.

Yasi: And you told me that you injected this new idea of UX design framework into this traditional business from your parents. What is your plan?

Vega Chang: So, I used to work in a corporate world, and my expertise is around product development. So we often use the design thinking process in our user experience design framework. So it’s actually a very simple five steps.

So, the first step is to empathize. And second is to define, and the third is to ideate, and then you prototype it, and then you test.

So for us, the first step is to actually understand, empathize with our target audience. So as a small startup, there are many tools that we can use, right? We can use Survey Monkey, for example, we can interview our friends and family, we can run a small focus group with maybe our neighbors or our community. So all these things really help us to understand what people like or what people want or what people wanted to achieve when they are buying a piece of jewelry.

And then, we then have to define based on what they are telling us, we define the unmet needs. So, what they are trying to do, but couldn’t achieve today, maybe they don’t have the right source to understand how to buy from a credible source, or they don’t understand the story, or they don’t trust whatever story they are reading from the internet.

And then, with our designer, we ideate and design that resonates with our target audience. So, for example, some people were telling us, I want the green, look like a moon, and then we have to identify this need based on what we are hearing and try to estimate if this is a sizable business opportunity.

And once we decide that, okay, this is an opportunity worth pursuing, then we will test with the design, with our drawing, and then if it’s making sense, then we can then produce accordingly. So I think it’s a very simple process that you can basically apply to any business or any industry.

Yasi: Yeah. Interesting. Before I interviewed TypeWise CEO, he started this privacy keyboard, he also mentioned that they did this project management scrum master. So even though it was widely used in the tech industry, big companies, but he used it for their own startup productive elements, which also quite useful.

So this is how, what you did, right, like implement the framework into a business. And earlier you mentioned that you know, when you take over your family’s business, or you work with parents, you always had like clashes. So who’s making the final decision?

Vega Chang: Well, now it’s mostly me or together with my husband, because now we are putting our own investment into it, and we mostly focus on a digital channel and e-commerce. So I think a lot of things we trust our own judgment or the advice that we get from our expert that we hire. So a lot of time is actually us have to make that decision, and then obviously we have to be accountable for the result and take full responsibility for it.

Yasi: It’s a relief, right? Every time he made a decision, I have to communicate with the last generation, for the digital world was complicated. So

Vega Chang: Exactly.

Yasi: Thank you so much for being here today. I’m really enjoying listening to your story and learning more about Jade. Now I see it from a new perspective, to me, it was old-fashioned as well.

So now, based on your website, your pieces, your designs, I see it differently, very beautiful. So I hope the audience can take a look at your website, it’s Jadeartisan.com.

Vega Chang: Yeah.

Yasi: And I’ll put that link in the show notes if someone’s interested in gifting a meaningful piece of Jade to their family members and loved ones, I think it is a great option.

Vega Chang: Thank you so much for having me today. It’s really a great honor.