At 23-years-old, Tiffany Meerovitsch is the leader in bringing style and precision to Swiss-made watches. Inspired by her watchmaker father, she started her own watch company – NOVE – which is now in its 5th year of business, manufacturing watch collections that can be worn by both men and women.
Where did the idea for NOVE come from?
Tiffany Meerovitsch: I had been sitting in my dad’s office, watching designs come in and out and the discussions being held about improvements to every single detail of a watch preparing for its final production for as long as I can remember. When I was 18, I thought “Why did we have all these beautiful designs and they all belong to another brand? Why couldn’t these designs be stamped with our names, something that we could be proud of!” I wanted to do that, I wanted to create beautiful artworks of time, and have that sense of pride in holding our vision of what a watch could look like. All the years that my dad’s company’s designs were represented by other brands, it was time to create our own line. Having renowned designers on our team we knew we had the capabilities to do it, and design is endless, it can be whatever we wanted it to be… new, innovative. That’s where the idea of NOVE started. Design is endless, it can be whatever you want it to be, and we wanted new, innovative design. The evolution of where it is today, is ever changing, and it’s exactly what I started NOVE to accomplish. We are new and we have no pressures of massive overheads and we can talk to our customers, and take their comments to our future designs, like the Trident Automatic.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
Tiffany Meerovitsch: First thing is coffee. I walk my dog most mornings to get my day going, I answer my emails, communicate with customers and fans, which has given me a lot of inspiration. I work closely with my team, they’re really great, so it’s easy to be productive working with them, and bouncing ideas off each other.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Tiffany Meerovitsch: They start with magazine strips of pictures or artworks, an example of one of our very first inspirations started with pictures like these:
I bring it to the design team, and they come up with sketches, and we develop those sketches to digital renderings where we can see every aspect of sizing, design, aesthetic to then having them come to life as 3D printed models. That’s when we can really make fine tuning decisions to changes, such as dimensions if needed. Once the concept is confirmed it gets passed onto the R&D department, where the magic happens, bringing the concept to life.
What’s one trend that excites you?
Tiffany Meerovitsch: I think this year, is the year of digital. Everything is through zoom, everyone is on social media, and online. The benefit of B2C is the exposure that we get now, and E-Commerce is growing rapidly. It’s a golden opportunity to develop our online business and increase brand awareness, with the hopes of expanding very soon.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
Tiffany Meerovitsch: I walk my dog every morning, it gets my day going, and it really helps with keeping me active throughout the day.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Tiffany Meerovitsch: Don’t focus on the little things, focus on the bigger picture. Don’t let insecurity and hate bring you down and make you feel like you’re not smart. Be loud, don’t let the fear of sounding unintelligent let you hesitate pitching ideas.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
Tiffany Meerovitsch: Being as young as I am, getting the support I needed to start the company, I was told countless times to explore and do the things I wanted to do while I was young. But I was willing to take the chance the failures and learn from the whole experience rather than it just be a job.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Tiffany Meerovitsch: Listen to your customer, they are telling you something they want! And they never stop surprising you!
Listen to your team, they put their efforts in to see your business succeed, keep open communication.
Never stop learning, I am still studying and taking courses that I feel would better myself every day.
And to be humble.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
Tiffany Meerovitsch: One major growth to the business was our entry to Social media advertising and influencers helping gain awareness to our brand. Through YouTube reviewers we contact as many as we can to encourage as many honest reviews as we can get, and this has helped us gain a lot of attention and affinity to the brand.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
Tiffany Meerovitsch: I’m still quite new in this industry so everything that has happened since the beginning are all things that can be learnt and improved on, so it’s all about what have I taken away from my day to day to prepare for NOVE’s future. Creating designs and investing time and money into development just to realise the final sample didn’t turn out to be of NOVE’s level of design and ingenuity, can be some of the biggest frustrations we have as a company, but It’s never a failure, if we can improve on a product or even learn from it.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Tiffany Meerovitsch: E-Comm Logistics/Fulfillment. Considering as the world is changing and ecommerce is playing a bigger role of multiple brands strategies, so demand will be quite high in the coming years.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
Tiffany Meerovitsch: We just recently donated to The Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef, which is a nonprofit organization that is helping the coral reefs of the Great Barrier Reef. Which is so important to the underwater ecosystem. We have a social responsibility to help as much as we can, as NOVE, we now have the capabilities to do our part to help.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?
Tiffany Meerovitsch: Monday.com, a great collaborative tasks platform, that just makes tasks look fun.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
Tiffany Meerovitsch: The Almighty Dollar by Dharshini David, it’s a great book, it’s interesting to read about how the US dollar affects the world.
What is your favorite quote?
Tiffany Meerovitsch: “Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.” – Dalai Lama
Key Learnings:
Tiffany Meerovitsch:
- We wanted NOVE to be our companies face to the beautiful products that we create.
- With no pressures or commitments to partners and as a small company, it’s extremely efficient when it comes to making decisions. This is a benefit to a startup business, that we can keep our margins low.
- Communication throughout teams in your company is the most effective way to solving any issue your business faces.
