For a local inventor, hopeful of entering the jewellery trade, there could be more money in a device that looks like a modified coathanger than there is in gold and diamonds.
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Local inventor and aspiring entrepreneur Rachel Chippendale won the central western category of the NSW BizStar competition on Tuesday.
Her invention, a jewellery display hanger that prevents tangling and damage, impressed the judges and had executives from eBay and Australia Post keen to get in her ear about the potential of her invention.
But it was not the invention alone that won her the judges’ acclaim. The 26-year-old has been a jewellery maker for 10 years and will launch her own business next month.
Her long term business and marketing plans to drive her online business were key factors in her win.
She took home more than $6000 worth of prizes, all geared towards helping her get her business of the ground.
Her website, www.rubyscloset.
com.au will open on October 11, when she will launch the business at the Sydney Bead and Gem Show.
It now has her even more excited about her prospects as a business woman.
“It just gives you so much more confidence when you’ve got executives from eBay and Australia Post telling you how well your product is going to go,” she said.
However there is some question of exactly who invented the hanger.
“My mum still thinks she invented it,” she said. “I used to put jewellery on coathangers but they would get over weighed and fall over.”
To fix the problem she visited manufacturing plants in Europe, had her brother build a her prototype before an engineer put the final touches on her invention.
