Cha Jewels began with a love for gold jewelry—and my husband’s annual bonus disappearing a little too quickly.
Looking back, I can laugh about it. At the time, my husband certainly wasn’t laughing!
January 2021: The Shopping Trip That Changed Everything
In 2020, I started collecting gold jewelry again. My husband was working as an Incident Manager at Rakuten Mobile.
Then, in January 2021, I was invited to attend a jewelry fair in Odaiba, Japan. We had just received his annual bonus.
Surrounded by beautiful necklaces, bracelets, rings, and so many pieces I wanted to bring home, I got carried away.
In what felt like one blink, the bonus was gone.
I came home with jewelry, but no convincing explanation for how the money had disappeared so quickly.
My husband was understandably upset. It was the pandemic, and he worried about how we would cover our needs in the coming months.
He even told me he might make me eat the jewelry I had bought!
Behind that memorable line was a serious lesson: loving jewelry did not excuse spending without considering our family’s budget.
I knew I had to take responsibility. So, I decided to try selling.
February 14, 2021: My First Live
I still remember my first live selling session with a supplier on February 14, 2021.
I was nervous and shy. I had no experience presenting jewelry, and I didn’t know what to say or how to explain the pieces confidently.
But I started anyway.
Thankfully, friends and relatives supported me immediately. Those first purchases gave me the courage to continue.
One livestream became many. One sale became another.
What began as an attempt to recover the money I had spent gradually became a business I operated as a sole proprietor.
During the pandemic, many people were staying home, and live selling became a way to shop and connect. For us, it became a place to build relationships with customers near and far.
Layaway Became Our Foundation
From the beginning, we positioned Cha Jewels around layaway, allowing customers to plan their jewelry purchases through scheduled payments, with their items released after full payment.
We learned from other sellers’ experiences, then developed our own approach through actual customer situations.
Our first layaway sale was a Kihei necklace purchased by a customer in Switzerland. A customer in London followed.
Those early orders meant more than income. People thousands of miles away were placing their trust in a business that was still finding its feet.
Little by little, that trust grew, and layaway became our primary business model.
The Lessons That Cost Us Money
Our early days were not all success.
At first, we offered fixed prices before we had the jewelry on hand. What was both amusing and frustrating was realizing that gold prices had been rising day after day—and we hadn’t even noticed! As a result, sourcing those pieces became more expensive.
We lost money on some orders.
That experience taught us that making a sale was only one part of running a business. We also needed careful pricing, reliable sourcing, and a clear understanding of the commitments we made.
Different customer situations helped us improve our terms, payment tracking, and communication.
Our layaway model grew stronger because we kept learning and making changes.
2021–2022: Building Paycheck by Paycheck
Behind the growing livestreams and customer orders was a year of building Cha Jewels paycheck by paycheck.
From 2021 to 2022, my husband’s salary helped provide the working capital we needed to keep the business moving. Each payday helped us take another step forward.
That steady income played a crucial role in building our foundation.
At the same time, my husband was carrying two demanding responsibilities.
Although he was working from home, roughly half of his time and attention was being pulled toward Cha Jewels. The pressure on him became intense.
Working from home did not make balancing both roles easy. As the business grew, managing his job alongside Cha Jewels became increasingly difficult.
We knew something had to change.
April 2022: Choosing the Business Together
We sat down and discussed a serious question:
Should we stop the business, or should my husband leave his job so we could focus on Cha Jewels together?
His salary had supported our first year. Giving up that steady income meant stepping away from the support that had helped us get started.
I gathered the courage to choose the business. After discussing it together, my husband resigned in April 2022.
We then began building our team.
More customers meant more questions, invoices, payment records, follow-ups, and orders to coordinate. We could no longer manage everything ourselves.
Building the team helped us create a more organized business and share the responsibilities behind every livestream.
Building Systems to Support Our Growth
As we grew, we introduced automated invoicing to organize billing and reduce repetitive work.
We continued developing our layaway process, including six-month payment plans.
These improvements came from practical needs we had experienced ourselves. Behind every sale were records to maintain, payments to track, and promises to fulfill.
We learned that growth also meant building systems that could support our customers and our team.
2024: Becoming Cha Jewels Co., Ltd.
In 2024, the business became Cha Jewels Co., Ltd. in Japan.
It was a milestone built on years of customer conversations, difficult decisions, mistakes, improvements, and teamwork.
From a nervous first livestream to an incorporated company, we had come a long way.
2025: Introducing Our Loyalty Program
In 2025, we introduced our loyalty program, offering 1% back in points.
It was another way to recognize the customers who continued to support us.
Some had been with us since our earliest live selling days. Others had discovered Cha Jewels along the way. Their trust helped make each new chapter possible.
2026: Beyond the Livestream
In 2026, our website marks another step forward.
It gives customers a place to explore our collections and plan their purchases beyond a live selling session.
For our family and team, it also represents years of work behind the scenes—from doing everything ourselves to building more organized ways of serving our customers.
The Story We Are Still Building
I would not recommend spending an entire family bonus impulsively. That part of our story came with a lesson I needed to learn.
But I am grateful that I took responsibility and found the courage to begin.
Cha Jewels grew through my husband’s work, the decisions we made as a family, the team we built, and the customers who gave us the opportunity to earn their trust.
Our beginning was unexpected. What followed took commitment, learning, and the willingness to keep improving.
And thankfully, I never had to eat the jewelry.
Cynthia Largo — Founder of Cha Jewels
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