For this episode of the Small & Supercharged Podcast, I am joined by a founder I have genuinely been a fan of for years. Alice Rivers Cripps is the creative brilliance behind Posh Totty Designs. If you’re anything like me, you’ve loved her gorgeous, personalised jewellery for ages. I’m a firm believer that if you see something you love in someone, you should tell them, whether that’s a stranger in the street or an incredible business owner. So, it was an absolute joy to sit down with Alice and dig into how Posh Totty grew from a kitchen table dream into a household name.

Why the world of precious keepsakes?

For Alice, jewellery has never been about throwaway fashion; it’s about the deep, emotional stories people stamp into the metal. Posh Totty creates simple, beautiful heirlooms meant to be passed down through generations, capturing the moment a couple met, the birth of a child, or a memory of a grandparent. Alice admits that working in her stores can be a tear-jerker because customers are so eager to share the profound meanings behind their pieces.

Now in its 21st year, the business looks a bit different than it did at the start, but the traditional soul remains. Alice’s workshop features an all-female team of master jewellers who still use leather under their benches, mallets, and steel stamps – tools and processes that have survived for hundreds of years. Alice designs the initial samples, and her team spins them into shiny, finished magic.

From a £60 panic to a Harry Potter cupboard

The seeds of the business were planted after a self-described “panic” at university. Having studied media and performance after failing her A-levels, Alice realised she didn’t have thick enough skin for the brutal world of acting auditions. Running for the hills, she bought a one-way ticket to Mexico.

She arrived with just £60 in her pocket, no place to stay, and no Spanish. After a night of sleeping on the beach, she bought a bicycle, rode around the island, and managed to secure a hotel job that came with a bed. Through the local community, she ended up working with jewellers. Despite the language barrier, seeing how traditional and beautifully simple the silver-making process was changed everything. She knew instantly that is was what she wanted to do.

When she returned to the UK, Alice moved to Brighton, fell in love with its vibrant, creative independence, and set a goal to become a local shopkeeper. She started practicing her hand-stamping by cutting open tin cans and flattening them with a hammer because she couldn’t afford precious metals. Eventually, she opened a tiny shop up an alley for £2,000 a year. It had no shopfront and sold maybe five pieces a week, but it was her dream.

Scaling up with Holly Tucker

Then, the ultimate catalyst arrived. Holly Tucker, the founder of Not On The High Street, walked into Alice’s tiny shop before the platform had even launched. Holly took a punt on Posh Totty, waiving the upfront fees Alice couldn’t afford.

The growth was explosive. Within the first month, Alice went from five orders a week to 30 orders a day. By Christmas, that number skyrocketed to 1,000 orders a day. Alice was pulling in friends and family to help pack boxes in their tiny space like a workshop of frantic Christmas elves. Today, 90% of Posh Totty’s sales are online, allowing them to ship worldwide from their specialised central workshop. While Alice remains a traditional high-street shopkeeper at heart, that digital footprint is what allows the business to truly scale.

Highs, lows, and being your own cheerleader

Every entrepreneurial journey is a game of highs and lows. Alice shared two phenomenal highs from her journey:

1. The Kosovo Collection: Travelling to Kosovo with Women for Women International to meet resilient women survivors of war. Together, they created the “Share a Hug” collection right before COVID, raising massive funds for the charity.

2. The Wild Collection launch: Celebrating their stunning collaboration with Hannah Cooper-Dommett at a star-studded London launch party alongside Davina McCall and Rachel Stevens (fuelled by plenty of margaritas and rosé!).

But the lows in business can hit without warning. Just last year, the local council suddenly closed the building Posh Totty had occupied for 15 years, on a Friday night at 9:00 PM, with zero notice. Alice found herself on the front page of the local newspaper and on TV, navigating a massive crisis completely on her own. With 2,000 backlog orders to fulfil and a team of 50 people depending on her for wages, the responsibility was immense. Her team worked from home without proper tools just to keep customers happy. Yet, out of that dramatic low came a spectacular high: they moved into a gorgeous new workshop that Alice admits she never would have looked for had she not been forced out.

Key takeaways from my chat with Alice Rivers Cripps:

• Compliment loudly: If you see something beautiful or a business you love, say it. Sharing joy makes a tough world a little lighter.

• Be your own number one cheerleader: When you are starting out, no one else is going to shout about your brand for you. You have to believe in it so fiercely that everyone else starts to believe it, too.

• Luck favours the prepared: “Lucky breaks” (like being discovered by Holly Tucker) only work if you have put in the gritty work to run with the opportunity when it lands.

• Pivots push you to better places: Sometimes a crisis, like losing your business premises overnight, is just the universe forcing you into a better, freer space.

• Attitude is everything: You don’t always need a perfect plan or a massive budget to start. Sometimes you just need resourcefulness, curiosity, and the willingness to say “yes” and figure it out as you go.

To see Alice’s beautiful jewellery collections or find a keepsake with a story of your own, check out poshtottydesigns.com, or follow the magic on Instagram at @poshtottydesigns.

If you love an independent boutique as much as we do, you can also visit their gorgeous physical stores in Brighton (Sydney Street) and Islington (Camden Passage), or spot them in top department store concessions worldwide. Go have a browse and enjoy!