Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Sunday, January 25th. Today on Forbes, how this

entrepreneur turned her ring concierge service into a growing jewelry empire. Like many

future brides, Nicole Wegman went on a frustrating, months-long hunt for the perfect engagement ring with the man

who became her fiancé. It wasn't that she couldn't find the right cut, color, or clarity

after multiple trips to New York City's Diamond District to find the ideal sparkler. It was the

whole process that turned her off. Wegman ultimately found the antique ring of her dreams,

with a 4.5-carat old mine-cut diamond, at a small boutique in the district, months later.

Wegman recalls, quote, I was drawn to it because it was feminine and had personality,

and the owner of that shop was a woman. She just felt like a kind,

trustworthy individual in a sea of men. The then-26-year-old Wegman knew she wasn't alone,

and after her own wedding in 2013, she became what she had sought in the first place, a ring concierge.

The New York native, with a degree in apparel design from Cornell,

began advising friends and other women on ring shopping in the back room of a jewelry store

in the same diamond district that had vexed her when she was getting ready to say,

I do.

After a few months, Wegman knew she had a business.

That year, Wegman launched Ring Concierge,

following brief stints in product development at Macy's and as a buyer for Bloomingdale's,

with an initial investment of $2,000 to buy an LLC, a web domain, and business cards.

Back then, she charged a roughly 10% commission

to source stones and design rings for clients.

Wegman tells Forbes, quote,

...