Urbiana Jewellery

Urbiana is an online fashion jewellery store, with its headquarters based in Brick Lane, London. Urbiana was created to bring more consciously designed jewellery and fashion accessories to Londoners at a guilt-free price point.

The seed of inspiration was planted by Akriti, who realised the need for an ethical and environmental conscious jewellery offering when she was working full time and trying to balance that with family life.

Urbiana began as a market stall in Sunday Upmarket in 2013 and after some soul searching, business evaluation and a lot of thinking, Urbiana was born.

The challenge

When the pandemic started in March 2020, Akriti had to close her shop which inevitably led to the loss of income as the lockdown period endured. She was able to secure Covid-19 grant funding from the Government which covered a proportion of the shop’s rent.

However once all restrictions were lifted, Akriti found that Urbiana was not returning to its normal trading period. There was a real worry that the business would have to close if they could not keep up with rent payments.

Next steps

Akriti heard about the Property Advice Service programme through the London Business Hub newsletter. She came to the service wanting to better understand her legal position regarding deferred rent payments.

As normal trading was proving difficult, Akriti was anxious to secure an agreement with her landlord regarding rent arrears and safeguarding her business’ future. However, these initial discussions with the landlord proved to be “challenging.”

How the Property Advice Service helped…

Our Property Advice Service experts informed Akriti about the Government’s Coronavirus Act and how this could help support her business. They also advised on the option of going to arbitration, referring her to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)’s mediation services which could help with her rent negotiations.

From the advice given by our experts, Akriti was empowered to pursue further negotiations with her landlord and come to an agreement on her rent payments.

What Akriti, founder of Urbiana had to say…

“I would be happy to recommend this service. One of the key challenges a small business owner has is getting access to affordable professional advice from a trusted/credible source at the time you most need it. The Property Advice Service helped us have access to this type of support when we needed it the most.”

Renting a property can be an expensive and complex part of running a business. That’s why the London Business Hub has launched the Property Advice Service to help businesses find the right space and fully understand the costs/issues associated with renting a property.

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