Calibre Match · Sourcing Ready — 8 chapters

Sourcing Playbooks

Calibre Match only works if both sides are full: employers worth swiping, graduates worth hiring, and real work to place. This is every practical way we can source them — written to be read, or listened to chapter by chapter.

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Chapter 1

What sourcing means here

A two-sided marketplace is not built by a website — it is built by filling both sides faster than they drain.

For the grant, "sourcing" means three pipelines running at once: employers (brands, ateliers, workshops worth working for), talent (JDMIS graduates with living profiles), and work (gigs, commissions and projects that make matches mean something).

Every chapter that follows is a set of plays. None of them needs new technology — the platform already has employer profiles, swipe matching, a gigs board and AI profile generation. What they need is a pair of hands and a weekly rhythm.

Takeaway: sourcing is a sales activity with a scoreboard, not a feature. Pick two plays per pipeline and run them weekly.
Chapter 2

Employers — the brand pipeline

The cold-start answer: list brands before they ask, then invite them to claim themselves.

  • Seed the directory. Singapore's jewellery retail chains, independents, ateliers and repair workshops are a finite, reachable universe — import them as profiles.A marketplace with 7 brands feels empty; the same brands inside a full, browsable catalogue feel like an industry.
  • "Claim your brand" outreach. A brand that is already listed has a reason to respond that a cold pitch never gives.Turns a sales call into customer service: "your profile is live, here is what graduates see — want the keys?"
  • Curate the front page. Actively-hiring brands first, beautiful imagery, honest tags.Graduates judge the whole platform by the first carousel they see.
Takeaway: every seeded brand is a warm lead. Track: brands listed → claims invited → claims made → first gig posted.
Chapter 3

Employers — outreach plays

Who opens the door matters more than what the email says.

  • The dean's introductions. Tanja's industry network — brands the school already works with — should be the first ten claims.Warm introductions convert; and early claimed brands become the case studies that open the next fifty doors.
  • Alumni employers. Graduates who now hire are the perfect two-sided story: they came from here, they hire from here.
  • Walk the jewellery quarter. Arab Street, Chinatown, Joo Chiat Complex, the trade counters — in-person visits with a printed profile page beat email.
  • Supplier & vendor lists. Every supplier to JDMIS — metal, stones, tools, packaging — either employs jewellers or knows who does.
  • Trade associations & fairs. Membership directories and fair exhibitor lists are pre-built lead sheets; a fair booth or a talk is a listing drive.
  • Project-employer conversion. Anyone who posts a gig is one conversation away from claiming a brand page.Gigs are the trojan horse for employer accounts.
Takeaway: run the warm list before the cold list. One placed graduate per flagship brand is worth more than a hundred cold emails.
Chapter 4

Graduate talent

The school graduates talent every month — the platform just has to catch it.

  • Onboard before graduation. Book the last class session of every cohort for profile building — AI extraction from a LinkedIn URL or a photo makes it a ten-minute job.A cohort that graduates with live profiles arrives on the employer side of the market on day one.
  • Portfolio parties. A photography afternoon with light boxes and a helper turns "no portfolio photo" — the biggest profile gap — into a full card.
  • CPE / transition alumni. The SWDA transition outreach already touches thousands of past students; one paragraph about Calibre Match rides along for free.
  • Referral loops. Graduates with a match or a gig can invite classmates; reward the inviter with placement priority, not cash.
  • Keep profiles alive. Nudge graduates with stale cards before employers ever see them — an empty marketplace profile is worse than none.
Takeaway: measure active profiles with photos, not sign-ups. A sign-up without a face never gets swiped.
Chapter 5

Gigs & real work

Matches stick when there is money attached. Gigs are the fastest proof the platform works.

  • The commission desk. JDMIS already receives repair and custom-piece enquiries that the school does not want to fulfil — route them to the gigs board.Real, paid work on day one, and every fulfilled job is a public success story.
  • Corporate & gifting projects. Corporate gifts, awards and event pieces are seasonal, budgeted, and perfectly suited to graduate teams.
  • Brand briefs & mini-competitions. An employer posts a design brief; the best three get interviews. Sourcing employers and showcasing talent in one move.
  • Window display & visual merchandising. Retailers need display pieces and refreshes — jewellery graduates are exactly who they never thought to ask.
  • Capstone partnerships. Final-course projects written by real employers, exhibited at the school, with hiring intent attached.
Takeaway: the first ten gigs should be hand-recruited and hand-served — quality here is the marketing.
Chapter 6

Partnerships & community

Partnerships are sourcing with a longer fuse and a bigger payoff.

  • School & programme partners. Other jewellery and design programmes feed their graduates in — their alumni get employers, our employers get talent.
  • Association endorsements. One trade association newsletter mentioning the platform reaches more employers than a quarter of cold outreach.
  • Exhibitions & showcases. A graduate showcase with employer previews — physical events create urgency a website cannot.
  • Supplier alliances. Stone, metal and tool suppliers co-market: they want a healthy trade, and their customer list is our lead list.
  • Government & workforce programmes. Alignment with the grant's own ecosystem — transitions, upskilling, placement reporting — makes the platform part of the story funders tell.
Takeaway: treat every partner as a channel with a name and a next action, not a logo on a slide.
Chapter 7

Campaigns & funnels

Plays fill pipelines; campaigns keep them warm.

  • WhatsApp-first. The OMS WhatsApp pipeline is the highest-touch channel JDMIS has — a periodic "who's hiring / who's graduating" broadcast with a deep link to the platform.
  • Webinars & quizzes as doorways. The gem quiz and course webinars already pull traffic; end every one with one slide about getting hired or hiring.
  • Placement stories. Every match, gig or placement becomes a photo and two sentences, posted where employers and graduates actually look.Proof recruits better than features.
  • Employer digest. A short monthly note to claimed brands: new graduates worth meeting, open gigs, who viewed them. Reply-to-one-person, not no-reply.
  • Site cross-linking. The JDMIS website's career and course pages should link into Calibre Match permanently — free, evergreen traffic.
Takeaway: one channel done weekly beats five channels done occasionally.
Chapter 8

Measure & cadence

A grant reports outcomes. Decide the scoreboard before the quarter starts.

  • The sourcing funnel. Brands listed → claims invited → claimed → gig posted → gig filled → graduate placed. Count each stage weekly; the stage that jams is next week's play.
  • Talent funnel. Graduates onboarded → profile with photo → swiped by an employer → matched → placed.
  • Quality gates. Separate claimed from seeded brands in every number; report active profiles, not registrations.
  • Weekly sourcing hour. One fixed slot: add brands, send claims, chase gigs, update the board. Non-negotiable, calendar-blocked.
  • Monthly story review. Pick the best placement story of the month and push it through every channel in chapter seven.
Takeaway: the grant narrative writes itself if the funnel numbers and one good story exist every month.