Handcrafted Jewelry, specializing in Dangle Earrings

Holiday Offerings

2010-11-21T10:25:00.000-05:00

Oh what tot do, what to do. Holiday shopping is upon us and we merchants are always wondering;

Do we have the right merchandise?
Do we have enough merchandise?
Will I have a discount coupon?
What percentage will the coupon discount be?
What dates will I run the coupon?
Should I offer free shipping?

These are some of the more common things that run through my head.

Having the right merchandise is the thing that will drive you nutts. It will make or break your season, in fact it is the thing that really drives your store (brick or click) sales all year long.

Now if you have done your due diligence and picked the right products, you want to have enough of them. Running out of a hot seller is a bad thing. Of course for those of us in the unique, handmade jewelry business, you only have one of any item. In our case picking the right product falls to picking the right themes or style(s).

Coupons are a must. The percentage is really what you can afford. I think that most won't attract an auto-use on anything less than 15%.

You might want a separate offer for Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday (if you have a website).

Good Grief - Good Luck!

"Inquiring Minds Want to Know"
Doug
www.JDKellyJewelry.com

Dangle Earrings

2010-10-02T22:54:00.000-04:00

Somewhere along the road in business we all have to make a decision about what we are good at and what our passion is - it's no different for me; I like dangle earrings.

What I like is the creative and using my hands to make them.

Tonight my wife and I went over to a lodge to set up and show off my jewelry. The gift shop at the lodge had some samples of someone else's work. The items were really nice, but the prices were so far out of line for this local market that I wondered if the designer knew it.

Well, as the guests came into the main room where we were set up and began looking at my items, the complements about the design and pricing began to flow. It was amazing. We did more business in two hours than we had previously done in any showing, including day long festivals, and I took on no less than three special orders.

What does all that mean? It meant that the work that I had put in understanding the local market in both style and spending habits paid off. Doing your due diligence is an absolute must and knowing your market is tantamount to success. Also, knowing your competition doesn't hurt either. My style is unique and matched with my price structure I have a winner.

Do yourself a favor and do the research, be a secret shopper and go into your competitor's shop, stop by their booths at festivals and shows, take notes and adjust your business plan accordingly. You will be surprised at the pay off.

"Inquiring Minds Want to Know"
Doug
www.JDKellyJewelry.com

The Price is Right

2010-07-05T15:38:00.000-04:00

I presume all entrepreneurs at one time or another have gone through the gut wrenching process of putting a price on their products and services. Let me say that I am no different.

My process to mitigate over/under pricing is to do due dilligence.

Check Other Businesses Who Sell Like Items /Services.
Compare Locations (east coast versus west coast, etc.).
Check Composition of Materials Used to Allow for Variables.
What Are the Possible Differences in Overhead.
Use a Formula to Calculate In Order to be Consistent.
Marketing Research (use survey groups)

There are plenty of ways to check and compare and adjust. One thing is to be flexible and to be able to allow for on-the-spot adjustments. I showed at a local fair recently and wanted to get a feel for how people were spending and how much they would spend.

At one point late in the show after a slow day I told my wife we were going to pack it up in an hour. Less than 10 minutes later I did over $100 in sales and on items that heretofore were hardly even looked at by anyone. Funny thing is that these were not impulse buy priced items and were up there in price.

What caused this anomaly? Or was it an Anomaly at all?

The thing I think caused the rush was one person looking and then another then others wanted to see what was so interesting and then 1 person bought and the other and a third, all in rapid succession.

This is the same thing that happens at a retail store with an empty parking lot. Not much! But when two or three cars are in the lot another joins, then another and then others see people are there and postulate that they are there because they are getting a good deal or some other event that is exciting is going on and they want to be part of it.

Do not keep adjusting your price down until you get a sale - be patient, do something to attract people to come see what is going on - add color and motion to your booth/tent, sound and whatever you can do without being obnoxious.

I am going to learn some magic tricks in the future and see if I can attract people that way.

What do you think?

Doug
"Inquiring Minds Want to Know"
www.JDKellyJewelry.com

Lessons Learned

2010-05-13T10:09:00.000-04:00

Good time to start this post.

1. Never hold an office jewelry party 2 days before payday!!!!
* Always find out when their paydays are BEFORE setting the date. It seems rude, but you are running a business after all and it is your responsibility to make it as profitable as possible.

2. Find out how much space you have to set up your display.
* This can help you determine what to take. Some may say, "Take it all!", but it isn't necessary if you plan ahead.

Add your own lessons learned in Comments to this post. And don;t forget to put a link to your website in your post.

"Inquiring Minds Want to Know"
Doug
www.JDKellyJewelry.com

Jewelry Parties

2010-04-06T17:31:00.000-04:00

I wrote an article on the Home Jewelry Business Success Tips about Jewelry Party Games. I was debating Rena Klingenberg about having games during the jewelry party all depends on the demographics of your attendees. If you'd like to add your own comments to this subject you can do it here and on Rena's site below my post by clicking here.

If you are in the jewelry business and wondering about Jewelry Party Games I would like to hear your ideas. If you are thinking about getting the business for fun or profit, Rena's website is just full of wonderful articles that make good reading for the professional as well as the novice.

"Inquiring Minds Want to Know"
Doug
www.JDKellyJewelry.com

What Makes A Good Store

2010-03-25T13:27:00.000-04:00

Since I have switched over to using Big Commerce as my eCommerce provider I have had a lot of people who use other shopping cart and eCommerce providers ask me what I think about BC? It's easier for me to ask them what they don't like about their present provider and then set their minds at ease about using BC.

Is that all it takes to make a good store? Absolutely not, but it is the foundation for one. If the site doesn't function the way it should when it is supposed to then that may be the straw that breaks the camels back, thus adding to your abandon rate.

So, what do you need? In summary;

Products that people want
A good looking site
Prices that are in line with the market
A great eCommerce partner
and if you want sales you better have great Internet Marketing strategy and effort

There is no one thing by and of itself that will do it, rather the combination of all these things.

"Inquiring Minds Want to Know"
Doug
www.JDKellyJewelry.com

Analysis Paralysis

2010-03-18T09:52:00.001-04:00

There are several ways of analyzing your website traffic; Google Analytics (my preferred), having your "log.file" read and interpreted by any number of commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) software programs, and others.

I have a little bit of experience in analytics, somewhere around 37 years worth. It's the experience and the methods and knowing how to "read" the numbers to tell the story that makes a good analyst. Being able to dig in and find the really important things and never being satisfied, that's what makes a really good one.

There is one pitfall, or trap that one can get into, and that is what we call "analysis paralysis." This phenomena happens to every analyst at some time or other in their life time, more than most want to admit. It can best be described as being frozen in time and space, unable to move your eyes, limbs, speech is lost and the brain stops working. Typically it occurs after staring at numbers, figures and data for extended periods of time without getting up and separating yourself from the work. It can be compared to "writer's block."

One thing you learn and I can vouch for is that you can take 2 data points or 2 sets of numbers and make them represent anything you need. Seriously, manipulating figures is something that is part of the job.

Key thing is to know what you are looking for and then identifying the data that best represents it. One of the big points everyone is business is looking for is return on investment, or ROI. Essentially you want to know how much bang you are getting for the buck. I had a client once who would not spend a cent on certain Internet marketing if he could not get a minimum of a 300% ROI. There are 2 formula's, the simplest is Revenue divided by Cost. So, define what you need in terms of return n your investment and play with that for a while.

"Inquiring Minds Want to Know"
Doug
www.JDKellyJewelry.com

Confession

2010-03-12T15:09:00.001-05:00

OK, I have to "fess up." I followed myself. Not that I wanted to see where I was going mind you, but I had to start it off, you know.

"Inquiring Minds Want to Know"
Doug
www.JDKellyJewelry.com

On Twitter

2010-03-11T16:39:00.004-05:00

Well, there's that too.

I have several Twitter accounts;

http://twitter.com/doug_kelly    with over 12,300 followers as of March 17, 2009

and

http://twitter.com/jdkelly_jewelry   with about 200 followers that I just started in the last few weeks.

and

http://twitter.com/navychief     with about 6,200 followers - my darker side and represents where I spent 18 years of my life.

If you'd like to follow, click on the links above and we'll tweet to each other!

"Inquiring Minds Want to Know"
Doug
www.JDKellyJewelry.com

Looking for Ways to Get Your Site Listed Higher

2010-03-11T16:32:00.001-05:00

I could have titled this, SEO for Your Website.

Either way, I thought I would post this link for you folks who are doing your own Search Engine Optimization and want to hear it from the "horse's mouth" so to speak, Matt Cutts is a senior engineer with Google who provides video replies to questions that people have emailed to Google's Webmaster Central and he provides great insight to the world of SEO as it pertains to ethical organic search.

http://www.youtube.com/googlewebmasterhelp#p/u/4/MkLFlaWxgJA

This link is to one of the more informative videos, but look at the list on the right-hand side and click on "view all" to get the entire library.

"Inquiring Minds Want to Know"
Doug
www.JDKellyJewelry.com

Passion for the Sale

2010-03-11T14:08:00.002-05:00

What's your passion? What gets you going, make you feel all mooshy inside, I mean besides the obvious things like loved ones and puppies? OK, it's love too, but can you define it?

For me, it is creating something that someone will buy, the thrill of the sale! In the jewelry business, I believe it also defines success.

I think about the time I spend designing in my mind, conceptualizing it, putting it on paper (napkin, paper towel, scrap, magazine or newspaper page),making a model, adjusting and then the final piece. The time spent, some agonizing and some effortless, trying to get the feel in my mind for the look on a customer's face when they see it for the first time. Reading expressions is a good talent to have. When they say, "I'll take it!" is when I get all goofy and then I know I have done a good job.

Of course I can't apply this to my Internet store since I can't see them. I will do another post on how I analyze my online guests.

"Inquiring Minds Want to Know"
Doug
www.JDKellyJewelry.com

In the Beginning

2010-03-11T13:41:00.002-05:00

How does one get started in the jewelry business anyway?

I had a hobby that dealt with woodworking and carving. I had been doing that for man, many years. My late stepfather, Jim Hall, had started fooling around with polymer clay creations a few years back and then begun making jewelry with it. When he passed away in 2009, my sister and I were talking about his passion for making and selling things and I got the notion to try polymer clay.

I read up on the basics and compared notes and visited forums and became a "polymer clay information vacuum cleaner." After I was satisfied I had the information I needed I began making purchases of clay, some equipment, including a small toaster oven just for baking the polymer, books and DVDs.

My wife, always observant of my passions and ideas, kept an eye on me to make sure I didn't go overboard as I have a tendency to do at times.

One thing led to another including a lot of trial and error, practice, watching videos and experimenting with color, size and cooking time, and finally we made some things we could use for earrings and brooches. Jewelry requires something called "findings", which I later learned are all the pieces parts that go into making the end product; headpins, ear wire hooks, eyepins, bails, bead caps, jump rings, links and the list goes on.

As anyone who has hobbies or who is a business owner would do, I looked for a way to cut costs on these findings and make them myself where I could. Enter wire bending and silversmithing. I got a wire jig and boy did that start me off having some sore fingers, but it was fun renewed. My new friends were a chasing hammer and an anvil, along with some punches and miscellaneous tools (I love tools).

Last month, February, I opened up my first jewelry store and put it out there for all to see. Some I made and some made by others. And today I started this blog, although I have written posts on others like Home Jewelry Business Success Tips.

I will keep posting here and hope you folks will keep coming back and participate in the topics. We all benefit from it.

"Inquiring Minds Want to Know"
Doug Kelly
www.JDKellyJewelry.com