Jewelry Software - Bead Manager Pro

The handcrafted jewelry business provides fun and excitement with an opportunity of earning high profits. With its high customer demand for handmade jewelry and the potential for constant growth, and the right business strategies, enthusiastic jewelry makers can reap considerable rewards by re-making their hobby into a home-based jewelry business!

Whether you make some of everything or specialize in a certain genre, such as Native American or Eastern Indian designs, just rings or coordinated sets or jewelry, you can create your own place in the jewelry business world. Find what fits your talent and ambitions, and go for it!

Use your favorite Internet search engine to find leads for wholesale suppliers and comparison shop until you find the one with the best prices and goods for you. You may also opt to buy directly from manufacturers of crafting supplies, especially if you have contacts in countries where they are made. Never buy retail supplies unless you are out of something you need right away and can’t wait for a warehouse order to arrive. Sell your jewelry at retail markup sufficient to cover the costs of materials, tools and your time and labor. This strategy will minimize your costs while maximizing your profits.
For businesses that don’t create their own jewelry, joining as an affiliate of an existing virtual jewelry company is an excellent strategy for newcomers to the jewelry business. You use the company’s web site, eliminate the need for physical inventory, and hold no responsibility for providing and shipping the product. This method is easy, low-risk, and a good way to break into the business.

It takes a special type of person to be successful in an MLM business, so it may not be the right choice for you. Even if it is workable for you, carefully research any MLM with which you may decide to become associated.

If you are an experienced and talented jewelry maker, you can market your wares from home, on the Internet. Yahoo and e-bay both provide online auctions and shops where you can sell your items to a ready-made buyer base, and backed by the solid reputations of Internet giants. If you want something more personal, try home jewelry parties. You can host them yourself or ask an acquaintance to host one for you. The intimate setting provides a friendly environment that has proven successful for so many newcomers to the jewelry industry.

Your success in the jewelry business ultimately lies with you. Work full-time or part-time, but learn all you can about your area of the business, and keep up with marketing trends. Start with a simple business strategy and work your way up!

What do all these multi-million-dollar corporations have in common: Tupperware; Mary Kay Cosmetics; Sarah Coventry Jewelry; Especially Lingerie? They all started out in home party sales! There are many other companies whose success is founded in home party sales, but these are the ones that first come to mind. They are proof that home jewelry parties are a fantastic business strategy for marketing and selling your hand-made jewelry!

Plan your home party! Take inventory of your jewelry to make sure you have enough to merit a home party. Have at least five different designs of bracelets, earrings, necklaces, rings, that can be sold as sets or individually. Toe rings and belly-button pieces are enormously popular with younger people today, so if you have them, add them to your sales collection! It’s not a bad idea to have a few one-of-kind pieces to appeal to those who like unique jewelry, but the majority of your stock should include several pieces of each design.

Usually a friend, family member or co-worker is willing to host a home party for you. After you determine how long it will take you to make the additional pieces you need to fill out your sales inventory, you and your host can schedule the date and time for your party. If no one is available to host a home party, invite other area crafters to join you in a home party cooperative, selling their work along with yours for a small commission. Along with posting business cards and flyers on community bulletin boards (free advertising!), send a press release to local newspapers and TV stations to be displayed on their community events calendars.

Discuss with your hostess what refreshments will be served and how they will be provided, as well as seating for the guests, on what you will set your displays and how they will be arranged. Keep your displays simple, but attractive and easily accessible for browsing. Work up short presentations for pieces or sets you want to highlight, and pass them around so guests can get a good look at them. For more expensive pieces, or for special orders, have a small catalogue of high quality photos. If you have an Internet web site, be sure the URL is on your business cards, and pass them out to the guests. Have inexpensive, but nice, door prizes for the guests to win, or better yet, have a Grab Bag or play the “Trading Game” so no guest leaves empty-handed. Lastly, be sure to take the names and contact information of guests who would like to host a home jewelry party.

Show your appreciation for your host’s hospitality and work with a gift of jewelry, presented toward the end of the party, You may let him or her select a piece from your jewelry collection, or create graduated-cost pieces with the choice of gift based upon the amount of sales. If you know the host well, create a special item of jewelry just for them, inspired by their preferences.

You can still sell your jewelry at customary venues, such as crafts fairs, flea markets and on e-bay; after all, revenue is revenue! Still, establishing you’re your connection with local customers by having home jewelry parties is a great way to build a local following of loyal customers!

The most daunting task for many home-based business owners is managing business finances. Poor financial management can wreck any size of business, with Enron being the best-known example. Without a sound financial management plan, even the best selection of home-based businesses has a high risk of failure. Before you do anything else for your business, take the essential steps to managing the money end of your business and you have a far better chance that your business will be a profitable one.

Paying overdraft charges is one of the most humiliating and funds-eating part of mismanaging money, but keeping your personal and business funds in a single account raises your risk of accidentally overdrawing on the account. It can be avoided by keeping separate accounts for your business. By separating the accounts, it is easier to control your spending and keep track of your business cash flow. You’ll also have an easier time at tax time because your business taxes are figured and paid separately from your personal income taxes.

Having more than one business account is both highly beneficial and recommended by owners of successful businesses. At the very least, you should open two accounts: one for receiving income and one for paying expenses. Determine a set percentage of your monthly income to be deposited into your expenses account, and specify how much should be set aside for each debt. With these two accounts, you will see from whom your funds are coming in and to whom expenses are being paid, making your accounting jobs easier and less time consuming. Include a set monthly wage for yourself in your business expenses; you work hard for your business and deserve a reasonable wage! Just be certain you don’t give in to the temptation to withdraw more money than your salary for personal use. Although it is your business, it is still a business, and you would fire an employee who stole money from your business!

Manage your business finances as conscientiously as possible. Throughout the year, keep your business funds for business use, and at the end of the year, you may pay yourself a well-earned bonus!

Jewelry making often starts as a hobby, but people with talent and a flair for salesmanship often switch from hobbyist to home-based business owner. However, because you make and sell jewelry from your home, doesn’t mean that you made the crossover from hobbyist to businessperson. The successful home-based business person realizes that they are no longer making jewelry just for fun. Instead, they own and operate a business, and treat it as a business, with their studio as their place of business. This doesn’t automatically happen when you hang your shingle. Instead, you must discipline yourself, and often friends and family to the fact that you are running a business and are no longer a hobbyist.

Having the right business attitude will show others how serious you are about it and help them realize that making jewelry is no longer just a hobby. Explain to family and friends that you need certain hours each day during which you can work undisturbed in your studio, but you will still have time for them and your home life. You now have a business to support, and you can no longer afford to be distracted from you set work time by household chores, people dropping by or calling just to visit. At the same time, you need to keep open communication with all your people, including your children, and let them know that you still want to spend time with them, but only when you aren’t working.

Setting and maintaining a dedicated work schedule is another facet of treating your business as a business. Your productivity is the life’s blood of your business, and if you are unable to commit to a set production schedule, your business will suffer for it. Here are a few suggestions to help you work at your peak performance.

• Set up your workspace so you will have enough privacy to work undisturbed
• Create a weekly work schedule and post it outside your workspace so your family will know when you are working.
• Allow time in your work schedule for checking your e-mail and making phone calls, preferably at the beginning and end of each work period.
• Schedule set days for doing paperwork, such as bookkeeping, ordering supplies, paying bills.
• Set a time limit within which to complete each project
• Discipline yourself to keep your schedule!

When you treat your jewelry making as a business, so will others. Eventually everyone will become accustomed to the changes you make to accommodate your new business schedule, and honoring your work time will become part of the daily routine. As your business grows, you almost certainly will need to readjust your work schedule to keep up with the demand for your jewelry, but if you worked outside your home before turning your hobby into a business, it will be like going back to a former routine, and won’t seem such a drastic change to your family.

Owning and operating a home-based business takes a special kind of person. Home-based businesses are—at best—challenging. Even if selling your handmade jewelry at home is an ideal situation for you, for it to be successful requires hard work, dedication, and the ability to keep your business and home lives separate. You may ask yourself if you’re really up to this challenge. If your answer is “yes,” and you have the determination to make your business work for you, you’re already off to a good start!

How many hours per day will your shop be open? How many hours per day can you spend on designing and making jewelry? When will you do housework and run errands? Do you have small children at home? These are all things you need to take into consideration when you sit down to plan your schedule. You may have to re-work your schedule once or twice, but the important thing is to make a schedule that works for you, and discipline yourself to stick to it!

The old adage “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy,” applies to running your home-based business. Having a new home-based business is rather like having a new baby; you love it to pieces, but you still need a full night’s sleep! Don’t let your business run your life: you own it; it doesn’t own you! Don’t answer your business phone after hours, and give yourself the luxury of spending time with friends and family instead of being stuck in your studio all the time. There’s a world outside that needs you in it!

After making the decision to running a home-based jewelry business it should be confined to your workspace and not allowed to intrude upon your living space. Your business and your home both need privacy. Whether you work in your basement, garage, or a spare room in your house, it should have a separate entrance for customers and deliveries. It provides a more professional environment in which you can nicely display your jewelry, and gives your family the privacy they need. Keeping your business in, but separate from, your home sets boundaries for both customers and family members, and one is less likely to intrude upon the other. Your business should have its own mailing address, phone line and bank account, making it easier to have your personal and business records already separated come tax time.

It’s not unusual for home-based business owners to be unaware of Federal, State and local regulations. There are zoning restrictions, and building and safety codes, all of which you must be in compliance before your business license is granted. Go to your CPA, City Hall, or County or Parrish Courthouse to learn what you must do to get a business license. Inspection and license fees usually apply, so be sure you have enough cash in reserve to pay the necessary costs.

Now, you need to make a few business contacts, but how do you go about it? Your local Chamber of Commerce is a good place to start. The Chamber can give you valuable information about your state’s jewelers and crafting guild, and local groups where you can meet other business people from your area. Go to an online community forum for jewelry makers and crafts people, especially if you need answers to any questions you may have right away. Other artists at arts and crafts fairs, shows and festivals can teach you almost everything you need to know about having a home-based jewelry business, and you may get ideas for designs you’d like to add to your jewelry collection. Best of all, your network contacts are people who understand the joys and frustrations experienced by business owners, with whom you have a lot in common, some of which may become your greatest supporters and friends!

Ask yourself: “What will the neighbors think?!” Traffic on your street will increase because of your customers and suppliers, so take care they don’t intrude upon your neighbors. Remember, those who live around you aren’t just neighbors, they’re potential customers. Having their goodwill and patronage contributes to the success of your home-based jewelry business!

The easiest way to keep track of information about your customers, and acquire the information you need to maximize your business profits is to use jewelry software. By entering information on your computer, you can create detailed “Rolodex” information about your customers, their preferences, and keep track of what and how they purchase from you. You can collect and organize other data, generate and analyze reports, and learn how to better market your jewelry for maximum profits.

In almost any store where you shop, you will be asked at check-out for your name or telephone number, or if you have a store card. Most people comply and whip out that card, because it entitles them to sale prices or special discounts. The requested information or the card keeps track of customer purchases, and the information is automatically entered into the store’s database. The collected data is used to determine and implement more productive marketing strategies.

Use your jewelry software to create an account for each customer. Along with the usual name, address and phone number, enter the following information:

· E-mail addresses
· Product purchased
· Purchase price
· Services, including repairs and appraisals
· Purchases of warranties and insurance
· Style preferences
· Special requests for items of information

With the jewelry software, you can assess relevant market conditions and sales data to determine your marketing strategies. You will see what items sell well, and which don’t. This will help you determine what inventory should be increased or decreased. The average price of items being sold tells you in what price range customers are most likely to make a purchase. Whether you make you own jewelry or purchase your stock, some items will have higher rates of return or need for repairs. If you make your jewelry and reports show that a certain brand or type of clasp or crimping bead breaks quite often, you will know to change to a more reliable brand. The same applies to brands or styles of ready-made jewelry.

Set specific goals for you business. For instance, you may want to increase the percentage of sales for a certain item, or phase out a product that doesn’t sell well to make room for a new line. Use the jewelry software to help you determine where to apply the correct strategies for attaining your business goals. As you become more experienced in using the software, you will be able to determine where to increase product investments and view your available assets, such as liquid assets, cash flow, equity and inventory. You may find jewelry software such a valuable tool that you’ll wonder how your business ever got along without it!