Small Business Ecommerce Startup Guide

Most of the businesses today are introduced online. Due to the difficult economy people are facing today, some are planning to startup a small business through the internet. Small business ecommerce tenders opportunities for success with no necessity to contend with other counterparts.

Here are some guidelines to your startup small business ecommerce:

• If you have a business skill, then you can potentially market it online. If you don’t, you can at least list down 10 themes which you are engrossed with and can potentially write about. Discover the market for each theme and search for the niche which will help in increasing the traffic but will not overpower you with rivalries. Key in a few keywords through Google. Hit enter and observe the number of searches that will result in your particular theme. Place the keywords into quotes. When the count reaches up to 50,000 searches or below, you already acquire a niche market which you may explore. Programs like Google Adwords Keyword Tool and Wordtracker which you can utilize to further research about your niche market.

• If you have the ability to browse online and send email then you can begin your online business. All that matters is your enthusiasm to study some fundamental tricks. Begin by registering to social networking site for an account. Establish your profile, download pictures and pack your profile information including any interest that you possibly have. If you wish to study about blogging, you may search from the groups provided. Join groups that you are comfortable to be with and will assist you to acquire information that you require. Search for individuals who possess huge number of contacts. Too many ideas may come up to your mind and become overwhelming; mentors will eventually arise supplying you with essential business concepts.

• Think about direct sales or some network marketing industry. This business type is established for you and ready to run for a minimum startup price. Several of them are quite popular already and you are able to trade products such as cosmetics and jewelries. You may do your business online and offline. Reputable direct sales industries provide training for their sales reps and most often they are for free. You will acquire a business replicated site to market your industry; you may increase your success from the benefits of blogging and social networking.

• Affiliate marketing is another great method to expend for the online advertising prices. If you create blogs for your merchandise, you may include complimentary affiliate items as ads for your blog. When visitors clicked the ads, ordered anything, you will acquire a commission for it. A lot of online industries provide affiliate applications. Before you advertise an affiliate, try to purchase a product from them first. Provide a section on your blog recommending the item and include a link for the visitors to click on.

• Search for other individuals online to support your endeavor. Work-from-home is truly isolating but with peers online, you will feel surrounded.

With today’s advanced technology, there is an entire new world within your computer and ecommerce is your medium to reach your goals.

Skyrocket your business with software guaranteed to increase your online sales: ecommerce shopping cart software, content management system software, and email marketing software by Interspire.

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Start Your Home Based Small Business

How to start your home based small business.

You need building a online store firstly.Ecommerce hosting companies usually supply a ecommerce online store host plan.

Ecommerce website design is an intergral part of your potential ecommerce sale. Find out how to build an ecommerce website that encourages your site visitors to become buyers with this advice and information on ecommerce website design.Getting potential customers to your website is only half the battle; follow these eight rules to get them to make the click that matters and actually get visitors to your ecommerce website shopping online.Your Internet marketing efforts won’t get far if you don’t have a Web site worth visiting. Here’s how to build a Web site that works and search engine optimization and submission tips.

After you setting the hosting the next important thing is find good wholesale sources. or drop ship supplier.

Buy China Wholesale Inc. represents over 2000 other factories, Suppliers, Wholesalers and Supply Wholesale sources around China. These networked sources will provide you with the most discounted prices to surpass your competitors. The lists are just part of our range of wholesale products. Simply email us your needs and we will reply promptly.

How will buychinawholesale help your Small Business?

Firstly, please contact me for quote on your order. We are a family in Chinese manufacturing and we have our own factories to keep our price at an advantage. Secondly, you could purchase tiffany jewelry, rolex watches, links of london jewelry and here, pay 1/10 purchase cost than anywhere else, so keep ahead in your market. Start your home business and earn real money!

How do you use this wholesalesource?

We suggest you try sample orders firstly from here. We accept Western Union (Have discount? please contact support*paypal) Bank transfer, credit cards. After that please contact me directly for wholesale businesses.

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Setting Up Your Online Jewelry Store

If you are planning on setting up your own jewelry store, you might think that it is easy to do. But, if you wish to rapidly sell your jewelry items, you should consider setting up a website and selling them online. But how will you set up your own online jewelry store easily? We will answer that question later.

How would you like owning your own online jewelry store even if you don’t own a piece of jewelry? I bet you will be more than happy when you know that you can sell tons of jewelry items without keeping any stock. With your online jewelry store, you can start selling in the morning and be able to collect good sales before the day ends. You just have to think of some good strategies to market your new store so people will know how to find you.

When setting up your online jewelry business, the first thing you will do is to look for jewelry wholesalers to get your items from them for resale. Wholesalers can help you reduce your upfront expenses; you can save money if wholesalers agree to drop ship straight to your clients. There are thousands of wholesalers online and it is time well spent at the beginning of your business venture to take the effort to learn how to source the best wholesale jewelry suppliers.

When you start dealing with wholesalers, you will have to pay for the merchandise upfront and need to take this into account. As a start up company it is wise to find as many money saving sites as possible, if you intend to concentrate on a certain area of jewelry. Let’s say you are more interested in beading, one of the most popular and cheapest sites to find materials is eBay, so use eBay to find cheap beads.

With regards to setting up your own website, there are now many suppliers that offer turnkey packages. This will be more convenient for you as a novice, where you can just input some important personal information in the software program and be up running immediately. For that service, you will have to pay the suppliers, either a onetime fee or a monthly fee. However, one disadvantage of this kind of service is that, usually all sites that they make are very much the same.

Apart from just selling jewelry and jewelry related products, you can make extra profit by offering some information to people that are looking to get started in the jewelry making business. Tutorials of all jewelry related techniques are always popular so why not offer some of your own. For some extra profit making offer a bead making class or any other area you are expert in, these types of courses are especially popular during the school holidays when parents are looking for something to keep their kids entertained.

If you would prefer you can watch this article in video format:

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Good Lighting for Jewelry Photo Shooting

Good lighting for jewelry photo shooting will help you come up with the best possible image, great images are important for portfolios or if you are setting up your online jewelry store, this can make or break the image of your jewelry, whether you captured it in a landscape or portrait position. Most of professional photographers have plenty of photographing equipment to use in creating perfect spot-on images. As to some artisans, with no such skills in photography, they don’t have the technical idea on how to perfectly capture the best image of their handmade jewelries. Their skill in photography is limited on piddling small details like figuring out the right lens would be suitable in capturing a wonderful picture. In addition, building a professional photography studio would cost too much for these people.

However, there are a few not-so-expensive options of building your own photographing studio. You can start looking around to those materials at home. As an established jewelry business finding a good sales rep, if you have the budget, is a great investment as they will have a lot of knowledge to share with you on how to take great photos to increase your sales.

To come up with good lighting for jewelry photo shooting, you must balance the real and fake lights. Most of the people just use digital or automatic cameras to take pictures of their jewelry items. Before taking the picture, they make sure their items look good just by adding a few background to enhance its photographic image. However, after taking some pictures and viewing it on screen, most of the images come out blurred by bright hot spots and some may even come out dull or very dark. This is very common due to imbalanced lighting on the item and the strength of the flash is too strong. This is because the camera cannot see the light around the object; the light reflected from the object should be measured and should compensate accordingly.

The most appropriate flash in good photography is called fill flash. It uses a little amount of extra light to fill out the shadows that can make catch lights, which are fine reflections of light on a shiny surface. A good example of which is a professional portraiture, it gets rid of shadows and creates a catch light.

For indoor photo shooting, you must prepare lots of light. You can use your normal light from an average lamp or ceiling light called Tungsten. These very yellow/orange lights give your pictures a very orange cast look. Similar to tungsten, fluorescent lights also produce bright lights and are usually green. With our naked eyes, we don’t simply see it because our eyes are just processing the different sorts of lights with a built-in white balance. Oftentimes, it is more appropriate to use a blue daylight bulb and some cheap lamp stands. A nice blue-white light thrown out by daylight bulbs simulates a real daylight illuminating a work area without giving a bright orange color to everything in the photograph.

In an outdoor photo shoot, you’ll need a sunny/cloudy but bright day, a white cotton bead sheet, your jewelry pieces, a friend or washing line, and your camera.

In doing some outdoor photo shoots, it would be a lot easier to have someone that would serve as a stand over to the piece that would block the sun using the white sheet. The sheet acts as a diffuser and helps distribute the light evenly all over your work and illuminates your piece without a blurred contrast. You can as well turn off your flash because the amount of light from the sun is enough to make your camera work without the automatic flash. You can use your washing line as an alternative if you don’t have your friend. Just place your sheet over your line and secure it with pegs so it doesn’t slide off, then set up your work in a bright spot beneath it.

To set up your self-made studio indoors, you will need a large white, cloudy transparent plastic storage container to reflect and diffuse the shine of the light. You can also use a light box where you can set up your jewelry pieces but it can only work well with cast-eye beads, crystals, glass and any translucent and transparent beads. The light box will give a gentle light through the crystals or glass beads and illuminate them. Use a white sheet or some of layers of tracing papers to dull the light if the glow is too strong.

Try to build this last option called a light dome. This is very affordable and so easy to make. Just prepare two liters of plastic bottle of milk and pull the label off. Cut it in half. Cut a big hole at the front area for your camera. After that, just set up your jewelry pieces, pop your camera into the hole, perfectly focus it to your pieces, and then shoot. The dome will catch the light and it will be evenly distributed.

It is important to bear in mind that natural light is always better compared to artificial light. Best results regarding jewelry photo shooting usually come from pictures that have good lighting techniques without any use of camera flashes. Using a tripod is highly recommended because it makes you take pictures in longer exposures thus, making rich and more detailed colors without the unwanted glaring effects on your pieces. Planning and designing your own jewelry photo shoot is a great way to showcase your work in a portfolio or magazine, if you take the steps listed above then you are sure to create some very professional looking photos.

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Getting Started With a Jewelry Business

Plan!

First, it is important to have a good plan. A formal business plan isn’t necessary unless you aim to get a loan or investors, but the plan should be thorough, especially in the financial section. The bottom line for most of us is: can I make a profit doing this? How long will it take to turn a profit? And, is this worth my time? Below I have outlined a few key factors to think about while devising your plan. I want to be clear that this is just a guideline, not a “how to” since everyone’s circumstances is different – what may work for one person may not work for another.

1. Why do you want to do this?

Is this something that you want to do for strictly for the money? For the thrill of starting something from scratch? Because you need to make extra money to pay your bills? Etc. The answer to this question will create the context you need to think through your plan. For example, if you want to start a jewelry business because you absolutely have to have extra money to survive – that consideration will limit your choices greatly because you will need to make decisions that lead you to a quick profit.

2. Market & Products

What do you plan on selling and why? Think about whether the jewelry or other products you intend to sell are right for your intended market. Diamond jewelry is probably not the right product for a flea market! Some good ‘off-line’ venues that I have used include:

Craft fairs and outdoor festivals – generally in the summer time. You can usually get a table at these events for $20 $50 for the day. You will want to have a good selection of inventory; if you do you can usually gross anywhere between $150-$400 (based on my experience). Your sales will be directly related to your quantity of inventory.

Winter bazaars, church sales, holiday festivals—Oct-December. Check the local paper. Many churches have these annual events and tables are pretty inexpensive. These events are nice because people come to spend $ on gifts.

Home-based jewelry parties. You can host an event yourself, or have a friend host it and give her some free stuff as compensation. I like to have a good friend or relative host – that way I am pretty sure they will follow through. Ask your friend to invite her friends, relatives, etc. for the party. You provide some light snacks and bring all your stuff. Again, people come to buy and you have no competition! If you get people to one of these you will make out pretty well, and you don’t need to have as large a selection. I have made up to $1500 in an hour and half! Typically, I’d gross $300-$500 in a pretty short time.

Flea markets—usually in summer and holiday season. These can be boom or bust. It depends on whether, traffic, etc. Generally people at these want to spend very little, so the low-end stuff sells best. Good place to experiment since the tables are usually only $20 or so. I know people that go to the same flea markets every week and do very well with lots of repeat customers.

Store/ mall-cart. This is a much bigger leap since the overhead is so high compared to the above venues. I have done neither so cannot offer any good advice in except to plan really well and consider all the costs involved.

3. Where will you get your inventory?

This is the place you will need the best research. Unless you are selling in large volume, you will probably want to get a markup of about 3 times (what you paid for inventory). The lower the price you pay for your goods, the lower the price you can offer your customers/ the more profit you will make. You will always save more when you buy in bulk, so look for a supplier you can form a long-term relationship with who can give you good deals, service and selection. Buying a large quantity now may seem like a big expense now, but the result is you make more profit on every single item you sell.

The more you spend the more you save. Find a few good suppliers and see what sells well and who is willing to work with you. Find suppliers who provide good service and are committed to your success.

Buy off ebay- many people buy stuff at good prices then just re-sell

Search the web for other silver jewelry wholesalers.

Search the web for manufacturers. Most are in Asia. And you will get the best deals this way – but you are going to have to spend $3000+ to get the best prices and give yourself 6 months to find the right vendors, get your inventory and develop a relationship. It seems simple, but trust me, the cultural differences alone will add 3 months to the process! Unless you need 20+ designs of each design you order, or actually want to get a mixed batch of random leftovers that you will not see in advance, this is not a great option for most small businesses.

4. Is an online business right for you?

I make a living through my website. My business is successful because I:

• Have an efficient system to manage business operations

• Provide excellent service

• Have several great, inexpensive sources for products – suppliers that I know well and trust 100%

• Purchase a high volume of jewelry each month (enabling lower margin on each item)

• Spent time researching/ testing products and marketing strategies and learning about ecommerce

As I said, everyone’s situation may be different, but this is what works for me. I started about 6+ years ago part time, and within about 6 months had a full time internet business. I never expected it to work out this way, but it’s still going strong. Now it is much easier to get started from the technical side—the major auction sites offer good services for beginners and there are products out there to manage your business. You can even start a fully-functional ecommerce website without knowing any html! It is the “systems” that are the key factor for me. I have a system for inventory, a system to communicate with customers and a system to manage the fulfillment and customer service process. Most of my systems are computerized but I always take the time to get to know my customers in person when I have the opportunity.

5. … Is an offline business right for you?

Many folks are intimated at first by the whole ecommerce thing. The truth is an off-line business can be just as successful. Unless you have a lot of capital you want to start off (and continue!) with low overhead. So, you don’t need to go out and buy a store front! You can start by buying a small amount of inventory and testing the waters.

Try selling to friends and co-workers

Host a jewelry party (or better – have a friend host it) and invite a lot of people. I once made $1500 in an hour an a half! Typically, I would make about $400 or so in a couple hours.

Rent a table at a craft show (summer fair or church bazaar around holiday time). Tables are usually only $20-$40 for the day.

Get a spot a flea market

Put stuff out at your or your friends garage sales. It really works!

My advice is until you really know your market and have a handle on your revenue stream, start small. This way you are not going to lose much, if any, money.

6. Business licenses, TaxID numbers, merchant accounts, etc.

Check with your state to see what is required to do business. My experience is that it is very simple. You can get a TaxID, which takes about 1 hour and you can do it by phone, and this enables you to buy inventory without paying sales tax. But keep in mind that most vendors will be out of your state and will probably not charge sales tax anyway. In this case most vendors may not even need a TaxID. In terms of taxes, you can file under your TaxID or your social security number. If using your social security number and keeping the business under your own name, I do not THINK you need a TaxID, as long as you claim all your income appropriately. If you plan to have a business checking account you will need a TaxID number.

As far as I know you do not need any special license to sell retail. But you should contact your state tax office to get all the paperwork you will need to remit sales tax to the state. You are required to collect sales tax on retail purchases (most internet companies only charge sales tax to customers that live in the same state as the business). And at the end of the year, you have to pay this tax to the state.

As your business grows, it’s a good idea to take credit cards, especially for online businesses. Nowadays this is pretty easy. I get about 20 offers a day via email to setup merchant accounts and accept credit cards online. Do a search on google.com and you will find hundreds of places to do this for you! The cost is about $25/ month + $200-$300 setup fee. Another option is to use only a PayPal account. The account is free to setup. Get a paypal account regardless of what you do because it’s essential!! I’d say 50% or more of online shoppers now, and 80% of ebay customers have paypal accounts.

  • I am NOT an accountant! This information is just based on my experience and may not be accurate.

Aaron Rome is the founder and operator of www.wholesalegemshop.com, a website catering to over a thousand small to mid-size businesses world-wide. The site boasts a stunning collection of wholesale silver jewelry including rings, pendants, bracelets, necklaces and starter packages.

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Build a Jewelry Web Site for Beginners

Firstly I want to explain one important thing about this article and that is, I am not an expert or computer technician nor am I versant in all the SEO techniques, Simply I am a Silver Jewelry Manufacturer who had to build a web site on a budget and really as a catalogue and show room for customers .Everything in this article has been tested by me and put into action, cheaply and effectively with budgets in mind. When I started this project my knowledge base was almost zero on the mechanics of web sites, so if you follow the steps and advice that I am about to give, you will end up with a truly workable Jewelry Web site at an economical price.

We are going to start off by selecting a company to build our site, here is the first tip to save money .Do not use a company that ties you into a monthly account for construction and ongoing maintenance, buy your web site outright. There are hundreds of Internet web designers on the Internet crying out for work, and if you can find an Asian internet design company you will save hundreds of dollars to start with, just like we did ,the company we used is called BaliOrange.net which were extremely cheap and professional.

Once you have found your company you will need to register a domain name, you will find lots of companies on the web were you can research a name, its best if the name has something to do with what your web site is about, for example if you sell shell jewelry, try and register a name with the word shell, seashell, coral, or the name of a shell in the title. Your web designer will also be able to help with this and id recommend you discuss were to host your site with your web designer as well.

Next you need to make a list of what features you want on your Jewelry web site ,my recommendations are as follow, no 1 the web site should be a data base driven web site.No2 it should have a system for being able to update prices in individual categories by percentage base. No 3 if you sell rings, you will need a drop down menu next to each ring were people can select there ring size.No4 you will need a good graphics system for uploading photos. Tip check out other web sites, when you find one you like forward the URL to your designer, he can take the graphic size details from that source.

Research the Internet for Tips on SEO optimization, every thing you need to know is already available and free. When you understand what you want for your on page optimization just forward the wording to your designer to include on your site. You will need to research Title Tags, Meta Tags and Description, spend some time reading about the different SEO practices before you start your web site and compile all the information for your Web Designer, it will save you a lot of money in the end.

Now I have kept the best till last, you must have a Link Directory if you want your web site to be successful, and you must build it properly or else the whole web site is doomed to sit at the back of goggles listings forever, and you will have wasted every dollar you have spent on making your jewelry site.

If your web site is popular it’s going to be because your directory is popular, and Webmasters that are intelligent really have six key concerns when approving a link to your web site, and they are as follows, is the link directory reachable from your home page, and is your link button clearly visible. Is your directory well organized? Tightly themed and with categories’. Does your web site have good content .If you cant answerer yes to all of these questions, you will find that your link requests will be ignored from other Web masters, and your site will be dead.

There are some very good programs around for link directories, just like the one we use and a one time payment for such a program will guarantee your web sites popularity.

A couple of words of advice, when you assess a website for a link partner don’t use the goggle page rank indicator as your judgment on a sites worthiness as a link partner, PR0 today can be a PR5 tomorrow and you going to look pretty stupid for not linking with that site when you had the chance, remember once your site is indexed by search engines you will start with a PR0,and you will work hard to obtain a page rank so don’t waste your time with a substandard link directory, get it right now and you will be successful.

I have been Manufacturing silver and gold jewelry for 10yrs ,and specialize in fine silver98%, 24karet gold,silver seashell,shell and coral jewelry .Together with my wife we have helped hundreds of jewelry retailers and jewelry Wholesalers reach there marketing goals.www.silver925-wholesale.com

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How to Care for Your Sterling Silver Jewelry

A little known fact is that Sterling Silver Jewelry pieces that are not worn for extended periods of time can corrode and tarnish as well. Thus, silver jewelry storage is a critical component for preventing corrosion and tarnish. By following a few simple rules, you can save yourself hours of cleaning and keep your sterling silver jewelry bright and beautiful for years.

Understanding Why Sterling Silver Jewelry Tarnishes

The tarnish on sterling silver jewelry is the result of oxidative reactions with sulfur, such as Hydrogen Sulfide, in the air and environment (the nickel or copper alloy in most sterling silver also undergoes its own oxidative reactions). The corrosion of silver combined with sulfur creates the darkening referred to as tarnish. Therefore, you must insure your jewelry is clean and dry before storage; since any moisture, dirt, oils or other residual chemicals will accelerate the tarnishing.

Containers for Silver Storage

A container that locks out air is preferable, since reducing contact with air will slow corrosion. The most common household items with this function are zip lock bags, or any other air tight bag with non-abrasive surfaces, such as those made of polyethylene or Mylar. Avoid polyvinyl plastic bags however, as they have chemical compounds that promote tarnishing. If youâ??re willing to spend extra, jewelry stores carry specialized bags and boxes that help prevent tarnishing. When storing, itâ??s best to keep jewelry in separate bags, away from other hard items that may scratch your jewelryâ??s surface.

Places to Store Sterling Silver Jewelry

Avoid excessively humid areas, areas with direct sunlight, and other places where jewelry could rub up against other items. Do not store jewelry directly on chemically treated surfaces, such as wooden counter tops, since they contain chemicals that may promote tarnishing of your sterling silver.

Other Tools that Help Prevent Tarnish on Sterling Silver Jewelry

1) Chalk – An old remedy for preventing tarnish, just store chalk in your jewelry box or container and it will naturally absorb chemical residues in the air.

2) Anti-Tarnish Strips â?? Sold in many places, these strips are usually made from non-toxic materials that absorb tarnish causing agents in the air.

3) Anti-Tarnish cloths â?? Similar to the strips, these cloths are either chemically treated or saturated with traces of silver; both absorb sulfur and other corrosive chemicals in the air.

4) Silica Packs â?? Those little packs you find in medicine bottles and shoe boxes among other places. Highly useful in absorbing moisture in the air, toss them in your jewelry containers instead of the trash; youâ??ll be preventing tarnish and recycling as well.

Learn more about Sterling Silver Jewelry by visiting the import and wholesale jewelry knowledge center of Wholesale of Asia at http://wholesaleofasia.com/, where you’ll find a diverse and unique selection of Wholesale Jewelry such as Sterling Silver, Precious Stone, Pearl, Jade, and much more, all at a low cost and imported directly from manufacturers worldwide. By working with manufacturers and retailers to produce fresh and trendy new designs, Wholesale of Asia helps businesses get an edge over competition and increase their bottom lines.

Note: Article may be freely circulated if all content, author info, and links remain unchanged.

Since 2006, Lee Shyu has helped businesses connect with Manufacturers, Importers, Wholesalers, and Retailers worldwide. His business is based in the United States and sources a wide selection of products for small to mid-sized businesses looking to expand their product lines and increase their competitiveness in today’s global marketplace.
To view his wholesale jewelry and gift business, visit Wholesale of Asia at http://wholesaleofasia.com/ where you’ll find a selection of innovative and fashionable Jewelry and Gifts. For question about importing and sourcing from manufacturers, contact Fefa Global Trade at http://fefaglobal.com/.

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Your Home Based Jewelry Business

Christina shopped for jewelry as though there was no tomorrow. On her 30th birthday, she received a gift that changed her life completely – a jewelry making tool box. She was thrilled by the thought of making jewelry herself. Lots of catalogs and jewelry making supplies found place on her shelves as Christina began turning out dozens of pairs of handcrafted jewelry.

This is what she had to say on how she set up a home based jewelry business.

“I made far more jewelry than I could ever wear myself, so I gave them to everyone I knew and kept making more. Finally, when my jewelry supply reached critical mass, my husband said, “I think you had better stop making jewelry or start selling it”. And so my jewelry business was born.

The following are some tips that Christina would like to share for the benefit of entrepreneurs who want to start a home based jewelry business:

Start small: Small orders from local art & craft shows gave Christina’s business the initial momentum. She also took up work for gift shops and galleries. This helped her learn the tricks of the trade quickly, without risking too much investment.

Customize & diversify: Soon Christina learnt her first marketing lesson, which was that she had to make what people wanted to buy, if she had any hope of increasing sales. That was a turning point for her home based jewelry business, which until now, had taken no note of market requirements. Christina also realized that there was profit to be made by offering a diversified range of jewelry, including accessories such as watch straps, belts and pins.

Package elegantly: A professional display sells ten times more jewelry than a careless scattering on a table cloth. Gradually, Christina’s home based jewelry business took on a smart new look. She preferred to design the packing cases and jewelry tags herself, so they not only looked aesthetic, but could also be matched to the different collections. She took care to ensure that the displays looked professional and were lightweight and compact for easy storage & transportation. What’s more, Christina provided a selection of elegant pouches, boxes and bags as a complimentary gift wrap. This simple gesture never failed to delight her customers.

Don’t forget after sales service: Christina also has some words of “common sense” advice. “I discovered that keeping jewelry dazzlingly clean and shiny increases their perceived value. So investing in an ionic jewelry cleaner and tarnish-prevention strips are a must.” She began to offer free jewelry cleaning as an added service, and needless to say, this presented further opportunities to sell to old customers who came in to get their pieces cleaned!

Offer many payment options: A crucial selling point, says Christina. “People will buy more if they can do so on credit instead of having to shell out cash right then and there.” That’s why even her simple home based jewelry business accepts credit cards, charge cards and checks.

Go online: Not one to stay behind times, Christina signed up on eBay at Now, several jewelry collections from Christina’s are on auction. She also made sure that she featured close up photographs of her favorite pieces to attract customers.

Encouraged by the prospect of online sales, she revamped her old website and added an online store. She encouraged people to give feedback about design and color preferences, and often incorporated customers’ suggestions while designing a new collection. Needless to say, they bought willingly!

Create events: By now, Christina was marketing savvy, and she hit upon a novel way to promote her products. She threw “open-house” parties where anyone who was interested in jewelry and light snacks was welcome! To her delight, she found that these jewelry parties drew in hordes of people and resulted in brisk sales. Her home based jewelry business really began to flourish.

We are sure you’ll benefit from Christina’s guidance when you set up your own home based jewelry business. All you need to do is follow your artistic heart and use your business brain to make it big. If you still need some pick up ‘Jewelry making tips & tricks of the trade’

Hi, I’m Akhil Shahani, a serial entrepreneur who wants to help you succeed. If you like to work smart, check out http://www.SmartEntrepreneur.net . It’s full of articles and resources to help you start and grow your business successfully. Please visit us & download our special “Freebie of The Month” at
http://www.smartentrepreneur.net/freebie-of-the-month.html

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Jewelry Photography Tips for Your Success

I personally think that taking good photos is more difficult than making our handmade jewelry! Everything has to be perfect to do justice to your handcrafted artisan jewelry. A picture is worth a thousand words if you’re a writer; a picture is priceless if you are trying to market your jewelry and unique gifts online!

Handmade jewelry photography is too important to leave to chance. Waiting for the sun to be exactly right is okay if you don’t have anything better to do but time is money and both are in short supply! You don’t have to wait for the cloud to pass or the direct sun to be on the left. Actually most of our pictures have been taken in the wee hours of the morning, once you get everything right it’s like you just can’t stop! If you are serious about taking great pictures you need a studio set-up. It’s not difficult and not too expensive considering the online marketing advantages.

We made our own light tent by making a cube and covering it with white rip-stop nylon fabric, cost about $20 to make. Let me know if you need instructions. We use  three 5200′K spotlights (daylight) about $35 each. We use studio stands (kinda costly) but swing arm lamps work too, just less adjustable. We bought a professional digital camera with a great macro lens, it hooks up directly to the computer and you just press enter so no shaky out of focus shots. The photos come up on the monitor so you can adjust the coloring, etc. You just set up the first piece of your handcrafted artisan jewelry getting it just right, then replace it with the next item so photo shoots go quickly. Touch ups are at a minimum if the photos are taken well. There will always be those really shiny pieces that when zoomed in at 5000 times the actual size you will see yourself taking the picture. Smudging tools work well in those cases!

Take your time to learn about your camera and all the features, it will make your life much easier. Experiment with background colors but we have found that nothing shows our handmade jewelry as well as a white background. Make sure your designs stand out emphasizing the unique features of each piece. It is all about experimenting and finding the perfect settings for each photograph.

This maybe is extreme for someone just starting out but we have been making handcrafted jewelry and unique gifts for over 23 years and we have over 3,000 items! Photos are extremely important especially when marketing online and well worth the investment.

The artisans of copperreflections.com have been making handmade jewelry and unique gift ideas since 1985. Inspired by the beauty of wildlife, nature and Native Peoples of North America, each piece is carefully designed and handcrafted especially for you. Our designs are silver plated and diamond cut on copper handcrafted jewelry and unique gift ideas. To see our unique handcrafted artisan jewelry please visit our website: http://www.copperreflections.com
Please read more by this author at Handmade Jewelry Blog by Copper Reflections.

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Selling Jewelry to Women Clientele

- Ideas for selling your jewelry to women clients

It is obvious that as a jewelry designer, a majority of your target buyers are women. Women love jewelry and women spend hours and hours deciding to buy and eventually buy a piece of jewelry. So how do you go about establishing your jewelry business so that you target your client base? How do you promote your business so as to attract and retain your client base? Here are a few tips which will guide you in establishing your jewelry business, target your client base (which is primarily comprised of women) and even retain your client base for a long time to come:

1. Establish a promotional tie-up with a quality clothing retailer – any customer spending above a certain amount of money would receive a discount coupon / gift certificate for your store.

2. How about a vice-versa tie-up with say, a hair salon? Establish a tie-up with a quality hair salon where women who buy above a certain price range in your shop would then receive a gift certificate / discount coupon to visit the hair salon.

3. Being a part of local shows, kity-party, women organisation or anything similar can boost the goodwill tremendously with the locals.

4. Donate gift certificates to charitable causes – this works especially if the committee members are mostly made up of women.

5. Target your clients through newspapers – don’t ignore the sports pages or the business sections as modern women are known to read these sections avidly.

6. Make sure your advertisements are also placed in upscale fashion publications. Frame such nice ads and put them up on your store walls in a nice manner.

7. Display the jewelry as it is meant to be worn. Making your staff wear jewelry on them would be a great idea. If the client is comfortable wearing the jewelry then make them wear it and appreciate it.

8. Make sure that your staff is well dressed, especially in the context of the market you are going to target.

9.Organize your displays / merchandise according to the price range. Don’t group expensive items with inexpensive items. Be sure to include any costing tags or price tags on the piece of jewelry and the same should be properly visible to the clients. If you are not comfortable with visible price labels, you can put up price range label (From $50 to $70) on the display case.

10. Show ensembles in different price ranges. This will allow women with smaller budgets to make purchases in your shop as well.

11. Make sure that your store hours are favorable for professional women – it is logical that women won’t be able to shop at your store if your store is open only when they are at work.

12. Provide for ample parking space around your shop. Make sure your shop parking area has good security. After dark, escort the clients back to their cars.

13. Don’t forget that little touches mean a lot. When customers visit your shop, offer them tea / coffee / cold drinks in attractive glassware.

14. Make sure your store bathrooms (especially those that customers can use) are well appointed. Use scented soaps, guest towels, potpourri – these subtle touches make women feel very comfortable while they are shopping at your store.

All these ideas should help you with creating the right client base, and create the right ambience and provide the right touch of elegance for your store, which eventually will help you build up your jewelry business.

Mithun Rao, a gemologist has an obsession for gems and precious stones since more than 10 years. He also shares a passion for music, painting and meditation. Apart from runnig his own jewelry store he owns and manages the site on Gemstones and gemstone information

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