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| 4 Valuable Tips You MUST Know Before Starting Your Own Home-Based Wire Jewelry Business: 1) This entire course--tools, materials, and supplies---are TAX DEDUCTIBLE if you start a home-based business regardless if it's part time or full time. This enables you to write off portions of your phone bill, car expenses, stationery, travel, home office, computer, and a whole lot more. You can actually save a whole lotta money in the long run by having a small home based business. These are not loop holes or tax gimmicks. They are legitimate tax breaks that every home business owner enjoys. 2) Wire Sculptors who make handcrafted jewelry and have studied my course can make thousands of dollars at jewelry shows, home parties, your own website, or selling just to friends and family, but you must start off small and work little venues such as school fairs, small craft shows, etc. Learning to make this jewelry is easy. If you're going to work shows of any type, there is a lot to know before you start. You can waste a lot of time and money going into the show circuit unprepared. Believe me, I have made every mistake that can be made and I don't want you to make them. 3) Learn everything you can about the gemstones you're selling. The Internet is loaded with information and you MUST educate yourself on your own product. REMEMBER, you must be able to give at least a 10-minute sales presentation on every gem you sell. For more information on gemstones, see our Resource Center in our Wire-Sculpture site, http://www.wire-sculpture.com/gems.html. Now, don't let this stop you from getting started because there is always a new stone to learn about. This will be an on-going self-education that only YOU can do. 4) Take heed when seeking professional advice on the very survival of your very small business. Be careful about who is giving you advice. Lots of folks love to give out professional advice on this art, but the problem is that they are not making a living at this art as a business. Seek out the advice of a Professional Wire Artist who is making a GOOD living at his art. Someone who knows the trade inside and out. Weak counsel can get you on the wrong track and it's sometimes costly or even impossible to get back on track again. If you needed heart surgery, would you want an intern to do it or an experienced physician who has performed over 50 surgeries of this type? It's no different when you are starting a new business. REPORT #102 3 Costly Mistakes New Wire Sculptors Make and How to Avoid Them 1) Fear of Failure. This may sound silly but the #1 problem new wire artists have is FEAR! It will hold you back at every turn of your business. FEAR of getting started. FEAR of working a show. FEAR of making a call to a new customer. FEAR of making a sales call on a new shop. FEAR of making a new design. We are fearful because we FEAR FAILURE or REJECTION. It's the most natural human reaction. But failure is the only way we learn! It is the only true way we get better at what we are doing. Failure is the wisest and most impartial of all the teachers and it will make us determined and driven more than any motivator of all. I know this firsthand because I had failed at everything and was in a mental institution when I learned my craft. It was then that I vowed to help others minimize their failures. You are only a failure if you let FEAR overcome you and keep you from what you can really achieve. How to overcome fear of selling and dealing with the public: Write out a list of goals. Make them realistic and follow through with them. · Make one sales call a day. Do it in the morning when you are fresh. · Show your jewelry at least once a week to someone-anyone! Get their feedback and try to make a sale. · It doesn't make any difference what your level of expertise is, you should be showing your wares at some type of show, home party, private showing, garage sale, or some selling arena every week. · Read an article about the gemstones you sell at least twice a week. · Write an article about your business---your art---make a press release and send it to a magazine, newsletter, local newspaper at least once every few months. 2) Relying on antiquated wire wrap designs. These designs take too much time to create and you don't receive revenues relative to the time invested. Some wire artists never learn sculpting techniques that can be the bread and butter of their wire business. You must learn some simple sculpting techniques that you can do quickly and efficiently. The better you get, the faster you get. The faster you get, the higher your revenues. 3) Paying too much for show fees. When first starting, keep your show fees low until you get a handle on what you are doing and have at least 300 pieces to display. Before you get into the $300 booth range, learn how to make pendants, earrings, rings, bracelets, and at least one type of simple collar. Without a wide variety of inventory, you are working at a distinct disadvantage. It takes only a short time to learn how to make these items. They don't have to be elaborate. That will come later, but you should be able to make a simple bracelet or ring, etc. Seek out other venues for selling your work, such as wholesaling, home parties, private showings, selling on Internet auction sites, conventions, your own website, sales reps, etc.-----there are many places in your own community where you can display and sell your wares for as little as $25-$50 a showing. How about giving a jewelry fashon show for your local church and giving 20% to the church. REPORT #103 5 Surefire Ways To Increase Sales and Keep the Customers you Have Worked so Hard to Get 1) Make a Portfolio What's that? You don't have one? Well, if you're going to stay in the home jewelry biz, you're going to need one. So, let's get started! First of all, a portfolio is a picture record of your art. It is easy to keep, collect, and maintain. It's for the benefit of your customer when it's time to make a designer set of gemstone jewelry, maybe pick out a Mother's Day cameo, or just a ring to match the pendant you made last year. BUT!! You will quickly learn that by keeping a pictorial history of your work, you can improve designs, remember designs that you have forgotten, and match designs for customers with a special need. REMEMBER, the more jewelry your customer can see, the higher your sales will become! 2) Accept credit cards--VISA, MC, American Express The electronic age is here with a roar and the possibilities are limitless for marketing your handcrafted wire jewelry. Lay your groundwork now and in a few short months, you can be selling your jewelry successfully on your own Website, on Internet auctions, at craft shows, at festivals, at art shows, etc., BUT you gotta take plastic! You must get set up to accept credit cards, at least VISA or MC. Without accepting credit cards, this will be nothing more than a hobby for you. Many of my retail jewelry shows have sales of 30% to 40% processed on credit cards. The first place I would look is your own bank. This could be the easiest way to get up and running with a merchant account. Now if for some reason your bank doesn't want to open a merchant account for you for some reason or another, you gotta start shopping. The Internet has lots of places to look for this. 3) Make a mailing list and update it frequently Ask yourself: How did I get this e mail? You are on my mailing list-----Mailing lists can make or break a wire jewelry business yet it amazes me how many wire artists don't even have one! Your mailing list can be created in a simple notebook and you can add a new customer list to it every time you work a craft show, give a home party, work a festival, or do a private showing. In other words, every time you sell a piece of jewelry you should have an entry for it in your notebook. Then use this information and send your customers an invitation to a show you are working in their area, a special offer, a holiday sale, Christmas special, whatever. It is the easiest way to constantly keep in front of your customer. It is much easier to keep a good customer than to go out and create a new one. This simple tool is one of the most powerful in the jewelry business and it is seldom used. EXAMPLE: My wife and I have worked wholesale jewelry shows where about 75% of our sales were from past customers that we had sent a postcard to! 4) Send a simple "Thank You" card after a making a sale This is business 101. Yet very few artists do it! Some artists seem to think that customers just naturally belong to them. My friend, let me tell you, many times customers leave just as fast as they came to you. BUT! A good idea is to get a picture of your work made into a postcard and use it for contacting your customer for an inexpensive thank you note. Price around before you buy and keep it to a small quantity. I got mine for a very reasonable price at a company called Modern Postcard (1-800-959-8365). 5) Give a TRUNK show and include a charity This is an easy show to give and it will bring in business for the shop, as well as you. First, ask around until you find a shop, boutique, etc. that is interested in handling your work. Then ask around until you find a local charity that would like a little extra revenue and give them 10% of your gross. Give the shop owner a little, too. A good commission would be 25%, but use whatever is agreed upon. However, don't give out more than you can afford. Send a press release to your local newspaper like this: Local wire artist, Joe Smith, will be displaying his wire jewelry creations at Betty Jo's Boutique on Main Street. Proceeds will help benefit The Children's Fund. The Trunk show will be from 8 am to 5 PM on Oct. 5. Call Betty Jo's at 601-636-0600 for more information. Tip: Make sure you enclose a black and white photo of you and your work for the article. This is a surefire win/win promotion. Report 104 5 Ways to Save and Make Money in Your New Jewelry Biz. 1) When working a craft show or jewelry show, ladies, always wear one of the biggest, most expensive pieces of jewelry that you have and mark it up high enough so you can give a small discount just because it's a demo. If jewelry is on someone else, people want it all the more. 2) Don't buy expensive jewelry cases to carry your jewelry. Every jewel thief, con man, and mugger knows what jewelry cases look like. People in the industry quit using these years ago. Buy an old suitcase with a lock on it ---this is very important----from Goodwill or the Salvation Army for about $7. You'll save money and it may keep you from being robbed. It may even save your life! 3) When buying cameos----agate or shell, you can usually get B grades much cheaper than A grades and still make a very good profit on them. You should familiarize yourself with the difference between A grade and B grade cameos. Note: As a professional wire worker, you can get wholesale prices on many different types of Italian shell cameos. You can take a look at some of the cameos available at http://www.wire-sculpture.com/cameossupply.htm 4) For a very good low-end seller with a high profit margin, try osmena pearls or mabe pearls. They're inexpensive and sell well. 5) Don't buy a lot of the same gemstones, pearls, whatever, no matter how much YOU like them, until you test them in your market place. Always test to see if a certain stone or shape will sell before buying a lot of it. Whenever you buy a large quantity of something you think people just can't live without, they usually can. ----------------------------------------------------------------- No Matter what --- there is nothing like owning your own business! Especially a jewelry biz where you manufacture your own products! When you can work from home with little or no expenses, no employees --- right from your kitchen table, in the comfort anD safety of your own home surrounded by your loved ones, it doesn't get much better than this. Preston J. Reuther Master Wire Sculptor |
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