Hello to all! I have started a jewelry and accessories business here in va. Right now I'm home based but feeling pretty stuck. I have some of my product and want to make my name a brand. The thing is I don't have a place to set-up and sale. This makes it hard to really push my product. I have made flyer and business cards, but haven't passed them out because of the set-up issue. I don't want to go door to door or salon to salon. I really dont want to look unprofessional like someone just doing this for fun. I want to be looked at as a respectable business. I feel like my product is top self and should be treated as such. Yes I could go to trade shows and different fashion shows in the area ,but money is a big issue. I just don't know where to find the money. I know my product will sell its just i don't want the image of me or my product to look cheap. There is a lot to this ,but I don't want to keep you reading for days so I have given you the big issues. Please send any ideas you might have. Thanks.

1. Put up a basic website with some images of the product. having a website always creates the idea that you are more of a professional.
2. Go to some local chamber and business networking groups with your cards and samples of product. This will work very well as you can connect with other business owners and get ideas and probably some sales and referrals as well.
3. What about having a party and inviting everyone you know to come and take a look at what you have?

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I like the idea of home parties for this type of product. Of course it could take some time to build up the business, but if you don't want to go salon to salon you are limiting yourself.

Selling from a website would also be very slow becaue the compeition online is fierce. But definitely you need a website to showcase your items and as an online brochure.

Good luck.

Sylvia
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Indeed, get a small Website, photos of your products your contact information.

Put the website address in your business cards, brochures and invitations to any local parties you create for your product and give them away to the invited people even if they buy from you.

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try broad faxing your market, it's cheap only takes a little time to research and actually do...

God Bless

I think my advice is going to be different from some of the people that posted before.

I have to be a bit harsh here because it seems that you need a reality check.

You specifically said, in your post, that money is a big issue. If that is the case then you need to get over your fear of looking cheap. Business owners do what is necessary to sell their product. If this means you have to get off your a** and go door to door to salons, then that's what you need to do. I'm not sure what world you come from but, in my world, going door to door and busting your behind in getting your business started does not imply cheap - it shows me someone who cares and is a hard worker. Last time I checked, being a hard worker is not the same thing as being cheap.

Until you make money, you don't have the luxury of being so picky. So, get off your behind and get to work. Otherwise, the only people to admire your top shelf products is your family.

People like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates had no problem starting in their garage and working on their hands and knees assembling computers. You can call both of those people unprofessional but, I think anyone would agree, that being as unprofessinal as them isn't so bad.

Good luck!

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I agree... and should have mentioned that first, before I mentioned everything else. First... get out and get in front of people. Get face to face. A couple things will happen... you will see that the people love your product, or they won't.

You will also see how people react to the product and price. If they flinch... that isn't always bad. Don't immediately start dropping your price. You just haven't done a good enough job of selling the product (unless you think that your product is better than it really is... in which case you need to rethink a few things). Do a little more selling of the product. If you still find that people love your product, but just aren't buying because they
feel that it is overpriced... then you can start to adjust your price until you start to make sales.

So, door to door may be the way that you want to start doing things anyway. You want to get out and get a feel for customer's reactions. Then, once you have money coming in... put it all (or whatever you can afford) back into your business. Have a list of things that you want done. I would go for the website (a nice site that a professional makes for you) first. Then the business cards. That way, once your site is ready to go, you can print the address on the bus. cards.

If you have a good site, you can do everything after it's built to get people there. Let your site do the selling (if you don't plan to be in front of people).

My marketing guys explained it this way to me (because I was doing it all wrong about 10 years ago). They said that you want your card and/or brochure to be great first impression items. The business card gets them to look at the brochure and the brochure gets the customer to go to the website... and the website tells the story. Have each piece build on the previous one... but each one is also designed to stand on it's own if needed.

So, make your list and then once you have the money coming in... you can start adding those to your marketing mix.




Jeff S.
Night Sky Murals
Award Winning Murals

www.NightSkyMurals.com (Product)
www.DarkSkyMurals.biz (Business Opportunity)

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Have you test marketed your product? Do you know what your competitors are doing?

Also, one of the things I have done as an artist (I also do hand-dyed clothing) is to talk to other artisans and split the cost of a hotel room for a private trunk show.

We actually did a show close to Christmas one year with two other artisans who had products that complimented ours - We took our silk scarves and cruise wear, one had jewelry, one had business appropriate clothing - and we split the cost of a room at our local Hilton. Then we drew straws to see which one of us got to spend the night in the room. The whole event was fun, stressless and we made new contacts since we all invited our individual client lists. We put up fliers (we were all also working at the time) and put an ad in the paper. Total cost to us was about $100 for the whole thing per person.

Sharing expenses only helps everyone. Might try it. Great for exposure.


DeBorah Beatty
Created Life Strategies

Disconnecting Oughta-Pilots(tm) and Creating Lives

You really need to do some festivals. Some set up fees are very expensive, but some are really cheap (some even free).

A friend and I also make jewelry and did festivals all summer a couple years ago. It is a lot of work, but we also had a blast and made some money in the process!!

From my experience doing these festivals, attendees (for the most part) are looking for unique, hand crafted, good quality items. I say this because I, too, feared that setting up at festivals would some how make my top-notch jewelry seem less than that. But it was just the opposite, festival shoppers are generally looking for items that they cant find anywhere else, which is exactly the image I was wanting!!

We also had a sign up at our tables for individuals to get on our e-mail list and business cards with our web-site info. I would say 8 out of every 10 people who purchased at the festivals, made future purchases on the web site; and probably 4 out of every 10 individuals who didnt make a purchase but signed up e-mail, became on-line customers. That may not sound like huge numbers (although I think they are pretty good), but when you consider some festivals have thousands of attendees, it can really be a great way to get your name out there, and start "branding" your jewelry.

Unfortunately I lost my jewelry partner to another vocation, so I am not doing it right now. But it really worked for us at the time. Good luck to you!!!

P.S.--where in VA? I am in VA!! need a partner?