Goal for Sunday night/progress

My goal by sunday night is to take inventory of the sellable pieces I have in the apartment (30 or so total), and then I'll set a plan for how many pendants, earings and bracelets to make by the end of the month (60 pieces will be a good inventory for the boutiques, while I get used to the business end of things). 

It occured to me while exercising using my zumba game for wii (12 weight watchers activity points for 65 minutes of exercise.....that's what i'm talking about :)!!) that i'm a "plan" person. This whole "let me just saw out crazy shapes at random and just take a tally in the end of how many bracelet pieces/earings/necklaces I have" shindig isn't my style. Nopers...a plan is a good thing in my world.  I'm sure that at least one pair of earings will end up being two pendants (5 of the 10 earings for city-wide open studios ended up being pendants..but let's not discuss that right now :)! Yeah...i've learned not to saw earings after i've been sawing for hours all day long).

I'm on track so far though..I'll have 3 bracelet shapes and 7 or 8 pendants sawed out by friday night. Earings are a pain for me, but once the designs are drawn I just have to saw REALLY carefully to ensure that they are identical

To necklace or not to necklace...

(update on 4/6/2011: Decided to go with sterling silver chains.  My jewelry teacher wasn't telling me that I shouldn't sell pendants on their own.  She was completely not comprehending the idea of not having a pendant on a necklace..yeah, so I took that as a hint to go with chain. It was cord or chain, and I just felt that cord would cheapen the pendant. I had a mini stroke when I purchased the chains (prices have risen since I got my previous chains), but the prices will be included in the sale prices, so I just tell myself that it will be worth it.)

Debating over whether I want to sell the pendants as necklaces (40 sterling silver chains or so for the pendants) or sell them as pendants.  My motivation is mainly for the ease of things for me, but i'm going to run it by my teacher tomorrow night to get her honest opinion. She sells her jewelry in boutiques, so I want her to tell me what she would do, and how she thinks shop owners would respond. If she says necklace, then it's an issue of sterling silver chains, or a silk rope/ribbon. I like the idea of silk rope or ribbon because it keeps costs down. Plus, everyone has their own preferences for chains. The only reason why a chain is good is if you are giving it is a gift.

Hmmmm............................or, maybe I will let the simple pendants have chains, but keep the really high detailed ones simply as pendants.  I would attach them to a shorter piece of ribbon/rope and the shop employees can explain to people that they are pendants...I dunno.  We will see.... I'm very grateful for my teacher because she has been answering my questions, and she has cleared up a lot of the unknown for me.

I'm putting thought into the chains/ribbons now because it is the one "jewelry" detail I haven't figured out yet....well, that and how to display the earings when I give them to the store...get earing card things?  I'm looking forward to getting more silver this week-and my new bench pin- so I can get busy sawing.  I'm hoping to make over 30 pieces (some pieces will be earings, so it will end up being more than 30). I'm going to save the sawing of the fretwork for a 5 day weekend i'm taking over easter weekend. Fretwork is fretwork, I can do one after the other like a freaking factory worker and it has no effect on me. The sawing of the main shapes/drawing of the designs/making the holes  takes more time.

I'm going to saw out 4 main shapes tomorrow night at jewelry class and work on their designs.

Catalog/being a shop owner butt kisser

I had a brilliant thought explosion this morning. We (as in myself and my one follower) know that I am a few pineapple chunks short of a fruit cup, but I think of the most enlightened solutions to my problems when i'm taking a shower/blow drying my hair/preparing food for work. Allright...so, i'm trying to prepare for when I incorporate my business and get my sales licence. There is a lot of detail that I don't know, and i have been told that it is a trial and error process. I love trial and error (the thought of it makes me jump up and down with joy), but I just want to have enough of a plan in my mind so that i'm not going into it as a nervous wreck.

I'm trying to mentally categorize the things I need to worry about. Making the jewelry, shopping my jewelry to boutique owners, tax stuff, etc. One thing that has been on my mind is the whole "oh, you must have a brochure so the shop owners can look at something" shindig.  I came up with the idea this morning that I could make my own inventory catalog (listing photos of all of the items, prices +descriptions, and an overall intro to yours truly). Each photo/item will have a code, that will directly link to the items in my jewelry case. For example, a bracelet listed as "I-5" can be found in the "I" section of my case.

I will make it by buying construction paper-like folder binders (the kinds that can hold a research paper), with 5 pages or so of printer paper inside of each, printed with photos through my home color printer. I like that it is inexpensive, practical, and very pro-shop owner. It will be something that I can hand to a shop owner/employee, and they can either look through it at their leisure and contact me if they want to see some of the pieces, or it can be a guide for them, with my case sitting right in front of them.  It serves a dual purpose. It gives me something to hand to them, and it allows a busy shop owner to think about my jewelry on their own time, versus in the middle of a chaotic day. 

The main thing I like about making it myself, is that it will be a store by store basis (items will be deleted as they are sold -hopefully-, and I can also add new items), and I can change the catalog without having to pay a printing company to make the changes for me.

It's gotta be easier than I think it is...right?

So, I was talking to my jewelry teacher who has been selling her jewelry for years, and i was asking her questions about selling. I know that a lot of it is trial and error, but I want to know what I always need to do, no matter what is going on.  Trial and error is cute and all (i hate not knowing what i'm doing, can't you tell?...."control freak" is a little harsh...I prefer "avoider of drama"), but I want to make sure i'm not neglecting something i should be doing while learning as i go.

So far, the things that I know are:
-keep track of receipts/expenses
-keep track of inventory and costs of items
-keep track of what i sell and how (how much is on consignment/how much is on taxes/how much is under the table where you should report it unless you want to go down like Al Capone -and almost as Albert Anastasia....I LOVE mobster biographies on the bio channel :)  )!!
-I also learned details about how the state has you pay the 6% sales tax (in connecticut they do it quaterly during the year, at least when you first start off).

*I'm thinking about going for Dava (a local store that everyone in the new haven area knows about..it has been around for 30 years) as my first store. What's the worse they will say...no?

Digging in to ensure that I always have a big inventory.

I decided today that instead of striving to make 2 pieces a week, i'll make 4 pieces a week.  I want to have a healthy inventory so that I won't be wiped out if a store decides that they want to sell 20 pieces at a pop. It really won't be too bad so long as I make them simultaneously (saw out the main shapes at the same time, make the holes at the same time, etc.).

I'm a very habitual person (i'm a stalker's dream because i'm very predictable), and I want to get used to steadily making jewelry now, before I incorporate the business.  My plan is to work on jewelry on tuesday nights (jewelry class), friday nights (jewelry open studio) and a little bit on each day of the weekend. With my full time job, making jewelry every day would be unrealistic.

Next step has been accomplished..travel display supplies ordered

I had a hard time wrapping my mind around what I needed to get as a portable display set up when bringing my jewelry to boutiques.  I wanted something that fit my needs, wasn't expensive,looked professional, and wouldn't involve me unrolling and unwrapping 4 different cases when shop owners only had a limited amount of time to spend with me. I ended up being creative when the jewelry display cases I found weren't cutting it.  I'm getting a black leather hard case caboodle case (you know i'm posting the link......  http://www.amazon.com/Caboodles-13-Black-Ultimate-Organizer/dp/B0017KGOY8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=beauty&qid=1298125913&sr=8-1 ).  I'm going to hold the jewelry(necklace chains or nice ribbons will be separate) in see through organza jewelry pouch bags. I like my choices because the case is a solid color, it stands upright so I know the jewelry won't fly around too much inside of it, and it is something that I can easily spread out on a table/counter where the owner/employee and I can look at the items quickly and easily.

iddy biddy baby step in the right direction.

I'm still two months away from going through the steps of incorporating my jewelry business, but I have a layout for how I want things to roll in my head.  I've found a way to kill two birds with one stone. I want to learn the ropes, but I also want to make contacts. Sooooooo, one way i'm going to do that is by trying to have a local jewelry boutique take pity on me and help me figure out retail prices for my jewelry for my price list. I don't have a whole lot of shame, and if two boutiques say they have no interest in communicating with me, and one does...that one may be the one who sees i'm a nice person to deal with, with unique jewelry that stands out, and they will want to sell my stuff when the time is right.

The iddy biddy step was that I asked a jewelry classmate if she thought her boss (a jewelry store owner) would be willing to sit down with me so that he can size up my jewelry. Wholesale is easy for me to figure out, but it's the retail that I don't have a concept of. I figure it's worth it to sit down with a shop owner so my price sheet doesn't look ridiculous.  She recomended a nearby boutique (these are all within walking distance of my court job :)...if i'm downtown for 9 hours 5 days a week i'm going to make my job and my jewelry career flow together!). I'm going to contact that boutique once I get a jewelry display case, so i'll be prepared if they ask me to bring in my jewelry. 

Once i'm incorporated I want to take it very slow so that I don't overwhelm myself. I'm going to one store at a time, and wait a certain amount of time so I can get a sense of how much the possible restocking takes a chunk out of my inventory. Once i'm confident that I have one shop's needs under control, i'll move on to a second shop.