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42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sell Your Jewelry, March 24, 2009
This review is from: Sell Your Jewelry: How to Start a Jewelry Business and Make Money Selling Jewelry at Boutiques, Fairs, Trunk Shows, and Etsy. (Paperback)
This book is the best I've found for starting a jewelry business. It contains all the basic information, like setting up a business, buying low cost supplies, and creating a look and feel. But it also explains how to grow your business and be successful. It explains how you can increase the prices of your jewelry without hurting sales and how you can be more successful by setting goals. It tells you how to find customers, how to approach boutiques, and what to do when things do go as you planned.
The author has an MBA and her business expertise shows. The book is packed with helpful information that can be used for years.
I have really enjoyed this book and would recommend it for anyone interested in selling their jewelry.
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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Informative guide on turning a hobby into cash, April 30, 2009
This review is from: Sell Your Jewelry: How to Start a Jewelry Business and Make Money Selling Jewelry at Boutiques, Fairs, Trunk Shows, and Etsy. (Paperback)
My sisters make and sell jewelry, and I was wondering whether this book could help them promote their products. They've tried eBay, but that's been a pretty spotty market. Stacie Vander Pol, the author of this book has an MBA and sixteen years of experience in sales and marketing, plus a passion for jewelry-making so she seemed like the perfect guide for my sisters.
This is not a book on how to create jewelry. Stacie assumes her readers already have a product they would like to sell. Nor is it a magical guide to spinning jewelry into gold. You could substitute `dollhouse furniture' or `leather goods' in the title and still be able to use 70% of the book. It's basically a guide to starting up a small, portable business, although there is jewelry-specific information such as directions on constructing a theft-proof ring display.
The author's discussion of demographics and presentation is very useful. One of my sisters created a line of tubular vinyl bracelets that sold very well in Los Angeles, but bombed out in rural upstate Michigan. If she had read Stacie's chapter on "Know Your Customer" the shiny vinyl bracelets would have stayed in California.
Parts 1 and 2 of "Making the Sale" are packed with techniques and resources for marketing your jewelry, including a section about Etsy.com, the website where "people from all over the world bought and sold handmade merchandise. Today, Etsy sells half a million items a month for an annual sales revenue of more than $84 million."
Another suggestion for making sales is to emulate Tupperware© or Mary Kay© by holding parties at home, or selling at your workplace.
"Sell Your Jewelry" is a succinct, useful guide with everything from the tax deductions jewelry-makers can take, to a list of "Gem and Jewelry Suppliers and Expos." I am definitely buying copies for my sisters.
***review copy supplied by author
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good book, but was expecting a little more..., January 29, 2010
This review is from: Sell Your Jewelry: How to Start a Jewelry Business and Make Money Selling Jewelry at Boutiques, Fairs, Trunk Shows, and Etsy. (Paperback)
I was really excited about reading this book... mostly because I wanted to hear what it had to say about selling your jewelry on [...] and other websites. Overall, the book was good, lots of useful info. But when it came to selling jewelry on a website, I felt it was lacking... There were maybe only a few pages dedicated this type of selling. There were also a few grammatical errors (which really annoys me) and there was no conclusion at the end of the book - it just stopped after the final chapter on taxes. I would have liked it to have re-capped the main topics a little.
I was excited to see the gem show list at the back of the book, but was disappointed when it only listed two. I actually work for a company that travels and works these gem shows - we travel to many more shows than just the two listed. For beginner jewelers, who couldnt afford to travel to Tucson for the largest gem show in the world, I felt there needed to be more wholesale shows listed around the country. Here are the gem shows that I travel to every year:
Asheville Gem Show at the Asheville Civic Center(early Jan. & late Oct.)
Tucson Gem Show -This show takes over the entire city! (1st two weeks of Feb.)
Minneapolis, MN at the Ramada Inn across from the Mall of America (early April & late Sept.)
Franklin, NC Gem Show at the Watauga Festival Grounds(early May & late July)
Springfield, Mass.- Martin Zimm Expos (mid-Aug.)
Denver, Co - The Great American Gem Show (2 locations) (mid-Sept.)
I also want to mention that if you do plan on going to your first wholesale show that it can be very overwhelming. Don't buy the first strand of stones you see - there are always vendors willing to make deals. A couple of my favorite vendors are Lilly's Bead Box & SII Findings - both have great deals and will treat you right. Each has a website and Lilly's also has an etsy store.
Hope this helps!
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