Unisex Jewelry Experiments

I've been asked if I made any jewelry for men, but I've never really offered anything. Now that I'm flying solo, I can't really afford not to make the most of every possible opportunity available, and I thought maybe I should whip up a couple pieces and do a little test run of a few things before my shop gets overrun by Wedding Fever in a few months. These are my first tries. A bone and bloodstone necklace with an unusual carved bone horse clasp, and a turquoise necklace with a roman coin pendant. The horse necklace has gotten a lot of hits right away, and I like the roman coin necklace, but I think in the future I would choose more subdued or masculine colors. What do you think of my little experiment? Any compliments, criticisms, ideas etc. are welcome feedback!

New Beginnings, A Reprise and Some Hopefulness

   Many months have passed since I last posted to my blog. Large portions of my world have changed. Private tragedies and opportunities for greater happiness. Etcetera. My husband is no longer with me, and I hope he is able to find a meaningful life. I'm in the process of rebuilding. Currently I'm running Damselle out of a room in the home of my parents, and waiting for Spring. I think my last post is actually a very perfect way to begin again:

The unknown is a frightening thing. In spite of the fact that humans are an amazingly adaptable species we still get very hung up on the uncertainty of what's around the bend. Some people never get over their fear of making changes in their lives, but if you can push yourself out of your comfort zone you may very well learn that you are capable of a lot more than you expected. Running a successful business has a lot to do with change. Are you willing to take calculated risks? How well are you able to adapt your business strategy in an ever-changing marketplace?

Damselle is going well and we'll see how she floats as a sole income with no training wheels.. well... right now. I designed the jewelry for a high profile southern wedding in October, and the wedding and jewelry are expected to be featured in several wedding magazines soon. (not soon enough.. I need to pay off that startup debt!) I'll let you know when I have more info about that. My holiday sales have been decent, but it is becoming apparent that weddings really drive my business, and that needs to be my primary focus. My intention is to move myself and Damselle into a new place in the spring, after spending a little time paying off debt, regrouping, and determining what my income is going to look like. I'll do whatever it takes, to hell with the economy. Anyone want to be roommates with a girl who's home all the time, a jewelry design business that takes up a lot of space, two rowdy cats and a high maintenance goldfish? (I say this with a twinkle in my eye.)

I was thinking of Chris and Haim, and of Etsy when I wrote the last post, but the same is absolutely true for myself as well.

I don't think I'm going anywhere but up. Life is an evolution, and change can be a scary thing. I'm sad that some things I've built have been lost in this transition, but I'm confident in finding new opportunities to really shine and challenge myself.


Oh yeah! I also wanted to share with you this great idea I had. I heard from several Etsians that it was very important to update your profile information because some customers were printing it out to give to their gift recipients along with their purchase. I thought it was really wonderful that our customers care so much about the special uniqueness of their handmade gifts, and the people behind them, so I created a little printable artist's bio to include with every order. I think it's great and my customers have already let me know they really appreciate it!

The Times They Are A'Changing

          The unknown is a frightening thing. In spite of the fact that humans are an amazingly adaptable species we still get very hung up on the uncertainty of what's around the bend. Some people never get over their fear of making changes in their lives, but if you can push yourself out of your comfort zone you may very well learn that you are capable of a lot more than you expected. Running a successful business has a lot to do with change. Are you willing to take calculated risks? How well are you able to adapt your business strategy in an ever-changing marketplace? 

         

 Two of the original founders of Etsy, the main site on which I sell my handcrafted jewelry have just announced they will be leaving. This abrupt and surprising news brought with it much speculation and doomsaying about the future of Etsy as a company. I guess this really isn't a big surprise because a lot of people depend on Etsy's continued success for their own financial livelihood, and any time any sort of change has occured, it's been met with resistance and claims that yes, the sky is in fact falling. 

       

  I don't think Etsy is going anywhere but up. Growing a business is an evolution, and change can be a scary thing. I'm sad that Chris and Haim are leaving, because they're obviously leaders... but they may have outgrown their jobs now that Etsy is growing and maybe they have found new opportunities to really shine and challenge themselves. 

 

717 Butterflies... and counting

Every time I put a new item in my shop, I get butterflies in my stomach. Every time I sell something I get butterflies in my stomach. It's been over a year now and it still happens to me. 

The Lean Mean Crafting Machine

Keeping diligent and detailed accounting is one of the best and smartest things you can do for your small business. This is something I learned the hard way, but it's 100% true and could even save your business.

When I first started Damselle, I knew I would need to keep records and file my taxes properly and do some math blah blah..... but I'm the artistic type. I knew from doing some rough figures that my profit should be about 75% of my total sales and shoot... My work is so fabulous and I'm so determined......of course it's going to be great!

So I took that ball and ran with it. And didn't look back for a couple months. I knew it was going to be tough going at first anyways. My husband was pushing me to start making spreadsheets with detailed information, but... I'm the artistic type. Math is not fun for me. Yes, I'm totally capable and I understand the numbers once I bother to look at them... but looking at them might show me that everything was going horribly wrong and my business was not viable after all.

So finally, after cleaning every wooden molding in the house, polishing the record player, and searching for every other thinly veiled distraction from my task, I sat down and spent many hours looking up the information and creating the spreadsheets. The first thing I noticed was that once I entered in all my expenses...jewelry supplies, shipping, site fees, advertising, office supplies... I was actually making about 50% profit and not 75%. That is a pretty big difference and was completely disheartening. I would need to be doing much higher volume for those numbers to be acceptable.

Then I started looking harder. I noticed fairly quickly that I was spending too much money on supplies compared to what I was using up. Granted, I wanted to have some stockpiled for holidays etc. but looking at my supply, I was a veritable dragon sitting on a horde. I also noticed that the amount I was spending on advertising was too high compared to how much money I was bringing in. The ads were effective, but increasing the spending on said ads hadn't really increased sales as much as I had anticipated. There. I had my first action plan right in front of me.

You can't make good business decisions if you don't really know what's going on. I try to do my accounting once a week to every two weeks at the minimum to give my self a little business meeting, see where I'm at, what needs attention... can I buy those new beads I wanted to try this week or am I cutting it too close? How are my shipping costs? Am I losing money on wrapping and tape? Do I need to tweak my pricing? Are my custom orders priced well? How can I lower the cost of shipping and office supplies?

Custom Order Mania

        I have been doing a *lot* of custom jewelry recently. It's been pretty exciting, and it really challenges my creativity and makes me grow and try new things, some of which I explore in more ways through my regular jewelry line. Custom work is also much harder and time intensive. I'm fortunate in that I work very quickly, but there are a lot of decisions and waiting for e-mails back and forth, and waiting for supplies to arrive. In the last few days, I have been taking a new custom client almost every other day. I'm able to get it done so far, but soon I'm going to have to start asking myself how much is too much, for my workload and for my stress level. I think I need to charge more. I'm not desperate for sales anymore and clearly my prices are very attractive. I've never had anyone balk at them. I may need to raise them a bit to make sure it is lucrative for me as well as my client. 

             Also exciting: Some of my jewelry has been blogged on WeddingBee.com and as soon as I was notified, I sold two pieces to a customer who referenced their site. Yay!! (I may also be doing some custom work for the bride-to-be who posted my necklace on WeddingBee.)

Designing for Myself: The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes

  Since I started my jewelry design business a little over a year ago, money and time have been tight. I don't design jewelry I wouldn't wear, and mostly, I'm absolutely in love with my designs. But I'm running a business in order to support myself and I can't really keep very much of it for my own use.  In the last few months I've made a couple repeat necklaces for myself.. from items that I am able to produce over and over, but the lovely, one of a kind pieces incorporating vintage treasures are all sold away. I can't afford to keep them in spite of the fact that they are really special to me. I always feel a pang when I sell these pieces.

  Last night, however... I made a one of a kind necklace from a vintage pansy brooch and lovely yellow beads. It was very beautiful.. and very *me*... my favorite color.. casual enough to wear every day, but still in my vintage formal style. I showed it to my husband and he agreed that it was perfectly my style and that it was a shame I could only create one necklace. As I started writing the description of the necklace for my shop... talking about how the necklace would look great with so many things... trying to decide how much I was willing to sell it for. 

Then I reached over with the mouse and deleted the listing for the necklace. This one is mine and I'm going to look fabulous.