Jewelry Designer

The word jewelry conjures up thoughts of expensive diamonds and gold. Although expensive jewelry accounts for a significant part of jewelry sales every year, there is also massive demand for equally attractive but more affordable items. Jewelry design is an easy to start and fun to run home business. If you have a natural artistic ability and a flair for design, this is the home business for you.

Before The Start-Up – Let’s Not Get Ahead Of Ourselves

No formal qualifications are required to become a jewelry designer, there are however numerous short and long term courses on offer in most cities. If you have the time and capital it’s recommended that you get formal training before starting out. If you don’t have a qualification you’ll need extensive knowledge of jewelry and the manufacturing process. You’ll also need knowledge of precious stones; if you live in America you might consider getting the GIA (Geological Institute of America) certification (this certification will allow you to do work as an appraiser).

The Start-Up

To get started you’ll need to first put together a basic work shop, including a work bench, chair, pliers, a vice, jewelers loop, a mounted magnifying glass, melting equipment and moulds.

With your workshop established, decide on the type of jewelry you will create. Take a look at local jewelry and accessory shops to get a feeling for what is popular at the moment. Shopping around will also help you establish a price range for your products.

Finally you’ll need to do a little branding - even in the beginning. Decide on a name for your business and develop a logo to go with it. Make sure you print your name and logo on all your products packaging, business cards and personal vehicle if possible. Initially make do with hand written invoices and receipts. Once you have more capital you can invest in a computer and printer to handle this for you.

Once you have created a workshop, business name, logo and amazing collection of jewelry you are still left with the ‘small’ matter of how to make sales. There are several different paths to choose from. You could become a supplier for existing jewelers and accessory shops, sell your own jewelry from your home or even sell your jewelery online through your own website or auction sites like EBay and Yahoo. Your choice will depend on your priorities, capital and experience.

Making It Work

As with all businesses there those that succeed by innovating and those that succeed by imitating. If you have extensive experience and a good platform from which to sell your creations, then new and innovative design might be your key to success. If however you have less experience and no platform from which to sell your creations it might be a safer route to create more conventional jewelry.

Marketing

There are numerous marketing opportunities to choose from, depending on which model you have chosen for your business. If you sell your jewelry independently you can market at trade shows and in newspapers and magazines. If you are setup as a supplier you’ll need to advertise specifically to shops and small stores. This often involves hitting the street and taking your creations door to door. If on the other hand you have chosen to sell your products online you can use pay per click advertising and search engine optimization to market your website. EBay, Yahoo and other auction sites usually have specific marketing tactics you can use. If you plan on using auction sites you’ll need to do research into the specific marketing tactics used on your site of choice.

Don’t Forget

There are numerous ways in which you can sell your jewelry and most of them involve traveling. Be aware of this hidden expense and don’t forget to account for it in your business plan.