Selling your work

[Polly]

Hi BeadedCreations,

Direct sales at craft fairs is probably the best way to get started.  

You get to hear the comments that people make about your jewelry ("Oh, I love this ... too bad she doesn't have one in blue."  or "This is perfect, but it's too short/long.")  This allows you to make new variations of your designs, that are more what your public is looking for.  You rarely get to hear those comments on a Web site.

You can also practice the "flinch test" with your prices.
If pieces fly off the table faster than you can make them, your prices are probably too low.  So you start marking them up a bit higher - until people flinch when they see your prices - and then it is time to bring them back down a notch.  You only get to see that at craft shows.

A 2.5x markup is generally appropriate, but you may have to adjust up or down, depending on how unique, and easy- or difficult-to-create your items are.  I really wouldn't like to make less than 2x on my hand-crafted goods.  It just wouldn't be worth your time, even on items that are easy to make.

The family comments about prices are good, but MAY mean something about the designs, rather than the actual prices.  If they're saying they'd rather go to Chico's and Limited, you're probably making very stylish, current designs, that are similiar to those available at stores.   You really can't compete with the prices of mass-produced imports.  

So... you may need to make a slightly different niche for yourself.  
How can you vary your designs, so they fit with the fashions that people are wearing, but are different than what you can find in the chain stores?

(Your family may also be saying they prefer Chico's and Limited-style jewelry, so I could be totally off-base on my interpretation of that comment.)

Regarding e-mail:  
Have all of these people asked you to e-mail them when you come up with new designs?
If not, many people are so frustrated with excessive e-mail, that e-mailing may do more harm than good.

No responses could mean many things:
  Perhaps the picture quality isn't good enough for them to really see the designs.
  Perhaps the jewelry is not their style.
  Perhaps they're not looking for jewelry right now.
  Perhaps they think they can get the same jewelry elsewhere.
  Perhaps they are uncomfortable ordering online from you (security issues?  not sure how to pay?).
  Perhaps your e-mail is not even reaching them, due to the increasing number of spam-blockers.

If you set up a table/booth at craft shows, you can:
  1. Get people to sign up for e-mail from you, so you can let them know when your Web site is live, and when you add new pages/designs to the Web site.
  2. Overhear comments about the styles/sizes/prices of your jewelry.
  3. Notice what types of people are looking at your jewelry - perhaps you're appealing to a different crowd than you thought?
  4. Put up a sign, offering to do custom designs or home parties.  

My personal opinion, is that the Web site should come after you know, from craft show experience, what is selling best for you.

And then the e-mail should come after the Web site is "open for business".

A last-minute thought:
A common complaint from craft show vendors is overhearing the public saying "Oh, I could make that."  If your jewelry looks simple, but really isn't, you may want to make some little signs that talk about your jewelry, the materials, and how it is made.
This will also be very important information to have on your Web site, for a couple of reasons:
1) When people can't pick your things up to see the details and how they're put together, they need words to tell them that your items are well-made.
2) Search engines love information about materials, and how to make things.  Pictures, even when they are beautiful and high quality, don't bring people to your Web site, but they may persuade them to stay. '>

--Polly

[beadedcreations]

Hi everyone...

I am a little frusterated.  I know that you can't be "BIG" overnight, but how do you sell your jewelry.  I started out and have over 200 people to email.  My website is still being worked on so I have just used email and adding pictures that way.  NO RESPONSES.  

Besides doing craft fairs, jewlery parties, what else is good advertising?  How does anyone sell their work.  Then my family members say they would rather go to places like Chico's and Limited because they say they are a lot cheaper than mine.  (I have marked my prices up by 2.5x  Is that too much?  Please help!  Thanks! I like it but I feel like giving up.  

[Luann Udell]

Polly covered this whole topically so thoroughly, I will only chime in on one point.  That is orginality of your designs.

I don't know your work at all, so if this does not apply to you, ignore it--but almost every time a budding jewelry designer complains that their work doesn't sell or that their customers complain about the prices, it reflects a lack of something new or fresh about the work.  It  all too often tends to look like everything else out there.

It's perfectly okay to be aware of what is trendy, and to look to other designers for inspiration and new ideas.  But if your work really looks like everything else out there, then it just looks "the same".   And when everything looks the same, then it becomes all about the price--which is a bottomless pit, as you said in your post.  I've seen sterling silver earrings with semi-precious stones from India priced at Ŭ.95, and there is absolutely no way we can compete with this market based on price or materials alone.  It all comes back to design and originality.

We all have to start somewhere, and when I look back, I can see that many of the wonderful designs I first came up with were actually fairly run-of-the-mill.  I used the same findings and same beads everyone else had access to.  I played it safe with colors (or ran a bit too riotous with color!)  I used cheap findings that weren't durable, so sometimes a sale was lost because the clasp broke in a customer's hand while she tried it on.  I didn't know how to talk about my work or display it creatively.  I tried to make "something for everyone" and ended up making stuff even I wasn't that interested in wearing.

Success came for me when I began to exploit the intrigue of vintage beads, emphasizing their beauty and the elusiveness of reliable sources.  And when I began to make my own beads, which became part of a backstory, an imaginery prehistory I creatied.  

I started collecting new sources for beads, looking for great shapes, colors and materials rather than just looking for the cheapest beads I could find.  I learned how to matte glass beads myself.

I learned to use only high-quality findings, knowing that jewelry buyers often know, appreciate and will pay for good quality sterling silver and either gold-filled or real gold findings (as opposed to base metals and plated findings.)  

I became bolder in my designs and color combinations.   I began to look for unusual design elements and findings that would add interest to my work.  I looked carefully at other jewelry I found compelling, and thought hard about exactly what it was I was responding to.

I'm currently charging four to five times what I originally started out charging for my jewelry, because over time, I established a reputation for unusual, high-quality and original work.  And I still feel my work is underpriced for what it is!  :^)

As I said, this is generally the issue I see with new designers, so if this isn't you, look at everything else Polly said!  :^)
hope this helps,
Luann

Hi there.  I am glad there is discussion on this matter and should be on-going because the market is constantly changing.  We are jewelry designers and have been making jewelry since 1978.  For a very long time I resented newcomes simply because they would "ruin" the market.  I see it on e-bay all the time.  I rep our work which includes a small group of jewelers.  Instead of getting angry at newcomers, I have decided to donate a small part of my time to mentoring.  Standard in the Professional market is Materials times 5 or $60.00 an hour.  A jeweler who has since passed away told me.....there are two distinct stonesetters.  One makes 50 cents a stone and the other $50.00.  Which do you want to be?  Another way I price, is I finish my work, lay it out from the least impressive to the most.   I start with the least and put my minimum and then work my way up.  You will always have people tell you that you are too high or too low.  Remember this.....once you lock yourself into a particular market you are locked in and it takes approximatel;y two years to work your way out of it.  With the economy, infiltration of imports, etc.  I am almost willing to say that it takes longer, but our business is established so I am not quite sure and do not want to ever go through those days.  I met a gentleman in my travesl that bought for Burdine's and I told him that I was stuck in a rut one time.  I was working for beach stores and had to keep my prices low.  He said there was more competition in the low end market than the high end.  Hope this helps.  stonzandbonz

[Russ Nobbs]

This really is an important thread. And stonzandbonz has added a very valuable viewpoint.  Carrying and making better goods and not being afraid to sell for a "real" price is something too many makers and vendors never understand.

It's why there is so much low end and low quality on the market.

My sister and I found that having a reasonably priced "signature" piece (a pin, earring style, etc.) is a great way for repeat business and it's great advertising.  We display our signature piece at the check out table and most people will buy it and put it on immediately.  At craft shows, you'd be surprised at how many people will come to your booth and say, "I just saw someone wearing the most interesting pin.  She said she bought it here."  There's your sale!

www.sistees.com