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1) Got a Great Jewelry Tip?

2) What's New at Home Jewelry Business Success Tips - a new section and new articles

3) Featured Article - Use Customer Questions to Build Your Jewelry Business

4) Neat Jewelry Related Website: Thimbles by TJ Lane

Do you have a good idea, handy hint, or helpful technique related to jewelry business or jewelry making? Send in a tip that's useful to jewelry artists and receive a free link to your website when it's published in the Jewelry Business Blog.

Since our last issue, Home Jewelry Business Success Tips has added several interesting new articles to help you succeed in your jewelry business.

I'm pleased to present a new section that's been added this week to Home Jewelry Business Success Tips:

Public Relations and Marketing for Your Jewelry Business
Public relations and marketing are ongoing needs for your jewelry business.  Here's a collection of success tips for promoting your business and marketing your jewelry.

The first article in this new section is by returning guest author Angela Schoonen of Grove Jewelry Design:

Publicity Begins with Personality
Publicity for your jewelry business comes from you. Because you represent your business, you're a constant walking advertisement for it. Guest author Angela Schoonen of offers tips on reaching your full publicity potential.

Next, from returning guest author Mary Harvey of Custom Jewelry Supply:

Gemstone Clarity
What is gemstone clarity, and how is it determined? Guest author Mary Harvey addresses these questions, and also discusses the terminology involved in gemstone clarity and gem grading.

From new guest author Eva Polynice of Belle Pour La Vie:

Tips for Selling Handcrafted Jewelry
For many jewelry artists, selling handcrafted jewelry is much harder than making it. Guest author Eva Polynice offers a few jewelry marketing tips for artists who are just starting out.

Do you want to become our next famous guest author? It's easy and fun - and your article will be read by jewelry industry people around the world! Just submit a jewelry business article and receive a free permanent link from Home Jewelry Business Success Tips to your website. Our guest authors report a significant flow of traffic coming from their article links on Home Jewelry Business Success Tips!

When you sell your jewelry at art shows, you're asked a lot of questions by customers and passersby. Over time, you probably notice that some of the same questions keep popping up again and again.

Why not use these repeat questions as an opportunity to build and define your business by serving your customers better? I'll show you what I mean with this sample of "frequently asked questions":

Question: "Do you have any jewelry for men?"

Possible Answers:

• "Yes, I do - my designs for men are right over here."

  Many jewelry artists make only women's jewelry, but there's a sizeable and fast-growing market for men's jewelry too. Any time you find yourself saying "No" to a customer request, you may be turning down a good opportunity to increase your sales.

• "I'm sorry, I don't make men's jewelry, but here's the card of an artist who does."

  It's well worth your while to join with other local jewelry artists in referring customers to each other when you can't help someone. Everybody wins with this situation: the referred customers will be impressed with both of the jewelry artists, and the artists wind up with new customers.

Question: "Can you restring a necklace / repair a watch / fix a bracelet that I have at home?"

Possible Answers:

• "I'm sorry, but I only make repairs on the jewelry I create myself. But I can recommend someone locally who does jewelry repairs - here's her card."

  If you don't do jewelry repairs yourself, it's a nice service to your customers when you recommend someone reliable who can do the job for them. Have some of the jewelry repair person's business cards handy; customers are impressed with this kind of exceptional service.

• "I'll need to see the jewelry to know whether it's something I can repair."

  If you do offer jewelry repair service, be sure to charge enough to make it worth your time, and give the customer your fee schedule in advance. Jewelry repairs can be very tedious and difficult to profit from. Many customers mistakenly assume that because they're supplying most of the parts for the jewelry that needs to be repaired, they shouldn't have to pay much for the fixup. Also, being responsible for customers' jewelry during the repair is a liability you may not want to deal with.

  I encourage you to think twice about accepting jewelry repair work, unless it's something you really enjoy and you can charge enough for your services. Call a few of your local jewelry shops to get an idea of what they charge for jewelry repairs before setting your prices.

  And don't be afraid to say "no" to jewelry repair work, unless it's on pieces you've created yourself! It's up to you to decide whether you want to spend any of your jewelry-making time on repairing pieces made by other people.

Question: "How can I shop from you later?" or "Do you have your own store?"

Possible Answers:

• "I work out of my home studio, and you can find my work in these local shops and upcoming shows."

  Hand out a nicely printed listing that details the shops that carry your jewelry, including their addresses and phone numbers; and your upcoming shows, including dates and location addresses. Be sure to have your name and jewelry business contact info at the top of the sheet.

• "Yes, I have an online store - here's my card with my website address."

• "You can sign up for my next open studio show, or you can receive free jewelry by hosting a jewelry party at my home or yours."

  Hand out a flyer detailing the benefits of attending your open studio show or home parties.

Question: "What form of payment do you take?"

Possible Answer:

"Cash, check, or credit card - whichever you prefer." - Accepting credit cards is easy and increases your sales tremendously - see accepting credit cards if you haven't yet begun to offer this service to your customers.

Question: "Do you make all of this jewelry?"

Possible Answer:

"Yes, I personally handcraft everything in my booth except for the pendant chains. I use the unique technique of . . . ."

Use this opportunity to educate customers about your work, emphasizing whatever it is that makes your jewelry interesting and different.

Question: "How did you get into making jewelry?"

Possible Answer:

Customers who ask this question are usually genuinely intrigued by your work and want to know more about the person who makes it. Getting to know the artist makes customers feel more comfortable with buying your jewelry, and it enhances the personal experience of shopping directly from the artist. So think of some interesting things to say in response to this question; it tends to come up often.

Answering Your Customers' Questions Online

You may also want to consider adding an FAQ (frequently asked questions) section to your website to address the questions you most often receive at shows and via email from your customers. Anytime customers are asking for more information, you have a chance to use their questions to help build your jewelry business!

Our neat site this time is Thimbles by TJ Lane. TJ is a silversmith, jewelry artist, former writer for Lapidary Journal - and the designer of breathtaking thimbles, chatelaines, and related items.

Be sure to see her lovely open thimbles (the opening on top accommodates your fingernail), domed thimbles, and thimble cages (an ingenious holder that allows you to wear your thimble as a pendant).

I was fortunate enough to see some of her thimbles in person at a show last fall, and had a hard time remembering that they're not just for adornment - they really are useful too. So one of the reasons I chose Thimbles by TJ Lane for this week's neat site is that her work is a beautiful example of marrying jewelry design with functional objects. Anytime you can create an artistic version of a useful item, you automatically have an excellent market for it; just ask the quilters and needleworkers who collect and use TJ's thimbles!

Looking for specific jewelry business information or the answer to a question? Try our new "Search This Site" feature to scour both Home Jewelry Business Success Tips and Jewelry Business Blog for any keywords you enter.

A link to "Search This Site" is available at the bottom of the navigation bar at the left side of every page of Home Jewelry Business Success Tips. It's also in the top right corner of every page on the Jewelry Business Blog.

We have well over 200 articles on Home Jewelry Business Success Tips now, and new posts daily on the Jewelry Business Blog - plus lots more coming up - and sometimes knowing where to find specific information among so many articles can be tricky. But now you can search easily and find what you're seeking.

If your search doesn't turn up any results for our sites, then you've discovered a topic we need to add - so please let me know the info or tips that are missing from our sites.