1. Sell More of Your Jewelry at Your Next Show

2. What's New at Home Jewelry Business Success Tips:
   
   • Lean, mean new format for this newsletter
     
   • Informative new articles

3. Questions and Answers from My Email Bag:
   
   • Using gem lore to sell more jewelry?
     
   • Help! In a rut and customers aren't buying

4. Profit from the Best Jewelry Party Months:
   October, November, December

5. Neat Jewelry Related Website:
   Step by Step Beads online tutorials

6. Submit a Tip and Get a Valuable Link to Your Website

My new jewelry ebook, Ultimate Guide to Your Profitable Jewelry Booth, details hundreds of things you can do to sell your jewelry like crazy at shows, fairs, and festivals.

Here's what a reader named Kathi had to say about this book:

"I'm a jewelry artist, but I also have to be a businessperson if I want to sell my pieces. I can't thank you enough for laying out this simple method for all the practical stuff we need to know for profiting with shows."

Invest in this complete step-by-step resource before your next show:

With this issue, I'm trying out a lean & mean new format for Jewelry Business Success News. Our issues had become so oversized that I've decided it's time to try something new.

You'll still get the same amount of jewelry biz tips and info here every month - but it will be spread out into two smaller issues during the month, instead of all stuffed into a single huge issue.

Now you should only need one cup of coffee to get through each issue, instead of two! :o)

Here are the newest jewelry business articles since our last issue:

1. The Birth of a Blogger
   A blogger was born when Pamela Vale of Creative Potential discovered how much easier it is to maintain a blog than a standard website. Discover how she uses blogging as a way to create an online portfolio of her work.




2. Haggling with Customers
   Haggling with people who want to bargain over your jewelry prices is something you'll have to deal with occasionally. Cindy Cherrington of CC Creations shares her tips for deciding whether to bargain, handling hagglers, and alternatives to reducing your prices.




3. Tips for Pricing Your Jewelry
   I've started a new section to gather all of our articles on pricing jewelry into one location. In this collection of articles, you'll learn how to determine the jewelry prices that are profitable for you and suitable for your market.

What unique experiences or knowledge have you gained in your own jewelry business quest? You can share your story or advice, and build traffic to your website when you submit a jewelry business article. You'll receive a free permanent link from Home Jewelry Business Success Tips to your website - and your article will be read by thousands of people in the jewelry industry. Our guest authors report a significant flow of traffic coming from their article links on Home Jewelry Business Success Tips!

Question from Cristine:

I was wondering if you would mind if I use the gem lore information on your site for my for my local market. I would like to print it out for my customers.

Rena's answer:

Hi Cristine,

Yes, please feel free to use the copyright-free gem lore information on these pages:

Gemstone Lore

Birthstones

Wedding Anniversary Stones

Customers love this information printed on a handout, and it can really promote interest in your booth.

For my own use, I have this info printed on an attractive flyer which also includes all of my jewelry business contact info. Customers often stand at my booth studying it, then ask what jewelry I have with a particular stone from the list. Often this draws a cluster of interested people, all looking at the handout and searching for gemstones in my display.

This flyer can really boost sales, and it's a also an interesting handout with your contact info that many customers keep.

Question from Hailey:

I've fallen into a rut...I just can't seem to think of any more ideas...and all of my customers have told me that they already have seasonal jewelry. What can I do?? This is my only cash flow, and right now it is almost a dried up creek.

Rena's answer:

Hi Hailey,

I think all of us artistic folks occasionally lose touch with our creative muse. When that happens, it seems like everything we make looks like stuff we've made before, or our designs have somehow lost their spark.

It sounds like you and your customers are in need of something new and fresh.

Here are some ideas for getting out of your rut and back into your groove:

• Go to the largest book store in your town. You're not on a buying mission - you're on an inspiration mission. Head for the magazine racks and spend a couple of hours immersing yourself in the newest fashion magazines and jewelry making magazines.

  Both of these types of magazines will give you a ton of ideas and images for color combinations, designs, materials, lines, styles, trends, etc. Sketch or jot down your inspirations in a small notebook so you can bring your ideas back home to your studio.

• Go to www.google.com, and just above the box where you would type in your search phrase, click on "Images".

  Now you're in the image search engine. In the search phrase box, do individual searches for topics like "handcrafted jewelry", "art jewelry", "necklace design", "earring design", "bracelet design" - whatever strikes your fancy - and enjoy the smorgasbord of images you receive on these topics.

  Naturally you won't imitate the jewelry designs you see, but your creative muse can really receive a wake-up call here!

• Get some different jewelry making supplies that you've never used before. For example, try some unusual findings that will take you off your normal creative path. Or if you're mainly a Swarovski and Bali silver beader, place a small order of lampwork or gemstone beads.

  Or get a new tool or two. Perhaps a jig, or a pair of specialty pliers, or a small torch. Something that opens a whole new way of making jewelry.

  If funds are too tight for ordering any supplies or tools, you may be able to trade some supplies with a jewelry-making friend. Both of you can benefit from new raw materials to incorporate into your designs.

Hailey, I hope these suggestions help you get back in touch with your creative side and into a creative groove that will wow your customers!

Don't miss out on the best time of year to sell your jewelry at home jewelry parties.

If you haven't read Lorri Ely's e-book, How to Run a Home-Based Jewelry Party Business for Fun and Profit - I highly recommend it.

Lorri's e-book teaches you how to schedule parties, get new hostesses, make effective party invitations, come up with hostess incentives, offer exciting new jewelry party formats, and lots more.

I wish you the best of luck at all your Fall home jewelry parties! :o)

The Step by Step Beads website has a lot of neat jewelry making tutorials that are well explained and well illustrated. One timely tutorial, for those of us who are using our wire scraps whenever possible, is this one for making your own ball-end headpins.

A browse through Step by Step Beads' tutorial page is also a good way to rekindle your creativity when you hit the occasional jewelry-making blahs and need inspiration to work on new designs.

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 your tip is published in the Jewelry Business Blog.

And thank you to the creative readers who have been sending in your truly excellent tips! Many of them have been published already, and more are coming. If you've sent in a tip but it hasn't yet been published in the blog - don't worry, it's coming soon!

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

We have over 300 articles on Home Jewelry Business Success Tips now, and new posts several days a week in 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 site, then you've discovered a topic we need to add - so please let me know the info or tips that are missing from our site.