Part 2:
The Earring Angel
Business Expansion

Lynn Williams

(Catch the beginning of Lynn's story in Part 1 - The Earring Angel.)

Well then, "Function is the father of invention".

After I designed and started selling my Earring Angel pierced earring organizers on eBay in February 2005, I thought, why not sell other items as well?

Lynn Williams' tabletop Earring Angel
jewelry organizer

It had not yet occurred to me that I should design and manufacture anything else.

I just thought, "Go shopping, buy items on sale, and then put them up for auction on eBay." So I went shopping!

I shopped at discount stores like Ross, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Nordstrom Rack and other outlet stores.

I researched on eBay items of interest to me to see what they sold for, and kept notes so that when I went shopping I would have a guide. I bought only items that I myself would like to have, so selling something I loved would come naturally.

I purchased everything on a credit card and only bought items that could be returned if for some reason I could not sell them within 30 days. Then my only loss would be my time and the listing fees that eBay charged.

(Unless it was an auction item that I took the chance of listing low to bring in interest, and found and there was little to no interest. This only happened once or twice 0 no big deal.)

If you do your homework, buying items and selling them on eBay can really pay off - and it did for me. Plus, another great benefit to selling other items is it brings traffic into your eBay Store and they end up buying something else too.

I started doing something that seemed crazy to me, but it worked. Later I was told that this technique had a name in the retail world - "loss leader".

Basically it means you buy something you will most likely lose money on, but that will bring tons of traffic to your store. When the customers fight for the one you will most likely lose money on, they might buy something else that you will make a profit on.

I look at it as affordable paid advertising! I am all about traffic, even if I don't sell anything! If the traffic is high eventually it will pay off as long as your pricing is fair and you have great products that are hard to find.

Personally, I don't like competition. My best competition is with myself, which is probably worse but nonetheless that's me!

If there are 100 people selling "Jewelry Display Stand #A" and only 5 people selling "Jewelry Display Stand B" - and B is more valuable and sells quicker - why would I try to buy and sell "Jewelry Display Stand A"?

If you narrow the competition it helps you sell more. I am the only one who sells Earring Angels.

Why? Because I am the manufacturer and I can do that, at least for now.

I have people email and ask where can I go to buy one? The answer is only with me on eBay, Amazon or my Angelynn's website - and all are me!

In the beginning in 2005 the things that I bought to sell were name brand handbags like Michael Kors, Betsey Johnson, Baby Phat, XOXO, Guess, etc., and home decor items like hand decorated storage boxes and jewelry boxes.

Since my business was kinda born in earring organizational products it made sense to migrate to jewelry organizational products like necklace tree stands. Some of theses were items I could take apart and remake as jewelry holders.

Since you have to photograph and write a clever sales presentation (item description) and research keywords and price points for every item you sell on eBay, it was best to purchase all available stock of any given item so you could relist after the sale instead of having to PWR (Phototgraph, Write and Research) all over again for a different item - which took me hours and days!

Don't think I have a lot of money because I don't. I have 3 children, my husband is a self-employed electrician, I drive a 2002 Ford F-150 pickup and live in an average home, and I have a hard time paying for gasoline like most of America right now.

I used credit cards because I had to. I would spend around $500.00 and then sell what I'd purchased, make around $800.00, pay off the credit card $500.00 and then reinvest the $300.00 profit. I'd just return what did not sell.

I would take the $300.00 and spend every penny buying more stock to resell, and basically that is what I'm still doing today - re-investing every dime to grow my business. Hopefully this year will be the year I actually get to keep some of what my labor and efforts has been working so hard for.

I stopped selling the handbags and home decor items - not because they weren't selling, but because I had a hard time finding more than one of any particular item. The work to photograph, research, and write up each individual item was taking all my time.

Don't forget I have to respond to emails pack, ship, and drop at the post office too!

I was going in too many different directions and had to focus! I asked myself, "What's my best seller?" The Earring Angel. "What do the customers love the most based on feedback?" The Earring Angel. "Are those sales growing?" Yes.

Then it occured to me offer other colors of the Earring Angel! I couldn't afford to have them made in other colors, so I faux finished them by hand to test customer interest.

I spent so much time sweating in my garage sanding, priming, painting and topcoating Earring Angels it was unreasonable but worth it. Some of you reading this might actually have one of these!

They were beautiful and the customers loved them, but I had to sell them for more because of the material costs - not to mention my labor that I did for basically free.

I had to focus! So I settled on only finishing in Hammered Black, Bronze, Dark Bronze and Copper. These I am no longer doing for obvious reasons, but I do still have some for sale at Angelynn's. The faux finishes with the sponging techniques, etc. were just way too much.

Green note guarantee: All of the polycarbonate Earring Angels are made with partially recycled materials and I am working on making them in 100% recycled polycarbonate. These are are recyclable but I am working on making them more sustainable.

Lynn Williams' necklace trees
and jewelry racks

Then came the Necklace Trees / Jewelry Trees

I had purchased necklace trees, bracelet racks and jewelry organizers, and sold them at a small profit. So I bought more, and more! Then I even had the discount store managers calling me to tell me when they came in and would set aside the entire shipment for me.

I had my tax permit so I did not have to pay sales tax on most of the items, but some stores made me pay the tax anyway so I did.

The Jewelry Trees, etc. were not the best quality, but they were pretty once I stripped them, sanded them and painted them.

The Necklace Trees were too short for many of my necklaces and I continually thought, "If I made these I would change that. I'd make them more heavy duty, prettier, more elegant, timeless and not so trendy".

Then it occurred to me - "I should design Necklace Organizers and sell Unique Organizational Products only!"

So that's what I decided to to.

So I started drawing - and redrawing - over and over again, and came up with my first design. Months later I took a trip to South Texas and hired someone to make me a prototype. I had some doubts on a few things but let it go and manufactured anyway.

I was able to sell every one of them, but I had to repair every one of the 75 too! So I went online to find another metal craftsman and I have been using them ever since.

Currently I have 5 Jewelry Tree designs that I'm selling but I have several more in my head that I will be doing next year, because of finances.

Green note guarantee: ALL our steel products are good for the planet, 100% sustainable, as green as you can get. Steel is an alloy consisting of mostly iron, with a carbon content. 1008 carbon steel would have an approx. .08 carbon content. 100% of the steel used comes from steel scrap but loses absolutely no strength or quality and does not appear recycled in any way. All of the mini-mills used to make the steel we use for manufacturing is 100% scrap to melt in their furnaces. The steel in these items can also be recycled again to enter back into the sustainability cycle, we strive to be environmentally responsible.

Lynn Williams' wall-mounted Accessory Angel

Just this year I've made Earring Angels in a variety of new colors, ones that I do not have to finish myself.

I tried several different colors like red, orange, smoke and black but they were only lukewarm so I discontinued them. The colors I have now are the Frosted, Clear and White which are permanent, but the Blue, Green, Pink and Purple are still in in the trial phase.

The Black Wrought Iron Earring Angel for table top use is so popular it makes me think I should have made that one sooner, but with new items you just never know which one will shine! The Bronze Slim Earring Angel for wall, cabinet, closet or jewelry armoire use is brand new, so we will have to wait and see if it shines too.

The 3 Wrought Iron Earring Angel design I believe will be my absolute best item ever! It's called the Accessory Angel and it's black and wall mounted. It holds a whopping 55 pairs of earrings and has necklace hooks and a large accessory tray. I have to say it is AWESOME and I can't wait to make them.

NEXT: Part 3 - The Earring Angel - Seller Secrets

And don't miss the beginning of Lynn's success story:
Part 1 - The Earring Angel.

Author Lynn Williams is the owner of Angelynn's Unique Organizational Products ~ Creator of the Earring Angel and other jewelry organizers and necklace trees.

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