New to Jewelry Making and E-Commerce... Ideas to Spread the Team Spirit?

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New to Jewelry Making and E-Commerce... Ideas to Spread the Team Spirit?

by Barb Spangler - Kids Team Spirit, LLC
(Fort Worth, TX USA)

Our original necklace design!

With the failing economy, my fiance losing his job and expenses growing while income diminishing, my fiance and I HAD to come up with something to bring in some extra funds.

Our 11-year-old has been deeply involved in sports since he was 4 - we spend nearly every weekend at a sporting event or two.

One rainy day it hit us: custom sports jewelry for parents and kids!

We immediately ran out to buy beading supplies and designed jewelry that we felt would sell. (We used the "I'd Wear It" method.)

I then created / designed our website, posted our product, created car door magnets and have them on my truck, created a fan page on Facebook and Twitter and try to post something each day.

I've created 2 ads to run on Facebook and 1 for Google Adwords.

We're getting visitors, it seems, and we know a lot of people are very excited about our designs - especially sports lovers - but have yet to sell a piece of jewelry.

Does anyone have any ideas, comments, critiques they can provide?

Is our product cheesy? Pricing OK? Website easy to use?

Your advice is greatly appreciated!

We just want to earn a little bit to supplement my fiance's income but more importantly spread team spirit by sharing our jewelry with the world.

Thank you for your advice in advance!

Barb Spangler
Kids Team Spirit

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New to Jewelry Making and E-Commerce... Ideas to Spread the Team Spirit?

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Your local teams and schools?
by: Rena

You might start out by focusing on your local market.

That way you can develop and test your products, prices, and procedures on a small scale - experimenting and optimizing your product line and your business, with very little risk.

If you succeed locally, then you can ramp up. If not, then you can re-evaluate and work out new products and strategies without having invested a ton of money and time.

Your child's sports teams:

Make and wear your team spirit jewelry in the colors of your child's team - and wear these pieces to all the practices and games.

When you go to practices, bring a fishing tackle box filled with team spirit jewelry supplies. Make a few pieces while you're sitting there. Other parents and kids are likely to be interested in what you're doing, and may even buy some team spirit jewelry right then and there.

Your local schools:

Contact your town's grade schools, middle schools, and high schools. Give them an incentive to say yes - inquire about doing a team spirit or school spirit jewelry fundraiser, where you'll donate a percentage of the sales to the school (or to the school's athletic program).

Your fundraiser should be easy and hassle-free for the school. Ask if you might set up a table at the school's fall festival or homecoming football game. You can either make an inventory of jewelry to sell there, or be prepared with samples and take orders.

(Taking orders is a good way to avoid investing a lot of your money and effort into making a ton of untested jewelry items for an untested market.)

Or you may want to consider testing the market by starting out with less expensive "impulse purchase" items, such as school / team spirit keyrings, zipper pulls, cell phone charms, etc. and see how it goes.

And don't forget about private schools, which can sometimes be easier to work with since they have fewer layers of "bureaucracy". Having a connection with a teacher or parent from a private school can be a big help in getting the go-ahead for your fundraiser for that school.

See more about doing Successful Jewelry Fundraisers.

Other ideas:

Chat with kids' sports / cheerleading coaches at your local YMCA, city sports leagues, little league, hockey league, gymnastics club, etc. Bring some samples of your team spirit products and ask them for their input and ideas for reaching the people who would be most likely to buy your items.

Network with local trophy / award shops, team T-shirt makers, and sporting goods stores. Consider cross-promoting each other's businesses. Or see if they'd be interested in carrying your products.

If that works well for you, then take that idea online. Network with online businesses that serve the same customers you do - but provide different products and services from yours.

I wish you every success - and I hope you'll keep us posted on your progress!

Thank you!!
by: Barb Spangler - Kids Team Spirit, LLC

Thank you so much, Rena! Your suggestions are brilliant and something we'll start tackling ASAP!

Is it considered tacky or improper to also put fliers on car windows at a kids' baseball game? :)

Donate to a Silent Auction
by: Carol Bradley

Some of the local school groups (band, whatever) or teams around here have fund raisers that include silent auctions. Spread the word that you'd like to donate a jewelry set to any charity or team silent auctions.

Put a sample set in the auction with a nicely typed card explaining what customizations are available, such as colors, sports charms and number of letters in the team's name. Best wishes!

http://carolbradleydesigns.etsy.com

You are in Good Company!
by: Joanne

Don't beat yourself up!
I get about 300 views online every week and haven't had any sales for many months!
Some of my new designs get as many as 60 in 2 weeks and NO SALES!
I think the jewelry making business is just over- whelmed.
When I began designing and making jewelry many, many years ago- I did very well- and did well with my first shop online, in 2006.
Now it seems that everybody's brother's friends, babysitter's aunt's neighbor's co-worker's sister's... etc (you get the idea!)is making jewelry.
Is it all professionall made and marketed?
Probably not, but jewelry supplies sales are way up and jewelry sales are way down on the website where my shop is.
Suddenly, about a year and 1/2 ago, everyone decided. all at once, it seemed... "Hey, I can make that myself and sell it for big profits" and so now they are trying to do just that!
I sincerely hope the "Fad" of making your own jewelry wears off at some point, so I can get back into business! LOL
My local customers I have had forever still buy my jewelry and order custom pieces from me and that keeps me going. It is just so frustrating
waitng for the winds to turn out to sea...

Taking your advice!
by: Barb Spangler - Kids Team Spirit, LLC

Thank you so much to you all, Rena, Carol and Joanne! I'm taking it all in stride and redirecting my focus.

I've since found a couple of craft fairs next month and am sending my application/check to participate tomorrow! I'm a little nervous but VERY excited. Still trying to narrow down just how I'll present it all, but I'm following Rena's advice. I'll create some inventory in the school's colors/mascot/sports and bring my stuff to allow me to create some pieces if needed. I'll also make up some order forms for pieces that I may not have at the ready.

Y'all are truly helpful and a blessing! I'll keep y'all posted on how it all turns out! :)

marketing ideas
by: Lisa

Some of the best ways I found to market my businesses is writing a press release (sometimes it does cost to post to the popular sites), write articles on your craft and submit to ezine articles (its free), start a blog at wordpress (also free). There are things you have to do with using proper keywords. Any info about keywords you can find online. I hope this helps

Marketing Idea
by: Diane

It helps to tie the jewelry sales to a cause...donate $1 for every piece sold back to the team for something they need, to the Booster Club at School, or likewise. You need to price accordingly, but it does help to bring sales because it's also helping a good cause.

Putting it Into Action
by: Barb Spangler - Kids Team Spirit, LLC

I thank you all so very much for your input. I am working on implementing all of the ideas you have all shared. :)

I discovered the DFW area has TONS of craft shows, especially at this time of year! I have been working hard in between my day job and my family to get prepared for 2 craft shows - one was successful and the other turned out to be more of a meet-n-greet for networking, but was a success in it's own right. We had a LOT of positive feedback and received some great team idea suggestions. We were invited to upcoming craft shows and invited to set up our jewelry in a local consignment shop! (My husband is iffy on the consignment thing... $35/mo plus they receive 15% commission. We're going this coming weekend to discuss details... I'm hoping they can sell him on this. I won't do it w/o his approval.)

I'm excited to have come out of my shell because of the craft fairs too. I'm a very outgoing person, but I'm afraid to "offend" anyone and appear as pushy. However, I've learned you have to put yourself out there for people to know you exist. I've learned to put the product in their hand. That makes a HUGE difference. Also, no sitting! You can't sell if you're sitting. :)

My husband had an epiphany regarding our website, as well. Right now, everything is custom order. Our customers have to type in their team name, choose which beads they want and charm/sport bead. We've realized that we need to simplify it. We're still going to offer the "Create Your Own" option, but we'll also create pre-made jewelry that the customer can just "add to cart" and buy without having to design it themselves.

Because we offer sports jewelry and we're from the DFW area, we're celebrating the Texas Rangers going to the World Series by offering 10% off orders plus free shipping for Rangers jewelry. :) Once the pre-made option is made available, we feel this will help increase our sales tremendously.

Thank you all again. I can't tell you how much of a big help it's been. God bless!!!!

Way to Go, Barb (and Hubby)!
by: Rena

It sounds like you're really getting out there, getting exposure, evolving your ideas, and getting some positive feedback.

That's fantastic!

So glad to hear about your progress.

Regarding your consignment shop possibility - I always find it's best to go in with an open mind and then decide what to do based on your "gut reaction" while you're there. After discussing things with the owner, do the shop and the owner feel like the right situation for you and your products, or does something not feel quite right about it?

Anyway, it's great to hear how proactive you've been in finding opportunities and taking advantage of them.

Loved hearing your update - and keep up the great work!

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