Staying positive about jewelry selling

by Mieke
(Holland)

Hi jewelry lovers,

I'm a 24yr old jewelry design from Holland with over 8 yrs of experience when it comes to making jewelry. Its started with a few acrylic beads and I was addicted right away. After a maybe 3 years I discovered Swarovski and I stuck to it! Gosh the sparkling...

First it was pointed back stones and then beads and pendants. That is what I still use after all these years and I'm still not bored.

I wanted to tell you about how to stay positive when you are already busy so long with selling and making jewelry and you still don't see any progress, or the progress you're making is very small. Its very hard to empower yourself time after time. We are all humans and yes we can be upset sometimes or having problems etc. But when you really really really love making jewelry then nothing can stand in your way to enjoy your way to the top. Even when its taken much longer then you expected. I have now my 3rd webshop and its still not a very big success and my former webshops weren't a big success either. BUT that is not what we are going to talk about.

I read a lot of success stories here and that is really amazing! I wish every jewelry designer a big and great success business!!! But its not always that easy! I have been (trying) to sell my jewelry on Ebay on Etsy, on so many other different websites, but it didn't work so well. I had a sale so now and then (like 1 a month or less) but I wanted to have a very large and successful business. I have been on fairs and so many other different things. Even had some off my jewelry in consignment and guess what, even there sales were low. I bet you all thinking now were your jewelry pieces so not nice (read: ugly). No they weren't but I focused so hard on quantity that I forgot about quality. Not of the jewelery but of the selling points. I thought if I have more selling points I well sell more jewelry. But when you sell your Swarovski bridal jewelry at a outlet bridal stores which is only open in the weekends it simply won't work!

It took me a very long time to recognize that this was the problem. I was fighting for my jewelry for already so many years! And almost everything I did failed. I have been down so many times wondering why people didn't want to buy my jewelry. Was it to expensive, was it ugly, was the quality of my jewelry to low... but deep down inside I knew that jewelry making is my God-given talent so I just had to persevere! I had too and so do you!

When failure number 10,000 happened I was really feeling depressed about it, I took a break from making jewelry with a purpose to sell and I began to make jewelry once in awhile just because I felt like doing it. And it took me over 6 months to enjoying it again. Selling was my obsession and I turned that around. I once was at my job and I showed some of my jewelry and a lady working there said oh yeah your jewelry is nice but no one is going to buy it and it will definitely not be a success and I thought to myself who is this lady to make me feel miserable. I said well that's your opinion I feel different about it. To make this long story short I met a few people who were really trying to put me down. But because I was loving my jewelry I couldn't accept all the bad things they said. So I tried to stay positive once more.

I signed up to Twitter and I really enjoyed talking to people and they were telling me they liked my jewelry etc. I tried to sell some on Twitter but that wasn't a great success. I had a lot of followers from the US and so I decided to open another account for Dutch followers. I refused to talk about my jewelry on a business way but I liked the contact with the people. And of course I was expressing my love for my pieces. Step by step I came in contact with people who were selling jewelry too. I never had the intention to use my Dutch account a selling channel. But the network I build was great and people were asking for me... I was chasing people for over 8 yrs and now things started to change.

At this moment I have 1 shop where I sell my jewelry and I have a few appointments with other shops who are interested in my jewelry. On my new job I sell some pieces to my co-workers and I feel so confident that I will start to approach stores without the use of internet! My business is growing bit by bit and I enjoy it so much...

It took me awhile to see that not my jewelry, not my prices or anything had to change except me. I was the one who needed a change.

I want to encourage all of you to stay positive, don't look for quantity but for quality when it comes to selling points. Be confident about the jewelry you making!! I sell the exact same earring as 3 years ago, same price etc but now it sells because of me :-)

Change your attitude and you will see a different in your business I have been and still am fighting for over 8 years and hey if I can do this then you can do too!!

Big hugs to all you!

Mieke from Holland