subject: Start Your Own Jewelry Making Business [print this page] You're a creative person and you really enjoy beading. You have so many pieces of beaded jewelry - at least one piece to match every outfit! Every family member and friend of yours has been given a piece of beaded jewelry on one occasion or the other. Everyone admires your beaded jewelry; everyone tells you that you should sell your work. You've seen other people's work in gift shops and some of yours is definitely better than what you've seen. So you think maybe it's a good idea to start profiting from your quite expensive hobby. You could be working from home as well as earning some money.
No-one can tell you whether or not to start your own home-based beaded jewelry making business. You have to take into consideration the cost of the materials, as well as the cost of your time. Very often, we forget how long a piece took to make because we are so wrapped up in the enjoyment of making it. You might also be a very creative person; however, a terrible business manager. The business side is almost, if not more, important than the creative side. You might consider taking on a partner to do the numbers side of the business. If you are no good at numbers, then you will find it very difficult to make a profit from your skills. A partner might be able to help you price your pieces, as well as work out your costs.
A difficult problem you will have is costing your work. You want to obviously price for profit. The best way is to add overhead, materials, labor and your profit in order to reach your desired price.
Overhead includes your rental, supplies and utilities. A simple way to work out your overhead is to determine the indirect costs (overhead) and then calculate an hourly rate for them.
Materials is your direct cost of the beads, findings and raw materials. It is important to buy your materials from wholesalers even though you might need to buy some things in bulk.
Labor is worth money and you need to charge for your time; however, you cannot place a management hourly rate when you are merely doing the menial jobs. If you are hiring someone to help you for $10 an hour, then that is the cost of labor per hour.
Profit will allow you to expand your business - it's the money that you make that will make you more money. If your business is not making profit, then it is not succeeding. In order to calculate your profit just double your selling price because that is what the stores will be doing to you. If you sell a necklace to them for $100, they will sell it for $199. Profit and labor are not one and the same!
I suggest writing a business plan before you start. Take a piece of paper and write down the pros and cons opposite each other. Research is also an extremely important thing to do before you start. Check out your competition at stores, vendors and websites. Decide how much money you are prepared to spend on opening your business: advertising, materials, etc. Check if it is viable to open this kind of business.
Work out where you would run your business from - you cannot use the dining room table every day and clean up after yourself every evening. You need storage for all your materials and you need place for your taxes and record keeping.
It is very important to set goals for your venture. You need to set short-term and long - term goals. No-one can run a successful business without knowing what will be tomorrow, next week, or three weeks from now. Continued success depends on knowing where your business is leading you. Time management is a crucial factor in your business too. It is always recommended to make lists - that way you won't forget something important that would surely slip your mind. Keeping a daily planner and a monthly planner can be very helpful.
Unless you inherited money or married rich, it's most likely that you will have to work for a living. Why not make a career out of something you love to do? I'm not telling you it's going to be easy, but it's definitely doable. If you want it to happen, you can make it happen! Just believe in yourself and your skills!
Start Your Own Jewelry Making Business
By: Lisa Crook
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