Do you have a passion for creating unique jewellery, but not sure where to start?
This post is for you.
If your interested in starting up a successful business and willing to put 100% effort into it, you can turn your dreams into a living reality.
First of all you need to decide what type of jewellery you will be making and who will be your client base.
There are a number of specialized areas in jewellery making, you could go into.
Some of the main categories in jewellery making are;
- Beaded Jewellery
- Polymer Clay
- Metal Clay Work
- Chainmail
- Embellish
- Wood Work
You will need basic tools such as;
- Round Nose Pliers
- Chain Nose Pliers
- Bent Nose Pliers
- Flat Nose Pliers
- Nylon Jawed Pliers
- Rosary Pliers
- Wire Cutters
- Side Cutters
- Memory Wire Cutter
- Awl
- Needle (For beaded work.)
- Beat Mat
- Bead Design Board
- Bead Reamer (For drilling large holes into a bead.)
- EZ Sizers (Helps you get the correct size in bracelets and necklaces.)
- Storage (For keeping your beads nice and safe.)
- Files
You can buy all of the above supplies from most craft and beaded shops.
Now you need to decide who your jewellery is aimed at.
Who are your customers? Are they friends, family or work colleagues or are you selling exclusively to the public?
Are they aimed at a specify age group of people or are they aimed at a wide spectrum of customers?
Once you have successfully target your potential client base, you need to know how much to sell your jewellery for.
The problem I encounter as a jewellery designer when discussing pricing handmade jewellery is, that a lot of jewellery designers aim either to low when pricing their work or sell it too expensive for the average consumer.
The key is to strike the right balance when it comes to pricing.
Two of the main problems with pricing your jewellery too low is that, a customer might thing your jewellery isn't as good as a dearer one.
This is especially true with beaded jewellery, where lot of sellers sell their beaded jewellery really cheap in the hope that customers will buy their jewellery and they would end up making huge profit from it.
In reality not only do they make big losses, but the sales they get do not cover the expense of buying the materials or the time and effort it takes to make the jewellery.
Another problem is that if the beads cost £2 to buy, and in total the finish product cost £3.50 to make, and you sold it for £4.00, you wouldn't make much profit on it.
Cheap isn't always better especially if you want to make a substantial living from your business.
Selling your jewellery too expensive is just as bad.
It puts some people off, buying from you and they will go to your competitors instead.
The best thing to consider when pricing your jewellery is to think about how much it costs you to buy the materials and the time it takes to design the finish piece.
A good idea would be to take a look at sites which sell similar products to your own to get an idea of how to price your work.
This way you can price your jewellery competitively without having to do the guess work.
Most customers don't mind paying the money if they like your products, so don't be scared to sell more than your competitors.
What matters is if you can offer people unique and high quality prices at reasonable prices.
Now that you have all that sorted out, you need to think about the legal side of the business.
These sites offer some great advice for small businesses including, where to get funding, tax issues, how to start up a business and a lot more topics are covered.
It's important to protect your brand once you have established a web presence.
You can find out more about Copyright Protection and Trademark from these sites below;
If your new to the world of online business, you might not have the resources to buy your own website straight away. The good news is, you can set up a free basic website until you get yourself on your feet.
There are a lot of providers offering free websites.
Here are some of them;
Next you will need a good payment system to accept credit cards and debit cards.
Most payment processing companies require you to have a Merchant Account in advance before they will accept you.
A Merchant Account is a business account allowing a company to accept payments from transactions directly into their account. Most major banks offer these types of services for a fee.
If you do not hold a Merchant Account, there are two main providers who will accept you,
PayPal and
Google Checkout, both have their own Merchant Account faculty allowing you to accept most forms of credit and debit cards online and offline.
Some providers also offers you the option to accept telephone orders through a Virtual Terminal.
SEO and Marketing are both important factors for a business website if they want to be found by the general public.This leads to higher ranking in Google and direct search traffic which in time will convert to sales and repeat business.
The first thing to think about is optimizing your site for the purpose of making it more search engine friendly.
Every site should have a clear Meta Tag Title describing what there site is all about.
When a person types in a particular keyword into Google such as,"Wedding Gifts."
The search engine will try to match the sites to the target keyword.
They reply on Meta Tag Titles to tell them what a site is about, then they match sites listing, "Wedding Gifts" in their header to the "Wedding Gifts" keyword .
If you fail to add a Meta Tag Title to your site, Google and other search engines might have trouble placing your site under your chosen keywords.
Bear in mind that Meta Tag Titles are not the only form of SEO Google considers when ranking sites, however they are still an important factor and should be used for building a successful website.
Meta Tag Titles are placed in the <head> of a HTML page.
Find out more from the following site;
On page SEO is another vital step in helping search engines rank your site effectively.
Choose the right keywords which accurately describes your site and then add them to the homepage, Meta Tag Title and Meta Tag Description, but please do not spam, not only will you put people off, your site could also get punished severely by Google and in a worse case scenario get kicked off the search results for good.
The best way is to write interesting content and add your keywords in a way they make senses.
No one wants to read a bunch of keywords stuffed on a page, not even Google.
Describe what your site is about, what it can offer prospective customers and why your different from your rivals. If you do this, you won't go wrong.
Next you need to link build with other sites to increase awareness of your brand.
Always select sites relevant to your own.
It's no point linking to a farming site if you sell jewellery.
One way links are the best way to build your web presences.
There's nothing wrong with a little reciprocate with other sites, however too much could make you appear like a link farm, which in Google's eyes is a crime worthy of punishment.
So how do you go about getting backlinks to your site?
Start by submitting your sites to free directories.
Here are some good ones to get you started;
Other forms of free advertising include social media sites like, Facebook and Twitter.
Another good idea is to register at Google Places and advertise in the phone books.
You could also swap links with similar sites to your own.
Some great link exchange sites to join are;
Want to know more about jewellery making and share ideas?
Why not join these useful craft forums filled with useful advice on jewellery making and where you can swap ideas with like-minded individuals.
Other places to sell your jewellery;
- At craft fairs and car boot sales.
- Host jewellery parties and invite all your friends and families.
- Open a Facebook Shop and sell directly to millions of Facebook fans.
- Sell through online market places such as, ebay, Etsy and Inspired By Creativity Jewels or.
Going into business can be fun especially if it's something you love doing, however to reach the heights of success you really need to be working at it often and putting 100% into everything you do.
