Profiting by Design: A Jewelry Maker's Guide to Business Success

Profiting by Design is a wonderful book for people who are looking to start a jewelry business. A few months ago, I was reading an article on techniques and ideas in starting a successful jewelry business. The author of the article suggested this particular book. Before I bought the book, I read the reviews and then purchased the it. I am so glad I did! After purchasing many jewelry business start up type books, this is one of 2 books that I use the most. Sometimes while getting your business up and running it is easy to forget a few things. My thing is creating worksheets for the business. There a many examples on creating the perfect worksheet to help your business run smoothly and efficiently. I came up with a creative jewelry worksheet during the assembling process which records time, price of pendant and beads, type of beads and so on. It has made my life easier when it comes to describing and pricing my jewelry. No prescious time is wasted since I no longer have to sit and think about what went into creating the piece. There are many many more helpful worksheets to create and useful ideas. This book is an easy read with many successful business owners adding their successful tips they use in their business. Their tips and tricks are very helpful and it can give you inspiration to launch your business in a new way that is unique or what customers are looking for.However, there was one idea that I didn't agree with regarding customers and discounts. It pertains to the customer requesting a "better deal" on your pricing. While, I understand what the author was trying to convey by not reducing your prices and stick to what you feel your jewelry is worth. I strongly suggest that you don't give your customers flip answers or appear to be a smart ass. Maybe you think it's funny but to someone else, it isn't! Personally, if I asked for a better deal on something that, 'I wanted and didn't need' and the sales person/designer/owner responded by saying, "sure I'll give you a better deal by raising the price 10%". I would probably give the most muderous, dirty look that I could muster up and walk away. And further you can bet that I would tell the story to every single friend, family, business owner and whomever as well as facebook it, myspace it, and maybe even write an article about it. You never know who is going to walk into your booth and what results will unfold through acts of kindness. Certainly, you don't have to give discounts to every single person or give your things away as there are many, many people that won't even think about asking you for a discount. (That has been my experience). My thought is that maybe your customer is short on cash and embarrassed to mention it. Perhaps they have a strict budget and can only afford so much. I would rather "pay it forward" to someone that fell in love with a jewelry item that I designed and then brag to the world about it. I think that equals more sales.Aside from that, I would highly recommend this book to someone who has some troubles starting their business and isn't sure where to begin, creating worksheet to keep you on track, and selling your jewelry in today's economy.

I enjoyed the book a lot. It gave me the best insight in learning if I have what it takes to have my own business. Very informative about the how, what and when to starting your own business. Extremely educational.

If you're trying to figure out pricing this should help. It streams geared to someone just starting out in business but it's better to have the info than not.

Delivery is faster than track plan. The item is suitable for opening jewelry business, but is not expected skills or knowledge.

Myself and my wife got a lot out of this book, Marlene Richey did a very nice job writing this book, it is useful in so many area's of the jewelry business, I've got to pick it up again just to help stay on my game. Thanks

I received this book Monday evening. I couldn’t put it down. This book has answered all my questions on starting a jewelry business. Thank you Marlene Richey. You instilled fear in me and at the same time you gave me the confidence and knowledge that I needed to know if I hade what it takes to be a jewelry designer and start my own business. This book is also a great refferance book. It will remain by my side for much time to come.

This book was helpful, it offered chapters on many different aspects of owning a company. It also had a lot of templates that were helpful, like pricing guides, determining rates, worksheets to help write artists statements or collection statements--if you are a serious artist/jeweler and are looking into learning about marketing or business, there are several things in this book that are crucial to know before getting started.

This book gave me all the info I needed to start. Went to register my business name, my business, talked to accountant, organized all other things - big and small. OK it is really thin in the department of web sales but I do not consider this detail to be major point. There are many web sites that have those information. All together I am very happy with a lot of useful information that I got from this book. Some of it is far away from me - like having employees and salesmen but writer is for many decades in the jewelry business and I am just starting. I recommended this book to my friend as well.