When you are creative, you look for ways that you can express that. There are few hobbies that are great for creatives but also make great money too—photography, pottery, writing, and making jewelry.
There is a particular joy for people in creative pursuits when they see people wearing or hanging their work in their homes. Each piece can be a journey for the creator and the owner too.
Jewelry making, in particular, is a very excellent way to make money. You can do this around your 9-to-5, or up to have it as a full-time career.
Here are a few ways to start and run a jewelry making business.
Style
Before you decide to purchase bulk amounts of anything, you need to determine what it is that you want to create. Do you want to make large bold chunky one-off pieces, or would you prefer to create lines where it’s possible for a person to purchase one or more of the same item? These are all things that you should think about.
You can work all this out by writing a very detailed business plan.
Business budget
If you have a lot to spend, then there’s a lot you can do. However, if you are on a tighter budget, you might need to be a little bit more careful. You’re going to need tools and equipment, licenses, permits, marketing materials; you might even need space. And if you were going to make this into a full-time creative studio, you’re going to be things like parts counting scales and the right storage.
Learn from your competitors
Every business has a range of competitors, but you can learn a lot from them without stealing. Look at what they do and how they do it. Consider how interesting their market is, would you be competing for those buyers?
Take into consideration all of the platforms that they’re saying they got onto. If they are selling their goods on Amazon, Etsy, and eBay, there is a good chance that they have found that those platforms work for sales. Which means you could probably use them too.
Legals
Make sure that you have covered all of your legal bases. If you are running your business from home, you might need to consider its implications; for example, are you allowed to run your business from that location? Does it have any impact on your rent or mortgage? And have you checked to make sure that the legal state of your business is the best for you? For example, sole proprietorship, partnerships, and/or other.
Finances
Keep your personal and your business finances as separate as possible. When you’re not really making any money, you might not think it matters in the early days. However, every cent you spend on your business is a business expense and should be treated as such.
It is also important that you have these separated if you intend to apply for start-up funding.
After all of the groundwork, all you have left to do is sell your jewelry. Something to think about is to make sure that you have built up a solid inventory first and made sure that you have a good pricing model that means you can make a profit.
