Time Management

I have had the hardest time managing my 'time' lately! I have gotten a tremendous amount accomplished but it seems the more I do, the more I need to do.

Since my last posting, I have; removed my pieces from the boutique I was selling out of, opened an etsy store, started a facebook fan page, run a two week advertising campaign, taken approximately 100 photos of my pieces, sold and shipped 2 pieces(!), and created some 30 new pieces!

So lets break these down: Removing my pieces from the boutique. Why would you do that is the question I get the most on this one. Most jewelers are trying to get into a boutique. There were really more reasons to leave than to stay and I had been riding it out for some time hoping the situation would improve but, unfortunately it never did.

If I could give you any advice on this I would say; be sure of who you are working with from the beginning. The boutique owner that I dealt with was questionable from the start. Initially he said that when I brought my line in he would, examine it, decide if it was in keeping with the theme of his store and then buy my entire line at wholesale. I thought this was wonderful! Then, REALITY CHECK! It turns out that he has just returned from a buying trip to China where he had purchased ten thousand dollars worth of high end, mass produced jewelry! Now he wants to enter into a consignment agreement. Okay, no problem, I can still do this. When all is said and done, I am only getting 50% of the sale price, I have to provide my own displays, I have to drive an hour, each way, twice a month to inventory, clean, and add to my collection and I have to "recruit" clients for his store. Then I start noticing the way he deals with his employees and vendors. It is not uncommon for me to go to the store and listen to him screaming at these people the entire time I am there! While I was making money, the situation was growing increasingly uncomfortable.

The last trip I made to the store, before removing my items, was especially bad. He started complaining to me that my system of inventory was too complicated and that I needed to come up with something else. This is when the idea of an etsy store started to appeal to me. I could receive the majority of my own profits, which would, in turn, allow me to lower my prices. I would save myself a four hour commute each month. I could store my items in a controlled environment where they would require less cleaning. I wouldn't have to listen to someone screaming at other people. This was a win, win, win situation! Then the phone call came. I was supposed to go in to do my bi-weekly inventory and the store owner called to say that I needed to come pick-up my items. The employee that he had charged with dealing with my line was leaving for college and, since he didn't like my inventory system, he was discontinuing my line. The ironic part is; earlier that week I had started setting up my etsy store!

The etsy store: http://AlexSharDesigns.etsy.com

This is a constant undertaking. Initially I intended to add to my shop every other day.....well, you know what they say, "We plan and GOD laughs". I am still managing to add about three items, once a week. The problem was photography.

Taking approximately 100 photos: I have bemoaned my photography issues before.
I started out trying to take my own photos but was so disappointed in the quality that I wouldn't list any items on etsy. Then I decided to call a friend who is a portrait photographer. Yes, the photos improved, but there was so much editting to do that I might as well have taken them myself. That's when those wonderful folks at etsy put out an article on photographing jewelry! I tried their techniques and they worked!!! Unless my camera battery was almost dead...as happens so often when you have teenagers in the home! I can not tell you the number of times I have done all the shots for my latest listing, only to open them on my computer and find that every one of them is blurry! Can you say, "re-shoot"?

I guess the greatest benefit of taking my own photos is that I have very little editing to do now.

Selling 2 pieces: One was sold from my personal facebook page and another from my etsy. One went to Canada, the other the U.S. Let me just say, I got a quick lesson in packaging and shipping, both domestic and internationally.

Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alexandra-Shariff-Designs/139148430664

This was an idea I came up with to increase my shop name recognition. As of today I am at 41 fans and growing!

Running an ad: I did this in conjunction with my fan page on facebook. This was one of my better ideas. I will have run the add for a total of two weeks, at a cost of $14.00. I wasn't trying to get people to come to my site yet. I was trying to get people to see my name. Next campaign I will work on getting them to my page. As of this morning, almost 55,000 people has seen my add, and as an added bonus, 35 people have visited my site!

And finally, Making 30 new pieces: I am completely self taught. People ask how I am able to make some of the things that I do and all I can say is, I guess I am a good reader! I am in a new learning phase right now. I am trying desperately to improve my soldering skills. I don't mind admitting that some days are totally frustrating! I have had to start over more times than I can count, but when a piece comes together right.....well, that feeling is hard to describe!

Now, any of you who are there just getting started are going to begin to feel like I have lately...overwhelmed! I need a computer expert who would deal with all of the internet issues; ads, forums, listings, etc. A photographer to handle the pictures and editing. Someone to blog for me! Someone to twitter for me! Someone to clean my house and take care of my family! Someone to package and ship for me! Then I would need a few people to handle all the other obligations in my life and then I could spend all my time at my bench!!!

Jewelry Photography; working out the bugs.........

Today I have been working on one of my old hobbies; Photography.

To say that it has not been going well is a bit of an understatement. Taking pictures of jewelry can be quite complicated! I have looked up every tutorial I could find on the subject. The majority agree on two points; use a tripod and a digital imaging program. If I were going to add anything to that I might say; experiment.

I have tried setting up a light box. This was terrible. All of my silver looked tarnished or blurry. I ultimately used natural light because the silver stayed truer to color. Next I tried different colored backgrounds. I started with white but found that there wasn't enough contrast between the background and some of the pieces. Black worked better for lighter colored pieces.

I really believe that the only benefit to using a digital slr is the ability to be able to dispose of the bad shots. If you have a digital 35mm you probably have more control over your contrast, which seemed to be the item I had to fiddle with most in editing.

Once I got to editing there were basically only two things that needed correcting; sharpness and contrast.

My photos were already sharp. I increased the sharpness as a way of bringing up additional highlights. Normally this would be a bad thing, causing specks to appear on the photo, and this may happen to yours. I just found that it worked beautifully for me.

I can not harp enough about contrast. I sometimes find that the stones don't look anything like they do in "real life" (as opposed to "photographic life"). If I adjust the contrast of the image I can correct this. It also helps your silver to shine.

I don't claim to be any kind of expert in this area, just someone in need of digital images. I have said it before, but it bears repeating: EXPERIMENT!

I have added a few of the shots to my blog and you can judge my results for yourselves.

Good luck with your own project.

Just the begining

While I have been a jewelry designer for quite some time; blogging is completely new to me. I feel very vulnerable putting down this type of information about myself. This is what my children do; not full grown women.

Currently we find our economy in the crapper. Now, if you have ever tried to sustain a small business, you know that these are, "the best of times" and the "worst of times". ("HOW CAN SHE SAY THAT?" you ask.) They are the worst, because as a small business owner, you can never count on a specific income. You buy your materials, produce your item and get it to the public. With jewelry this is a hit or miss proposition. One week you are everyone's darling and the next, you cant sell a thing! If, during a recession, you are able to sell anything; well "BONUS", you can buy more supplies and start the whole process over! But, a recession can also be the "best of times"!

I am using this time to learn new techniques and venture into a completely new areas. I also intend to get my business plan together and this "blog" is a part of that. I don't want to spend the rest of my life, selling jewelry to my tiny corner of the world. This blog will allow me to go WORLDWIDE!