Beadaholique Live Class: Selling and Displaying your Jewelry

	Jeweller's Rouge Silver Polish Polishing Cloth 6x8 Inch Size SKU: XTL-0110 $4.75
	The Beadsmith Micro Mini Jewelry Tool Kit - 4 Plier Set SKU: XTL-7004 $19.99
	Paper Gift Bags for Jewelry & Crafts 6 x 4 Inches, Brown w/ Black Victorian Damask Pattern (100 Pc) SKU: ZDI-1003 $4.99
	Kraft Brown Cardboard Jewelry Boxes 2.5 x 1.5 x 1 Inches (16 pcs) SKU: ZDI-6306 $7.99
	100 Tie-On Price Tags 8mm x 20mm - Jewelry Display etc. SKU: ZDI-5150 $2.75
	The Beadsmith Shine Rite Anti-Tarnish Self Sealing Plastic Bags 2.5 x 3 Inches (50 Bags) SKU: ZDI-0351 $20.99
	Jewelry Display 100 Brass U-Pins Cheap! SKU: ZDI-5025 $6.99
	The Beadsmith Shine Rite Jewelry Polishing Pads 2 x 2 Inches (10 pcs) SKU: XTL-8011 $7.99

Note: This audio transcript is auto-generated and may not be completely accurate.
hi everyone welcome back to our Vita Halik live class I'm Kat Silvia and today I'm joined by Julie bean and Sarah diamond so we are here to talk all about selling and displaying your jewelry like a pro so we're excite we have many years of a combined experience so we're gonna be talking just about all that you know kind of take you from beginning to end of how do I start you know what is it like it a show how do I sell online how do i price my stuff how do I display it so we have just a ton of stuff that we're gonna just be going over in this wonderful class here so thank you ladies for joining me no problem we would love your questions so we are here to answer a lot of questions we know we've gotten a lot over the years and that's why we wanted to do this class so this is really opportunity to put those questions down and we will try to answer as many as we can during this class yeah and I'm glad you said leave your question because we have a giveaway so let's go ahead and start with that because I know you are all excited because if he was joined us before you know we have a woman what is it what is it all right yes it is a actually and we are gonna be giving you the tray as well so I'm just gonna kind of bring it right okay a little heavy one so what you're gonna get for this giveaway it is over well over $50 of a value you're gonna get this beautiful linen tray here you're gonna get the linen bust and you're gonna get this little insert here so we're gonna kind of kick you off with a little style to help display your jewelry you're also gonna get one of our boho gemstones memory wire kits and we're gonna be giving you it and this is the actual finished piece that you'll be able to make with that isn't it gorgeous that is launching today so you're the first to have it and then we're gonna give you a couple little things that might help you at a show or as you're selling your jewelry we're gonna give you some anti tarnish bags and we're gonna talk a little bit about that in a while but then we're also gonna be giving you some craft bags here a little assortment of some fun styles to help kick that off for you I love this that is one of my favorites and we're giving you that style in two different sizes actually so that's very cool and then we're also going to give you a multi sizer a rain sizer and this is a great little thing to bring to a show if you have it if people want to find out what their ring size is we're gonna give you a little tool set as well and some anti tarnish pads so you're gonna get a lot of stuff that's going to help you add a show or even online help to sell your stuff so all you need to do to win this is just leave a comment or a question anything will enter you to win just let us know where you're tuning in firm or what is the last you know show that you may have done or something like that you know just anything do you want to share with us questions anything's welcome and it will enter you for the giveaway you know I get real nervous to be in front of the camera these guys are pros we really wanted you here because we know you've done a lot of shows too which is exciting so we really wanted you to be part of this oh yeah I am I kind of jumped in at the deep end when I started no I mean I think maybe most people have maybe been to a swap meet or a gift show in their time and then all of a sudden you're on the other side of the table and you're going there's nothing like that first show where it's just like do you have this sort of like first day of school yeah it's kind of like feeling it's just like oh does anybody like me oh please come look at me oh my god you know my first shoot my very first show I I wangled a spot in a friend's booth which is like a great way to save money on your first show by the way and I'm and I'm I'm not even kidding you I had like a TV dinner table mm-hmm in the corner and I had like 12 little necklaces and I was a beginner beater I'm just gonna put that out there laid on this table I did not have these beautiful display objects I think you know maybe I had a placemat or something and you know nobody bought anything obviously and I don't know like that day and I I mean I'm serious I did glad to share is it points come up but there's always a learning period there's always that time when you're maybe it's not going as well as you want yeah well I think that really speaks to what I believe is when you are just starting out just do it like you just did it you have to jump in somewhere and it doesn't have to be perfect you don't have to have that huge display you don't have to you have two years worth of stock you got to just get started and then you're gonna learn something so absolutely you learn from people's reactions you you get a feeling by really looking around the the event that you're at if that's gift fare craft fair swap meet see what else is going on and you get a feel of how you're fitting in yeah yeah so I think I know we're gonna impart hopefully a lot of really good information but try not to get overwhelmed because you can do this if you're thinking about doing it you haven't done it before and it's really something been wanting to do you can do it and it doesn't have to be that hard not everything has to be perfect to start with you can get going and then slowly build well and actually I would say don't try to get everything together yeah you first start because you don't know what's gonna work right start small see what people are gravitating towards you know see the look that you want to do maybe you tried to sell gemstone jewelry because you thought you'd that's what you really wanted to do but then you got into bead weaving and you realize that that's really where your heart lies so don't go out and spend too much money getting all kinds of stuff yeah money yeah like when you're just starting you know like I know we're talking about that you want to sell the jewelry so you want to make that a big part of it but you know you might also realize hey I I thought I wanted to do black busts but now all my stuff is black so maybe I should do white you know so you you just got to kind of gauge it as you go and you will you know as the more you do show isn't the more you sell online and that kind of stuff so that would just be my first nugget of parting wisdom is don't go crazy right away yeah I would really look for ways to do it without spending a lot of money just to be at the show I mean yeah you do spend some money on your materials and hopefully you're making the jewelry because you really enjoy it and you love what you're making so that's not ever a waste but to suddenly jump in and say I'm gonna buy a really expensive table at a really expensive show and have it not be a good fit that is a waste of money yeah so you just said that you shared a table for your vibe smart a friend Chris Bellomo the president of this company who he was actually had a previous life the clothing company and he was selling extra of the clothes what do you call it when there's extra clothes you know like an overstock overstock out of season last year and he decided he was he's very he's a go-getter and he decided he was gonna sell these things at swap meets and so I was his assistant this is pre Betawi people we wrote her dinosaurs in and we just and I was helped him set up it was a lot of labor yeah and he and he would give me like you know here's 50 bucks and I get to look at the fair and so one day oh I lost my mic hello so one day I convinced him to let me put that tiny tiny table in the corner of his booth and and still get paid by the way that's how I figured and so that effort didn't actually cost me anything though it taught me a lot yeah well that's good and you know yeah you just you find a little way to start or yeah if you have a friend that's already selling jewelry go with them to a show and just see what it's like being there always being an assistant if you have a friend of selling kind of anything yeah at a swap meet and a gift we go that first time the first time don't ask to put your stuff in the corner just go and be the assistant and yeah and just really see how it feels mm-hmm yeah everything from the setup to you know interacting with people to the teardown just get a chance to experience that whole thing and get a chance to experience the physical demands yeah oh yeah we're gonna talk about that oh yeah you know you have a couple friends who do different types of crafts you can all go in on a table I know a lot of people do that you can have one friend who makes jewelry one who makes candles another who does t-shirts and you guys can form a group and then go in together which is a really great way to you split all the expenses but you also have partners there which can make it a little bit easier because you've got helpers and partners you guys are all working together bathroom break down trying to like sneak a sandwich in the back oh can I help you gooey food no we definitely have our little pact that we're gonna show you guys a little bit later but before we get into actually selling at a show and everything that goes into that I want to first start with what it takes to sell online okay that's a good thing and you know it's funny because we've been doing this for many years so we've actually experienced the sort of pre selling online to this digital revolution to the selling online having these Etsy and Shopify applications and whatnot and Instagram is still very new in recent you know to kind of what that means and how that started and if that's the right thing for you it might not be so that's that's one thing I want to say it's just selling online just might not be your thing which is totally okay yeah absolutely you know there's no right way for every single person it's not uniform so you might do great online or you might not or you might do great to shows or you might not and you I think you have to try both you have to try the different avenues to see what works for you and what you enjoy yeah yeah so let's talk about selling online all right I'll speak generally because I do have an online bead company yeah so when I started and I was by myself and I was selling stuff on eBay and I loved finding the beads I loved a sort of light photograph um but it was pretty primitive and I loved writing about why I loved those particular beads and putting it on eBay what I didn't love personally was the fact that once someone you know puts their money on says I want it like I had to be prompt I had to reply I had to be organized I had to pack everything and I had to mail it and back in those days you there was none of this online stamps I had to go down to the post office and park and stand in line and I found that that part was really kind of boring for me and then I did partner up with Chris and he's he's like a worker bee and he was like I'll go to the post op it so it was great but so I feel that if if I was selling jewelry finished Julie online you know I would have to consider you know how all of those are parts of the process which am I am I good at photography do I can I do enjoy writing about the piece and telling people why I think it's so great and can I provide all the little measurements they want and then can I deliver promptly because this day and age online they will they will tell you oh yeah if they waited a day too long for the package and you have to yeah yeah deliver from beginning to end and if you're more of a super creative type that might not be so great for you unless you have an assistant you do have to have a business mindset if you're gonna sell online exactly like what you were saying you know cuz you are running a business even if you sell one or two pieces a month you know you still have to answer be on top of it you know and you have to be checking whatever emails attached to that you know I know some people use many different emails but it's like you really do you don't want to miss out on a sale but it does take a lot of sort of that business work and you doing a bad review right yeah cuz better views can hurt you yeah so I think one important thing is if you are selling online have all of your policies and all everything predetermined instead of ahead of time so are you gonna commit to shipping in two days or you know say five days yeah have that upfront are you gonna take returns are you not gonna take returns what is your pricing what is your shipping cost who are you gonna ship with think about all of that before you put it up there online and commit and really do be honest with yourself are you going to be able to ship in two days if you take a custom order can you fulfill it in two weeks what what are those policies and have all of that laid out not only for your customer but for you yeah so you know and I mean you know what your life commitments are you know how busy you are with other things and that only you can determine if long have if you can invest it's not so much a lump of time as regular time every day yeah and not procrastinating when you can actually for a lot of these online platforms they offer vacation mode so if you are going on vacation like Oh for a week or a long weekend or even and you know you're not gonna check that email put it on vacation you know let people know when you're gonna be back and the shops gonna be back up and running in case someone was interested but don't try to think oh well no one's gonna I wanted to leave it up there no one's gonna because then someone will that would be that way that will have a day that every someone writes to and says I'm having a bit of an emergency and could you send it right away I mean I need it tomorrow you know whatever it's just like up in Costa Rica but yeah so you know so so definitely just work within what you can do and what you're comfortable with I know for a while when I first started shipping online I would not ship internationally that's just because I didn't want to have to deal with it or customs I didn't know what the payment structure was gonna be so I just started domestically and then when someone would ask me I'd say okay where are you and then I try to make an exception you know I get a little bit more information because if I'm shipping to France or England it's very different than trying to ship to you know South America or any of these other countries so you know it's just every country has a little bit of it for policy so that was a decision that I made so that's an example yeah I mean it's a good principle starting small okay you know kind of when you first start keep all your keep your boundaries small and tight until you're sure you know what you're doing and you feel confident and then you can gradually add more pieces add more more sales areas just do more yeah and just always that you know if you want you something custom or you know if you're open to it just say contact for inquiries yeah if they're interested they'll message you hmm yeah well I think the big advantage to online is you can do it right away you can actually say I want to start selling my jewelry and tonight you could be selling your jewelry you can get going right away there's usually lower in trophies as opposed to doing like a trade show um you're gonna have a booth fee things like that so lower fees you could do it right away could do it from anywhere in the world you can do it from home those are all really great advantages of selling online yeah yeah and I think we have our question is asking if we have any good photo tips oh yes we're gonna turn it like that so let's talk about that now is talking about on lightly I have I have an iPhone and that's where I take my pictures you can edit right in there there's lots of editing apps the only thing I would say is make sure that the color is really accurate and make sure that you show you have at least one photo that shows scale whether you show it on a model or you take a photograph and include like a quarter or a penny or something or a teacup or a teacup yeah just something a show scale so that someone doesn't get it is like surprised so that's basic but photos are so important yeah especially what kind of kind of backgrounds do you like to use I mean I I'm not the greatest photo taker myself and I always feel like gosh if I had the right background or a different light or something so yeah so you know I didn't I I bought a piece of foamboard and then I bought some contact paper that looked like white marble and I stuck it down cuz I don't want to have this like marbling is revealed tickets revealed so that's what all my friends I take it on but I tripled when it was white because I use a lot of elements that are black or I don't do a lot of silver I do a lot of gold personally so that worked for me Oh combats yeah so to show that contrast I know a lot of people will use like a piece of wood or something if that's their style I use vintage postcards yes they're kind of that tan color and I find it easier to color correct when there's like a tan color in the image I don't know why but it's just easier to color correct when my piece of jewelry is on that tan and then there's like white in the background first is trying to color correct pure white and trying to make it so like when you're looking at a website with a white background and is listed on they're trying to make all those whites match yeah yeah and then Alex - our wonderful photographer here at media Halik he gave me some great tips he said always shoot outside if you can yes I might is the best way sun-lee especially and then he said to wear a white t-shirt so you become your white reflector ah I thought that was so clever I was like oh okay so instead of me wearing pattern or dark I wear a white t-shirt and then I also have a piece of like white cardboard that I just prop up off to the side to also bounce the white so yeah it's almost like a little white box outside because you're like yeah it's white so I definitely like to do that and I do I don't know why it might just be my imagination but if you have some other piece of color besides your jewelry in that photo whether it's a postcard a flower whatever it just makes it easier to color correct I don't know why oh yeah you know something's happening like you have a reference and you have something to stop yourself from color correcting too much yeah like blowing it out making Hawaii yeah well no I know that's not the color of that rose yeah so yeah you have another clue I would just make an observation I've observed from watching Alex and just everything that you guys are saying is that neutral colors and by neutral I mean gray like this table is this is Silver's gonna look good on this gray yeah and gold won't look bad right so a kind of mid gray or even a darker gray if you have a really you know you don't want to get too contrast because because then your camera eye on your phone can get fooled and it will yeah blow out the highlights make them too white right but also beige yeah is it neutrals you were saying on your sepia tone postcard and then you know white and black are the extremes but again they can create a high contrast situation where your your phone camera may not give you a the best exposure after rain and I would have a Mac surface I wouldn't do a shiny surface yeah shiny surfaces can be can be tough I mean especially if you are you you're gonna get a little lens flare happening in there but yeah I mean even just sort of this linen color is is actually kind of great because it has a little texture to it so if you have you know something where it's a lot of round beads or something and you put it on the texture it actually makes it kind of come out of it so the other thing I would say is that depending on the platform you can have many photos or like just a couple so I would try to have as many photos as you can so show a close-up of the clasp show a close-up if you have if you're working with sterling silver and you have the point 925 show that it shows people that it's true sterling sterling silver you know I would just again show like close-up stuff show like sort of what am I trying to say structure like this is what it is very plain but then have the pretty photo you know with the flower or the teacup and stuff you know cuz and then I have that year first photo something that someone would stop at because when you're shopping online your eyes are glazing over so much you want to do that one that goes ooh that you know yeah you maybe have a couple seconds to catch them his eyes so and one thing that I would say about online is you'll bear in mind that if someone's going through a list of jewelry on say let's see you might be looking at little thumbnails that are this big and so you don't want it to be too far away a shot so the necklace just looks like a tiny circle you want a close-up of a really pretty part of the necklace yeah that someone goes oh what's that and they click on it yeah and then you can have your photo down the line of like here's just a top down but it looks right just you know and you go so include a photo of your packaging and you can use that same photo for all your listings you so if say you package them in little gift boxes tied with bows or whatever you can just put that photo as photo eighth or whatever in all your leggings like yeah somebody not let people know they're gonna get that that's an value is an added benefit and it's gift-wrap it's dry and we do have another question all right so she questioned about your online store name is it necessary and any tips so I've actually had several businesses were they handmade purses jewelry I work with my husband now with his artwork so a lot of different things that I've gone through a lot of different names and at this point I really like just using my name you know what because people then can get to know me as the designer so you can definitely have a fun name um but also consider your own name like either making it like I could be Julie bean designs or Julie bean creates or just Julie bean Julie beans beans yeah sorry that was great I'm sorry I kinda want coffee now oh yeah that when you sell coffee that's your business so there you go I drink enough of it I should be selling anything so that's one place to start is somehow use your name and if you can use your full name idea because then you're the designer it is designed by you so that's one of my tips I would say it's whatever your story is because you know we're gonna talk about that in a second but you know if you have a story where it's all about travel or something really specific and you want to base it in that like and have someone understand the story of your brand that way I mean that really gets into the area of branding and social media and all that stuff but if you're not quite sure where you're gonna land start with Julie bean designs and then you know that way if you just say Julie bean designs that could encompass screen printing jewelry making let's say she decides to knit hats one day you know but it's all there and it's just like oh this is my jewelry line this is my knitting line you know so if you really do find yourself struggling with trying to find a specific thing to do that's what I would recommend but if you really are just selling jewelry and you have a very clear vision of what you want to accomplish with that I'd say come up with a good name but come up with a name that someone hasn't thought of before and make it easy to remember right that's the thing because if you're gonna come up with a cool name it's gonna be on your business cards your postcards your stamps that you're gonna do all that stuff so just kind of visualize how that's gonna come across and you know again kind of getting into branding think about the colors that you want to use like using like vintage postcards you might use like you know more craft boxes as opposed to the the white box that's you know like so just kind of think through it all the way you don't have to do all of it right right in the beginning but you know this wouldn't be a vintage seller bag you know so like just think about what would sort of align with that and do what you love so yeah as we're talking about all of this make the jewelry that you enjoy making not the jewelry that you think is gonna make you a fortune oh yeah I honestly I believe that if you don't understand the jewelry you're making if you don't love it that it won't actually be very good jewelry exactly you know you know what can tell because you're chasing a profit because it's like Oh gemstones are hot this month and you won't have a real maybe I mean there's a few people in the world who can design anything no matter what but I used to find that if I tried to make jewelry because I thought people would like it and not me and I didn't like it if nobody liked it yeah that heart to it it didn't have a true design heart to it it wasn't usually wasn't designed well because I didn't like it and I didn't care enough mm-hmm and well and you're starting this business even if you're just doing as a hobby to make a little extra money or it's a full business because you are probably wanting to really enjoy your career enjoy your path enjoy this and if you're not if you're making jewelry that you don't enjoy making what's kind of the point yeah let me do one with a passion yeah fun whether it's the creation process or this or the talking to customers you want to be really enjoying it so make what you love and then for your branding brand it to you who what who are you I am a vintage postcard girl yeah that speaks to me I like the brown craft boxes I like you know the vintage II steampunky all that stuff and so that's what I do and and then the brand is actually pretty easy to create yeah right it sort of creates itself when you start here's what I would suggest go on an application like like Pinterest or just you know Instagram search around create a mood board for what you think you like just just pin stuff that you like and then you'll start to just take a take a look at it and go oh yeah oh I guess I do I have a lot of wood elements in here and you know it's very nature centric okay like that's what I'm drawn to start there let that come out of you and go oh maybe I should make more stuff with wood beads or you know and your packaging also exactly I know and as far as passion goes I you know especially when you start out you want to think about how can you get an effective packaging that isn't gonna cost you tons of money because you're gonna you're not gonna you're not gonna want to go have a thousand boxes of manufactured to your design when you start so what I always and I'm more of a sort of naturally type look and and or vintage so I would take you know a box like this is craft boxes I think they're fantastic because if you want to get a kind of green natural look you could tie it with some burlap twine yeah I know and you have a little brown craft label it looks really cute you could get a rubber stamp and you could have your logo made on a rubber stamp or it could just be a cute rubber stamp that you like of a bee or something and you could stamp the boxes so that they're your boxes and any box that you use even if it's something with a complicated pattern like this you can put a sticker on it yeah where's we know I have a big stamp with my logo my name on it you know and I just use that over and over and yeah but that's the probably the best way to really get that branding that personalization and here's everything too if you're not quite sure of your brand and you want to have that you know your last initial so I could stamp like a big s online you know it's not custom and it's not costume find a lot of stamps with it yes yeah or you can literally you can buy a sheet of labels you can easily buy them in white or Kraft and you can buy them in colors you can get a simple program usually made by the label manufacturer in your computer and you can just have the words maybe if you do have a website the address of your website that you're a brand name anything else you want to put on it like a little slogan and that's yeah so you're talking about putting a little swing it so one thing that I like to do is if I'm selling at a show and I want to show people hey you're gonna get this nice little gift so if you're buying for a gift put it here but what would you sticker your sticker here if you want to put your website your social media your contact information care instructions stick it on the inside that way someone can still get the nice cool box oh it's beautiful and then oh look at that yeah do not go swimming with this little silver necklace but yeah but stick it on the inside cuz that's a great tip about you know like you want to be able to kind of have all your stuff there so that they remember it cuz they might lose a business card or so yeah and if you give it to them I always try to include a business card in like a little package little give to someone but it's in the box I'm not losing the box also the person who purchases that might keep the business card and then their bar Tzipi int you know doesn't have any contact him woo yeah guys our clinic all right more questions keep them coming okay so the question you have a specific number of different styles of pieces like earrings bracelets I don't think there's a hard and fast rule no that you need to do I mean I think having a good selection is nice so when people see your collection it does look like a nice collection but you can have all airings if you love making earrings and that's here specialty you can have all airings you don't have to have other types of pieces so I just thought of a company name priority okay I'm gonna say cuz I'm sure someone I already got I I'm say this girl I'm sure it's already been done cuz everything I think of so I'm going to I would have hearing so I would call it all ears all yours I'm all ears I'm just like but I know it's already out there any good idea you I would like well it's not it is now okay so so let me address that question about like what to you I have a friend who does these incredibly intricate wire wrapped rings but that is all she does and that's what she specializes in but what she has is hey if I know I need a wire wrapped ring I'm going to her because I know what she is special at I so so here when we're trying to create our kits and whatnot sometimes we'll try to do a golden a silver so like that's the only metal that will switch out you know so you could offer that as you know if you wanted to create more products but it's still the same look so that if you have someone who's like Oh more of a silver person but too bad that's in gold oh I haven't silver you know so you can kind of you know in a way double your designs that way so that it appears that you have more but again if you really just love necklaces or if you love peyote bead weaving bracelets don't try to make it more complicated on yourself so there's no hard and fast rule I would just say stick to what you're comfortable at also start with bracelets then launch a line of necklaces that's what is launched a line of earrings that's what I was gonna say start out with what you have if you keep waiting to start until you've reached some kind of goal post in your head like you may never start but what is the harm of setting up that I'm not sure how much an Etsy store cost but it's probably one of the least expensive ways and easiest non-technical ways you can go there's nothing wrong with starting the store and putting up six things well anyone buy them right away well maybe your friends will but this is gonna give you experience with the software experience with the email experience with uploading photos I'm just looking at it and signing if you like the way everything looks and then you can add the jewelry as you make it and I can tell you what we've learned here at wheat Halik I think all of us here have learned is that if you if your website is constantly changing a little you're constantly adding new things but not all new things just people will check back what else what else do they have oh there's just you know and also if you have something on your website no one's bought it in a year so I'm just good to take it out of circulation for a while because it can look old and tired yeah just six things that's fine it gets you going and that's also gonna tell you maybe you don't like selling online it's time to look at a show but if you keep thinking in a month or two months I'm gonna get something listed or six months from now that's my goal I'm gonna get something listed it doesn't get you that knowledge it doesn't get you further ahead listing that first item might be the hardest listing you have a really and once you do the first one you look oh okay just you could then you can repeat yeah one thing that I found successful is to actually have launches for myself you know so I will launch a 2018 summer collection and I'll market it as such so that when someone's looking at my page they go oh that's the new stuff yeah so they kind of have a sense that oh she's she's working she's she's actually putting stuff out there every season you know so know what and you know or else shoppers yeah tell me you don't go to whichever store you like whether it's you know Marshalls or whether it's the catalog of a very expensive store that you're never actually gonna set in and you're like ooh what's new what's new anyway we're curious and we want to see the fashions and what's out there yeah and yeah you know we want to we like to refresh our wardrobes we get bored and people do like to stay you know fashionable so yeah I mean you have to you have to consider that as well you're not just making jewelry you're you're in the fashion world you know so treat it as such I would you know also in the personal expression world yeah I was thinking about you know I go in the store I look at jewelry that's quote-unquote fashionable and I'm like I see it I love it right it's not really my jewelry like I'm I'm wearing sort of silver jewelry that I either made or I collected on travels and that's mostly what I wear and it's sentimental to me and at some point I kind of don't care what other people think about it it's it's it's you know it's a souvenir and it's precious in its own way so you don't have to be we tie about fashion you don't have to be up to the kids fashion or a particular kind of fashion just be a way for people to refresh their outfits or to go to refresh their self-expression you know I feel pink today or I want a very elegant decoration for my party outfit yeah me a lot of different things well and I was really successful selling at bridal shows actually well so I you know but I'll say this how many ways can you make a white dress but they come out with stuff every season there's always new bridal dresses and bridesmaids dresses it's all the same stuff it has been for awhile it's all white you know but that's that's the perfect example of but it's always new right so if you even if you're just doing a newer version or you know you made short earrings now you're making long earrings but it's the same gemstone or pearl or whatever it is it is different you know so so lunch it is such but yeah but start with 612 right couple of items you know and then a few few months later a month later whatever you're comfortable with but more out there and people go what's new yep you know all right okay so that's a good question are there any liability concerns when you sell online depends on the platform but that is why I also am very transparent about where I get my materials I know sometimes there's issues with is it sterling silver is a surgical steel is it lead-based you know all these different things that as long as you're very transparent to your customer you shouldn't have any issues I know that some of the platforms as a seller make you sign a waiver saying that you would incur any of us so just please read the fine print but let's say you're selling on your own website create your own fine if there's an issue have them contact you let them you know kind of be your own customer service in that regard I mean I would think you know that and I am NOT a lawyer but realistically speaking is you know someone who sells things online that usually the worst you can expect is you may have to fully refund someone and you may never get the jewelry back I mean you know that's yeah that's the worst case scenario so I wouldn't let it hold you back from selling online but just do your due diligence with whatever language you want to create so that you're transparent enough like you don't want to tell somebody it's sterling silver if it's plated I mean I don't do that that's bad form you know we I mean we try to tell you guys what any of our items are made of if we somehow are not being clear or we fall short you should always contact us and we will contact our manufacturers and I've always believed that as long as we're very honest about our materials yeah then the buyer can make the decision do I want to pay this much for a precious metal or would I rather get plated and you should always let your buyers know what you're selling them some people have metal allergies some people want to know the endurance of you know plating doesn't last as long as and they also want to know if they're giving a quality gift to someone right so one tip I have is if you are looking for language you know so many people have online stores especially Etsy sites you can look at what other sellers have written in terms of like their return policy or their FA cues and you can get a lot of information through that but don't copy them exact oh yeah don't copy them exactly but be like oh I'm looking at ten different jewelry companies and they all say they take returns within ten days okay that's maybe pretty standard practice I'll do that and I say my return policy is within ten days Oh all of them are listing if their products are made in the USA I'm gonna list my products are made in the USA I know if they're made in the other like I like to write handmade in California when I make my jewelry because I am making it in California yeah and that's kind of nice people like to know that well and that doesn't mean the material this doesn't mean the materials but the actual finished piece I have assembled and put together in California so yeah and I know there's a lot of people who sell true vintage online some people might ask for a certificate of authentication be willing to provide that or just say like I don't have that information but these are from the 60s or whatever so that's that's another area where you kind of just have to be you have to make a business decision on how you want to handle that type of situation but again it's just just really personal and I'm sorry to interrupt I was just thinking of integer if it's not vintage but as a vintage look make sure you say vintage look fired or yeah look yeah so that's just something to kind of protect yourself so you're not saying vintage earrings blah blah blah if they're not vintage do they just look vintage make sure you say vintage a fire or if you're using vintage beads in your earrings that you made right um you have to be clear about that also yeah so like the vintage Rivoli and Julie's earrings which Kat made anything so I'm not going again these are one of our tips is like always wear your own jewelry because you're a walking billboard and I'm wearing caps because they're so worried Holly jewelry I'm worried am i wearing cat also yeah yeah and I just have to say my son talks about you all the time your name's Pat he even this morning in the car it was Oh cat say hi to cat of course he loves kitty cats so I'm sorry that's probably us I know but you have to bring him to my house I do he has named his fish kitty oh we told him he couldn't have a cat until he's older so he needs his food any more questions here so the question is when do you know it's time to get your own website after you've been on these other selling platforms for a while I'm gonna start by saying as soon as you can oh okay only because it will then allow a landing page for your work that's not an Etsy page where people can then go oh let me see what else they like what else is on Etsy because I feel like you're drawing someone away oh I see you know it was like a central hub yeah yeah someone goes to look for your jewelry on Etsy they might get sidetracked and in other people's shops on Etsy okay there's all kinds of sponsored links on Etsy and so they'll show you what you're looking at maybe in a different style and you go oh I like that better well you just lost a customer so that's my personal take point now to be honest with you there are so many platforms where you can create your own website for very inexpensive there's you know not promoting any particular brand but there's Wix there's Squarespace there's WordPress all kinds of different things for you to explore the other thing too is that you can actually sell on Instagram and we'll talk about social media in that in here in a little bit but there are actually applications where you can take a photo with your phone put it on the Instagram and then someone can one-click buy it so that's also something as well to consider but I would really try I would really really recommend having your own website as soon as you decide this is something that I really want to take seriously reserve those domain names now yeah way too many of them so every time I think of them I'm like I'm just gonna oh I have like six or seven yeah absolutely but that's that's my personal preference and that's why I say that but do you guys have any other suggestions I think it's a really good recommendation I would say you don't have to have that website though to get started no am i filling up don't let that that's that's Jerry because it can be a little bit intimidating yeah I'm gonna share a little fact why I would agree with that and say I don't I personally don't see any reason why you wouldn't want to start on Etsy you you may make a lot of discoveries about you and Internet commerce that tell you whether you which way you want to go from there right and I can tell you that for those of you don't know that when beadaholique started I was you know working out of my bedroom with a shoebox of beads and I was selling them on eBay this was a long time ago when people were you know people were interested to read I found some cool Czech beads and that actually okay they're the first beads ever sold they look like little lemons I think we still smell that this was literally the first beads ever so and I just thought they were the cutest thing ever and that my enthusiasm bubbled over and people bought them but the thing is that if I had said oh you know I don't want to sell beads anymore I yeah I was there I could just stop on on eBay and eBay actually kept us going for a long time and we were so ignorant about the Internet to tell you and it was a while ago and it was much harder for people to get their own websites going and so we were able to get a website when we were ready yeah and we didn't have to hurry and learn too much technical stuff before we felt a real need to yeah and I think that's the thing is if you I'm coming from a place I've you've been selling on Etsy for a little bit you've gotten a little headway or you haven't you know try a website many will offer a free trial you know you can also try it for a year and if after a year it's it's still not hitting okay website you can take it down you have to pay for anymore but yeah start with that see so you can kind of see the market but I would then as soon as you're comfortable I would move to a platform that is your own I think that will just help grow your business that much faster in my experience and I have a little personal tip that I've just recently come to discover about myself and it's making my life a lot easier what is it well it's okay to not do everything yourself what yes so like you have all your when you start this business okay and you're like okay business cards I'm gonna hand me my jewelry I'm gonna make a display I'm in you know get a booth set up I need a website Etsy photography and it's a lot and it can be really overwhelming it's okay to say you know what I have this friend and for $200 they're gonna make me that website that is $200 really well spent yeah that's as good as having to learn all the code and all the everything I think how many hours I mean what is your time where it's at I mean you know how much free time you have and if you sit then go I don't have 50 hours yes to spend on this because I have a full time job or I have a lot of childcare and at some point you have to go do I want to spend you know 50 or maybe a hundred hours and or do I want to pay someone $200 and I'll probably do it in like five hours and then Glee and if they're you know if you said it they work there let's be honest I'll probably do it better than me yeah I'm not gonna be frustrated and it's not gonna be hanging over your head so I'm just really it's only been like the last year cuz I want to do everything myself I want to save money money but boy there's some simple things out there it's like or you can trade it's like maybe you had a friend who's a graphic designer who can build you who can make you like a logo in a business card and you can trade them a necklace be their work or three you know whatever it might be that that works too so I think it's very much okay - yeah say okay this is what I can do this is what my skill level is this is what's a little bit beyond me or this is what I just don't have time for and then trade for it or just be like it can be very reasonable and like you said it is $200 worth 50 hours yeah is it you know what if you have 50 hours is great yeah but you know I know some people my answer is my people might be retired or they oh sure you know or they might be willing to say Cheryl I'm gonna take a couple months and they want to learn that skill maybe and maybe you know maybe you're like I don't even want to know how to do a website I just want to sell my jewelry and in which case someone can get on WordPress or some other platform that's already halfway set up anyway and you'll find someone who knows how to just manipulate the platform and and do it really incredible yeah cuz you you can have someone create a website for you and then say hey can you take a couple hours and teach me how to update it now doing all the stuff together and update your yeah yeah pulse is what not and I think the world has changed a lot I know when I started having someone build a website like what's a minimum like three four thousand dollars Oh I mean we're talking a while ago but this yeah that wasn't like the WordPress or there wasn't a lot of people who did it but now I feel like you can find someone who will do like you said like a wordpress or something for pretty pretty inexpensive it'll still look really nice oh yeah great honestly yeah the websites I I have friends and I was like what is your website and she's like I got it done on this it was it was a template that I just put my colors in and my father lately yeah that's genius leg and she's like I did it this weekend but yeah I mean when I was a kid we had to crawl to school and play with our left foot like you guys don't know how easy it is anybody here remember typewriters I still have one okay that's just unnecessary well it is like from the 4000 it's decoration yes but it works it's a candleholder am I so my old Singer sewing machine is now a cocktail table so yes oh I have one it's a it's a desk alright here's some more questions okay yeah all right so let's repeat the question so PN you're a copyright infringement taking another person's design but maybe changing the colors or changing the beads a little bit and is that like copyright infringement I don't go there don't ya especially if you're taking a design you're just changing the color it's still their design it's absolutely an eye and I see yeah you know you know we can quote the law and you and say don't do it because of the law but I I know that I've seen online people being just s Corey ated is that word excoriated by the online community and their names getting and their pictures and their shop names getting passed around people's Facebook communities and all kind of community and people are getting kind of blacklisted and then they get harassed and all kinds of things people say ya know you've got your design and it's it's beyond you know how much could someone actually sue you for if you're a small producer you're not a big company not much but you could get your name ruined and your shop name ruined and you could you could get kicked off of an Etsy or any other platform they could people could get you kicked off so it's not worth it yeah I've seen that happened before where people will you know leave exci because they've been asked to and that's really not what you want and that's because they'll have made claims yeah but here's the thing like there are certain techniques like if you're doing a right angle weave okay you can do right angle weave in a million different ways don't steal from someone else you know like don't just it's it's it's bad juju I'm going to do that but yeah I mean you don't want to be called out if you are called out and here's the thing sometimes you might be called out cuz you had a great idea to do something and you didn't know that it existed well they might send you like a cease and desist or that's I mean that's the legal way that they'll say like hey that's my design take it down just just make don't make a thing out of it just say I'm so sorry take it down give it to your friend cuz you can still wear it and have it and own it but just don't sell it that's where there you go that's where that gray area becomes a little bit of a line so yeah well what would you say to people who maybe they made this kit and they have the little weird the bracelet go it's yeah we've had I think we'd get people asking us what if I make a project from the website what if I make a kit can I sell that jewelry what if I follow your project exactly can I put that bracelet up on my Etsy store and what we usually say is no the these are made for you to wear and enjoy and gift but these are not made for you to make money off of by putting your name by putting your name as the designer I mean and honestly you know I love bead Halik but do you want to be at your booth or in your website website and say here's a necklace designed by beadaholique and I you know not me I I wouldn't want to say that I'd want it to say it's me right you know well you know like we have some other kits here as well and these are these are odd count peyote kits and you know we have people who will buy the kit learn the technique and go oh great I want to make my own patterns now great that's yeah that's why we do that you know so that you can kind of still get your feet wet yeah these are great mm-hmm I'm this way I've been I've been studying some other sort of thing online about making your own lotions at home and I find myself just say oh just give me a simple recipe I just need the feel of doing it it's too complicated me to figure out my own recipe as well yeah and so this is like a recipe you do a couple of these and then you all I see and then you you tweak it and you change it up to be your own yeah it's you know it's just a get get you started or get you give you it some designer jewelry and some pleasure of making it yeah so I think we've talked a lot about online sales yeah make sure that we also have time to talk a little bit about shows mom before cuz I know this class we were kind of thinking might run a little bit long and the courses are great keep them coming but I do want to talk a little bit about shows because I know I personally like shows better than online well everything else y-yeah for me personally um I actually find it to be less of a time commitment mm-hm I'm a mom surprised yeah I wouldn't think so you wouldn't think so but if you sign up for a show you have the same amount of time to make all your stuff as if you were selling online cuz I mean the production of the jewelry takes the same amount of time yeah but it's one day and it's done you go you know you you have the time to sign up for it which is like 20 minutes to sign up online for a show but then you know you go in the morning you set up your booth you sell all day you get some great customer feedback you get to interact with people I love talking to customers one-on-one I can make much more personally and I found in person just dollar-wise at a show versus online it would take me months and months and months and months and months to make the same amount online as I do in like an eight-hour period at a show I tear it down I'm done I go yeah I don't have to update listings I don't have to take photographs I don't have to ship ship I don't have to answer email questions about it you know if someone has a question they're right there they're talking to me we get that resolved right away so I love doing shows and I think I would say my biggest tip with doing shows if you're thinking about doing them is look at all the different types of shows out there there's flea markets bridal shows kid shows art fairs craft fairs Church bazaars gift wholesale retail find the show that's a good fit for you you your jewelry and your price point yeah because my point I have done shows where I've sold nothing because it wasn't the right think we've all done shows or read oh yeah oh yes or you sell three things that you gave it a discount at the last minute exactly because it wasn't it probably wasn't actually anything to do with your jewelry or are you it was just that the show was not the right fit yeah don't get discouraged you have your first show and you don't sell anything that that might not be you you know if there's a lot of factors that go in I did a flea market and all of my jewelry was bead woven and beat embroidered and it was all probably the lowest price was like $30 and it went up to 150 dollars mm-hmm and that's what people were looking for and I now know to have all different price points at a show the very next weekend I did another show that was a juried art fair and I did great flannel stock same display same everything one show zero one show really great and you nothing changed other than the customer walking by and what they mentally expected from that show and I mean an example yeah I mean I can't really top that I was just gonna expand on the my most of my selling was at a flea market actually one of the biggest flea markets well the biggest one in Southern California it's at the Rose Bowl you've probably all heard of it it is large it's huge and it's really it's known for having an whole antique section and that's usually what people go for but they do have the whole section with new stuff and he and made stuff and you know my point was nobody gets up in the morning says I'm going to go to a flea market today and I'm gonna spend a hundred and fifty dollars on a handcrafted necklace I mean my whole thing was I would go to flea markets and say I have a $20 bill what can I get out of a $20 bill and you know be thanks I'm popcorn like yeah this is gonna be fun right yeah and that's you don't actually think you're actually gonna acquire anything you're not in that mine it's just a fun day out yep so I discuss I made similar discoveries to Julie although my stuff wasn't at crisis high at the swap meet that I needed to catch people's attention as they cuz they're literally I don't know five hundred or more vendors yeah so I ended up creating some $5 earrings which is that was very I mean you will it literally you hang a charm on an earring hook or a stone on a head pin and move the bead cap and you try to get a lot of variety so that people want to look at everything and I got giant picture frames and I put the sign up on top five dollar earrings and the picture frames were really pretty and I just put a velvet board in the middle and all these earrings and I would watch people just they'd be hustlin that I have to get to the antiques and they turn their head they seed that five dollar sign they what and they oh honey I'll just be a minute yeah you know and they come over and then I'd have another one that said 10 ml earrings and then they look at everything on the table you betray that well I'm here I have to look exactly yeah so you kind of eat that's the other thing to visually you have to get that person walking by and we were gonna talk about pricing here in a second but having that like five dollar earrings are only five dollars or whatever or if you want to have like a ten dollar and like a price slash through it and says eight or whatever yeah I think to like catch someone's attention to get them over to you and then having different things at different price levels go absolutely I can still enjoy that design that's just a tiny little earring but Wow look at that beautiful necklace maybe I'll come back and afford that or maybe I'll take a card and think about that or some card but having your prices visible very very important it so important probably the biggest tip I think we can give and then yeah I would have a little I had a little price tags I mean yes those I had those they have little string you do a little loop around the nose you write on the price tag and sometimes I would have a little code on the back because people will bargain with you at swap meets and I would have a little I thought if I felt like I needed a code to remind me what my my lowest price or what my cost was because when you're in the moment I mean I I get the sort of you know deer in headlights like oh you want to discount oh and I don't remember how much all of this labor and every single bead cost me so you might want to have a way of reminding yourself so that when people are bargaining that you know lose money or you don't change yourself on your pricing well and that actually brings up an interesting thing that I didn't think about until just now is keeping track of your inventory now not only from you know theft it happens it shows some you know we really try to you know try to not but sometimes you might turn your back and so I'm like that's why you put the cheap things on me we're talking our tea house you have a table this big I had a table I had a thing it was like two or three of these say it was 20 feet Wow and it was most the time it was only me I could not keep an eye I can so my five dollar earrings and my $10 earrings were at the far ends of the table because that's what people are there on the fringes yeah they're trying to just grab something like okay knock yourself out have a fine pair of earrings and all my really expensive stuff was in the middle in front of me and yet where you could there was no way it wasn't going anywhere just so smart yeah keep that stuff or if it's really really tiny mm I would have it towards the center something that could be easily you know grabbed but all that to say one mistake that I made for one of my first couple of shows is I did not take photos of my booth all set up where everything was and I also held back merchandise because I had made duplicates for things so I would have one out there at a time so that I could put another one out there but at the end of the day your pack and everything in you're not you're tired you're exhausted you are so tired and you're hungry blah Blee yeah perfect one thing that I did was you know oh okay you're gonna purchase this and I take it you know and I packaged it up you know sort of out of sight for them but I would quickly take my phone and go snap and then just put my phone away so I then had an inventory list in my phone of everything that I sold that day that's a good idea I also have a nice visualizer of oh people really like the purple things that I put out oh that would be true if you yeah have a toy photo as soon you up yep that's a lot of purple yeah or wow it's it's all silver stuff almost it's all bracelets exactly so and that way you don't have to stop your motion of what you're doing that day because actually busy just snap snap and you're good yeah that's my favorite tip of the day it can't be that one that was way better when you do a show and you have your table all set up take some pictures of your booth because oftentimes when you apply for other shows they'll ask of your booth set up so first thing in the morning it's all beautiful it's not picked over it's not mixed up because people are gonna go like this so take some pictures of it all nice and then if you're prepping to do a show what I actually always do before our show is I set up my booth at home um I because a lot of times at a show it's ladies dedicated people yeah it's more like it calms my anxiety really it does so like the night before two nights before because usually when you have to provide your own tables oh you know so I've got my tables at home anyways I've got all my table coverings I've got all my displays I actually set up in my back yard my my boot I don't necessarily put all the jewelry up because that takes too long but I pop up in the tables I put the cloth on I actually put my tables on risers you could get these little bed risers that heightens it so like especially this jewelry people aren't bending down so low but I set up how I'm gonna want it I take pictures of it so that when I get to that show at 7 a.m. I just look at my phone to see how I set up my booth and I'm good to go and I know I've got everything because after I've prepped it at home it goes right into my packing box mm-hm and I know I've got it and then I keep separate tubs at home that are just for shows yeah I keep it all that stuff separate as well and everything's in their own little plastic bags their little anti-tarnish like everything is nicely packaged yeah so that cuz here's the other thing yeah cuz when you take it all down at the show and you bring it home take it all out repackage it clean stuff yeah I got dusty or dirty do it right then well you know but what I'm saying is like that way then you'll have everything ready to go for next time because there's nothing worse than like oh hey there's an open spot at the booth this weekend hey why don't you come oh god now I gotta find out my job and where's all my things and I'll help you identify if you're low on business cards you are you're low on packing yeah you know do need to check that I mean I'm barely oh I don't have any business cards check it now yeah right after the fact so you can order it so that you're ready for next time don't wait until you book that next show like if you know that you're gonna do another show don't wait I would I mean I would venture to say that as far as I think maybe we should talk about branding when you talk about a physical display for a beginner business cars might be the most inexpensive yet useful way to start with your branding yeah and we can go into a couple reasons why I'm looking at those little yeah and you know and then next if you're having gift boxes stickers are also another thing that don't have to be very expensive if you've got a computer and a printer you can get some stickers look speaking of stickers yeah so what I did is I actually got really clear address labels and I stuck them to the bottom piece of the little plastic here so that when I set all that up and when somebody had it it just said my little it had my little name there and my logo and also you have real estate here guys too you know those those stickers that there's like 90 on a sheet teenie teenies I got yeah they were like little teeny there I got them from like Staples return address labels that had that were that were clear so you know they fit right on there but then it just had my little brand on there and then on the back I was able to write sterling silver mm-hmm done yeah I mean then it's there so when someone's picking it up because you also have to understand you might get a chance to talk to somebody one-on-one but if you're talking to somebody one-on-one and someone else is shopping and they're like they're not going to get a chance to go or find the break in the conversation that you're having here to ask if it's sterling silver but if they can turn it over and look at it and it's very clear and the price is very clear they can make a decision even without you engaging them in case you get busy because you know that's the hope that you want to be busy but you you know you can't always answer all those little questions but if it's really out there it's very clear for everyone it's smart yeah and I think we do have actually a couple more questions yeah oh that's actually a really excellent question so the question is if you're a designer who makes all different kinds of styles of jewelry if you're edit your gonna do a show should you focus on one style over the other and then send people to your website to shop more styles I I don't know I would kind of bring it all yeah I would bring a fair representation of all of it if there's some it's slightly more seasonal like if you do Christmas jewelry and it's you know February people might not be shopping for about anymore but you know you can bring like a couple wintery pieces and say oh I actually do have Christmas designs on my website as well that are great for Christmas time and I mean him I mean she she's saying all styles I mean my imagination kind of went crazy like oh do you have chainmail pieces for Reynolds Renaissance Faire next to you know fine gold necklace I was like what's the most disparate things I can imagine yeah you know if it's something really removed like that you you would want a tailor consider the show you're going to mm-hmm because you don't want your and when you arrange your display table you don't want it to be jumbled to you if you have some very distinctively different pieces like I've just imagined you would want to have maybe clear areas this is the you know this is the steampunk chainmail jewelry and over here is the traditional delicate crystal gold jewelry and if you mix them all up it's it's not going to catch the eye and it's gonna be hard for people to understand that they're seeing they don't look at you little mishmash yeah mish-mosh one way you could do that is we have different color bus so if you see we've got like black we've got white we've got linen same with the chaise so if you were gonna do then you want to bring all the cells the chainmail could all be on black trace black bus in one corner nice the gold could all be on the linen and then the kumihimo could all be on the white so you could almost like color-block your display yeah if you really feel a need I mean to me there's no reason you can't mix kumihimo with other styles I was just trying to think of an extreme that people would just look too mixed yeah look at yeah and that goes back to think about the show I mean if you're doing if you're doing a run fair show but you also like to do you know different like dating yeah maybe don't bring your knitting to the to the Ren Faire show but bring it to the you know the gifts outdoor gift show yeah whatever you got going on so kind of cater it to that but this goes back to you I always like to have a leaf behind with people because not everybody is there to shop not everybody might have gotten paid that Friday you know so they might not have the money right then but they're still very interested in your stuff I would recommend having a nice postcard a nice 4x6 kind of a card with all your information on it some beautiful photos and that's where you can represent what you do as a designer and honestly if you have more than like four or five or six different things that you do as a designer I would caution you to edit yourself just because if you try to do too much you won't do anything well oh yes just just try to try to start with one and that goes again back to my idea of collections you want to do a bead woven collection do a bead woven collection but do it on purpose don't just have one peyote bracelet and then the rest of the stuff is gemstones and then have one crystal necklace you know it just people won't have a sense of who you are and your even be like oh did you did you make that or you know people get confused mhm I mean I've literally my mother I give jewelry to my mother and I make jewelry my mother who doesn't but you know she's told me when I give her things that are made by my friends she wants the story she wants she's literally told me the story is as exciting to her as the jewelry yeah if I say this is my friend she's from this place she learned this craft in this way she got these beads from this source or she made them herself and she's she loves it you know poor people they don't that the last thing the one here is a jewelry your joy was made in a factory way to hear that and yeah and if you're giving the gift like you know make it very easy for someone who's buying a gift for someone else for them to tell your story to them you know like oh she you know she made these with this or you know she got these gemstones from her travels in forever you know so she's wasting money for it it Commun be yeah raising money for charity exactly or or a cause and that's the story it's a symbol of why the jewelry and why you're wearing it right yeah any and that can go right down like team spirit jewelry or it can go to you know animal rescue jewelry all right and it is a selling point it is a selling point you will raise money yeah say people like to support causes or you know it's a certain month and there's a certain awareness month or something you know capitalize on that in terms of hey I love to promote this this is part of who I am right now right here story yeah I was like kind into conservation and these are all is all made of bamboo and the MOT five percent of the money is going to this charity and exactly yeah you know just stay true to who you are people I think these days people kind of me almost need that story if they're gonna invest you know then they're not buying a factory piece right for a couple dollars that's made of really cheap material thereby they're and they're investing a little more of their time and their money and it's got the point where I feel like we're all walking building boards like everybody asking what does that mean what are you wearing who are you wearing they want to feel proud of what they're wearing and have a story of why it's special and it's not just a mass-produced thing or they wouldn't be at a craft fair or a gift Fair in the first place right exactly yeah and that actually kind of reminds me I was so I've been on holiday I was at the shop in Valencia and it had Valencia Spain Valencia Spain well a little cobblestone street and it was a clothing store but there was a jewelry artist who was hand making jewelry right there right there at the store and there was a gentleman and he made a really simple little leather necklace with a peace symbol on it and he gave it to everybody who walked in oh my god yeah and he said here I made you a necklace and it means piece and I ended up buying clothing their beacon up I now have a story of this artisan yes super fast it was just a quick little nodded necklace with a little heart a little piece of symbol charm you're gonna remember that guy for a long time you know we're going for a long time because he was doing now I've got a story and it was like really fun thing and I had a fine clothing from him not jewelry but it was I'll just say all that theme of free gifts I'm not telling you everyone that you shall give out free gifts but I've noticed times people will have children with them or young girl you know I'm not talking about a three year old you don't want to give small objects to children but say they've got a twelve year old with them and the twelve-year-old is admiring one of your five dollar earrings you get a lot of brownie points by the or if the little or that giving it to them or the a little kid walks up their parents standing you know fifteen feet away and they've obviously given the child two dollars to buy something and you just I think that well yes would you and you just like everybody else you know Lou you know what's the cost you a dollar to make those earrings you know and it makes you feel good it makes you feel really good I mean how many times have you had that that young person yeah their parents have given them to the spending money because they've told their mom they like that yeah and that's when and that's when you whip out the gift bag and yeah you know ask them their name all that kind of stuff parents love it kids love it maybe they'll become a crafter yeah you know we have more questions I want to just quickly review our giveaway because I know alright so if you guys are just joining us for the first time live or if you're just joining us halfway through here we have a giveaway now this is over $50 value and what we're giving you is we're giving you this beautiful bracelet linen bust here we're actually gonna give you the tray with the pad inside to kind of kickstart any little display that you may also this is actually great even if you're just gonna have it at home a little that would look great on your dresser and we're giving you this beautiful kit here which is in the box but I wanted to break it out for you here this is our boho gemstone memory wire bracelet kit and actually I'll showcase I'll take a second off of our giveaway to showcase these brand new things that we have here today so these are the other styles that we have we have six different colorways and Julie is gonna pick up some beautiful turquoise there and these are memory wire and what's great is these make great gifts because there's no size to them so they just oh yeah keep wrapping around the wrist and they kind of coil and uncoil for you so they make wonderful and they all have these really nice charm so I think all the terms are different all the charms are different yeah and this is a great beginner project too if you're just starting with jewelry memory wire is really great is super fun it's a gorgeous summer jewelry too you put it on your sundress and you throw that on real quick and yeah great right so if you enter the giveaway just leave a comment yeah so we have some tool kits some great stuff that'll help you some anti tarnish bags some bags and gift bags all kinds of fun stuff so this whole thing could be yours by the end of the broadcast so you have to comment when we're live mm-hmm and then we do announce any and the live broadcast but I do know we have more questions yeah welcome to another question okay mm-hmm so a brand names should you register it as a business and what to do if someone else has the same name as you if someone has the same name of you as you and they've already registered it it's theirs yeah you're there's really nice you can do about it I mean even if it's your name even if it's your name even if another if another Julie bean which there are other Julie beans I think we all know to get creative yeah so you can alter it slightly so I would say if say you want it to be Julie bean designs and that was already taken you can change it and say Julie bean jewelry designs you can add something to it yeah yeah I hesitate because I you want to set yourself up yeah you don't want to get confused you don't use it's a little trucky if they have your own name yeah but yeah if it's already taken it's already taken and then if you are making a business out of this yeah you'll want to register you'll want to check with your state though everything has different policies and also just different thresholds of when you need to declare yourself a business and when it's a hobby so check with your local state and your local government and I know also if you're selling like on Etsy it's a little different like when you go into an Art Fair oftentimes I'll ask for like a temporary dealers performance or it's all coming back to me now yeah yeah you know it kind of did hands-on how much you're going to do how big are you committing I again start slow you can get it oftentimes a temporary seller's permit for an art fair before you actually fully commit to getting yeah the full business license done and and some local spots might not even have that like it's kind of like a neighborhood thing they yes yeah come with your table in your jewelry you know but yeah if it's a bigger fare you're probably gonna have to have that I have seen people walk around and check that all the vendors have their paperwork with them yeah that's another thing too that a lot of people kind of forget don't forget if it's required by the Fair bring it with you wrapped in plastic yeah I was gonna say I have mine in a big ziploc plastic baggie so that in case it's rainy or someone spills coffee or whatever but that is sort of it's kind of like um you know excuse me when you go to the salon they have to have their plaque up there saying that they've been certified you know it's kind of like that they have to display it you don't have to display yours necessarily but definitely have it ready to show someone there oh hey but in terms of registering for your business name if you think this is something that you want to do I wouldn't wait too long because someone else might come in with the other name also that's the best way before you've taken all the time to do all your branding - yes - find out if someone else already has that name don't spend that money and you know you know yeah so we least do the research to find out if someone else has the name and then if it's an open trade mark if you want to trade mark your name you can you can do it that way and there's just a whole bunch of ways to do that but it's generally state government less federal let's check so if you're yeah the first way I check is like go online and first thank Google the name yeah and then I also try entering the name as a website address I am yeah and just see that you will find out a lot right away you don't need to go through any government you know researches yeah you to find out a great many things and search the social media put it into Facebook or Instagram or Twitter and see I'll see what's there because you might need to alter your name a little bit but you can still brand it in that way but yeah and I would say in terms of if you are creating a business if you're starting out slowly which we are recommending um do like a smaller business when you are trying to apply for a business permit there's different business permits like you can yeah LLC could become a corporation you become a sole proprietor and you can find that all out but you know based upon what your state's regulations are if it is truly a smaller business to start and you're not thinking okay I'm gonna instantly go into wholesale gift shows and I may be selling to boutiques and I want to do a hundred thousand dollars every year but we all want to lower because I've had several different types of business entities and the larger that your business entity the more paperwork the more fees right so start I would say start slower yeah smaller and then you can always change it later there's also companies out there who will help you set up your business if you don't want to have to research how to do all of this with your government and with the yeah I'm yeah I they're Small Business Association yeah there are small business associations there's help out there for you yes and also if there is someone in your in your tight-knit local market that is doing what you want to do people are generally very open with their information call them ask them just be like hey I'm you know I'm thinking about getting started doing something similar to what you do maybe don't contact a jewelry designer like a shirt maker yeah I was gonna say like a t-shirt maker or something just be like hey so so what was your process there you know who do I call you know just kind of just ask them they might say no go away or they might say yeah here's because people want to help people you know small businesses we're a good community we want to help people so they might be like hey here's the number of the guy that I called he did all my paperwork for me yeah or this or just doing these websites exactly head to the the dot-gov website hmm you know for your area yeah and that's the other thing with starting out slow starting to do a show what you're gonna do is when you start to do shows first off if you're at all confused with what's needed to do a show contact the show promoter they'll be very clear they'll say oh we have a blanket license that covers everybody you don't have to have your honor or oh you need a temporary permit or you know what this is just a local thing you don't need one start with there but once you start doing the shows you're gonna make your own little network of show friends and they're gonna help you throughout things like I know we do the same shows every year and we get like a text message from our friends saying hey time to buy parking permits the parking permit link is open for whatever show we're doing or hey table fees are due and we kind of all help each other and you're gonna start to build that community which helps a lot I actually belong to a couple of facebook but groups that do that like you know we all want to do the same shows and also that's a great way to be like hey guys I want to do the show but I can only pay for half the booth who wants the other half you know and that's like me you know so it's like that kind of thing too so so really rely on your your tight-knit community in your area that you want to get started with um and yeah when you're at the show try to bring their friend to watch your booth for a minute and go and meet the other people get business cards contact them later you kind of have to network lane with people who we're there make friends with the people at the show now yeah I have experience like if you're selling jewelry and there's someone else doing Julie they may not even want to speak to you well that's fine too but you can it doesn't matter I I used to work next to a very nice woman who sold showerheads okay low-flow shower heads because Southern California but I still have that showerhead and she was a lovely woman any Shh very important bathroom breaks who's going yeah she watched my booth and I watched hers yeah and yeah always say hello first off once you're setting up and your neighbors get there say hi my name is I do this or something always greet them yeah them get to know their name yeah remember their name so an hour later you're not like who are you yeah I and I am bad at that or it just be the I'm so sorry I just with all the setup and craziness I know you told me your name what was your name again I'd do that all that all the time you know what it's true it's crazy when you get there there's people flagging you to go here and bring your booth here and you're stuck in your car might not a different place than yeah yeah yeah your cars here you know and yeah just two miles that way you know you gotta have a dolly and I think Julie and I would come out I gotta have a dolly if you know for a fact that your I had a situation the Rose Bowl where my vehicle I was able to park it directly behind my booth within 20 feet this hardly ever happened yeah and I still had a dolly to get things from the car booth because at tables I had a canopy hmm and I did it for a couple years like by myself and actually I got a nice woman to help me a bit but it was still you know you don't want to throw your back out and there were people who would be would be parked like a mile away and they would be they'd have to lug it all yeah yeah so you you need to know ahead of time if you're gonna need a little help with dollies or as Julie was saying wheeled suitcase is another amazing tip yeah so I have like my big like what would be like a big checked bag and you know it's got that nice handle it's on wheels and then I'll even strap like three of them together and make a little train usually yes and I just you know that works great too but I also do have two different styles of dollies so depending on what I'm carrying in and how far I have to go so take that in mind and then also in terms of what you want to bring to the show make sure to bring food bring water oh water you have a model water to your neighbor that's instantly gonna make you a friend or even if you have a canopy which you absolutely should um have the Sun Hat have the sunscreen yeah and you know as they're saying wet wipes we house a little bag together so here's some things that you might not think that you need okay so we have in here ibuprofen it is a long day on your feet you might be out in the Sun you're gonna get a headache it's gonna happen just bring him yeah also if you bring enough everybody loves you yeah a little notebook to take notes also sometimes people will have a notebook out there to start a mailing list so that can be something that you can do as well I always bring a nail file without fail it happens every time I always break a nail or chip it or something cuz you're setting up big booths and chairs and all that kind of stuff pens X pens and then we also have in here some e6000 depending on obviously what you're working with but we also have some findings you know there's jump rings head pins extra ear wires you know things can break are another great thing to do is bring some chain extenders with you so let me someone hanging over here yeah so does someone sees a necklace and they go oh it's it's too short hey you know what I can extend that by two inches for you and that's why we have our little tiny tool kit there oh yeah this you you won't be making jewelry there you'll just be having you know yeah your little tools the ice price tags are key this is the ring sizer tool that you're gonna get with the giveaway so a finger sizer two fingers either yeah what size is this person's finger because if your rings are if you have sizes marked on your ring say yeah you they won't have to try them all oh yeah and one thing I want to kind of I'm gonna pull it out here so this is my little trick this is my favorite from my years of bartending you know someone walks up to your booth and oh you know hi how you doing you just you know just polishing stuff I'm not really polishing it but the thing is is it much easier but it makes people at ease yes something about because otherwise you're standing at your booth and you're like hi how can I help you and then people they just don't want to approach you so looks like your jewelry is well-maintained but you know it's stay in there and just have something to do I know some people who if they bring extra people and their booth is large sometimes they'll be they'll sit there with a beading mat and they'll actually make jewelry in front of people so that they can see the craft that's always kind of cool yeah I love when people do that especially with like chain mail because it's so tiny intricate and then you can see this piece coming and then if you stop back by a booth later and someone now has this long beautiful necklace or piece or bead woven thing or you know they can watch you kumihimo or what a story I saw this curse will make it and yeah I bought it I I saw a lot of people doing that at I went to one of my first random Renaissance Fairs recently yeah you know what you have pierogi you have all these people like these guys are welding I mean that's next-level stuff but but you know like you had some of these girls who were doing like this like knotting technique with their fingers and it looks like they're doing like a cat's cradle but then you look at what they have and they have this beautiful like just woven necklace and I'm just like alright that's cool I want to I want to buy one of those cuz I totally was like instagram-worthy like taking a sure that that's everything - you want people to Instagram your stuff and you know kind of really I mean you have an opportunity like no other of these show is to really make a connection have someone be excited about it and then tell their friends that that's what you're going after you know so I always have a little picture frame on the side of my booth with all my social media tags so that if someone can tag me you know and then they just take a quick picture of your tags yeah but yeah but I always have a little something to do even if it's just polishing or just you know adjusting or that kind of thing they always say hello to people cuz you don't want to be like - a preppy you guys want to acknowledge and you don't want to be too happy I mean I would be guilty of I mean the the Rose Bowl is a is was a physical endurance challenge you would be on hot blacktop half the time he'd be in the Sun it would be hot yeah and it was over it was a long day and you would have gotten up at like you know 4:00 in the morning or whatever so sometimes I would just be kind of huddled in a little bit of misery and I would have a giant Sun hat on and sunglasses and you know people can't see your face and I would just sit there real quietly and you know that's not the best that's not the best experience for them yeah I mean you have yeah it would but when I did find that when I engaged people when I talked to children if someone had a question you answer pleasantly you don't overwhelm with information and be err of like if you have a friend what you guys are talking about I have walked away from booze before where the people behind it are having like an inappropriate conversation yeah and then you just feel weird yeah I did not want to know that about your first is so be aware of that too because you know you are or third representing your line and your company and or they act like their personal conversation about the party last night is more important than answering your questions about the jewelry yeah oh well okay nevermind I I'm gonna go somewhere else yeah it gives you a feel yeah you know it's it's the same as walking into a store and all those sale associates like here's the thing wait we always experience it when we go into a store and someone goes hi how can I help you and you're just like I'm good I'm just gonna look cuz you're yeah that's why she's in the store yeah but it's different like hi let me know if you need any help yep yeah it's it's that kind of relationship that you just have to sort of feel out and you know I've definitely met the designers who are really shy and this is my stuff they're excited about it but they don't know how to react people it's okay just work on it bring a friend it always kind of helps put you at ease if you're not a seller if you're not super bright but you love doing this that's okay that doesn't mean that you can't sell it a show it just means that you just have to approach it a little bit differently you know and you'll find your niche and and honestly you'd be like oh yeah I made this you know I was inspired by you know my daughter you know her favorite colors purple so I thought she'd really like that and you know just share your story even if it's small and simple it doesn't have to be big and brassy as you should write it shouldn't be too big because most people you really do just like the necklace and they maybe they don't want to listen to no matter how compelling and dramatic your story is of your escape from you know the desert or whatever your SARS people like and they just want to get away yeah that's an experience to read that gamer as well maybe they want to get you me but they just want to look for right now you know it's the start of the show they're just taking their first lap seeing what everyone's got today you know you don't have to be right on top of them so they'll let you know how they want to be approached just just be open and just listen and I think if you are shy cuz a lot of us are if it's really scary to do your first show I think it is a great to maybe create a little space where you are making something and st. s just go you're just making you don't have to make a lot of ikana you just go up and say hi let me know if you have any questions and go back to your great idea that might be a little easier for you well cuz then that could be like what are you doing and you be like oh I'm actually doing this and you know it's peyote and here's some examples of the you know some finished pieces I just started this one but then he gives you something to talk about where you're not selling because a lot of people aren't comfortable selling my stuff you know and a lot of so uncomfortable being sold - exactly so it creates that it kind of breaks down that little barrier right away and then you're just make sure you do acknowledge them so even if you are head down creating just make sure you quickly just say hi welcome and then go back to it simple like that about the weather if they come over with a coffee at all coffee I mean it's great if say you're having a lull mm-hmm then it's great to be doing something and not look like you're your crickets you know and and in and of itself you doing something is interesting and will attract people yeah and then when you do have people you will not have time to make something you will be busy helping people and I found I was continually straightening my displays I just said man you lay stuff on a tray like this somebody picks it goes hey Susie this is great Oh what and they walk away and you're like oh and you never say anything to the customer obviously this is part of sick space so you just yeah maybe when they're not looking you straighten it and I found that I was constantly doing that and if somebody buy something you're gonna put something new in the place in its place if you have it or you're gonna rearrange yeah so they'll be plenty to keep you busy but for those times yeah you either want to be polishing maybe making something don't don't be eating food like obviously in front on your jewelry if people will step I am I always go oh is there food on my jewelry you know if I did that later the food on the jewelry I yes well I've actually had the reverse experience where someone came up and she was eating a hot dog and I was like like displeased like the whole time it's like the cup on the edge of the table it's just like Oh have you ever watching her have you ever had the soda of something somebody soda on your table people at swap meets it was very hot weather and everyone customers and us alike we're like we were chugging you know any at this at that point you're like you didn't care if it had sugar in it or not show you we're just drinking any drink and people would leave cups on the far corners of my table yeah and sometimes they weren't all the way empty so this is like something to keep an eye out for Oh bring a little or a large trash bag because people will leave stuff and you can't take it and go to the trash bin that's no you know far away just grab it and just put it in your little trap I would make my own trash I would be like oh I'm throwing away this price tag or this plastic bag that you need to read yeah for my food trash right that way it's you're keeping everything clean though and yeah you know sometimes you can put it underneath your table there and people will come up to you and say do you have a trash can and yeah it's just nicer yes yeah sir for you and your booth and don't have trash all you will gain their goodwill instead of their resentment yep exactly and I know we have a couple more questions oh okay sure we have some pricing questions just general how do you price your good so we had talked about this earlier yeah there's kind of a formula and then we're gonna debunk that formula yes oh yeah cuz because this is a question that I mean I struggled with when I first started cuz that's kind of how do i price it even for online or at a show so alright how kites get into it so first off figure out your cost of the materials that's a really great place to start are you using sterling are using plated gemstones glad how much of it are how much are you writing to keep track so like no for instance it's like this item here I spent X dollars on the materials for that's what you want I bought a bracelet I bought four tubes of seed beads but I used one quarter of each exact right I use a spool of thread yeah and everything I used it I used up a needle and threw it away you know and I think you bring up a good point it's like I used a corner of a tube so don't do like if let's say you made this you use a quarter of a tube count the cost of a quarter of the to count the whole tube right um so ya figure out exactly what you spent on it and then figure out how long it took you to make it and what you want to pay yourself per hour so that's your labor cost and everybody's labor cost is different what they gotta make so you may feel that you're donating your labor because this is maybe for charity only and you may feel like okay I'm you know I'm donating everything I'm not gonna charge a ton for my labor it's not for me it's for the chair right right and I think the the intricacy of the work could play a factor as well if you're doing a tiny bead weaving you know it might take you just as long to do something else but this is tiny and intricate would you is your labor higher than just it all kind of depends but cost plus labor I think that formula what about the time spent designing well I consider that labor cost for me and it's not just the physical making but that goes into my labor cost kind of from start to to finish what if you what if you work on a design and then maybe and if sometimes it's hard to quantify how much time you spent on that design because maybe you were working on something else you had an idea but what if you some you have to bear much am I only ever gonna make one of these or do you go people like these it it wasn't a hundred hour project right oh I am actually gonna make either a couple more or a lot more and one you can you're in four different colors well there's not really extra design work for me aside from choosing the colors it's then just creating the piece right yeah so so if you take your cost and your labor the other factors you have to think about are you know the time it might take you to set up your spreadsheet to do all this that's your time to technically you know table fee your table fee your cellar fee your shipping cost your listing cost yep whatever other cost you have so I think what we were talking about is let's just give an it sample with actual numbers it might be a little easier yeah let's do that let's say your materials are $10 and let's just to make life easy say you want to pay yourself $10 an hour okay saying it takes two hours so $20 worth of labor $10 worth of supplies you're at $30 yep and then you I would say you're not gonna know exactly what portion of the hundred dollar table fee is gonna go towards that right maybe add three to five dollars something like that so now you're at like so you're saying it at 10% add something yeah add something to give you that little cushion to cover some of your other incidentals right so maybe then you price it at thirty three thirty five before shipping if you're gonna ship it right so so one way you can kind of think about it is if I sold this at a booth let's say I took my thirty dollar piece if I sold this at a booth what part of the booth fee do I want to add but if I sold it online what would be the shipping cost for me depending on the booth fee it's easy to take that shipping cost let's say I know it's gonna be $8 to ship it okay half it's four dollars at the show okay so that's a gauge that I use but then once you figured out all that you're not done yet you know tell you it would somebody buy it for that price yeah yeah yeah what's the value what's the perceived value what's the work you know cuz there can be something that is something simple and strong okay well there's work that goes into that but there might be more perceived work for something else you know something more intricate or bead well I hate to say it but especially if you're in a kind of a swap meet gift fair situation and not at a specialty art yeah fair where people are where you're people may not really appreciate your hours because let's face it there is stuff made in other countries by in less expensive labor and they might say well I could buy that at the mall for this tiny sum and you have to be ready to either say okay thank you for looking or you can say well you know my materials are made in the USA these are this is genuine silver plating its lead-free its nickel free and these are real turquoise whatever you have to say about added value and that point and this is just my opinion materials come into play if you can talk up your materials right and without being specifically derogatory about a you don't even know what they're really comparing you to just try to indicate that your quality you know maybe higher time to put a little sign next to a pair of earrings that says gold filled sterling silver have a little something so people have a nice tag and then they see that yeah what I like to do is I do usually have a range my personal favorite thing to do is really intricate bead woven earrings they take a lot of time so let's say even at the $10 an hour but it took me five hours to make something yeah so that's $50 worth of labor and then probably the material it's not that much because it's just a lot of Labor so maybe it's like fifty five dollars worth of that would be my base price is 55 but I'm like I love them I don't think someone's gonna pay more than 40 yeah so I have to lower them to 40 but I'm gonna have some other items on my display that maybe took me five minutes to make and $2.00 cost yeah okay so two dollars materials and what would be 50 cents $50 labor three dollars ten or twelve or fifteen dollars yeah so I'm not gonna charge three dollars for those earrings even though you know that's what the formula tells me I should charge I'm gonna charge fifteen or twenty and that's gonna balance yes you have to balance the stuff that you have on your table or on your store wherever that may be and then also be aware and that if you're shipping something like this it's going to be heavier than shipping something like this you know same may be same amount of work may be seeing them out of cost but the shipping will be different right oh I take that into consideration as well I want to bring up something because we're talking about pricing and we are talking about selling you get this inquiry over the Internet as well but when you're on the spot live you have to kind of know what your what your answer is you're selling Julie hi hi Julie bean I love your jewelry in fact I am hosting a party and I'm giving everyone presents I'm gonna buy at least 10 pieces what can you do for me price-wise and then in that case you want to have like Sarah saying in your mind what are you what's your answer gonna be and then I would say oh you're buying 10 pieces I can give you a 20% discount you know ahead of time again if their friend comes next week and asks you you will tell the friend the same thing yeah and everyone you know and you may you may even have a card with on your post card it may be like 20% discount available for for large orders or discounts available for any yeah stick to your policy and I was telling Julie a little trick I had when someone would try to bargain me down on one piece and I did it because I was on the spot and I didn't know what else to do and I would and I didn't do this to be like sly but I had a small gram scale and that most of my stuff was sterling on stones and I would put it on the gram scale and I would be really nervous and I frazzled and I look at the price oh oh no I know I'm sorry that's the and people would just assumed because I was looking at a scale and a number that oh okay that's what it's worth right usually interesting or I would just say I can give you two dollars off I'm afraid I'm unable to go any lower it is sterling silver and they oh okay and usually people accept this kind of hard evidence and in my case it was sort of desperate and I wasn't lying but I was not being precise at all okay well yeah but that's but that's an opportunity then for you to again talk about the quality and this is what you're getting for what you're paying because it's that value and that perceived value yeah yeah and I think another thing to consider is if you want to sell wholesale and if that's your goal ya know wholesale um if you're one is sold like I'm thinking in terms of like two boutiques say you want to start selling your jewelry to boutiques um a lot of times a boutique or a store is gonna want a 50% discount that's pretty standard wholesale so let's say you've made this pair of earrings and you're gonna at $20 but you also want to wholesale are you willing to sell that for $10 yeah if not boost your retail price so that if you really really want to get $20 at the end of the day but she also really want to focus on wholesale you need to be selling that piece for 40 yeah now you know why boutiques are so expensive yeah and that's just the way it is and you guys think do I want maybe 80 or 90 percent of my business to be wholesale okay I'm okay that I might not sell as many pieces retail because I know that they're higher priced but I'm really focusing on that wholesale customer and I'm going out and I'm soliciting boutiques should buy my buy my goods so I realized that to the average customer maybe my crisis look a little high but they have to in order for me to make what I really want at the end of the day wholesale and that goes for saying for consignment as well another way that you could sell your jewelry I did that for a while actually I sold my items on a fashion truck it was like a food truck but it was a bad sheet rock in a shop look at this yes oh yeah but I but that was actually a really great opportunity for me because I would give her the items she would keep track of everything and what sold she would then give me the portion that we we had worked out it was a percentage um but that was a great opportunity for me because she actually gave me valuable feedback because when you're not there it's different when someone comes and sees and knows that you're the artist but when they're just shopping and they're just shopping and they're honest they're honest with the store clerk you know and they're like oh yeah like it's not really my style or like oh whatever wow what a great piece you know whatever it is that was always valuable feedback because it's unfiltered so that's always good if you're if you're thinking about starting out also that way you don't have to pay any booth fees they only pay you from what they sell so the only downside is they're holding on to your merchandise for you but that's okay you know if if you're okay with that while they have it but Oh a great thing I just wanna say something about feedback when you are present yes I have a thick skin have a pleasant smile and listen yeah listen yeah so listen when I started I really can't believe how little I knew and there was not as much Internet information I was literally like I don't know how big how big is a bracelet I'll just make one that fits me well I got apparently I have a small wrist and I didn't know that and so people would pick up my braces go oh my god why is this so small and oops no but I learned something right yeah and also I found out of there and this is a tip every one I would make necklaces I'm just just nicely my board and then I would fasten a clasp and I would be looking at the necklace and I would put the clasp on the right cuz I'm right-handed I don't know but if you put that necklace on all of a sudden the clasp is in your left hand and people ask me over and over why are your claps at my left hand when I fastened the necklace this is really hard because most people are right here right right no one ever told me about that I don't think about that but I'm telling you if you have your bracelet down on a board and you're looking at the front of it put the clasp on the left side yeah that's that's really smart and I just want to really quickly go back to your thick-skinned comment you will through the course of doing shows hear a comment or two that you don't like and oh yeah sometimes you know oh you want to hear my favorite it's not bad no no it's not I wouldn't say you know it's just like but it was a thing this is a real comment you have to get we're talking about beaded jewelry here handmade and you know ladies would combine some they would be wearing gold and diamonds and a for them I wish I had a lot of golden diamonds but they would that was their style jewelry and they would pick up something like this and they go oh I only wear real jewelry and they'd walk on and I'd go and they might even they might meet your eye or they might not meet your honor yeah but they would be remarking to another and you'd be sitting right there well but that goes back to you can't please everybody and make what you love to make don't try to go for a specific customer you know I mean obviously have your brand but you know if somebody doesn't like it that's okay and I don't like that I don't like everyone I mean I usually you should like what you make oh yeah and you should want to improve you may hear people say things that you know I'm not gonna do that but people may say why are your bracelets too small why is the clasp on the wrong side oh gosh I you know I can't find a really large I had this one lady you would always do you have any more large earrings this week she always wanted an earring that would you know what we now call a statement earring or dust her shoulder and hmm you know if you listen to people you find out mmm maybe if I make some of those also yeah and try to take it in the positive light I mean some you can't some comments you can't put it on those other ones of like all these bracelets all too small take that's a really good learning opportunity and and be like oh that was great feedback I can improve yeah and pay attention to the non verbal feedback as well hmm because if someone comes and they stop and they look at this big tray of rings that you have and they disregard everything else and that keeps happening maybe you need more rings or maybe spaced out your race to draw their eye in different places so that's something to consider is what's attracting attention exactly what's getting people over what's the first thing they touch that's one thing I always look at what's the very first thing they touch because that is what drew their eye over here you touch it yeah what were you that story you had um glass oh yes so I so I thought I'll have this beautiful display and I'll be all under glass offensive also yeah Jimmy people don't they want to be able to touch yeah they don't want to have to ask they don't have to ask for a price and they don't want to have to ask to try something when they feel obligated they feel obligated it's intimidating so we had staged this table kind of how you might stage a show you know we have different heights and we also have it very accessible you want people to interact with your pieces you want them and you have to be okay with them picking them up yep and they're gonna want to try them on you're gonna want to have them near so they can see what they look like your are yes um so make your display approachable make it touchable don't have everything to hang glass I had attractive yeah yeah I will say we wanted to show you all the different kind of display materials that we have for you but I think we spoon color theming if I had if I was doing the table I would try to stick to maybe all black and with maybe you would alternate it with one other color if you have a dark piece that you need on a light background so you might do black and beige or black and white or black and gray white and grey just it will make it very cohesive I wouldn't mix all these colors at once and I would be hesitant of glass I know if you are selling fine jewelry Nev got diamonds and stuff of course even like I tried having a little glass case for some bead embroidered rings no one wanted anything in the glass case it's yeah kind of it's like literally untouchable it is untouchable in every sense of the word yeah and so I would I would highly recommend having it so that its soft its touchable it's easy to access have the mirrors on the outside edges or you know when I have my tent I'll hang like big oval mirrors on the outside so that someone can here's the thing if someone goes oh let me try this on and they step outside the people walking by see someone trying on your jewelry comment yeah yeah and they're like and they're like oh what's going on over there cuz now they see that someone's engaged and brought in really quick comment about having a tent and having a table and everything so I used to think oh let me put it further back so that people have to come in no nobody wants to in my experience put it out in the front the only way I'll inch it back is if it's a really hot day and like just to get that shadow line oh my god have you ever had the jewelry gets super hot Oh because yeah okay so the other thing that I like to bring with me and I'll either have it down by my feet or sometimes out there if it's really hot I'll have two little battery-powered fans just cuz what does I want to get cool for a second yeah so yeah so as long as not gonna blow away your stuff but you know have it pointed here so that people are like oh oh that air that's so good yeah hot today and you got a customer now you know so and I love that I I have definitely altered my display throughout the course of the show usually moving it forward um cuz I'm like oh look I have a 10 by 10 booth I'm gonna make it all boutique II it's super cute and then no one wants to come in sighs yeah because they'll feel trapped or that we're obligated that you're gonna be staring at them and they're trying to hit as many boosts as that can also and they also if it's everything's tucked back they can't see your stuff as they're walking by they won't really make an effort to come in there's nothing to catch their eye so if you do have it faced upfront and they're just walking by then you have more opportunity to catch their eye yeah because then you're already asking for that commitment to come in to this you know and so it's window shopping that's exactly what it is just picture yourself as a store you got to put your best stuff in the window and don't be afraid to change throughout the show if something's not working change it you know you're probably there get eight hours or so and so you started it in the back people are just keep walking by change it take ten minutes 20 minutes get some friends move it around do or move around your display put different stuff up front change it you can don't be committed if it's not working right yeah and don't don't lose the whole day because you're like no I'm gonna wait the whole day to see if I get a sale yeah who cares yeah and then and then take note of what works like maybe maybe people just want to buy more in the afternoon or they're more free with their money in the in the morning you know depends on the show so it usually takes a while to make your first sale yes it does don't be surprised if an hour maybe more goes by and because it especially if it starts early let's say you're doing a Sunday show and starts at 10:00 yeah you're probably gonna have a lot of people who are at church who are having breakfast you know waking early breakfast right so I always find I it takes like sometimes a good hour just to make a sale and don't get discouraged in that time just because someone's not there right when the show starts I would usually in that early time I would still be tweaking my layout and I would be you know too busy to UM to worry yeah well but and that goes back to you know have something to polish you know it just takes that first a little sort of point so oh we did have another question ah tips for discouraging feet look alert just appear if you appear alert and eagle-eye people are gonna les want to try it because trust me nothing and once it to happen more than this don't be on your goodness me also make your height so you can see everything you don't have such a high display that you visually can't see you oh yeah well put your high stuff on the side cuz you're gonna you want you to kind of it to frame you a little bit you know if it's just you there such your motion in X Y or most valuable things in the center of the table which I assume is gonna be in front of where you most frequently will be right the more the stuff is on the edge the more people are gonna feel like they can loiter on the edge pretend to love your stuff and pocket things which is why those things should be very inexpensive in case you miss and I know we're almost out of time so I know we have another question I wanna make sure we get to everything this was actually always a question on my mind how long it should take I'm sorry so I clarify the question the questions about labor and the experience designers versus not as experienced and the question is how long it should take you like well I think I I think I understand when I was starting and I wanted to sell something and I knew in my heart that I took longer take something then perhaps I don't wanna say I should have but then someone who was very practiced and I thought well I can't really charge extra because I'm a beginner at yeah yep so the question is what do you do about that I think you look at a cost comparison or a price comparison yeah that was gonna be my suggestion so let's say you're making a peyote bebo oven bracelet which a lot of people do and they're beautiful you can probably get a pretty good sense of what the average one is selling for so if you do your labor cost and you're like three times what other people are selling them for you're probably gonna have to HS I make sure those prices you look at our handmade prices and I'm not something that's been imported and it's being you know sold at a at an insane price and it's probably made of inferior materials as well yes look in line yeah which is most another good reason to walk shows I often if I'm considering doing a show I will go to that show first as a customer and I will browse it and then determine if that's a show I want to do yeah but then you can also see what other people have and the price points are selling at so we're gonna wrap up we're gonna start to get our giveaway winner so get your last comments in here so we're just going to take one more second so ladies last tips here one last tip for for selling that you found over the years any secret that you found to be really helpful that kind of helps you maybe stand out or one customer interaction that really stood out to you anything like that oh I could not pre thought of that question oh and things are kind of coming out start up nothing it's kind of I already said it but it's the thing that I always tell people it's when I started putting up those five dollar earring displays that they were very I can they were very pretty mm-hmm they were they were eye catching in and of themselves cuz they were picked gold picture frames with purple velvet and the earrings hanging so that in and of itself was was eye-catching and then people would turn the head and then they'd see the five dollar price so to catch people's eye was something really attractive I mean maybe you're a genius interior designer and you're gonna hang giant paper flowers in your booth and make it look you know whatever way you have of make of catching people's eye in a positive way and make them go oh and be curious to me that's really important yeah yeah I think mine we've talked about before is just really make what you love yell and make what you love don't try to be anything you're not because it should be fun it should be enjoyable make what you love don't try to chase a trend don't try to chase what other people are doing be the truth be the trash yeah you know be make what you truly love and what calls to you as an individual because you will find your audience and your audience will find you yeah and you know my biggest trick is just to kind of be that bartender behind there having something to do but also I know it sounds cliche but knowing myself sometimes when I'm not smiling I look mean smile you know just even if you just have a pleasant expression on your face because sometimes you just get concentrated and I know that about myself sometimes like people are like are you okay you know it's just like I was concentrating and I had a scowl and I was like you know it's just sorry that's just my face smile and just be personable you know you don't have to say hi to everybody who like walks by who's not even quite interested in your booth but you know just just be nice time and just you know just be there and just enjoy it cuz you're out there doing what you love so enjoy the crap out of it you know yeah have fun and you know if you're unsure bring a friend with you that first time you know even just to have some hands to help set up you know it's always great oh my goodness enjoy the show and you know yours like I'm good here you know just check in later and tell em they get it and tell them they're getting in the show free so yeah yeah exactly are you give him a piece of jewelry yeah make him wear it that day and parade around yeah always wear your own jewelry oh yes you're a walking billboard always wear your own stuff except for we're all wearing caps today but have a giveaway winner all right our winner is Runet Benjamin so all you need to do Rinat is just contact us at service at beadaholique.com like oh that's alright service at beadaholique.com will get your shipping information and we will send this out to you so thank you so much for joining us you guys I know we've talked about a lot of stuff it this was a little bit of a longer class but there's you know you guys had a lot of really strong questions and we're here to continue to answer them so if you have a specific question or if you want us to help give a little bit more specific advice hit us up on Facebook I also answer Instagram YouTube we're here for you guys we want to make sure that you guys can get the most out of selling your jewelry and be successful at it so thank you to Julie beam and Sarah diamond I'm Kat Sylvia I'm a senior designer here at beadaholique.com and if you're new to us here at YouTube be sure to hit that subscribe button below to get all the latest from beadaholique have a great day everyone bye