Archive for the ‘Home Business’ Category
How to Sell Your Jewelry Through Art Galleries
Rena Klingenberg asked:
One way to sell your higher-priced, one-of-a-kind jewelry is through art galleries.
Customers who shop at galleries expect to pay higher prices, and they’re looking for unusual handcrafted pieces that can’t be found anywhere else. Gallery owners and staff are experienced at selling art to this type of clientele, and they are always in search of new, high-quality handcrafts.
The Best Galleries for Your Jewelry
Many galleries specialize in a particular art niche. If you find one that specializes in a theme, material, or era that characterizes your jewelry, it could be the beginning of a successful business relationship for you.
For example, if you make dichroic glass bead jewelry, seek out some galleries that focus on glass art.
And be sure to get a good idea of the gallery’s personality – a conservative, traditional atmosphere would be a good bet for Victorian-theme jewelry, but not such a good fit for trendy polymer clay bracelets.
Here are some ways to locate galleries that are likely to be interested in your work:
1) Check your phone book’s yellow pages for galleries in your town and in other towns near you. If they’re close enough, visit likely prospects to scope them out before making any appointments to show them your work.
2) Look in the classified ads of art magazines for gallery advertisements. Some art magazines also publish annual listings of galleries.
3) When your friends and family travel, ask them to be on the lookout for galleries that seem compatible with your style of jewelry. Your loved ones are usually happy to step into a likely gallery and pick up a business card for you to follow up on.
4) Do some Internet searches for galleries that pertain to your style of jewelry. For more accurate search results, try using quotes in your search terms – for example,
“gallery” + “glass art” .
Study these galleries’ online presence and see whether they feel like places that are right for your work. Bookmark at least a dozen, and see if their sites state their preferred procedure for artists to submit their work.
5) To show your work to galleries within driving distance, call first and set an appointment with the person in charge of accepting new work. If they say they’re not accepting anything new at this time, thank them politely and move on to the next likely prospect.
6) For galleries farther afield, you can send a brief email to the gallery owner, introducing yourself and stating why you think your jewelry fits well with their gallery. Include a link to your website so they can peruse your work at their convenience. If you don’t hear back from them in two weeks, call the owner to follow up.
Find Out More About Your Top Gallery Choices
Investigate your top gallery choices a little deeper. You want to make sure they have a good marketing plan, and that the pieces in their shop do sell at a reasonable speed. When talking to a gallery owner about carrying your jewelry, here are some things to find out:
1) What what kind of advertising do they do? What special events do they host, and what promotional mailings do they send to their customers?
2) Will they give you the names of a few of their other artists you can call or email to find out their experiences with this gallery?
3) Does the gallery buy artists’ work on a wholesale basis, or accept it on consignment? And if it’s on consignment, what percentage of the retail sale price does the gallery pay the artist?
4) How often does the gallery send out payments to the artists?
5) Will they have special promotions or exhibitions of your work?
6) Is the gallery staff well educated in the art of the artists represented there? It’s the salespeople’s job to sell both the artist and the art to customers.
How to Maintain a Good Relationship with a Gallery
Once a gallery is carrying your work, you’ll need to do your best to build and maintain a good relationship with the owner and staff. Here are some things to consider:
1) Promote the gallery as much as you can. Post their name and contact info on your website as a location where your jewelry can be purchased. When you do shows, have flyers available listing all the shops and galleries that carry your work.
2) Never undercut the gallery’s prices on your work. If they’re selling one of your bracelets for $150, that’s what you should be charging for the same piece. When a gallery finds out you’re underselling them, they usually stop carrying your work.
3) Always make an appointment before showing up at a gallery. Whether you’re visiting for the first time to show your work, or coming to discuss ongoing business, be sure to demonstrate respect for the time of the gallery owner and staff.
4) Don’t plan to clean out your inventory from a gallery when you do a show, and then return the unsold pieces back to the gallery. That creates headaches, extra paperwork, and empty shelf space for the gallery owner.
5) Make yourself available to participate in any of the gallery’s promotional events you can attend. Be supportive of all their advertising and publicity efforts, and help out wherever you can.
Establishing a good relationship with a gallery that fits with your jewelry is a great step for your business. Good luck, and enjoy selling your jewelry through art galleries!
One way to sell your higher-priced, one-of-a-kind jewelry is through art galleries.
Customers who shop at galleries expect to pay higher prices, and they’re looking for unusual handcrafted pieces that can’t be found anywhere else. Gallery owners and staff are experienced at selling art to this type of clientele, and they are always in search of new, high-quality handcrafts.
The Best Galleries for Your Jewelry
Many galleries specialize in a particular art niche. If you find one that specializes in a theme, material, or era that characterizes your jewelry, it could be the beginning of a successful business relationship for you.
For example, if you make dichroic glass bead jewelry, seek out some galleries that focus on glass art.
And be sure to get a good idea of the gallery’s personality – a conservative, traditional atmosphere would be a good bet for Victorian-theme jewelry, but not such a good fit for trendy polymer clay bracelets.
Here are some ways to locate galleries that are likely to be interested in your work:
1) Check your phone book’s yellow pages for galleries in your town and in other towns near you. If they’re close enough, visit likely prospects to scope them out before making any appointments to show them your work.
2) Look in the classified ads of art magazines for gallery advertisements. Some art magazines also publish annual listings of galleries.
3) When your friends and family travel, ask them to be on the lookout for galleries that seem compatible with your style of jewelry. Your loved ones are usually happy to step into a likely gallery and pick up a business card for you to follow up on.
4) Do some Internet searches for galleries that pertain to your style of jewelry. For more accurate search results, try using quotes in your search terms – for example,
“gallery” + “glass art” .
Study these galleries’ online presence and see whether they feel like places that are right for your work. Bookmark at least a dozen, and see if their sites state their preferred procedure for artists to submit their work.
5) To show your work to galleries within driving distance, call first and set an appointment with the person in charge of accepting new work. If they say they’re not accepting anything new at this time, thank them politely and move on to the next likely prospect.
6) For galleries farther afield, you can send a brief email to the gallery owner, introducing yourself and stating why you think your jewelry fits well with their gallery. Include a link to your website so they can peruse your work at their convenience. If you don’t hear back from them in two weeks, call the owner to follow up.
Find Out More About Your Top Gallery Choices
Investigate your top gallery choices a little deeper. You want to make sure they have a good marketing plan, and that the pieces in their shop do sell at a reasonable speed. When talking to a gallery owner about carrying your jewelry, here are some things to find out:
1) What what kind of advertising do they do? What special events do they host, and what promotional mailings do they send to their customers?
2) Will they give you the names of a few of their other artists you can call or email to find out their experiences with this gallery?
3) Does the gallery buy artists’ work on a wholesale basis, or accept it on consignment? And if it’s on consignment, what percentage of the retail sale price does the gallery pay the artist?
4) How often does the gallery send out payments to the artists?
5) Will they have special promotions or exhibitions of your work?
6) Is the gallery staff well educated in the art of the artists represented there? It’s the salespeople’s job to sell both the artist and the art to customers.
How to Maintain a Good Relationship with a Gallery
Once a gallery is carrying your work, you’ll need to do your best to build and maintain a good relationship with the owner and staff. Here are some things to consider:
1) Promote the gallery as much as you can. Post their name and contact info on your website as a location where your jewelry can be purchased. When you do shows, have flyers available listing all the shops and galleries that carry your work.
2) Never undercut the gallery’s prices on your work. If they’re selling one of your bracelets for $150, that’s what you should be charging for the same piece. When a gallery finds out you’re underselling them, they usually stop carrying your work.
3) Always make an appointment before showing up at a gallery. Whether you’re visiting for the first time to show your work, or coming to discuss ongoing business, be sure to demonstrate respect for the time of the gallery owner and staff.
4) Don’t plan to clean out your inventory from a gallery when you do a show, and then return the unsold pieces back to the gallery. That creates headaches, extra paperwork, and empty shelf space for the gallery owner.
5) Make yourself available to participate in any of the gallery’s promotional events you can attend. Be supportive of all their advertising and publicity efforts, and help out wherever you can.
Establishing a good relationship with a gallery that fits with your jewelry is a great step for your business. Good luck, and enjoy selling your jewelry through art galleries!
Teaching Jewelry Making Workshops for Profit
Rena Klingenberg asked:
Teaching jewelry making workshops is a fun and easy market niche, with the opportunity to earn good money by sharing something you love to do.
You’ll find a ready supply of students waiting to learn from you; currently there’s a big demand for jewelry workshops and classes.
Many people are thrilled with the idea of creating jewelry, but don’t want to invest in the supplies until they’ve tried it. Or they may want to add a new jewelry making skill to their repertoire, or simply enjoy socializing while they create something beautiful to wear.
Teaching is a good way to keep money coming in during the times of year when sales are slower for your finished jewelry. You can even choose to limit your workshops to only those months of the year when you’re not busy selling your own jewelry at shows.
Teaching opportunies abound. A few examples of places to hold workshops include your own studio; in local art, craft, or bead shops; in active retirement communities; in schools or for homeschooling groups; at birthday parties; for women’s clubs; at lapidary clubs; in community colleges; and at RV parks.
You can put together a variety of jewelry kits that your students can purchase from you to use at your workshops, or bring an open selection of supplies for them to choose their own components.
However, the more choices you make available, the longer your students will take to select their components. Your workshops can be much easier for you as the instructor if you simply provide a variety of kits containing all the parts to make something.
The more jewelry making workshops you teach, the more people will ask you to teach. Your students will want to make more jewelry, or they’ll ask you to do a workshop for a group they’re in, or to lead a jewelry-making session with their Girl Scouts.
Your teaching opportunities tend to snowball once you get started.
You probably won’t run out of workshop ideas, because your students will always let you know what they want to make next, or someone will have heard about your through the grapevine and contact you to ask if you can teach them how to make something special.
Here is a list of potential jewelry workshop students – groups who are VERY interested in what you have to offer them:
Girl Scouts
Women’s Clubs / Organizations
City Parks and Recreation
Local Art Galleries
Local Craft Stores
Local Bead Shops
Needlework Shops
Local Lapidaries
Lapidary Club
Women’s Craft Groups
Women’s Church Groups
Country Clubs
Community Colleges
Private Schools
Home-school Groups
Active Retirement Communities
Activity Centers
Women’s Home Parties
Spouses’ Activity at a Conference
Cruise Ship Activity
Summer Day Camps
Mentally / Physically Challenged
Veterans’ Groups
YMCA’s
Retired People’s Organizations
Adult Education Centers
After-School Care Programs
Vacation Resorts
RV Parks
This list should get you started; it’s just a general list, and with a little brainstorming you’ll probably come up with some great ideas for the area where you live. Every region has its own culture, with lots of possibilities for specific jewelry making workshops!
Keep your eyes open and be creative, and you’ll begin to find jewelry workshop students everywhere! And once you get started, ask your students and everyone else you know for suggestions on other groups who would be interested in a workshop.
Word-of-mouth publicity will soon bring you all the new students and opportunities you can keep up with!
Teaching jewelry making workshops is a fun and easy market niche, with the opportunity to earn good money by sharing something you love to do.
You’ll find a ready supply of students waiting to learn from you; currently there’s a big demand for jewelry workshops and classes.
Many people are thrilled with the idea of creating jewelry, but don’t want to invest in the supplies until they’ve tried it. Or they may want to add a new jewelry making skill to their repertoire, or simply enjoy socializing while they create something beautiful to wear.
Teaching is a good way to keep money coming in during the times of year when sales are slower for your finished jewelry. You can even choose to limit your workshops to only those months of the year when you’re not busy selling your own jewelry at shows.
Teaching opportunies abound. A few examples of places to hold workshops include your own studio; in local art, craft, or bead shops; in active retirement communities; in schools or for homeschooling groups; at birthday parties; for women’s clubs; at lapidary clubs; in community colleges; and at RV parks.
You can put together a variety of jewelry kits that your students can purchase from you to use at your workshops, or bring an open selection of supplies for them to choose their own components.
However, the more choices you make available, the longer your students will take to select their components. Your workshops can be much easier for you as the instructor if you simply provide a variety of kits containing all the parts to make something.
The more jewelry making workshops you teach, the more people will ask you to teach. Your students will want to make more jewelry, or they’ll ask you to do a workshop for a group they’re in, or to lead a jewelry-making session with their Girl Scouts.
Your teaching opportunities tend to snowball once you get started.
You probably won’t run out of workshop ideas, because your students will always let you know what they want to make next, or someone will have heard about your through the grapevine and contact you to ask if you can teach them how to make something special.
Here is a list of potential jewelry workshop students – groups who are VERY interested in what you have to offer them:
Girl Scouts
Women’s Clubs / Organizations
City Parks and Recreation
Local Art Galleries
Local Craft Stores
Local Bead Shops
Needlework Shops
Local Lapidaries
Lapidary Club
Women’s Craft Groups
Women’s Church Groups
Country Clubs
Community Colleges
Private Schools
Home-school Groups
Active Retirement Communities
Activity Centers
Women’s Home Parties
Spouses’ Activity at a Conference
Cruise Ship Activity
Summer Day Camps
Mentally / Physically Challenged
Veterans’ Groups
YMCA’s
Retired People’s Organizations
Adult Education Centers
After-School Care Programs
Vacation Resorts
RV Parks
This list should get you started; it’s just a general list, and with a little brainstorming you’ll probably come up with some great ideas for the area where you live. Every region has its own culture, with lots of possibilities for specific jewelry making workshops!
Keep your eyes open and be creative, and you’ll begin to find jewelry workshop students everywhere! And once you get started, ask your students and everyone else you know for suggestions on other groups who would be interested in a workshop.
Word-of-mouth publicity will soon bring you all the new students and opportunities you can keep up with!