One of the first steps in starting a jewelry business is creating a jewelry business plan. This is an outline to help lead you down the path to success; a map that guides your steps and reminds you of where you want to go. Not to be confused with a formal business plan many lenders require, a jewelry business plan is solely for your use to help you keep sight of your goals.
Why Create a Business Plan?
Having started my business with no attempt at planning, I can tell you from personal experience that a business plan is a critical step in ensuring a smooth start to a jewelry business. It is difficult to make the correct decisions when you do not remember exactly where it is you want to take your business, and with all the daily management and work involved in running a jewelry business, it is very easy to forget your initial goals.
Spending an hour or two to write down your goals, hopes and dreams for your business will help you stay on track when things get going. Here are some questions your business plan can answer:
What type of jewelry do you want to sell? Staying true to your roots can help you maintain a loyal customer base. If your favorite type of jewelry is beaded sterling silver jewelry, focus on perfecting your skills making beaded sterling silver jewelry. It is fun to branch out and try new things, but never lose focus of your original specialty unless it proves completely unmarketable. How do you want to sell your jewelry? Do you see yourself setting up a booth to sell jewelry retail at a craft show, cold calling local business to sell your jewelry wholesale, or offering jewelry on consignment? Each of these selling models requires completely different marketing and pricing. It is perfectly acceptable, and even encouraged, to try multiple methods of selling, but setting these ideas on paper in the beginning will guide your steps. Where do you want to sell your jewelry? If you are selling retail, places you can sell jewelry include at craft shows, farmer’s markets, on Internet marketplaces such as Etsy or eBay, or online at your own website. Do you want to focus your wholesale and consignment efforts locally, or is worldwide domination more your style? How do you plan to pay for your startup costs? Your jewelry business will not immediately pay for itself. You will need to find cash somewhere to fund your initial outlays for components, marketing and packaging. This can be something you budget out of existing income, or you may need to find another income stream such as a part time job to help fund these costs. Fortunately, jewelry making is not a hugely expensive craft so you can also choose to start slowly and gradually build up your inventory. What are your income goals? Although this goal may not be achievable in the beginning, give yourself something to shoot for by stating an income goal. Make it as big as you want, just be sure it is something you think you can reasonably attain. It may help to set a time line for getting to a certain income. For example, your first goal may be to make $500 per month within one year. Once you achieve that, set the bar higher. Maybe next year your goal will be $1,000 per month. How will you define success or failure? As long as your business is not costing you a lot of money to operate, you may feel like operating it indefinitely. In the event that things do not go as well as you planned, however, do you have a plan for cutting it loose? Be realistic and steel yourself to be logical in deciding if perhaps this venture is not going to work out. The heartache of a failure will only grow worse the longer you invest your time and effort into it.
There is no right or wrong way to write a jewelry business plan. Include anything, no matter how trivial, if you think it will help you stay the course and create a successful business. The points of your plan are not set in concrete either. As you progress in your business you may find things do not work as you imagined they would, so further revision of your plan may be necessary. Utilize your business plan to help you, but be flexible in knowing when to change it and when to forge a new path.