Jewelry Home Parties & Sapphire for September

This month is how to make money from jewelry home parties and September's gem, sapphire Scroll down, or click a link on the html version.

For the HTML version with color pictures click http://www.mrbead.com/august11.htm

To go to the MrBead store click MrBead.com or MrBead.co.uk

See us in the UK during September and October - for dates click here. First bead show at Edinburgh, on Sunday 25th September. If you're in the East of England, come to see our own bead fair at Norwich on 16th October - details here.

How to Profit from Jewelry Home Parties
Sapphire: September's Gemstone
How to Make a Killing Selling Bead Jewelry
15% Discount

How to Profit from Jewelry Home Parties

Everyone Loves a Party!
A jewelry home party is one of the most profitable and fun ways to market your bead designs. There’s no competition from other sellers, and the guests love to encourage each other to shop. It’s better than say a Tupperware party, because you’re the actual designer, personally selling your jewelry. Buyers love that!

Parties are very efficient. In just three hours, you can make hundreds of dollars. And it’s not always necessary to pay any fees or commission - just give your hostess some free jewelry and a discount based on the takings.

Party guests feel comfortable buying from you, because your presence in the hostess’s home implies they can trust you and your work is good.

You’re a friend, not an outside sales person. Trust is the most important factor in selling and developing repeat business. And customers enjoy shopping in a relaxed, personalized environment, rather than a mall.

Organizing the Party

It’s easy to sell at a jewelry home party every week while holding down your day job. You only need a couple of hours’ preparation. You choose the dates and times, and it’s easier than you think to attract bookings.

Around 3-hours at someone’s home work best. Although you can estimate how long you need for the party, add 50% more time, and tell this to the host in advance.

Work the party like a craft show - greeting customers browsing and encourage trying on jewelry. Answer questions, make suggestions, and advice on custom orders. Create a fun atmosphere of a girls’ night out shopping.

Invitations
The best invitations are color postcards with an enticing photo of your finest jewelry – this will encourage people to attend the party. To prevent guests from assuming everything will be too expensive for them, add “Prices Start at $3” (or whatever your least expensive item is) on the invitation. Other tips are:

Attract More People

Only about half invited may actually attend, therefore encourage your hostess to ask over 20 people. Request a guest list with names, addresses, and phone numbers, so you can mail invitations two weeks in advance. Provide her with plenty of invitations early, so she can distribute at work, school, church, clubs etc. Suggest she telephones all the guests the day before to remind them.

Setting Up

Arrange beforehand, whether to use the hostess’s dining table or bring your own table(s) for display, and take black or white velvet to cover the table top. Save time by setting up all you can at home beforehand, but arrive 15-minutes early to organize and assemble everything.

Take lots of mirrors so customers can see how good they look when they try your jewelry. With their friends' opinions, this is what makes the party fun for guests. You may also want to bring scarves, hats and other props too.

Bright lighting is crucial for good jewelry sales. Tell your hostess you need a well-lit room and bring extra lights with an extension cable.

How to Sell

Don’t distract
Most guests intend to buy jewelry. Keep them focused there, you don’t need anything fancy. Simple and without pressure - letting people come and go as they please. Guests attend to shop and socialize, not eat. They can’t try on jewelry with food in their hands. Tea, coffee and biscuits; or nuts, wine and cheese is all you need.

Right away is always best
Try selling as much jewelry as possible at the actual party - instead of showing samples and taking orders. Impulse sales come easy when people are excited and guests like to take something home. Emphasize that your custom jewelry is unique and impossible to duplicate. If they don’t buy now, they could miss the chance to own the piece later. top of page

“Fear of loss” is a powerful seller!

Extra orders
Display a nice photo album of your work at every party. This triggers custom orders and makes it easier for you to give suggestions. Expect questions about how and when you became a jewelry artist, places you sell, materials used, how it’s made, and where you met the hostess. Interesting comments said about your art makes it more appealing.

Sincere encouragement
Look your guests in the face when you talk, with breath eye contact. Smile and chat to show you’re sincere. Emphasize the BENEFITS of owning one of your pieces. Say something like “you’ll look fantastic in this pearl necklace, all the guys will fancy you - and they never go out of style!”

Taking orders
Bring two calculators, order and receipt forms, and some nice pens. For custom orders, ensure both you and the customer have a written and signed copy of the agreement. Specify delivery date with their phone number and e-mail address. Make the date slightly later than when you expect to finish the order. Then you’re covered if it’s late - and they’ll be impressed if it’s early.

Take payment in full at the party, otherwise some will cancel later. Accept credit cards, Paypal, or post-dated checks for larger amounts. Also take a float of change and a money box for cash.

Extra Party Tips

1. Let the hostess choose pieces of your jewelry to model during the party.
2. Display an area of under-$20 gift selections next to a sign that reminds customers of people they need to shop for: daughters, mothers, grandmothers, babysitters, teachers, coworkers, bosses, employees, godmothers, goddaughters, clients, nieces, etc.
3. Give bonuses for individual sales at different levels. For example, a guest who purchases over $150 receives a coupon for $15 off jewelry purchased within 30-days (or free earrings). This also motivates customers who have spent $149 or less, to buy one more item
4. Award a special prize for the customer who spends the most - and dramatize giving it to them at the end of the party. This encourages people to spend more at future parties.
5. Each piece of jewelry should be part of a possible set. So if they buy a pearl necklace, suggest a pearl bracelet too. If you don’t have ready-made matching pieces, offer to make custom items to match.
6. Show lots of impulse extras: like chains and neck wires, inexpensive earrings, jewelry polishing cloths, etc. One extra item onto each customer’s total adds up.
7. Sell everything in a quality presentation box, and offer free gift wrapping to make it easy for guests to buy for presents.
8. Sell gift certificates for your jewelry.
9. At the end of the party, encourage guests to book their own jewelry party. As an incentive, offer a free voucher (or gift) if they commit there and then.
10. Distribute vouchers to promote both your own custom jewelry designs and for guests to host their own jewelry party. Include a color photo on the leaflet, highlight the benefits, and offer a gift or small discount.

Hostess Incentives

People agree to host a jewelry party because they want cut-priced jewelry. However, some hesitate as they think it will be too much work. Therefore, tell your potential hostesses they only need provide snacks, you’ll do everything else. Explain that she’ll have a lot of fun: socializing and shopping with friends for free jewelry. After she books, send a thank-you note the next day. This shows your appreciation and commits them.

If someone feels she couldn’t host a party, suggest doubling up with another hostess to hold a group party - where each person invites her own guests and gets credit for their purchases. Negotiate whose house to use, and give them extra.

Apart from discounts, you can entice potential hostesses with a special gift, like a unique design that everyone wants, but only they can buy.

Don’t feel over obliging

Try to avoid paying commission in cash – far better to give a discount for your jewelry or a small design free. Tell your hostess how long it took you to design and make a piece. There’s nothing wrong charging for your time - don’t undersell yourself.

Hostess Credits

Work out what incentives you want to give to your hosts before approaching them and set a few rules. Like there must be at least two people besides the hostess who purchase jewelry for it to be considered a party - and the combined guest total must be at least $100 for her to earn free/discounted jewelry.

If these conditions are met, then a few ideas of what the hostess could receive are:

If all goes well, hostesses will often host again - especially if they enjoyed themselves and got some nice jewelry. Mail her a handwritten thank you the day after her party, with an extra jewelry coupon that’s good for 30-days.

Discount Vouchers

Use quality printed discount vouchers. Design so they are versatile and can be given both to customers and to your jewelry party hosts. The voucher must have your name, logo, and contact details. More on discount vouchers later.

Sapphire: September's Gemstone

Sapphire is the birthstone for September, and is chemically and structurally the same as ruby, an aluminum oxide. However, where rubies are only red, sapphires come in every color but red: blue, golden yellow, reddish-orange, or violet. The most valuable sapphires have a vivid royal blue color. Some sapphires do change their colors between blue and violet depending on the light.

Sapphires are extremely durable, only diamonds are harder. Sapphires are generally cut into cushions, rounded rectangle or oval shapes. However, fancy sapphires may be triangles, squares, marquises, pear shapes, cabochon cut, or smooth domes. Sapphire is the anniversary stone for the 5th and 45th years of marriage.

Dark blue and lilac sapphire is said to enhance ones creativity while guarding against distraction. It is also good for sexual relationships because it tends create deep bonding between people and brings loyalty.
Light blue sapphire is the inspiration stone. It helps to bring new thoughts and makes one feel excited and full.
Green sapphire brings a lucky sense to ones life for it allows things to run smoothly.
Orange works on a totally different level by not allowing you to deceive yourself. It makes you look at things in their basic form without distorting it to conform to what you want it to be. Brings true knowledge - a good stone for students, teachers, writers and researchers.
Pink sapphire allows one to surrender to another for the good of the all.
White sapphire helps you take care of yourself and to tend to your personal needs. Yellow sapphire connects you to the total you with all of your inner knowledge. It also helps you to see what you do not know so you can look for an answer, rather than believing you already know the answer.

Blue chalcedony can look similar to sapphire at a fraction of the cost. Although a very fine-grained variety of quartz. It has a waxy luster with a compact fibrous structure. Natural chalcedony is usually grayish blue and sometimes with hints of pink, however it can be color enhanced to light blue. It is said that chalcedony was used as a sacred stone by the Native Americas, promoting stability within the ceremonial activities of the tribe. Chalcedony is thought to augment emotional balance, vitality, stamina, endurance, kindness, charity and friendliness. It also supposedly alleviates hostilities, irritability and melancholy.

For our Chalcedony click MrBead or MrBead.co.uk

Many of these articles comes from the new book How to Make a Killing Selling Bead Jewelry - see below offer:

How to Make a Killing Selling Bead Jewelry - eBook

“Ultimate guide revealing proven steps to successfully sell beaded jewelry”

At the present time, everyone is looking for extra income. If you would like to sell more of your hand-crafted jewelry, or perhaps you haven't taken the plunge selling yet, this book is for you. Choose from British English version or US version.

MrBead newsletter readers can purchase our new just-published book at a 33% discount. NOTE: ignore the price on the sales page - click the Buy Now button and you will see your 33% discount at the Paypal checkout ($19.99 or £12.99). Paypal only for this offer. On Paypal's confirmation of payment page, click "IMPORTANT: click here to download your product". You will also be e-mailed your download URL.

This e-book is sold to you with 100% satisfaction - otherwise you get a full refund within 60 days! To order or for more details click US Version or UK Version.

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To receive 15% off anything in our store, key the code "discount" (without the commas) in the box at checkout, and click "Redeem Coupon".

Act NOW - as only valid until Thursday 25th August 2011. Only for use in our store at the checkout and not valid with any other offers.

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