looking to start a pearl jewelry store(need advice)

[gia student]

Hi everyone,

Im new to this forum. I am a (gia) student currently taking the graduate of pearls course. I will be soon be taking my final exam (in June) and then my lab in (Sept). I am looking to open a jewelry store that deals in only pearls but some pearls will be accented with gemstones. My delema is that i have bad credit from when i was 18-20 years old. I am now currently 26 and i want to know if any of you guys or gals had bad credit when starting your *brick and mortar* store. If so how did you get around that and also who did you happen to see to get finacial help. i dont really have a co-signer, and i have no collateral at all. im looking to seek help from *sba* small business administration . any of you had any luck with them in my siduation? any information is greatly appreciated.

[pearltime]

Please let me suggest you go to the internet and purchase a tri-merge credit report for about $25.00; and make sure it will also give you your credit scores.

Once you get the credit report (it can be downloaded), look for items on the credit report that do not belong to you or are duplicate items. If you find any of these, send a letter to each credit bureau stating that the item(s) are not yours, have been paid off, are duplicates, or whatever the case may be.

Don't miss any future payments with anyone. Don't try to open credit card, etc., accounts unless you don't have any at present. If you need to apply for a credit card, do it with a company that will give you a card if you deposit money with them - like you deposit $500 which they hold and they give you a credit limit up to your deposit amount ($500). It's best to have two credit cards, no more, with the outstanding balances below 50% of the credit line.

It's best to pay off any charge-off amounts. You can generally offer the collection agency or company fifty cents on the dollar to settle the claim against you. BUT DON'T PAY THEM UNTIL YOU GET THE AGREEMENT IN WRITING THAT YOUR PAYMENT WILL CONSIDERED FULL AND FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE CLAIM and that they will report such to the credit bureaus. The collection companies will probably try to get you to pay up to severty cents on the dollar. Don't pay over seventy cents on the dollar.

Doing these items will help you raise your credit scores. Depending on your situation, it may be best to seek someone who is expert in repairing credit. Don't use of of the companies that advertise on TV that they will help you get out of debt. They restructure your current debt and you pay it off in 5 years. It's better to just bankrupt in many cases because mortgage lenders, among others, treat credit counseling the same as having declared bankruptcy.

Some attorneys, financial planners, CPAs, etc., can help you or direct you to someone who will truly help you restore your credit. Hope that helps.

[Caitlin]

Hi GIA student
You are asking how will you get from here (no credit, no collateral) to there? (a B&M pearl store or boutique)? Perhaps you have worked in a B&M jewelry store. If, not, you need to do that. Your boss would be a good person to learn from.

You would also need to develop a business plan. It would include steps to repair credit and concrete statements about who your customers would be and how you know that, where would you locate the store, who will you sell to, how will you acquire your stock, how much it will all cost and more.

I think the people here are focusing in online sales, not brick and mortar. B&M adds a huge amount to start up costs and a narrowly focused store, like you dream about would have to have an exquisite location to succeed.

If you have, or can make, or otherwise get, stock, why wait for brick & mortar and good credit? Start selling where you are.

[gia student]

hi caitlin,

thanks for the reply, i know my store will pretty much zero in on pearls with little room left for much else. to counter that potentially negitive side of the store i plan to have a good array of all four types of pearls in as many styles and colors as i can find. i have thought of just starting to buy some of my supply (with my own funds ) as much as i can afford each month and stock up on it .this i think may lessen the amount of start up cost at least a fraction . lol . now when you say why wait for a b&m start here and now what exactly do you mean start a store on the internet? or like mail order or what,maybe i can try this first. i am considering working for a jeweler but i am really only concerned with pearls and most jewelers have only 10-15% of thier inventory pearls. altho learning the business end of the jewelry business will definitly be a benifit. also my mother -in- law mentioned maybe renting a booth in the malls around here what is your take on this. also i make jewelry as a hobby from pearls and gemstones and i sold my jewlery at a hospital and made a good amount of money for my first fair maybe ill just end up having to raise some of the money myself and start at the bottom. thanks for the advice

[Caitlin]

hi gia student.
You are beginning to answer some of your own questions.

You can make money on the side in your speciality. Enough to reinvest in more stock. Start with the least rent commitment and see how sales go, such as trunk shows, arts and crafts fairs, farmer's markets, showing your stuff to your friends, consignments in other stores.

Get a resale license if you don'y have one yet, and learn to do the business end on a small scale.

I have been hearing that Jeremy Shepherd of this forum has a book on starting an internet business that is coming out soon. I rcommend you research ALL the ways you can sell your specialty jewelry, including the internet.

[gia student]

hey what is a resale licence? or do you mean retail?
and do you happen to know where i start on it lol... so much to do, im glad there are knowledgible people to help me out ..... thanks

[jshepherd]

Here is the perfect link for you:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/...319283,00.html

[Kevin Canning]

My suggestion would be to read through the forums as much as you can and take the GIA course on pearls in order to get a basic understanding of cultured pearls.

Also you need to forget about the idea that running an online business is easier or more profitable then running a brick and mortar shop. If anything running a successful online company is harder, since not only do you need to know basic business principles but you need to also understand HTML, good design practice, search engines, email marketing, usability, Pay Per Click etc. Not to mention the cost of starting a quality online venture is at least going to cost you 5 digits(not including product).

Also the online pearl market is flooded, unless you can offer something unique that nobody else is doing then you won't be able to steal any market share.

Not to sound negative but the days of opening an online store and watching the sales flow in have been gone for some time now. When I started selling online there was Pearlparadise.com, thepearloutlet.com, americanpearl.com and myself - now the number of quality sites selling pearls has tripled at least - not to mention the 100's of garbage sites popping up all the time.

Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't start an online pearl company in the current environment, there are just too many factors against you.

Where as there are very few brick and mortar shops that only sell pearls and even fewer that actually have an understanding of what they are selling.

As a soft start I kind of like the idea of running a mall kiosk. I would start with some inexpensive freshwater pearls(cheap investment) as high end strands are unlikely to sell from a kiosk. Make sure you pick a good brandable name(you'll need this later) and as you grow you can move yourself into a real shop(ideally in the same mall) and grow into a wider product range. At least this way, your time spent selling at the kiosk is working to brand your future store and many of the mall regulars will already reconize your company and hopefully you would have built some trust along the way.

Of course thats just my 2 cents, take it for what its worth(2 cents).

[gia student]

hi,

i am currently taking gia's pearl course lol i am at the end of it and will take my exam in june then i have a lab in sept. before the course i was and still am making pearls and gemstone jewelry as a hobby so the pearls i was using werent A quality but were decent for crafting beaded jewelry. i have been going to a few gem shows and recently bought my first gem quality pearls *yay* i am also reading any and everything i can find on pearls and starting a business. i have sold at a craft fair at a hospital to some nurses and docter's. but this is the jewelry i make . to raise money i think i will sale the rest of my handmade jewelry at this open flea market they have here ever sat and sunday only cost $9.00 to sale lol i can afford that. when i get a little money built up i will try the mall kiosk ideal and (thanks for the ideal of starting with good freshwater pearls) cause im a all or nothing type of person and i woulda been there with every single pearl i coulda afforded lol. do you happen to know of a person or site that sells gem quality freshwater pearls *please feel free to mention yourself if you do*

thanks for the valuible info

[Kevin Canning]

well I'm gonna ask that people private message GIA student instead of posting self advertisements.

Thanks!

[Kevin Canning]

I would also suggest reading "The Purple Cow" by Seth Godin - its a great little book about how to be different in business.

[purepearls]

In a lot of ways, Kevin is right. E-commerce can be difficult unless you have a good grasp on all of the technical aspects of running a web-based business. However, if you have a strong passion for the business and are extremely driven, anything can be done! Just be prepared for the work that has to be done and start with small steps. The idea that was presented about the mall kiosk is a great idea. However, here in Houston, someone did just that in the Galleria Mall which is one of the largest malls in the United States. They were smart to set up in October just before the Christmas rush, however they barely made it into January and were gone within 4 months. They even had on-site stringers to do custom work and they sold a wide variety of Freshwater pearls, albeit they were pretty poor quality. I'm not sure of the exact reasons it failed, but the overhead is high, even with mall kiosks, especially in malls like the Galleria where you can expect a lot of traffic. I'm not saying this wouldn't work in another mall or even the same mall again with a slightly different concept. You just never know! Taking risks is what it's all about in business. I prefer to take calculated risks myself

[Kevin Canning]

well that's the thing about business - there are no prerequisites. Many people get into business without experience, training or the right business mind set that it takes to be successful.

Just because one person failed, doesn't mean that the idea is bad - in fact I would say 9 times out of 10 its the people running the business that cause it to fail, not the overall concept.

I mean just look at how many restaurants fail - its not that people don't like to go out and eat at restaurants, its almost always bad business practices that cause the failure.

[jshepherd]

Believe it or not, I actually checked into getting a mall kiosk back in 1997. I was already selling on the Internet, but I thought it may be a good supplement. I wanted the kiosk for the Christmas season. With a kiosk you do not need to be permanent, you can actually be seasonal. But the cost was prohibitive for me at the time. I cannot remember exactly how much it was, but I think it was around $4000 per month. This is almost as much as I currently pay for my current office suite which has 7 full offices. Needless to say I did not go that route.

[Kevin Canning]

I think seasonal is the way to go with the kiosk idea. One could set it up in October and run until the end of xmas and then reinvest that money. Ideally I would try and get a spot right in front of a name brand jewelry store with over-inflated pricing. It wouldn't be hard to have better quality, knowledge, customer service and pricing then a chain store and it would be very easy for the customer to appreciate the difference.