Selling your jewellery with style - New blog article

[apike]

PACKAGING TIP:

Setting out your stall

Before you take on your first craft shows, it’s very much worth considering what style you want to your business to have – are you ethnic or folksy? Maybe your jewellery is contemporary, fun and funky?

Whatever your style, consider what might make your stall more eye-catching and begin to build up a store of display props – a couple of different level stands and a table covering is a good start. Don’t forget, if you want people to remember your name, a business card is important.

Make sure you have a practice run before the big day to ensure you’ve got everything you need. And don’t forget – take a small, select jeweller’s toolbox of tools and findings with you for on-the-spot adjustments – it can mean the difference between a sale and a ‘not today’.

You can find more help on developing the business side of your jewellery making in this book: Marketing & Selling Handmade Jewellery By Viki Lareau.

If you have any tips you’ll like to share or if your just seeking further advice, why not leave us a comment and we will get back to you. Alternatively, why not enter our jewellery making forum packed with friendly jewellers who love nothing more than talking jewellery.

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[Dennis]

Here is a view from the other side. I visit lots of craft fairs, just to get the feel of this year's trends. Although I try hard not to copy what I have seen, something obviuosly rubs off to influence my future work. So while I am not going to buy anything, I get thoroughly off piste when I see a stall holder having an intimate conversation with a friend or family member, or sometimes with the stall holder next door. Should I recognise a jeweller friend I keep away if I see a customer hovering. Well that's got that off my chest anyhow.
Kind regards, Dennis.

[Milomade]

I done quite a few craft fairs and although I enjoy friends visiting - they don't seem to grasp that I'm there to make a living and not to chit chat. I've missed out on a few sales and connections with customers as friends have popped by and it's impossible to get them to go away. It's a difficult situation as you love the fact that they've come to support you and say hellow, but they rarely by and interfere with the selling process.

[Di Sandland]

I find it quite easy to tell friends to 'bog off cos you're stopping business.' What I don't find easy is when a customer or, worse still, an 'interested bystander' stops to chat. And chat and chat and...

[Lisa Quinn]

I find it quite easy to tell friends to 'bog off cos you're stopping business.' What I don't find easy is when a customer or, worse still, an 'interested bystander' stops to chat. And chat and chat and...

Ha Ha Ha......I've soooo been there, I tend to get the gemstone experts though, who insist on giving me a lesson in the mystical properties of each and every gemstone that they have ever heard of !

[caroleallen]

It's the people who park their buggies, or who chat to their friends in front of the stand that really get me. I usually pretend I'm tidying up and say "excuse me" very loudly. As for chatting to other stallholders, it really depends on what sort of day I've had. Sometimes it's the only thing that keeps you going - that and chocolate!