Great customer service is just as vital to your jewelry business as your beautiful jewels are.

One of the especially cool things about having an independent small business is your ability to connect one-on-one with the people who buy your products.  And that connection is one of the things that draw people to shop from you.

Here are some simple yet thoughtful ways to go the extra mile for your jewelry customers:

1) Try to learn and remember every first-time customer's name (or, if you're terrible with names, some other important detail about him or her), so that when you greet them the next time they shop from you, your knowledge of them will demonstrate how important they are to you.

2) Find small extra things you can do for your customers, above and beyond what they expect.  When the art teacher at my son's school asked me to redesign some old beads into new necklaces, Read more

Have you ever spilled beads on the carpet or between the sofa cushions, and wondered how you'll ever find them all?

An easy way to pick them up (without using something sticky that you'll have to remove them from later) is to take a fabric softener sheet and place it over the hose part of your vacuum cleaner.  Then turn the vacuum on and suck the beads right up onto the fabric sheet.

With the vacuum still running, point the vacuum hose into a container or baggie.  When you turn off the vacuum, the beads will all fall neatly into the container.

Tip from Tiffany of Babiiboo Designs.

October through December is the biggest jewelry-selling time of year for most of us - and here are 19 ways to make the most of it!

(If you have ideas that should be part of this list, I'd love to include them! Please share them using the Comment form below.)

1) Set Up a Holiday Boutique in Your Home or Studio

If you have a basement, guest room, second living room, or other space you can use for this, set up a nice display to create a jewelry and gift boutique. Call, email, or send a postcard to let your regular customers, friends, and family know you're all set up and ready for them to stop in *by appointment only* to take care of their Christmas shopping. Offer a free gift if they bring a friend.

People love this convenience - especially the closer it gets to Christmas! My customers are thrilled to purchase unique gifts without having to brave the crowded stores for them. They especially appreciate being able to arrange to stop by on their way to or from work.

2) Offer Volume Discounts on Giftable Items

… specifically, items that can help shoppers take care of a whole gift-giving category at once - for example, nieces, daughter's friends, co-workers, employees, teachers, etc. Put a sign next to it, put a banner on your website next to it, or send your customers a postcard / email newsletter advertising it. The more they buy, the deeper the discount. (Price these so that even at the deepest discount you're still making an adequate profit.) These sales really add up.

3) Help Working Folks Get Their Christmas Shopping Done

Do a trunk show (a one-artist jewelry show) for the employees of a business. People like to meet the jewelry artist who created the pieces they're buying, and busy employees appreciate this easy way to shop.

If you do get the opportunity to do a trunk show, be sure your contact person at the business gets the word out to as many of the employees as possible (an email or flyers stating the date and time of your show would work well). For maximum sales, see if you can arrange to have your trunk show on the business' payday.

4) Do a Trunk Show in a Restaurant or Cafe

Any restaurant, cafe, tea / coffee shop, etc. that has high traffic would be a great spot for you to set up a trunk show. Particularly at lunch time, people are glad to quickly take care of a bit of shopping while they're out. Offer the restaurant owner a percentage of your sales (20% is common) or reward him / her with jewelry as you would a jewelry party host.

5) Let a Friend Sell Your Jewelry at Work

Have a trusted friend or relative take a selection of your jewelry to work to show to co-workers. Include Read more

I really don't mind cleaning each piece of my jewelry inventory once, right after I finish creating it.

But I do mind the extremely time-consuming process of having to haul out and re-clean my entire inventory, to shine it up for upcoming shows!

Here are six ways to prevent tarnish from building up on your jewelry, so you can hopefully sell it with just that first cleaning:

Prevent Tarnish on Your Jewelry Inventory

Using even one of these tarnish prevention tips will mean less jewelry cleaning.

Here's a great idea for using folding louvered doors or shutters make a great booth backdrop or vertical space for hanging jewelry displays:

Louvered Door Jewelry Display
Louvered doors make a great standing backdrop for hanging jewelry displays. Flat necklace busts, display boards, and earring cards hang nicely on the vertical surface.

By Laurie Lynne of Laurie Lynne's Jewelry and Parties.

Avoid "Freebie Shows" - a type of jewelry show I've made the mistake of participating in!

Think twice if you're invited to participate in shows that mainly promote "free stuff" for people who attend. Usually these events are marketed in such a way that the people who come are not planning to shop or spend any money - and often they don't bring checkbooks or credit cards.

"Freebie shows" can be extremely disappointing venues for trying to sell your jewelry!

A few years ago I was invited to set up my booth at a show that was Read more

Since November and December are two of the busiest months for jewelry artists, it's helpful if you can prepare for your own holidays ahead of time.

Not only will you be able to take care of more jewelry orders, but you'll also enjoy a much nicer holiday season on a personal level, with far less stress.

Although I'm aware of this, somehow this year I haven't followed my own guidelines in this area!

Several years ago, after my first good year of selling jewelry, I realized that the end of the year could be so much more enjoyable if you're not trying to do several shows, fill special orders, attend all kinds of holiday gatherings, and do your own shopping, Christmas cards, baking, etc. at the same time!

So after that first year I tried to make a point of deciding what I did and didn't feel was important to do for my own holidays, and then finished most of the preparations by the beginning of November. I really enjoy everything so much more when I can take my time doing it, and when I'm not staying up till 2:00 a.m. signing Christmas cards and baking cookies with my eyelids propped open!

Here are a few of the things I've done by the beginning of November (in previous years!), to make our holidays less rushed and more fun:

Read more

Check out this simple and elegant earring display rack you can make.  It gracefully showcases a single pair of earrings, and will coordinate well with nearly any other jewelry displays you already have.

You can also make several and stack them together for compact transportation and storage.

This earring display is designed by Beth Millner.

I've just built a Hub page about my path to starting my jewelry business:

How to Start a Jewelry Business .

If you find it entertaining or useful, please give it your "thumbs up" at the bottom of the page!

Thanks. 

Read about Sharon Mann's crafty idea for reproducing a cone-shaped bracelet display on the cheap:

Economical Bracelet Cone Display - "I had purchased a leatherette bracelet display that snapped into a cone and really liked the idea. So I purchased some black poster board and traced…."

by Sharon Mann of Belltown Beads.