Thursday, January 26, 2012

The Jewelry Biz


The Jewelry Biz

So it may interest you to know that I once had an online jewelry store. Not interesting huh? Well then perhaps instead of me going on about the freedom of owning your own business, or the stability that naturally follows, or the sense of accomplishment and pride that seem to be side effects of entrepreneurship... Maybe we can talk about the meat and potatoes of the whole bit instead? :)  The jewelry itself! Yay for Sparkles!

p.s. I'm a huge fan of being self sufficient.. So you may see a lot of my  "empowering you" propaganda. So go you!  yeah! :)


Rubies, diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, topaz, garnet oh my!

Ok, so first thing first... What the heck are you gonna make? That was my first "I should have thought this through more carefully" moment  when I opened my digital doors to the planet...
I had everything I needed to make.. well, anything! I had a desk full of jewelry making stuff.. Some power tools, some toxic liquids, blow torches, pliers and other such.. stuff.


I was ready. I had even graduated from making beaded whoo-sits and whats-its to soldered and melted and welded do-dads and diddly-tinks..

OK, so that doesn't sound like much.. But it was. It was truly a full time job plus some to have that darn site..

Hats off to all you Etsy-ers and Ebay crafters!





It was tons of work just to make the site..
I wasn't about to pay for someone to create a webpage for me.. I was in the biz to make money... not spend it. :/

So I wrote every line of code.. ugh.
(save for paypal and cart codes..)

< greatest webpage ever > bla bla bla < / just get it done! >

:)

I think I'll make this a black and white print and frame it.


Now I guess its a good time to mention that  having an online jewelry biz isn't as easy as it sounds.. You can't just make some stuff, make a page, and watch the dollars roll in...

Oh no... A little acronym so named SEO will haunt you until you have mastered the art of marketing..

SEO- Search Engine Optimization



Basically these 3 little letters mean the difference between being number 82,364,852,531 on the results page of google or yahoo or the like.. and being number one on that list...

I don't know about you, but when I search for something via a search engine, I do not generally click to the 975th page to find something that could be found on page one.....

And from what I understand SEO has alot to do with links.. You gotta link to everyone and everything under the sun to acquire some magic number of links in order to rocket up to position 1... Its a silly practice.. but whatever.

So anyhow,

















Now I have my site, I have my jewelry... I just don't have the time.. Tee hee! After all that! I just didn't have time to run my own business.. 

Well, a jewelry business...

I was too busy running the business of the garden and chickens and house..

Its kinda sad now.. I've got  just a box left of all the unsold jewelry sitting in the workshop.


Most of whats left are earrings.. And I don't have pierced ears anymore.. So I sell or trade what I can with neighbors or give them as gifts. It is definitely an experience I would go and do again.

Owning and operating a small business by yourself is hard work. But it teaches you so much! This jewelry biz was my metaphorical lemonade stand..

At  any rate, I'm not supposed to be a  jeweler or a dot com-er.. I think my calling is just to be creative and inspire..

On that note;
I think everyone should have the personal goal to inspire others.. Why else would you have friends? I think alot of people forget that you get to choose your friends.. You can add and drop them in real life too.. not just on Facebook...


Have a wonderful day! And please forgive my ramblings :)

No comments:

Post a Comment