Surviving Difficult Times

Sandy Paluzzi
The Bead Peddler

All business are feeling the brunt of the economy.  Sales are down from last year.  And, here in the states, we expect hard economic times for the next few years.  Beads and jewelry are not necessities so most people are reporting slower sales than last year. 

It can be tempting to expand our business away from our core product in an effort to produce more sales within our existing customer base.  But this approach takes cash to invest in new, unproven inventory.  It also necessitates a new marketing campaign to let our customers know about our new product line (for example, I have seen pashminas or purses on some jeweler's tables.

An equally rewarding, but not as dangerous, way to increase sales is to increase the sales of your existing merchandise.  Sometimes, just tweaking the way you market an item will increase it's sales.  We have changed the packaging of some of our bead mixes, offering smaller quantities.  Our sales have soared.  You can also play with your marketing if you are selling jewelry.  One way to do this is to change the way you price your items.   For example, a friend frequently sells necklaces for 30.00 and earrings for 10.00.  She always gave someone a discount if they bought the whole set.  She has now increased the price of her necklaces by 5.00 and gives free earrings with the purchase of a necklace.  It works and everyone is happy.

This is not to say that you should not increase the variety in your inventory.  Just zero in on a line that is already selling well.  For example, my beadable accessories are a good seller.  Therefore, I am getting in more of them.  Gaining width in a specialized line is good for business - the more variety I have in a top selling line, the more customers I will attract. Also, since my accessories require big holed beads, I sell many beads with large holes along with the accessories.  This approach gives my customers one stop shopping and allows me to fully capitalize on a booming trend.  You can do the same with jewelry.  If you notice one type or shape of bead is attracting a lot of attention, make up more jewelry in that style of bead.  Do your customers all want large bracelets - make up more and throw in some longer necklaces and bigger earrings.  Appeal strongly to the large woman in your customer base.

As I said earlier, times are indeed tough right now.  But there is still money to be made.   You just have to listen very closely to what your customers are saying and try to capitalize on that need.

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