Jewelry Kits

Sandy Paluzzi
The Bead Peddler

There is more than one way to make money from your beads.   In addition to selling ready made jewelry or plain beads, you can also sell jewelry kits. 

Kits can take many forms and would work well for everyone who markets anything to do with beads.  Bead makers can put their handwork into a bag with color co-ordinated beads.  They would not only increase their sales, they could help to insure quality beads surrounded their creations.  Bead sellers can  put a bunch of related beads in a plastic baggie,  This is a great way to get rid of small quantities of left over beads.  Kits are also good to increase sales of bead inventory.  Many people would love to have a pair of Swarovski Christmas tree earrings, but don't want to buy a lot of crystals for one pair of earrings.  A reseller can make up kits containing enough beads for one pair of earrings.  And of course, designers can make up kits for a variety of purposes.  They can be used to sell multiples of an a design that takes a lot of time to make.  For example, I have sold thousands and thousands of rosary kits.   Designers can also make up kits to make up at home parties.  

While I supply both a picture of the completed rosary and detailed instructions with my rosary kits, it is not always necessary.  In fact, written instructions may be overkill depending on the kit.  However, I do like a picture of the beads in the kit and a picture of at least one suggested design use in a kit.  You don't have to put the jewelry together for picture taking.  Just lay the beads out on a suitable background and take a picture.  Print the picture out, cut to size and place it in front of the beads in your zip loc baggie.  Your kit can contain beads only, beads and clasp, or all materials necessary to make the item.  If your kits contains all the jewelry components, you should put instructions in the kit.

Kits can be sold in various settings and for various purposes.  As I already said, they can be used to introduce beading to beading classes.   Kits would do well at trade show bead booths and online at ebay or etsy.   Kits seem especially appropriate for  home parties and jewelry classes.  Give your customers each a kit or a choice of a few kits and they're set to go.   The kit approach keeps the craziness out of having customers choose beads and speeds up the whole process.  Some kits would also work well in a jewelry booth at a craft fair.  Try putting out kits of those Swarovski Christmas Tree earrings at your next holiday bead booth.  Kits for well designed, simple to bead elastic bracelets also make great stocking stuffers.  Finally, kits can do well at fundraisers.  The next time you're staffing a booth at a cancer society event, try putting a variety of beads along with a pink ribbon bead or charm in a bracelet kit.   People just may buy your kit to make up for resale at their own fundraiser. 

As you can see, kits are appropriate in a variety of settings.  The best thing about kits is the the profit margin.  It takes much less time to put together a kit than it does to manufacture a piece.    Your labor time is way down allowing you to make a decent hourly wage.  While it might not be for you, some people make their living marketing nothing but kits.  If nothing else, the addition of kits to your product line will allow you to expand your sales venues.

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