The secret to increasing your income as a jewelry designer
Jewelry designers ask me all the time how it’s even possible to make a good living as a designer.
I think it’s a common struggle, I love making and designing jewelry, but how can you really turn all that passion and skill into profits.
There is a little secret that I tapped into early on in my career. I think I realized that working until 2 am really was for the birds and NOT something that I wanted to do. I also knew that if I wanted to keep growing my business that I needed to spend a lot of time bringing money and clients into the business.
I knew that if I wanted to grow my business and make a bigger paycheck, there was no way I could be sitting behind a workbench fulfilling orders all day. Let me clarify ~ I am a designer. I need to design my collections and individual pieces, but not necessarily manufacture them myself.
Here is the distinction:: as a “designer” my time is better spent working on creative direction and landing new business than “making” actual pieces of jewelry.
Why is this the secret to increasing your income as a jewelry designer?
Let’s break it down:
- You can pay someone else a lower wage to make your pieces, increasing your margins and profitability.
- You have more time to work on revenue generating activities, like landing new business, marketing your collection and calling for reorders from previous clients.
- You have more time to design gorgeous pieces that will attract more of your DREAM clients.
In our Multiply Your Profits course we go into detail about why this works to help you not only increase your profits, but to give you a bigger paycheck at the end of the day.
The most important thing to remember here is, depending on your business model and the type of jewelry you are selling, someone else can usually “make” your work for less money that you are willing to pay yourself. For instance, if you wanted to pay yourself $50 an hour for labor, but you could hire or contract someone to do the same work for $10 an hour, this makes a significant dent in the price of labor.
The price of your labor directly affects your pricing and margins.
If you can get a better price-point with a higher margin per piece, you can easily mark your pieces competitively (not to be confused with under pricing your work) and ultimately sell more. Or if you are a custom jewelry designer working in the fine jewelry arena like myself, you can outsource the labor allowing for more overall income in your pocket. If I am not sitting behind a bench all day, I have a lot more time to work on MORE design projects and provide great service for my clients who eventually come back for more and refer me to their friends like crazy.
Just a little food for thought!
Now we want to hear from you!
In the comments below, tell us the following:
- What are you doing now? Designing? Making? Or Both?
- How does if feel for me to let go of making your jewelry?
We would love for you to join us in our Multiply Your Profits course that launches on May 7th. Enrollment is opening again today, April 30th until Midnight EDT.
Please join us!
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