July 19 2010
by C.S.

Successful retailers never take their customers and suppliers for granted. Showing appreciation for your customer is a given and seems only logical. However, treating your suppliers with equal respect as you would your supplier is less common, but just as vital. For the trunk show, which benefits my business greatly, I was treated as an honored guest. The owner and management staff took me out to dinner and bought me lunch and coffee. Everything was done to ensure my convenience and comfort.

Although it was absolutely unnecessary, it is consistent with the philosophy of a successful business of the highest standard. It also cleverly communicated this message to all of their staff. It certainly won my loyalty and clearly conveyed to me that they expect my jewellery making and business conduct to be of the highest quality also. Although you do not need to bring coffee to your jewellery component suppliers, respect and generosity will communicate to them the type of service you in turn expect. If they provide it, you should switch suppliers.

I had commented to this store owner that I was quite surprised by the creativity, and yet discipline, with which he approached and conducted his businesses. As it turned out, he had worked as a gemologist for a fine jewellery store chain and got promoted to management. He had worked there for seven years and during that time he saw many things which he liked and did not like about the stores. In running his business, he incorporated all of the systems, accuracy and care that are required to run large chains, but at the same time, he infused a creative vibe so lacking in almost all of these chains.

In jewellery making it is the same thing. A successful designer and manufacturer must be creative, cutting edge, and have the nimbleness of a small startup, but have the discipline and run the business like a state of the art factory. Sloppiness in jewellery making, either in quality or attitude, can only be tolerated in the short-term. At a close range point, it will be a barrier to survival.

This retailer has a regional manager, who manages the store managers and oversee that the sales goals are met. I like this manager very much. He is hard working and very straight forward. His ideas and philosophy is a bit more goal-oriented and old school, but this complements the owner’s strengths and weaknesses. I know the owner was well aware of this when he hired him, which was a brilliant move. There is rarely a single approach to business, and often requires many different approaches to daily operations. Likewise, there are many facets to the jewellery making business. A designer can be spontaneous and eccentricity can be tolerated. But when it comes to delivery and seeing an order through, the exact opposite is needed for success. An astute entrepreneur would be aware of his or her own character, strengths and weaknesses, and select employees and partners appropriately to balance those.

I asked the retailer if he had a business mentor or used some sort of consulting service because he has had his business for a long time and yet he is still innovating. It is often quite lonely at the top and, without someone to talk to and reflect ideas with, it is nearly impossible to continuously generate innovative ideas and have the energy to see them through. He told me that he has a mentor, but they never talk about business. Instead, they talk about life. Everyone had insecurities and stress, and his mentor helps him dissect these and work them through. His mentor has helped him articulate his life goal. He feels that, once you have clarified your life goal, everything falls into place. The paths shall become clear to you, down to the details of where your company should go and how you should go about it. His life goal is Peace. That is, to live his life in peace and see that all stress will pass. His financial goal, then, is to provide that kind of living, and the business goal is to provide that financial achievement, and path of business is growth in a stable, peaceful and stress-free way. His involvement in the business, then, is limited and his job is to seek the vision and stand back to let the people, who do the job better than him, do their jobs. I think this is the same with jewellery making. As a business, you choose it to satisfy a life goal. Depending on where you want to go, it should shape how you operate your business. To run your jewellery making business successful, with clear direction, you need to have a clear vision for yourself.

To go back and read part one of this article entitled Jewellery Making Business Success I click here".