It's Busy Here in Necklace Town USA

Melindesign got an inquiry to do a little job for Nordstrom for an American designer, Kris Nations of Kris Nations Jewels from California. All American made. Sure! we said and as the supplies slowly trickled in pressing the deadline (December 1!)  closer and closer, I was getting concerned...Were we going to make the first third of this order by November 19th??

We did it! but missed by 36 pieces cause we didn't have the state label for the baggies on hand....Mr UPS man waited patiently while I tried to pack those last few hundred in the giant box. One of three giant boxes.

So that's the first third, more than 5,000 necklaces assembled in an unbelievable 10 days?? Bottled and packed in 3 days? How did we do it? I have some amazing assemblers that helped me last time we had a mountain of necklaces to assemble, 14,000+ in two and half months. ALL assembled in the United States of America, just like this order we are undertaking now.

I want to thank Donna, Pam E, Jill, Bill, Maggie, Stephanie, Liz, Brooke, Courtney, Rozmarin, Pam R, Margie, Maribeth. Some newbies that I found by putting a shout out on my town's Facebook page. A flood of emails came in and by the afternoon, I met a new crew of Jewelry Assembly Chicks, ready to help me get this made in the USA. I had my uber assemblers cranking out the necklaces, the bottlers, with their graceful & deft gloved hands working furiously, so careful NOT TO MARK the CARDS! And the baggie chicks, pure joy! Being able to help American designers keep their production here in the United States instead of outsourcing to China is super awesome supreme. You all helped achieve that this past week. 

Another shipment of 3,000 bottles are coming in tomorrow. Another 2,400 out by next Monday. But first, enjoy that all American holiday, the day we give thanks.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

So Happy to See The SCORE Crew!

I finally got to a SCORE meeting last week. Ever since the deluge of orders that happened in Necklace Town, I haven't been able to see the gang over in the Carmel, NY chapter. And I was in desperate need for advice, a business pick me up. I'm not a business person. I am an artist, a day dreamer, an inventor, a tinkerer, a renovator. I make jewelry all day. I do not like to add numbers, keep records, fill out forms, or do that Quickbooks. I last entered Quickbooks on November 9, 2010 and became so frustrated that I never went back to it. I'm back to pencil and ledger. It works better for me.

To see my retired business titans again today after nearly two months gave me such a relief. Down to business. Ben said I need an accountant right away. Jim the retired accountant, got on the phone and called one to get me going on getting my books in order. When I came home from the meeting, I had a phone message from a CPA. Ben said that my jewelry contractors meet the criteria of a 1099 and gave me a printout from the IRS outlining this. I mentioned this in "Who is a SubContractor or an Employee?" I met a new guy today, Ken. Ben filled him in on what I was about and what was going on and asked me what I want by the end of the month:

• Get the books together, get my numbers straightened out. NOW. I have 1099s to get out
• Get the big order at Necklace Town finished and put to bed.
• Find a space to move this operation. It's too much for my kitchen. I need more room for more people and room to store this material. I want to be able to go there, work, and lock up. We talked about a temporary spot, like a church or a synagogue to rent a space for short term but I can't drag these rolls of chain back and forth. Jim also called another associate on this one, who has offices to rent.
• Handle new inquiries to new business. How was it to be handled, what were the needs?
• Establish a strong core team that will be there for important clients at a notice to fill an order, establish other teams to handle other clients as their needs arise. Train them to my specific needs and expertise to be able to attend each client specifications.

Ken asked how I got all this business. I told him it was all the internet. That's how I started. The website, the blog, craigslist, Facebook, Twitter. Google jewelry assembly, jewelry outsource and I'm number one, two, three. Ben thought I paid for the spots! It's Search Engine Optimization. SEO has finally worked for me. And tending to social media has worked too, spreading the word of what I do. No paid advertising, no knocking on doors. It's like a garden, you do have upkeep and maintain the website.
I don't blog enough, I'm still kind of new to it and there's so much more I should be doing but right now, focus is on jewelry assembly.

On the way home, I pulled over at every sign I saw "Office For Rent" and left messages. I saw my first office yesterday. It had a listing price of $650 per month BUT it didn't include electricity, did include heat, ac and water (I didn't know you had to pay for water!). I learned what CAM was: Common Area Maintenance. I spoke to another realtor about another space that was $1780. That didn't include HVAC (air conditioning!) or heating (gas!) there's business taxes and proportional fees for the building. So why don't you just say it's $2,500 then?? This is going to be a picnic, finding a space that's going to fill my needs. Ben said don't take the first one I see. I didn't, it was too small. And did I need a sink vanity in one of those rooms? Strange....

I really needed a shot in the arm from SCORE today. Sometimes I come in there so bewildered (what am I doing??) and they take everything step by step, solve, find solutions and I leave more confident and relieved. I have help close at hand, expert advice that's free! and I'm so grateful to those SCORE guys! If you are just starting out in a small business or already in the thick of it and things are getting crazy, find your local chapter. It's like a business partner but you have many business partners all advising you from their vast wealth of experience. Do it!