Start Your Own Jewelry Making Business

You're a creative person and you really enjoy beading. You have so many pieces of beaded jewelry - at least one piece to match every outfit! Every family member and friend of yours has been given a piece of beaded jewelry on one occasion or the other. Everyone admires your beaded jewelry; everyone tells you that you should sell your work. You've seen other people's work in gift shops and some of yours is definitely better than what you've seen. So you think maybe it's a good idea to start profiting from your quite expensive hobby. You could be working from home as well as earning some money.

No-one can tell you whether or not to start your own home-based and wholesale beads jewelry making business. You have to take into consideration the cost of the materials, as well as the cost of your time. Very often, we forget how long a piece took to make because we are so wrapped up in the enjoyment of making it. You might also be a very creative person; however, a terrible business manager.The business side is almost, if not more, important than the creative side. You might consider taking on a partner to do the numbers side of the business. If you are no good at numbers, then you will find it very difficult to make a profit from your skills. A partner might be able to help you price your pieces, as well as work out your costs.

A difficult problem you will have is costing your work. You want to obviously price for profit. The best way is to add overhead, materials, labor and your profit in order to reach your desired price.

Overhead includes your rental, supplies and utilities. A simple way to work out your overhead is to determine the indirect costs (overhead) and then calculate an hourly rate for them.

Materials is your direct cost of the beads, findings and raw materials. It is important to buy your materials from wholesalers even though you might need to buy some things in bulk.
Labor is worth money and you need to charge for your time; however, you cannot place a management hourly rate when you are merely doing the menial jobs. If you are hiring someone to help you for $10 an hour, then that is the cost of labor per hour.

Profit will allow you to expand your business - it's the money that you make that will make you more money. If your business is not making profit, then it is not succeeding. In order to calculate your profit just double your selling price because that is what the stores will be doing to you. If you sell a necklace to them for $100, they will sell it for $199. Profit and labor are not one and the same!

I suggest writing a business plan before you start. Take a piece of paper and write down the pros and cons opposite each other. Research is also an extremely important thing to do before you start. Check out your competition at stores, vendors and websites. Decide how much money you are prepared to spend on opening your business: advertising, materials, etc. Check if it is viable to open this kind of business.

Work out where you would run your business from - you cannot use the dining room table every day and clean up after yourself every evening. You need storage for all your materials and you need place for your taxes and record keeping.

It is very important to set goals for your venture. You need to set short-term and long - term goals. No-one can run a successful business without knowing what will be tomorrow, next week, or three weeks from now. Continued success depends on knowing where your business is leading you. Time management is a crucial factor in your business too. It is always recommended to make lists - that way you won't forget something important that would surely slip your mind. Keeping a daily planner and a monthly planner can be very helpful.

Unless you inherited money or married rich, it's most likely that you will have to work for a living. Why not make a career out of something you love to do? I'm not telling you it's going to be easy, but it's definitely doable. If you want it to happen, you can make it happen! Just believe in yourself and your skills!

More details and reference please visit - http://dollarbead.com

Beading Threads And Cords

There is so much stringing media now available. In order to decided which string to use, you need to consider what you’re stringing; there is no one single type of string that can do it all. There are many types of threads and cords that are used for beading.

Beading threads are like very thin long ribbons, which are made up of long strands of fibers. They are typically waxed with beeswax to keep them from fraying. Threads, once waxed, are actually stronger and more durable than bead cords, but they are unsightly. Even if the product says it is pre-waxed, you should always wax these threads. They are meant to be fully covered with beads, thus hidden within your pieces. Threads are used in both bead weaving and bead stringing projects. Beading threads (example: Nymo, Silamide, Kevlar, and C-Lon, FireLine, PowerPro and C-Thru) are used like threads, but they are really a hybrid between threads and cable wires. These are threads that are braided together and encased in a nylon coating (cable wires are wires that are braided together and encased in nylon). You don't have to wax these. These hybrid cable threads are not meant to show in your piece. If you want the stringing material to show in your piece, you would typically use what is called a bead cord.

Beading cords are threads that are braided together, to make them visually attractive. You don't wax bead cords, so bead cords will have problems of fraying and stretching that waxed threads will not. Beading cord is available in several different fibers including elastic, nylon, satin, silk or other natural fibers. Cord can be used for its appearance, durability or suppleness, depending on the type of beading project you’re planning. Bead cords are used for projects where you want the cord to show, like putting knots between beads, or for necklaces where you have a cluster of beads, then a length of cord showing, and then another cluster of beads, then the cord.

Silk is most often used for pearls, because it is a higher quality thread than nylon. So, when you’re charging people to hand-knot their pearl strands, it only makes sense to use a good quality thread. You can purchase silk on large spools or on cards with attached twisted needles. It also comes in a variety of colors and sizes.
Nylon is used when knotting long, stone bead necklaces. It can be purchased on long rolls or on cards with attached needles. Since nylon is a synthetic fiber, it doesn’t stretch or fray. Nylon also comes in different colors and sizes.

Monofilament is often labeled as Jewelry Thread, but it's actually fishing line. It is very strong and can be used for beading. It comes in various thicknesses, colors and weights. Fishing line is very cheap and should not be used when making an expensive piece of jewelry, or one for sale.Silamide is an all purpose beading thread also used with seed beads. It is pre-waxed with strands twisted together, so it is convenient and strong. It now is available in all kinds of colors.

Tiger-tail is a nylon coated wire cable, which is very strong and stiff since it consists of a number of strands of thin steel wire. This wire makes a great choice for bead stringing; you can easily tie knots with it. The wire also comes in many varying sizes or gauges depending on the weight and type of beads you are using.

Leather Cord is great to use for heavy necklaces. It is also attractive enough to be incorporated into part of the bead design with out having to worry about covering it up with beads. It comes in different sizes and all kinds of colors. It gives a natural, authentic look to a piece of jewelry.

Stretchy Cord / Elastic is another great stringing material, especially if you do not want to use clasps. Stretchy cord is thin and flexible enough to stretch over your wrist for a bracelet and even your ankle for an ankle bracelet. The ends tie easily and are fairly easy to hide. Stretch cord is also great to use when you create a gift for a child, as there are no complicated clasps to fasten. Stretchy cord is also a great first beading medium if one is interested in learning how to string beads.