Doing The Fun Stuff

But on the fifth day I continue making things A fold formed tray.

A fold formed copper bowl Add caption

And I assembled a bouquet.

More of the 100 pair of earrings

All in all that's 30 hours of labor. using less than $30. worth of materials for a total of salable product valued at a minimum of $2,750.00 Notice a couple of things. None of the pairs of ear rings are the same. They are variations of one or two common elements. Each piece is a hand crafted original. Notice something else, to me,  my week just keeps getting better. I enjoy the free flowing creativity of the ER's but I can get excited about the bracelet forms and I love making vessels. At no point in time does the concept of making a one off product ever cross my mind. It just happens, hundreds of times! There is a difference in my approach from most other people. For instance: how come I said on the fifth day I assembled a bouquet? Because on previous days I made 100 flowers bodies, 100 stems 300 leaves Hint: each flower has 10 parts! Here's the part no one will tell you! I get to work 6 hours a day because I'm there 8 hours a day. One third of the time I'm not producing product! That's pretty much average to better than most. An aside: One of the most enjoyable things I ever purchased was an employee to, among other things, answer the phone!
       Now Do the math. Fifty two weeks in a year.  E gad that's 140,400 dollars worth of product a year! Let's look at some possibilities. in two years I could produce 10,000 pair of earings, no sweat. Would the ladies be interested in a store called Ten Thousand Earrings....you bet! Suddenly I have some options! Suddenly somebody better sell something!  What about that girl answering the phone? What about me there are two hours a day I'm not working? 
     Here are a couple of mistakes I 've made over the years. It's easy to make them.One is the idea that,  I'm young I can out work the competition. Rather than doing for 8 hours a day, I could do it 12 hours a day...Rather than just doing this for five days a week I'll do it for seven. Those are real bad ideas.
    Here's another subtle lie the world will tell you. Go look at your calender. What month is it? Calender says it's the end of August, Brad, Is this a trick question? Yes...Because though the calendar says it's August, you better be thinking December. You better be producing for December. right now! You need to change your thinking from reactive to proactive. Remember yesterday I said the only two people that made money at the Art Faire were the promoter and, even though he also paid to be there, the hot dog vendor. The hot dog vendor knew something and took some proactive action. He knew there would be a crowd of people at the event and they would want his hot dogs. If your jewelry business is like most other jewelry businesses 30 percent of your annual sales will happen in December!  It's December baby!! heat up those buns!