[Jewelry making - Article 00867] - Re: [Orchid] Books for training counter help in custom work

[David L. Huffman]

========[ Invite a Friend - http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm  ]========

>         OK, a biased opinion. My repair and design price book has all
>     of the pricing for custom. The audio CD's teach how to sell it and
>     price it. 

Hi David and Michael;

    I've seen David's book, I'm sorry, the part about custom wasn't that
    clear to me, but I'm sure he helps his customers on that.  But my
    impression was the Michael was looking for a book to teach sales
    people how to actually design custom jewelry.  I doubt you'll find
    that.  I know a lot of jewelers who can't design custom work, and
    they at least should know how it's made. I'm of the opinion that what
    you need to do is hire someone to do the simpler repair work, the
    grunt work as it were, and sell the custom work yourself.  You said
    you don't have time, but I think you'll have to make time, and, of
    course, charge the customer accordingly.  Meanwhile, you could send
    out some of your work to a sub.  It may not seem to make sense, with
    shipping and insurance, etc., but if you do the math, you'll
    probably find out that it's more cost effective for you to
    concentrate on the high margin work yourself and get the rest of it
    out of your hair.  That's the kind of service I provide for my
    clients.  I get them out of the repair business and back to making
    jewelry for their customers.  Of course, I also provide the high
    skill work for those that haven't gotten there yet or don't have a
    jeweler at all.  I do the same thing in my shop that I'm suggesting
    to you. My help do the less involved repair work, the setup and prep,
    I do the custom work and the tricky stuff.  Some day, when I'm too
    old to actually produce enough to make a living, I might just offer
    consulting to people on how to do custom design, at least for
    retailers on how to take in repairs. David can tell them how to price
    the work, I can tell them how to identify what work needs to be done. 

David L. Huffman

____________________________________________________________________
T h e   O r c h i d   L i s t
Open Electronic Forum for Jewelry Manufacturing Methods and Procedures
____________________________________________________________________
Orchid FAQ:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/faq.htm
Orchid Archives:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archive
Orchid Galleries:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/gallery.htm
Invite a Friend:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm
____________________________________________________________________
Tips From The Jeweler's Bench - Article Archive
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/tip_sear.htm
The Jeweler's Selected Bibliography List
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/jewelry-books
Buy Orchid Jewelry:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/shop
____________________________________________________________________
-Unsubscribe:
-Email: orchid-request AT ganoksin.com Body=unsubscribe subject=blank
____________________________________________________________________