[Jewelry making - Article 00122] - Re: [Orchid] How did you break into gold?

[Neilthejeweler]

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>     I thought that alloying your own material was the only way to go if
>     you wanted to make a good profit 

    I would say, and I'm sure there will be divergent opinions, that in
    a small scale shop investing the time and money (for equipment) to
    alloy your own gold is a supreme waste of resources. Until you get
    proficient at it you cannot be assured of quality. In this case
    quality refers to more than specific legal fineness. It refers to
    uniformity and freedom from manufacturing flaws which suck up your
    time to correct. 

    Time is the essence of your business. You can spend hours days weeks
    maybe months trying to perfect a technique to produce your raw
    material or you can make a phone call to a trusted refiner and get
    busy making your finished merchandise. And you won't be surprised by
    some defect popping up just as you're polishing the piece. 

    You can spend hundreds to thousands for a rolling mill, crucibles,
    melting torch, drawplates and so on and it'll take considerable time
    before you make back your investment. Or you could spend that same
    money on tools that more directly enable you to produce NOW what it
    is that you produce...finished jewelry.

    Being a startup biz your focus should be, among others, to make
    money short term. If you don't make the necessary profit in the first
    few months you will likely fail altogether. You can't afford to wait
    years for the profit that manufacturing your gold stock will
    eventually net. Conserve your capital! Once you've reached a certain
    level of volume it may pay to make the investment. But for now you
    need turn. Make it, sell it, make more, sell more. 

    I say this from the perspective of experience. Both successful and
    failure-ific. Keep your eye on the ball and the ball is profit. And
    profit is a time sensitive thing. 

    All that was predicated on your statement that you are business
    oriented. For someone who's in it as a hobby its quite different. 

Your dutch uncle,
neilthejeweler
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