A very wise and successful man recently told me that his shop had
the following policy (paraphrased) “cheap, quick, quality - choose
any two”
Blessings, Sam Kaffine
Hi Paf
I have some simple words for these greedy folk.
"Do I look like your mother? Are you getting confused?
No. Then, expletive off!
They never find some one who can do quality at the price they want.
And so get known for low grade repairs.
And go out of business.
Richard
Xtines Jewels
Hi Amanda
I would rather make a piece a jewelry that I feel is creative and has
some merit rather thanreworking the old and worthless.
me too. I don’t do repairs or make jewellery to order from some
crappy drawing.
The last “favour” I did the customer came back and said my son does
not like it
he wanted a ring like his dad. He wanted the stone gypsy set not
bezel set.
1 You did not show me the ring you wanted copied.
2 You were shown my ring design.
3 You were shown the ring before stone was set.
4 You had the ring delivered and told me you loved it.
5 You were charged trade price
6 You will not get a refund
7 If you want the ring remade it will cost you 2 times the original
price that is normal retail.
8 Shock and horror i would not bend over backwards again.
Life is a lot happier without these customers.
If however a well dressed sophisticated lady needs something done it
is never a problem!
They are educated in the realm of jewellery and understand, the
costs involved.
Richard
Xtines Jewels
One of my most important mottos is…
Any craftsman who has more work than they can do needs to raise
their prices until the work load is what they are comfortable with.
Have fun and make lots of jewelry.
Jo Haemer
timothywgreen.com
The way that I deal with friends or family is generally to charge
them the very same trade price that I would charge a store,
explaining that they are getting it at “cost”. Of course I do make
occasional exceptions for my own children, my girl friend and a
couple of very close friends who do notpush me about price at all,
but who I treat as immediate family.
Even my employer has a great deal of trouble following Geller’s
price guidelines for repair work, but he has slowly adapted. He
still resists charging the “full price”, as suggested by Mr Geller’s
book, but he has absorbed a great deal of the philosophy, and no
longer “gives away the store”, as so many jewelers want to do,
thinking it makes them more competitive.
As David Geller has suggested: it is your reputation, and not your
price that makes you the jeweler ta customer comes to for repair or
restoration work.
I try not to do trade repair work, at all, but my having a laser,
anda reputation for quality repair and setting work I always end up
with a few store who wish to send me their tough work.
If I accept a store as an account I insist that they purchase a
current Geller book, and I inform them as a general guideline, that
I will be charging them roughly 1/3 of Geller’s suggested retail. I
do NOT provide a price sheet of my own, but use the Geller book to
determine the trade cost, allowing myself some price flexibility
even then for overly difficult jobs, or to sometimes assist a really
reliable account.
How a jewelry store chooses to reprice my work to their customer is
totallyup to them.
I do not try to be the cheapest jeweler. I usually only end up with
accounts that also have this attitude. I have lost accounts to
cheaper bench jewelers, ans some have come back. Some have not. I
can not be concerned abouta store that wants cheap. They simply are
not the type of jeweler who can appreciate the fact the a quality
repair, and a rush, cheap repair are two different breeds of animal.
Hello Pat,
Post somewhere or have a divided section style counter ready
binder/presentation book for showing to clients listing your rates
and other terms for various day-to-day operations and situations
that spell it all out so you don’t have to ! Also be sure you have
some posted sign-age that reiterates fees and other policies you find
yourself repeating to customers frequently (as long as its tock
prices next to photos and grades since they change frequently and
the triple key structure gives you some room to negotiate when you
get a “haggler”) done so that it doesn’t detract from your studio or
shop’s decor. One example follows- It is almost identical to one I
set up for a consulting job I did recently for a start-up business,
and much like my own counter book though the prices I have for stone
and s I’m not sure how long you have been in business or your level
of x, so adjust these few examples to suit your conditions. or use
the page/section headings as a guide for developing your own pricing
structure. hope it helps. by the way the labour costs haven’t
changed in at least 15 years and are standard across my ‘group’ of
friends and collegues. rer.
I’m in total agreement, Jo. I have more work than I can handle at
what I charge hourly (close to what some lawyers charge). Funny, and
still I have some customers who will say “that sounds reasonable.” I
have a cousin in New York who is goods friends with one of my
customers. He told my cousin that I should raise my prices. Amazing.
If you’re work is phenomenal, your Web site is professional with lots
of helpful you have good communication skills, and you
take on challenging work, you’ll be able to name your hourly rate.
Jeff Herman
Being a repair man to the trade is almost as bad as sitting at home with your feet on the table.
Repairs should cost MORE than new work asit demands a lot more skill
to do a proper repair to what is largely an unknown item.
If you want to earn what your worth, design make and market your own
products.
It can work well either way, retail or wholesale. I have found doing
complicated and time consuming repairs and restorations to be very
profitable work. Just as profitable and doing custom work that
entails making the whole piece. If you love your work, charge
enoughfor your time and have customers who appreciate the quality of
your work, it can be a very rewarding way to spend your days on
planet Earth. Because of that, I try to limit my work to custom and
tricky repairs (nearly all tothe trade).
With retail, you can make more per piece but you have to spend the
time selling. With wholesale you make less per piece, but you spend
nearly all of your time making, so you produce more pieces. It’s a
tradeoff, either way can be a good living if you charge
appropriately. It all depends on what fits best with you.
Mark
Any craftsman who has more work than they can do needs to raise their prices until the work load is what they are comfortable with.
I had my best year ever last year - more towards six figures than
not - just me, my bench and my network. That’s working 25-30 hours a
week, which I have done for several years now. Now, for the young
people out there- first you have to learn how to do it, then you get
there. You can’t demand the price if you can’t do the work.
Any craftsman who has more work than they can do needs to raise their prices until the work load is what they are comfortable with.
So true, yet hard to do.
Mark
One of the nicest things a trade shop boss tolde me years ago was
“You’re really going to be a great jeweler. Any idiot can make
something pretty out of new metals and stones. It takes REAL skill to
fix a piece of s**t and make it look like it never happened.”
You just never know when you take a torch to an old piece what will
happen. Sometimes they just puke all over your bench.
Because we are custom only we only do repairs on things that no one
else will touch. I still get requests to repair fine old pocket and
wrist watch cases and bands and old silver holloware and flat ware.
Nothing like taking a torch to a 200 year old silver vesel to get the
adrenalin going.
Jo Haemer
timothywgreen.com
Early in my career, “repair” was fixing my own mistakes.
Most of my repairs are trade work these days, I also make inventory,
make models for clients, and do custom pieces for private clients.
I’ve priced my work so that I make a fair hourly rate, though
delivery cuts into the rate. The best rate is from custom work, I
mark up gems, metal, and my own labor rate to a higher level than
possible with work to the trade.
I’ve been out of the country recently, went to Australia to speak to
the an Australia jewellers buying group.
They have the same issues with pricing as jewelers have here. Afraid
to charge.
Here’s a number for you.
A typical jewelers workbench, the wooden thing where a jeweler does
work should produce between $185,000 to $250,000 a year in income
David Geller
www.jewelerprofit.com
Doing repairs (or restoration) on things that no one else will touch
is a magnificient way to build trust, and most often creates a
lifetime repeat customer. A person who will promote their wonderful
experience to others, on their own, forever. This is the best
advertising that money cannot buy.
Working invisibly demonstrates overall mastery, is most often very
difficult to accomplish, and shows a great strength of character and
determination. a mental toughness to constantly strive for highest
standards of performance…
Well done!
Marko
Hi David;
A typical jewelers workbench, the wooden thing where a jeweler does work should produce between $185,000 to $250,000 a year in income
FYI, I’ve been tracking overhead and production for my shop for
years, and these numbers pretty much agree with what I’ve seen. I’ve
been charging $60/hr for wholesale repairs lately, double that for
retail. Not having any problems getting that either, but I’m buried
in work, so maybe it’s time to raise my rates.
David L. Huffman
Note From Ganoksin Staff:
Looking for a workbench for your jewelry projects? We recommend:
- Reading our guide to the Best Workbenches Review for jewelry work here
- Searching for more discussions about Jeweler’s Workbenches here on the Orchid forum
David
I've been charging $60/hr for wholesale repairs lately, double that for retail. Not having any problems getting that either, but I'm buried in work, so maybe it's time to raise my rates.
You are a FINE Jeweler
Many trade shops now charge $85 an hour. Per job that’s not much.
Start Tuesday
$85 an hour wholesale
David Geller
Some of you may know I had a retail store from 1974 until 2000. Sold
it to an employee, its still going. The last year I owned it we did
$1.8 million, 75% of that money came from the shop, from my price
book.
I developed my price book for my store, not to sell to jewelers.
Jeweler friends saw it and started to buy copies, I started helping
in consulting and it went from there.
In the late 1990’s I joined polygon. net and it has a discussion
channel similar to this (but you can also post pictures)
I copied and pasted my price book in that year and started sharing
my thoughts on how to price labor and parts.
One jeweler emailed me at that time THIS story.
He did not want to buy the book but instead took my philosophy and
applied it to his store.
It was he and 2 sales people, he worked at the bench, covered up, 60
hours a week.
So he decided to try my idea that repairs were not price sensitive
but trust sensitive. He told the staff
"I want you to take our price list and raise all prices by a dollar
a day.
If a chain solder is $10.00 on Monday, make it $11 on Tuesday, $12
on Wednesday, etc."
He figured that some day in the near future prices would be so high
that the number of jobs taken in would start to taper off but he’d be
making more money and work less hours. His goal.
He sent me an update when the $10.00 repair was now up to $25.00
(fifteen days later).
He was taking in the same amount of job envelopes, working the same
amount of hours but his income for the store had gone up 250%!
Your job is not have embedded on your tombstone
"Here lies Joe the Jeweler. He sized EVERY ring that came into his
store.
EVERY RING!"
David Geller
www.JewelerProfit.com
Raise your prices 10% every 6 months until your back log drops to
something you are comfortable with. Most customers will not even
realize you have raised your prices. Those who do leave you do not
need to be doing work for them anyway. People will pay for quality.