All, David Geller has put together an extremely well thought out and
coordinated approach to maximising profits in the service sector of
the jewelry industry. His approach takes in to account the presumed
costs of doing business in the average jewelry store. The slant is
that of a typical old line, multi-employee and, probably, corporate
entity which is doing business in a typical high rent milieu.
I don’t think that I would be far from wrong in assuming that most
of the Orchid subscribers are in another category…that of the
small time independent jeweler and or artisan. As such, Geller has
created a wonderful opportunity for us in that he has influenced the
pricing strategies of those with whom we compete. We all know that
one of our principle advantages in this scenario is the fact that we
typically have much lower overhead and can thus price our services
accordingly. While the mall store charges twenty-five dollars for a
given service we can get along very nicely with a fifteen dollar
charge.
I don’t doubt for one minute that the outrageous charges that some
of the mall stores impose are without justification. When you
consider the fact that they are paying three to five times the rent
PLUS having to pay a percentage of profits or sales PLUS having to
pay common fees for insurance, maintenance, promotion and taxes, you
realize that they have a big monkey on their backs. Add to this the
fact that they are often required to be open seven days per week, 12
hours per day and you can see that their charges may not even be
high enough to assilimilate even the fixed operating overhead.! In my
opinion there has never been a better time to be a small time
jeweler…we have minimal overhead, personalized service, keep the
money in the community and charge much less for our services. We
know our customers on a first name basis and we attend the same
social functions. People trust us and know we will be there when the
need arises. Thank you David for making us more competitive ! Ron
at Mills Gem , Los Osos, CA.
Dear Ron , I completely agree with you. How then do we use this bit
of knowledge to our advantage in advertising? I had for years gone on
the assumption that my work would speak for itself and people would
come in and buy. I have concluded that some promotion is absolutely
necessary. I live, eat, breathe & sleep this vocation. I have
developed and continue to developed contacts in the gem/jewelry biz
that a mall store doesn’t even care about or have the long term
employees with that kind of interest. I think about some how getting
that message out somehow with out being negative. Sam Patania, Tucson
Hi Ron, I see Geller’s contributions differently. I am a small
jeweler, with two part time employees, been in the same location for
thirteen years, open 5 days a week, pretty ordinary small shop.
Until very recently I bought stock jewelry and sold it, did repair
work in house, and I also doa goodly amount of true custom work, on
order, and we stay busy at it. I have the right CAD tools, and I
think we are a"progressive" business. I bought David Geller’s first
book a few years back, found it a little cumbersome to use (the
newest is MUCH improved), but I DID take David’s philosophy to heart
(raise the prices of repair work). I have learned a great deal from
him about running a profitable store and running a profitable shop.
I AM interested in maximizing profits! If you charge more money for
your work you not only make more profit (I don’t consider that evil,
like some apparently do), and I also get to provide better service to
my customers, because I can now afford it. Because I make more money,
I get to buy these little toys like Gemvision’s Matrix software for
making 3D jewelry designs. I can afford more expensive (and better)
shop help, giving my customers the very best work available. I can
afford to market more, producing more customers, and I can afford to
keep in touch with those customers through more frequent mailings. My
goal is to be the most expensive jeweler in town, so I can make the
very finest products and serve my customers lavishly. And, yes, I
want more money, for me and my family. I’m 56 years old and have
given my business my life. I want something back, like more money,
so I can have more free time with my family, so I can expand my
education, so I can get better and be better. And David Geller and
his ideas have helped immensely with that. Oddly, by charging more
money, I have not lost customers, but I HAVE gained some more
affluent ones. They’re not intereted in inexpensive, they’re
interested in the best products and the best service. I give it to
them and I charge them forit. I used to clean and polish rings for
free. Now I charge $20 each piece, tighten all the stones, warranty
the melee against loss for one year, and run the piece through a
seven-point check list looking for repair or wear. We did 488 pieces
like that last year, and profited just under $10,000.00 from what I
used to do for free! And the customers value the work as well.
Remember, anything you do for a customer for free has “0” value to
them. You just told them it was worth nothing and that your time was
worth nothing, as well. Did that for a long time, not good! I let
the customer decide what is “too much to pay”…and life is much
better.
Thank you, David Geller.
Wayne Emery
Jewelry Design Studio
Firstly Sam, I’m interested in the showcases for sale. Many things
could be responsible for not getting your share of the business. I
can definitely see that in Tucson you could have similar consequences
as we do here In Southern Pines NC. Although you have a much larger
population you host the largest gem showin the world and the public
can buy direct from our suppliers in many cases. Here ist QVC ,home
shopping and the Gem Mines. Not to mention cruise ships. Not I know
we are talking about craft and labor and custom, but every dollar
people spend on some junk jewelery in one that cannot spend in my
shop,for merchandise or labor. What David Geller has helped me
figure out is ,TO MOVE Well,there are 16-17 jewelry retailers here
in a little area of 25 thousand people. And there are at least 7-8
that claim to do repairs and custom. While there are only 3-4 of us
that can do quality work the others still take a slice of the pie.
I’ve raised prices, it has helped a lot. But I still don’t get enough
retail sales to make the overhead costs and still kee- the kind of
profit I should be gettin for my investment. On the other hand, after
30 years in the trade I’m a bit grumpy and cynical,and occaisionally
runn someone off. So I have decide to move to Russia and to RENEW
myself. Gonna study jewelry design and play Rock and Blues for a
while.(3-5 years) I wish I had more to add about promotion and will
say more when I think of it. But since I have been closing the store
I have come to realize many things I could have done to make business
better, but I’d have to had a good attitude to do these things and
just now…I NEED REST AND FUN God Bless,Jeffery Lomax
Hi Wayne, thanks for your comments & philosophy about the right to
an income. Since I’ve come to my senses I’ve come to the same
realizations- the customer will decide if they don’t want to pay the
price, and there are always other options to get them happy. We
don’t repair any jewelry other than our own- just stay concentrated
on producing my line. By charging the right price you can do a
better job, and not have the stress of doing x anount of pieces per
hour- rather allowing the corect amount of time for each piece- and
as you said having some time & $ to further educate and experiment-
I’m also involved in CAD . Would not mind exchanging pitfalls and
advantaged of our different systems. I’m using Model Master’s Artcam
and 3 axis milling machine. But I’m Really writing to you because
I’d like to check out the Geller Advantage although I don’t induldge
in repair work- it could perhaps help me sharpen up my pricing. Can
you e-mail me their adress or phone? Thanks & happy designing!
Feline1007