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At the Beehive, we're all gearing up for an interesting year. While striving for the best - having the best mix of designers; creating the best products; making the best marketing programs for the Bee - we're being careful, limiting our expectations in the event the market stalls more than we anticipate.
So what does a working designer do in a time when every analyst in the world says that people will most likely stop buying? The easy answer is, "work harder." The more difficult answer comes in deciding what is the most appropriate way to make your money work for you.
Recently, our fearless leader, Petra, spoke of the trend of consignment becoming the norm for the majority of designers. This realization is a trend that I saw coming last year, and my sis and I planned accordingly for it, collecting as many consignment accounts as possible, while still creating and maintaining wholesale relationships. The end result this year is a good, steady book of business that continues to pay the bills (thankfully).
But to stay successful in business, one must also stay ahead of the game. To this end, my sister and I recently started focusing on more "consumer-friendly" line of products that cost significantly less than our normal line of jewelry. A part of this lower cost of jewelry is found in our use of non-precious metal materials in some of our designs in an effort to minimize our overhead and production costs. While we'll never stop making woven necklaces from semiprecious stones, pendants and antiqued earrings seem to be the way right now.
While some may posit that veering off of our normal path of jewelry design devalues our iram-inal brand, I opine that it does exactly the opposite: By continuing to provide our customers a bit of what they need in a time when dollars are tight, everyone wins in the end.... We continue to sell, and the customer can afford to buy.
In this "depression-like" economy, it is vital that we independent designers continue to have a presence in the market at all times.... the loss of your customer base in this climate will most likely be permanent, and any headway you've made with local/national press, galleries and boutiques would be nullified. The bottom line: Do whatever you have to do to stay relevant.
For us, again, the answer came in lower-cost jewelry. Our locations have liked our new lines (because we don't skimp on size or quality or lack on design, believe it or not) and our customers have responded well to it. We will continue to balance our costs by continuing to gain a large amounts retail accounts, with the expectation of receiving less (in payment) from each of them. That path, coupled with the income gained from art shows/festivals, seems like the recipe for success in the coming months. And once we're all over this nasty "depression/recession" hump, wholesale shows will be our next adventure. We'll make sure we update you during that ride.
So, long story short: Stay strong, continue to innovate and sell, sell, sell. Until next time, Creative People....
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