I am forever meeting with young creative jewellers who are at the starting point of their jewellery career and are dynamic salespeople, they feel that they too want to go out and set up their own jewellery business. So, I thought I’d create a simple checklist of what would be beneficial, in a manner that is structured and makes sure you don’t leave out some important and sometimes critical steps, which could lead to great success or a nightmare at some future point.

First step, ask yourself “why do you want to set up set up your own business?” Is it that you want to make more money? Is it that you want to be your own boss, control of your time, or become the master of your own destiny? Or is it that you want to find a way to express yourself creatively? If its that you want to make more money, you might be severely disappointed. Many a jeweller will tell you all they bought themselves was a job working for themselves with a lot of paperwork. If you want to express yourself creatively, you don’t need to setup a business to do that. It’s a very expensive and it can often end in disaster. I suggest you just do the odd job for friends a family and keep your day job. If it’s that you want to be your own boss, take control of your time, and become the master of your own destiny, you’re in the right head space to begin with.

Most importantly, you need to be honest with yourself, discuss your ideas with those who have gone down this path, and get as much understanding of the hurdles you will face. The following checklist will demand that you ask yourself about money and whether you have been able to save enough to start this business. Setting up a business is not that complicated, making it successful is as much about the e ort and workload as it is the understanding of some fundamental accounting principles’ great quote I often use is: “Success is 2 % inspiration and 98% perspiration”

Develop Your Brand and Niche
You need to ask yourself where you want to focus, make notes and keep reflecting on them. Your thoughts will often change based on something
you saw or a conversation you had. Try to de ne your unique style and target market. What type of jewellery will you focus on? Who is your ideal customer? Often you might see an existing style and want to replicate it with your own twist. Create a compelling brand identity with a memorable name, logo, and style. Develop your brand story that resonates with your target audience, I assume you know who you want to target. Remember we all have our own story; authenticity is the key.

Create a Business Plan
Outline your business structure, are you going to be a sole trader, a company, will you set up a trust, you need to speak to a solicitor. These things all cost money and have ongoing fees depending on their structure. However, setting it up right at the start helps, but you can start as a sole trader and then become a company. If you don’t know how to setup a excel spreadsheet to track your expenses, ask your accountant or even watch a YouTube video. If you don’t do this, and say things like, numbers aren’t my thing, I am sorry to tell you, you probably should not get into business for yourself. To many jewellers I know have failed because they never learnt how to understand what it really cost them to run their business. This is true even if you want to run a small business. A business plan needs goals, defining the target market, products, pricing strategy, and financial projections. Everyone says how can I set up financial projections if I don’t know what I will sell. True, but you know what your expenses will be, so you know what your break even amount is and how much you need to generate it. Set a budget for all start-up costs like materials, website development, branding, and initial marketing. I am keeping this pretty high level.

Materials and Production
Decide if you’ll make pieces yourself or work with manufacturers, so much can be done with CAD and the casting houses, who often provide the services around this. Research suppliers for materials like metals, gemstones, findings, etc. Ask other jewellers who they use, attend jewellery shows. The Jewellery Summit is a great place to get inspiration.

Build Your Online Presence
Create a professional e-commerce website to showcase you and what you want to sell, get good at Instagram and especially TikTok, consider platforms like Shopify, and plan what CRM you want to use from the start, I am partial to HubSpot. Don’t forget insurance This insurance is called Jewellers Block for jewellers. You don’t want to take a big gemstone on consignment or appro, have no cover and it gets damaged or lost.

Marketing Strategy
Develop a marketing plan utilizing social media, email marketing, and potentially paid advertising. Consider collaborating with influencers or bloggers to promote your brand. This might seem obvious, but you need to address it in a business plan, it’s about keeping yourself honest.

Optimisation
Optimise your website for search engines, this is something most people get others to help them with, but when you’re starting the term is “how do I build my presence organically” meaning word of mouth.

Customer Service
You need to think about establishing clear policies for shipping, returns, and customer communication, what will you charge for and what will you include as part of what you do. Think about how you will ask for GOOGLE reviews from your customers, this is crucial and super important from the
start to get you noticed and trusted. Remember, starting an online jewellery business requires patience and persistence. Focus on creating high-quality, unique pieces and building strong relationships with your customers. As you grow, continually refine your processes and adapt to market demands. How you start your new business can be the reason for make or break. Let’s use the preparation of food. Without buying all the ingredients, you are in trouble. If halfway you are missing something, Yes, we can make small changes and adapt ingredients, but planning a great meal, gives you a 90% chance it will work out well, in fact, life in general works better that way, and then you adapt to the unforeseen.

Sorry I am such a foody!

Rami Baron
Vice President of the Diamond Dealers Club of Australia
rami@ddca.org.au