If you are passionate about jewelry and want to invest in a new business, you probably wonder how to start a jewelry business. This guide will show you everything you need to know on the subject by analyzing costs, opening methods, bureaucratic requirements and advantages.

Even if you have no experience with precious stones but still have a considerable entrepreneurial spirit, it can be very useful to know how to open a jewelry store. Gold and silver are not devalued in times of crisis. On the contrary, they tend to increase their value. You can also dedicate yourself to a type of artisan or vintage jewelry to distinguish yourself from the competition and offer a “plus” to your customers.

How to start a jewelry business: the type to choose

The choice of the type of jewelry will affect costs and earnings and the target audience. If you aim at high jewelry, you target a niche audience willing to spend a lot of money to buy luxury goods.

If you produce your jewelry, you can dedicate yourself to the creation of handcrafted and personalized jewels that will have a cost and a greater value determined by the manual processing of the piece.

To offer an innovative service, you can open precious vintage jewelry, which will have value deriving from the materials and history behind them.

Finally, to embrace a broader target audience, you can open an inexpensive jewelry store where you can sell gold, silver, and costume jewelry products. In this case, you will have to focus on the quantity of the sale more than on quality.

The importance of the business plan and the location

Knowing how to draw up a business plan is essential to open any business, especially a jewelry store with high costs. It is a valid tool for planning expenses, analyzing competition, evaluating revenue, etc.

Another very important choice is that of the location, which must guarantee maximum visibility. Shopping centers, city centers, pedestrian areas, and general places that guarantee a continuous influx of people are perfect. The points of sale do not have to be very large, as long as there is sufficient exhibition space to enhance your goods in the right way.

How much does it cost to open a jewelry store?

Opening a jewelry store costs between 200,000 and 500,000 euros. It all depends on very variable factors. First of all, you must equip yourself with an effective security system to protect the precious and a valid lighting system to highlight the jewels.

You must then proceed with the shop’s furnishing, including the counter, display cases, furnishings, etc. and then other useful items such as envelopes, gift boxes, business cards, etc. Of course, the purchase of jewelry, watches, rings, necklaces, etc. Initially, I recommend that you buy a few pieces to not make an excessive investment and then increase the quantity when your business is launched.

As for a jewelry store’s management costs, you have to meet the following costs: rent of the premises; energy costs and utilities; insurance; salaries of employees and employees. Consider some incidental or unexpected expenses such as consulting an accountant, restyling the shop, replacing display cases and accessories in the shop, etc.

How to open a jewelry franchise?

To cut costs, you can open a jewelry franchise, thus taking advantage of the parent company’s name and know-how. Generally, the franchising company’s rental and personnel costs are borne, but this depends on the brand and contract type.

In addition to counting on an already established brand, you can get the exclusivity of the area and rely on the parent company for promotional materials, window dressing, furnishings, etc. You also have an exclusive channel for the supply of goods at your disposal, thus giving uniqueness and originality to your store.

How to open an online jewelry store?

Another great idea is to open an online jewelry store to cut costs related to the physical point of sale.

If you decide to open jewelry e-commerce, you can only sell new items, as the law prohibits the online sale of used jewelry.

First of all, you must possess a company with a VAT number and SCIA to be submitted electronically. Then you must register your business in the Business Register of the Chamber of Commerce and ask for an activity license at the police station.

Even if you don’t have a physical shop, you still need to have a place to keep your precious objects equipped with special security systems, gates, cameras, alarms and everything you need to keep them safe. As with physical jewelers, it is necessary to take insurance to protect your business and your valuables.

The UK’s e-commerce market is back to posting double-digit growth after several months of a less stellar performance from online retail outlets.

In fact, the ONS revealed that sales were up by 13.1 percent in April 2015 when compared to the same period last year, primarily as a result of smartphone and tablet use helping to bolster e-commerce activities nationwide.

There are, of course, differences between performance levels depending on the type of products that are being sold, with fashion and clothing doing better than groceries, for example. But even with small discrepancies and seasonal shifts, there are a few things that businesses of all sizes can do to generate increased online sales.

Improve your SEO

Gaining a good position for your site on search engine results pages is inescapably important, yet can seem like a daunting task given the regular updates to the algorithms that govern ranking.

The best way to capitalize on SEO at the moment is to focus on mobile optimization since this is now taken into account when pages are ranked following a mobile search. And almost half of the world’s biggest companies are still flagging when it comes to mobile-friendliness, which is why start-ups and emerging rivals can leapfrog them with just a few minor tweaks.

SEO is still essentially reliant on filling a site with the relevant, interesting, and original copy, so remember not to neglect this area even as you pursue a mobile-focused update.

Run a PPC campaign

SEO will only get you so far and is something that established sites can benefit from most, so paid search ads are worth harnessing if you want to increase the profile of your budding brand and generate those first clicks and conversions.

If you do not have experience of utilizing PPC and platforms like Google AdWords in the past, then it is a good idea to consult with a third party to make sure you get this right and avoid wasting money.

Contacting a London AdWords consultant company is a good starting point and will allow you to navigate this similarly fluid, evolving medium, which as with organic SEO is now increasingly influenced by mobile.

Embrace social media

Social media presents the perfect opportunity not only for businesses to promote products and services and provide links to the places where people can purchase them, but also to engage customers in a proactive manner and get involved with the conversations that are being had about what they offer.

Facebook and Twitter presences should be a well-understood basic requirement at this point, but if you are looking for increased engagement with an audience then multimedia platforms like Instagram and Vine are also worth adding to your arsenal.

People are easily captivated by images and videos, whereas text alone is less likely to grab and retain their attention. So if you want to boost traffic and send sales skyrocketing, you cannot ignore the potential of social media.

When it comes to promoting your business, nothing is as powerful and direct as mobile email marketing. These days, our email is as close to us as our house keys. Just imagine your business being that close too. Indeed, by creating an email marketing campaign, you can have a direct channel to market your product or services. Not only will this boost revenue, but it will also boost brand recognition. Plus, if we keep our email that close to us, just imagine how many more people will see a single email if it seems relevant enough to forward to friends. And what if there was an incentive to send it to friends?

Here are five useful and effective email marketing tips for startups.

Blow them away with the subject line.

Just like an advertisement uses a tagline to draw customers in, you have to use an amazing subject line to get people to open a particular email. When it comes down to it, most getting dozens of promotional emails a day. Some of those emails are automatically categorized in a promotional folder, so half or more of them don’t even get read. So, you need to be that one email that stands out, which is why your subject line is so critical.

Pictures say a thousand words without saying anything at all.

When you open an email that has a lot of text – what is your first response? – Usually, you’ll close the email and tell yourself that you’ll read it later. All of a sudden, the day goes by and you haven’t even looked at the email – you may never get around to reading it at all. This is why your email marketing campaign must be picture heavy. You want to say as much as you can with a single photograph.

Create a hierarchy of text.

In an email, you want to find a way to highlight the important stuff without making it seem obvious. This is why you want to create a hierarchy. At the top, you want to showcase the most important information. The secondary information can go in the middle. And the tertiary information should go at the bottom. The reason why you want to do this is that you want the most critical information to jump out at the reader.

Use an intuitive platform for your email marketing campaign.

You don’t want to use just any email marketing company for your campaign, you want to use a platform that will really get the message out there. For instance, Blue Hornet Email Marketing Services offers many tools to send out your campaign intuitively and effectively. Not only do you want people to open the email, but you also want them to click on the information.

Offer the incentive to share the email.

Not only do you want to have buttons where people can share the email on social media – but you also want to offer some kind of incentive for sharing the email with friends. The best way to do this is with discounts or some kind of special, limited-time offer. In the end, if you can get more life out of one email, it will be well worth it to hand out discounts.