How to Turn Your Jewellery Making Hobby into a Successful Retirement Business

Do you enjoy making jewellery and wish there was a way to make money from it? Good news - there is. You can turn your jewellery making hobby into a successful retirement business.

Full time, part time or somewhere in between, you can create a business selling your jewellery. Here’s how to get started:

#1 Research your competition and your market. The first step to creating a successful business is finding a unique niche or market. If you make a variety of jewellery types and styles, then there’s a great chance you can find a unique niche. Research online to learn who your market is and who your competition may be.
In addition to researching jewellery websites, also visit etsy.com, eBay and other seller websites to see what’s available there. Based on your research, determine the approach you want to take. Do you want to specialize in single stone rings? Do you want to specialize in zodiac jewellery? Or wedding jewellery?  What’s your unique niche?

#2 Create your inventory. In addition to having a range of stock to sell, you can take photos of your items for your online catalogue. Potential customers will want to see samples, and the photos of your jewellery will motivate them to purchase. Have fun with this part of the business-building phase and do your best work.

#3 Price your jewellery. This is the fun part - don’t underprice your jewellery because you want to sell it. Price it for what it’s worth, price it to make a profit, but price it competitively. This will require a bit of research.

#4 Create your website, or have someone create it for you. Your website needs to accomplish several goals. It needs to market your business and your jewellery and provide the opportunity for people to order your creations and pay for them. This can be accomplished by using several approaches, including ensuring your website has search engine friendly content, a product catalogue and information about you and your art. You’ll also need some way for people to order jewellery, a shopping cart system, and a fulfilment procedure.

#5 Consider creating stores on other websites like etsy.com, eBay, or even Amazon.com. These sites offer you the ability to create ‘stores’ and they manage the shopping cart and search engine aspect of business. It can be a great way to start out.

#6 Market your jewellery. There are various ways you can market your business. In addition to creating stores on the websites mentioned in #4, you can also advertise online or utilize content marketing and search engine optimization tactics to drive traffic to your website. However, don’t forget your community. Friends, family, and local advertising can be a wonderful way to get your first few clients. In fact, word of mouth is one of the best marketing tactics there is.

For example, you could host a home party to sell your jewellery, or give it to family to wear with the agreement that they hand out your card every time someone compliments them on their jewellery.

I hope that's convinced you to give it a go!  Launch your business, get your beautiful designs out there and make money from your jewellery hobby. Have fun with it and enjoy the process.