Maximize Profit and Productivity with the Right Jewelry Setup! - Episode #78

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Jewelry Resellers Podcast, your go-to source for all things shiny, sparkly and of course profitable.

[00:00:08] I'm your host Desiree and I'll be your guide on this dazzling journey through the world of reselling Jewelry.

[00:00:15] We'll be diving deep into the art and science of reselling, uncovering valuable tips, insider secrets, and sharing stories from successful Jewelry resellers.

[00:00:25] We'll explore market trends, industry news and even discuss how to find those hidden gems just waiting to be discovered in thrift stores estate sales and beyond.

[00:00:37] So if you're dreaming of turning your hobby into a hustle or if you're a seasoned pro looking to stay at the top of your Jewelry reselling game, join me each week for insights, stories and more on the Jewelry Resellers Podcast.

[00:00:54] Hey there friends, welcome back to another episode of The Jewelry Resellers Podcast.

[00:01:00] My name is Desiree, I'm your host and you know I like to always say I'm also your Jewelry reselling bestie.

[00:01:07] Today we are going to talk about something fun at least I think it's fun as it relates to organizing and setting up our space for our Jewelry reselling business.

[00:01:17] Now this is something that I think a lot of people don't think about. I mean yes, we think about a space to run our business do what we have to do but are we really focused on making it as efficient?

[00:01:30] Maybe as functional as we could possibly make it.

[00:01:35] Well, I'm hoping that by the end of this episode that I will inspire you to re-examine this space where you run your jewelry reselling business and all of its related activity.

[00:01:46] And think about how you can set up your space to help you not only do your job better but in some ways maybe even, you know, help your outlook.

[00:02:00] Maybe your perspective as it relates to being a Jewelry reseller and running a profitable jewelry reselling business.

[00:02:09] So before we get started with that you know I always like to remind you to go ahead and visit our website which is Jewelry resellerspodcast.com

[00:02:17] Because over there you can listen to all of the past episodes as well as take a look at some of the other goodies that I have over there for you which include blog posts and I can't remember what else.

[00:02:31] Oh, there's some you know links there that I think could be very helpful. Also if you're looking to get started in learning how to sell vintage jewelry online I do have a course that you can check out there as well.

[00:02:43] All right so again that is jewelry resellerspodcast.com.

[00:02:47] So let's go ahead and get started with today's topic and that is how to create a functional jewelry space.

[00:02:56] I mean maybe not necessarily functional because when I was kind of evaluating my own space and I've kind of gone through this in the past where I have tried to set up a quote unquote jewelry room and it didn't quite go as I wanted it to and.

[00:03:17] You know now my spaces I think it's functional but it's not necessarily like a pretty aesthetically pleasing you know Instagram or the Pinterest board worthy looking space.

[00:03:28] And I'm not saying that that's the goal but for some of us we may want to do that because we get you know more inspired and more creative in spaces that appeal to us.

[00:03:38] All right so we're going to cover kind of all the aspects that I have thought about as it relates to this and of course I have my notes in front of me.

[00:03:47] And you know we really want to prioritize having a dedicated jewelry space you know for for our reselling business because there's a lot of things that we do.

[00:03:56] And it may be different from other resellers or maybe other types of jewelry businesses and a lot of us work from home so we have to figure out what's going to work for us.

[00:04:08] What can we afford and how much space we have so.

[00:04:13] Like I said I really hope that this episode inspires you to kind of evaluate your space and see how you can make it more.

[00:04:22] I guess supportive of your jewelry business and your goals.

[00:04:27] All right so let's talk about some of the reasons why we want to have a dedicated jewelry space for our reselling business.

[00:04:36] Having a dedicated space is essential for growing and scaling a jewelry reselling business because it enhances efficiency.

[00:04:44] Professionalism and organization all of which are key to maintaining and expanding your systems and your operations as it relates to your business.

[00:04:55] Now let's get into some of the reasons why this is true.

[00:04:58] Number one having a dedicated space as it relates to your jewelry reselling business will improve your efficiency and your productivity.

[00:05:05] And this is something that I mentioned not too long ago.

[00:05:08] A dedicated space allows you to streamline tasks such as photographing your jewelry packing orders, managing inventory, sorting through inventory without wasting time setting up and breaking down.

[00:05:21] Each you know each time you do something business related.

[00:05:26] All right everything you need will be organized and accessible helping you work faster and more efficiently.

[00:05:32] The other thing we want to think about is having separate areas and you know separate spaces in our overall space for specific tasks and we're going to talk about this because I have.

[00:05:47] I have a list of the five areas we want to have as it relates to our jewelry space.

[00:05:54] Now some of these areas can you know double or maybe you just use one area for everything, but these are things we have to think about when we are setting up our space.

[00:06:03] All right so this will help to reduce distractions when you're working and it allows you to focus on the specific tasks that you're doing or the specific aspect of your business.

[00:06:13] Now the other thing about having a dedicated jewelry space is that it's much more professional.

[00:06:18] Now I know a lot of us are not trying to be you know super professional as it relates to our jewelry reselling business, but we do want to maintain some type of a professional either brand or image or workflow depending on what it is that we're doing.

[00:06:43] When we have an organized space in which to do it.

[00:06:47] So consistent high quality photos and videos depending on you know how you sell your jewelry.

[00:06:53] You want to make sure you have a space to do that, you know I do live sales and I do have a dedicated space where I do my live shows.

[00:07:01] But that space is very different and it's separate from where I do my other jewelry reselling work.

[00:07:08] All right and that may or may not work for you, that's something that you'll have to you know make the decisions on as you go.

[00:07:15] Now you also want to make sure that you have areas for packing and shipping and things like that.

[00:07:20] Like I said we're going to talk about that in more detail coming up.

[00:07:24] Now you also want to make sure that you're organized and that you have your inventory organized because there's nothing worse than making a sale of a piece of jewelry.

[00:07:32] And then for some reason you can't find it or you just knew it was in this box and for some reason it's not there right now.

[00:07:41] All right so jewelry reselling involves managing a variety of small delicate items, you know making inventory control absolutely essential.

[00:07:50] So a dedicated space will allow you to store an organized jewelry inventory properly reducing the risk of losing or damaging items.

[00:08:02] Now the other thing about proper storage and inventory management I guess is it allows you to keep track of what you haven't stock.

[00:08:12] And that's really important you know depending again on how you sell your jewelry some of us why should say most of us probably sell online in some way shape or form,

[00:08:21] but a lot of us also do in person shows or we sell to clients individually one on one and so keeping track of what we still haven't stock is good because then we know what we have and what we don't okay.

[00:08:37] The other aspect about having a dedicated workspace as it relates to your jewelry reselling business is scalability and I know we don't really talk about that a lot,

[00:08:46] but as your business grows a dedicated workspace allows you to easily scale your operations.

[00:08:53] You'll have room to expand your inventory, handle more orders and even higher health if necessary.

[00:09:00] All right a clutter free organized environment makes it easier to train someone and it also helps you, you know have a clear mind and you're not overwhelmed by clutter or piles of stuff everywhere because trust me I've been there.

[00:09:16] All right and that leads me into my last point of why we want to have a dedicated workspace for our jewelry reselling business is that it reduces stress and it helps to maintain a work like balance and you wouldn't really think that, you know initially.

[00:09:31] But you know having the space to do your work and then shut it down when necessary is really important.

[00:09:39] It's important so you don't get burned out and so you don't get overwhelmed or so you don't get too distracted by your work when you need to be tending to things at home or with your family or other obligations or whatever.

[00:09:53] All right so separating your workspace from your living space helps to create boundaries making it easier to turn off work at the end of the day.

[00:10:01] This leads to better work life balance like I said reducing burnout and it increases along terms sustainability for your business.

[00:10:11] And the other thing too was like knowing that everything is where it's supposed to be so the next day when you go into do your work.

[00:10:19] It gives you peace of mind knowing that everything is exactly where it's supposed to be or everything is set up ready to go.

[00:10:26] You know how you set it up for the next day, you know, however you decide to do that. All right so a dedicated workspace is key to staying organized.

[00:10:38] Maintaining a professional image and also working efficiently and reducing stress and all of those are important. All right for us to be successful jewelry resellers.

[00:10:49] All right so let's talk about the I think I have five areas that I think are important when it comes to thinking about our re selling space.

[00:11:01] What we need how much space we need. Okay, all of those things so number one you want to have a dedicated space for photos and filming and videos if you do that okay so or should say like live shows like if you do live sales.

[00:11:18] Like I do on what not or part smart live or wherever you want to have a dedicated space for that now this could all be the same space like you can take your photos and do your live shows in the same space maybe you just change up the lighting as needed.

[00:11:35] Or maybe your background or whatever you know however you have it set up.

[00:11:39] But I think having a dedicated space for photos is going to help you be so much more efficient because this is something I found out on my own that every time I had to set something up and then take it down and then the next day set it up again.

[00:11:53] It was really demotivating because you get into this this groove of gosh, I don't want to have to set this up again and again and again right so if you can keep your photo area set up all the time that's ideal.

[00:12:05] But sometimes we don't have that much space so we got to work with what we have okay so that's number one you want to have a dedicated space for photos filming live shows if you do them.

[00:12:16] Okay next we also want to have a dedicated space for office work, you know where we do our listings where we may be on the phone with suppliers maybe.

[00:12:27] You know printing out labels or receipts or whatever you know whatever you're doing you want to have a space where you can work on your computer.

[00:12:36] In a comfortable way where you can be focused and not be distracted by everything else that may be going on alright so this is like I said for doing your listings any type of computer work or desk work and then sorting too because for us as jewelry resellers.

[00:12:53] We have to sort jorys especially if you buy jewelry and bulk, you know we need a space to dump it all out.

[00:13:00] Or we need a space to kind of sort out the necklaces and the earrings the bracelets whatever the case may be okay.

[00:13:08] All right next we do need a place for our shipping supplies now this is more like just a storage space.

[00:13:15] So where are we going to store all of our envelopes our boxes our bubble wrap our tape our scissors all of that you know when some of us use really fancy packaging.

[00:13:26] When we sell our jewelry so we need to make sure we have a place that we can keep that neat and organized and someplace that's not where it's not gonna get in the way of everything else.

[00:13:35] All right that leads me to the next space and this could kind of be one in the same you need a packing and a shipping station alright so we need a space to store our packing supplies.

[00:13:47] And then we need a space to actually package ship and process our orders all right and it could be the same space it doesn't have to be something different.

[00:13:58] Ideally those two areas will be close together so that way you don't have to you know waste a lot of steps you know going to get your envelopes then going to their your.

[00:14:08] Packing and shipping area and you don't want to have a bunch of back and forth so we want to make sure that we set things up to be very efficient so we don't waste time and we don't waste movement.

[00:14:18] And then finally we are going to need a place or dedicated space for our jewelry inventory now I have seen people.

[00:14:28] Store their jewelry kind of all over the place and if that's what works for you that's what works for you.

[00:14:35] But for me I'd rather have all of my inventory in one place so that way I don't have to waste a lot of time searching multiple locations.

[00:14:44] Looking for a piece when it sells alright so I usually just have shells and shelves and then I have boxes like little shoe size boxes.

[00:14:53] And that works for me you know with the space and the budget and the way my brain works when I'm trying to find something.

[00:15:02] So again you're going to have to evaluate your personality what makes sense to you and what you know what space do you have for the inventory you have all right and again this will probably be something that you think about for a while.

[00:15:17] And it could take you days or even weeks to figure it out but again it's one of those things where you have to really take into consideration.

[00:15:26] How can I maximize my space and how can I maximize my productivity.

[00:15:32] Okay so those are the five areas.

[00:15:34] An area for photos filming an area for your office work you know listing computer work whatever and area for your shipping supplies.

[00:15:44] You're packing and shipping station ideally those two will be very close to each other and then your actual jewelry inventory storage space okay.

[00:15:55] Alright so now what we're going to talk about is I guess we can talk about breaking down each space and why you know why we're going to make the decisions that we make.

[00:16:11] Because it's really hard to kind of just give out blanket suggestions because all of us are not working with the same space the same inventory.

[00:16:20] The amount of space is going to be different for all of us and so that's why I said it's really important for you to think about what's going to work for you all right and take some time take some notes grab a notebook or whatever and write down some ideas of how you can really make this work.

[00:16:39] Because not only is it going to be a dedicated space for your jewelry and some ways it's going to be a sacred space for you as a business owner right because this is going to be a space that is going to be set up to support you in your goals and to support you in having success in your business.

[00:16:58] Alright so the power of a visual space alright so let's talk about that that's going to be number one.

[00:17:04] This is your photo and filming area so when I say filming area some of us do do videos for our listings and some of us do videos for social media and so we want to have a space where we can film videos you know for Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, whatever.

[00:17:22] And also a place where we can take photos of our items for listings right and a lot of times that will be the same space.

[00:17:31] Alright so you want to make sure that your space helps you make the best content that you can make.

[00:17:36] Alright you don't have to have any kind of fancy camera or fancy equipment but you want to do the best with what you have so try to make your space aesthetically appealing for you at least.

[00:17:49] Make sure you have really good lighting.

[00:17:51] I like to film by a window because I find that natural lighting is best but I also have a ring light that I use especially when I'm doing my live shows so that way my potential buyers can see the details of all the jewelry that I have you know for sale that day.

[00:18:07] Alright you want to have a neutral background now what I use is I just use poster board that I get from Dollar Tree and usually one side has a color the other side is plain white and I use the plain white side and I just use that as my neutral background and it works perfectly and then when it gets all you know raggedy and bent up.

[00:18:28] I just go buy another one so it's really easy.

[00:18:31] You also want to have camera you can use your phone that's what a lot of people do a tripod or some type of a stand so that way you can be hands free when you're filming and then the other thing is you want to make sure that your space is quiet right now you may have background noise maybe when you're listing or doing work on the computer.

[00:18:51] But if you are filming content or anything like that you may want to make sure that you have a quiet space or maybe the ability to mute your video and editing you know depending on what type of content you're making.

[00:19:05] Alright so that's the first area that we want to think about.

[00:19:10] Alright so the next space we're going to talk about is your office hub your space for your desk work.

[00:19:17] You know wherever you're going to do your listings I know some people do listings on their phone and that's totally fine.

[00:19:22] I need to do my listings on a computer. I use my laptop and that's what works for me but of course you're going to do what works for you.

[00:19:31] So you need to make sure that this space is organized because it will really help you to think and to focus and you're not going to be distracted again by all the stuff you have going on around you.

[00:19:42] Alright so having a designated space for your desk work improves focus productivity and efficiency like we've talked about.

[00:19:50] You also want to have the ideal set up a comfortable desk and this is something I learned back in my corporate days of the ergonomics of you know sitting at a desk.

[00:20:02] Making sure your desk chair is the proper height make sure it's comfortable for your back and for your lower back and for your legs.

[00:20:10] You also want to make sure that your computer is the right height so you're not straining your neck in any way because you know we spent hours on the computer.

[00:20:19] So it's really important that we are as comfortable as possible and we're not putting any additional strain anywhere on our body while we're working.

[00:20:28] Alright and then you also want to you know think about if there's any type of software or tools that you need in order to streamline what you're doing some of us use cross listing apps some of us.

[00:20:39] It may have other software or whatever you know we need to do our work more efficiently okay so that is space number two your office hub or wherever you do your desk work.

[00:20:53] Alright let's talk about space number three and this is where you are storing your supplies we talked about storing and organizing your shipping materials.

[00:21:02] So now this is something I'm going to encourage you to really really organize to the best of your ability.

[00:21:09] Because when you have everything organized you can see when you're starting to run low on stuff and that way you know that you have to order or buy more before the stuff actually runs out.

[00:21:21] I can't tell you how many times people have told me you know oh no I ran out of tape and it was you know the weekend or it was a holiday and I couldn't get to the store whatever the case may be.

[00:21:32] Alright so you want to make sure you make this business as minimal having is you know a minimal amount of stress you don't want to have to worry about running out of envelopes tape bubble wrap or whatever.

[00:21:43] Alright and keeping your shipping supplies organized will help you stay on top of that of course.

[00:21:50] Alright um this also makes things really really smooth for you as it relates to packing and shipping orders right because if you have everything just sit arms reach you can pick what you need.

[00:22:02] Pack it up do what you got to do and then send the package on its merry way and you're not stressed and it's a very smooth process for you.

[00:22:11] Alright so now in your storage supply space or your shipping supply space I should say you may want to put some shelves in it doesn't have to be anything expensive or fancy but you want to make sure everything is like I said easy to reach and then easy to put back right and then you can just look at everything and say oh my gosh the scissors are not there or I need to order more tape or whatever okay.

[00:22:39] Alright now um space number four is our packing and shipping station basically this is just a flat space where you can pack and ship orders print your labels you may have a label printer right in that space as well depending on how you do your labels.

[00:22:58] But you want to make sure that it's just a big enough space for you to lay everything out so you want to have space to lay out your orders and lay out your labels so nothing gets mixed up nothing gets you know lost or.

[00:23:12] You know whatever while you are doing that because packing and shipping is actually one of my favorite parts of reselling I don't know why I think it's because I really like to.

[00:23:24] Wrap gifts and stuff and packing and shipping kind of feels like gift wrapping to me I know it sounds really silly.

[00:23:30] But that's that's one of the things I like about about reselling is the packing and shipping process.

[00:23:36] I know a lot of people don't like it but I happen to enjoy it but so you want to have a packing table with materials like your if you ship in jewelry boxes or those cute little drawstring bags whatever you use tissue paper labels tape bubble wrap, you know whatever whatever you use and then.

[00:23:58] I also wrote down here your label printer but I already talked about that oh and a postal scale so you can weigh your packages so you you know make sure you you get the right amount of.

[00:24:10] Postage for that particular package.

[00:24:12] Now since we're selling jewelry usually it's not anything too outrageous but if we're selling like bulk lots or if we're selling you know multiples of something.

[00:24:22] We want to make sure that we weigh our items and if we have to weigh our items we have our scale and our label printer right there.

[00:24:29] All right finally we are going to talk about safe and secure storage of your jewelry inventory.

[00:24:35] All right now I know there's some people who you know they have.

[00:24:41] Storage units or garage or basement where they store their stuff I keep my stuff in a spare bedroom.

[00:24:49] You know whatever whatever setup you have one of the things you want to think about is having insurance now I have homeowners insurance that does cover my jewelry inventory.

[00:25:00] So you want to make sure that you have adequate insurance if that's something you're concerned about storing your inventory in your home.

[00:25:08] All right because you don't want it to get damaged or destroyed you know and then not be protected in any way.

[00:25:15] But protecting your inventory is critical for your reselling business.

[00:25:19] You want to make sure that items are not lost damage or stolen depending on where you are storing your jewelry reselling inventory.

[00:25:26] You also want to make sure that it's you know it's easy to get to you know if for some reason you couldn't fulfill an order.

[00:25:36] You know it's easy for you to explain the process to someone who may have to fulfill an order for you and it's easy for them to find the piece that you know they may have to ship out for you whatever the case may be.

[00:25:48] You always want to think about all these different scenarios because you never know life can throw your curve ball.

[00:25:55] It's throwing me quite a few and I know a lot of you can relate to things happening emergencies happening maybe not with us, but maybe with someone in our family or anything.

[00:26:06] Right so we want to make sure that our business can continue to function you know in the event of a worst case scenario situation okay.

[00:26:18] Now I also wrote on my notes here the ideal set up would be someplace where you can lock things up again that depends on how you store and where you store your items or where you store your inventory.

[00:26:29] You want to have secure shelves because you don't want to have something tipping over you don't want to have something you know falling a part on you.

[00:26:41] Also organizational tips for cataloging and keeping track of inventory efficiently as well as climate control depending on where you live this may be very important I live in Las Vegas it's really hot here.

[00:26:56] So a lot of the storage places do have climate control so that may be something that you want to think about depending again where you're storing your inventory all right.

[00:27:08] So we have covered quite a lot here and I hope I gave you some things to think about.

[00:27:14] But you can see that having a dedicated space is going to take some planning and some preparation and it's also going to take.

[00:27:23] You figuring out what works for you your personality your workflow style and what matters to you as it relates to being able to access whatever you need to access in your jewelry reselling business.

[00:27:39] And again this is going to take a while for you to figure out you may not figure it out in one day you might but don't put pressure on yourself thinking that you have to figure all of this out at once.

[00:27:52] So that's all I have for you today.

[00:27:57] So let's see let me go over some of the key takeaways from today's episode.

[00:28:01] We talked about the importance of each space and how each individual space within your overall space contribute to a more efficient productive and successful jewelry reselling business.

[00:28:17] And like I said you really want to think about how this is going to impact you and how it's going to really help you do what you do better or help you do what you do at a much higher level than what you're currently doing it at.

[00:28:30] All right and you know takes some time to assess your setup are there some ways maybe you already have a dedicated jewelry space but there's maybe one or two areas that you think you could improve upon or that you could make better.

[00:28:44] Let me know and if you'd like to you know share some photos of your setup.

[00:28:51] I'd love to see you can just tag me at jewelry resellers podcast on Instagram and I'd love to see your setup.

[00:28:58] I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to take some pictures of my setup and I will post them on Instagram in case you're curious to see what I'm working with.

[00:29:07] I will tell you a print that it's not anything spectacular and it's not anything super expensive or fancy or any of that.

[00:29:17] You know, but it does work for me and I have no problem sharing it.

[00:29:21] All right so I do want to thank you so much for taking the time to listen to today's episode again if you'd like to connect with me or if you'd like to listen to past episodes or anything related to this podcast.

[00:29:35] You can find all of that at jewelry resellers podcast.com again that's jewelry resellers podcast.

[00:29:42] All right friends thank you so much and I will check in with you again really soon.