getting an internship: "you had me at the semi-colon"

This week’s business advice is actually geared towards the other end of the business spectrum:

Interns.

If you are in school (for art or otherwiese) and need to gain experience working for a designer, please read this post before decending upon your next victim employer. This topic is very close to my heart at the moment becasue I have been indundated as of late with resumes and referrals for interns looking to get experience at a jewelry company like Jess LC. With the cloudy economic climate, I have been getting more emails regarding internships than ever. Some are great. Some are okay. Some are half-assed. Below are the attributes that will determine which category you will fall into- so take note and aim high!

Half-assed Internship Contact

• Email employer with two line email mentioning you are interested in an internship. (May or may not include resume.)
• Forget to begin the email with a proper greeting. Why will an employer care about you if you don’t care about writing their name?
• No mention about the actual employer or the company in initial email.
• Resume in a form other than a Word Doc or PDF.

Good Internship Contact

• Short email mentioning employer briefly, with proper greeting (ie: “Dear Mr. Gates:”)
• Professional looking resume (no watermarks or unicorns) with relevant work experience and complete contact information. Resumes should be exactly one page.
• Open, friendly tone in email without over using exclamation points (!!) but keeping a professional tone.

Great Internship Contact

• Professional signature block in email (with full name and phone number [no quotes please]).
• Professional email address, preferably using your name (snazzykatz007@aol.com doesn’t say ‘take me seriously’).
• Email doubles as a cover letter: highlights most relevant work and school experience, and also mentions why you are excited to work for that company specifically.
• Resume is one page long, in PDF form, concise, and focuses on relevant work and school experience.

business answers: part two

Andddd we're back! Here is my second round of answers to the intelligent questions readers asked last week.

Note: this old-school Jess LC packaging is not the best marketing tool

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your business?

This is a very interesting question for me. Up until 2009, I have focused on wholesale business, which means marketing door to door at local shops, and then hiring sales reps to sell it out of the city across the Midwest and in other territories. On the wholesale side, to really take your business to the next level sales reps are often (but not always) the answer. Generally, sales reps work on commission and the good ones represent a variety of lines full-time. Asking your best friend or Aunt's babysitter to rep for you will not be lucrative, will waste your time, and could hurt the relationship- so go with a pro.

Now that I am developing my retail sales, blogging has been effective at getting the brand out there and is personally rewarding. But it also is a huge time commitment for me, and is not something I could do as frequently if I worked part-time somewhere else.

Additionally, the blogging is something that I intend to grow into a separate career, so how I evolve the blog is independent of it's ability to market Jess LC. If I was just blogging for Jess LC, the content would be much narrower and design focused.

What's your best marketing tip?

Personally, I believe marketing should be an organic part of the business (read: free in the beginning) and I prefer free PR over paid advertisements. Once a company is large enough to shoulder the expense of ads, I would stick to online ads on blogs that match your customers. But as I have mentioned, PR and retail marketing is still relatively new for Jess LC.

Jess LC at the Magic trade show last August

How were you able to find wholesale contacts? I find that when I search on the Internet I come up with thousands of results, but none that I really want (or that aren't selling junk!). Is there a good resource that you use?

I suggest starting locally. Small boutique owners are usually the buyers and work in the store all day so they are a) easy to find, and b) know what works for their store and customer. One "line" I used to have when I was schlepping my jewelry to stores in high school and even here in Chicago was, "do you have any locally designed jewelry?" I would start a conversation with the store associate for a while, drop the above line, and wait for the response. It a) lets you know whether they support many local designers or not, and b) makes them think about how important it must be to have local designers, if this nice customer is asking about it. Then you can mention that you are a local designer yourself, and ask to talk to the owner or buyer.

At this point make sure you have 4-12 pieces of jewelry with you in case the casual convo becomes an impromptu appointment. The buyer will generally know within five minutes if they are interested. As I mentioned in the Part One, consignment might be the easiest option, but know what your wholesale prices are before going in the store! No one will take you seriously if you don't have products and pricing.

As for wholesale outside your city, you can do what all good road reps do: drive city to city, setting appointments with buyers you find. Or, ask store owners you know for recommendations outside their area. And finally, sales reps and buying a trade show booth are the "big time" ways to get clients.

Oh how it has grown.

How do you plan to use your blog (and other networking sites) to help promote your business?

Good question! Since I have been doing the blogging thing seriously for about two months, I am still learning the ropes in terms of how to best get the name out there. But we did develop Studio 1423, our Jess LC limited edition line, on Etsy to get new customers with a lower price point and more colorful, one of a kind designs.

Okay, so I wasn't quite this young...

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself, knowing what you know now?

I saved the best for last! I struggled with this question for a bit, having done something for 10 years, there are many points I would wish I learned something quicker. So here is the advice I would give myself at a few points in time.

Age 15
Scene: Just made my first sale.
Advice: Jess, go out and take a class at a bead store to learn how to really make jewlery. You are going to be at this for a while, so know how to make stuff that won't break!

Age 16
Scene: Naming my business
Advice: "Starlette Jewelry" is such a silly name! Stick to something more classic... like your name. You know... Jessica Lynne Constable...

Age 18
Scene: Applying for college
Advice: You are going to love UofM but you are going to hate business school. Either a) know that you will survive, or b) don't go to business school and start your business full-time right away. Just kidding...

Age 22
Scene: Second month in Chicago, first seven days without getting an order
Advice: Relax, your chest palpitations caused by the anxiety of being full-time aren't doing you any favors. And at 5:30pm on Friday you will get a huge order from an awesome store in Lincoln Square, The Dressing Room.

business answers: part one

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your business is relax!

Last week I offered to answer any business questions that were lurking in readers minds and man, you all have some great questions! Specific, insightful questions tell me two things, 1: that there are some serious (or soon-to-be) business owners out there, 2: you all want some serious answers.

Below are half of the questions with their answers, the second half will post tomorrow afternoon.

Love walking in Chicago- such great architecture all around

Why Chicago?

I grew up in Rochester, Michigan and went to school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Having lived in the Midwest my whole life the obvious choice was Chicago for laid back people, bustling city, and Lake Michigan. I also knew I wanted to live in a city that had good public transportation.

Do you think that in the future you will need to move the operation to NY or LA as it gets bigger?

During college I interned in NYC with Macy's in Product Development. Living in New York was great for four months. But the cement scenery, constant noise, and expense wasn't for me long term. Though I have never been to LA, I imagine the weather and view is nicer, but it won't hold a candle to my love for Chicago.

So no, I plan to stay rooted in or around Chicago regardless of the business. Because Chicago's design scene is still 'up and coming' there are a lot of opportunities to get attention and great support.

At last fall's Shop Chicago event

What do you think is the most important step in laying the groundwork for starting a business?

The most important step in starting a part-time business is to just start selling! A lot of would-be-great-designers hold off waiting for the perfect time to begin. But there is no perfect time to begin. So why not sell a necklace today? And maybe a bracelet next week? Start with people you know and branch out, open an Etsy store, print some business cards. There is something great about an organically grown company that expands along with your business acumen. For the purposes of this blog and small designers, I do not recommend launching a line full-time on day one, but to rather grow it on the side until you have an established customer base.

Take Jess LC for example: I sold my first 5 ankle bracelets sitting next to a pool to tipsy Canadian women without even trying! Then I learned to make new pieces, sold them to friends and teachers at school, studied business in college, and nine years later, launched Jess LC full-time.

Your top 5/10 tips for a jewelry designer just starting up?

1. Define your goals. Do you want to get into a ton of stores and sell mostly wholesale? Or do you want to make one-of-a-kind pieces with higher price tags for a small group of loyal customers? Do you want to be full-time or part-time? Know your goals so you can go about achieving them as quickly as possible.

2. If you want to get in a store, offer to do consignment. This is where the store puts your pieces on display and when your pieces are bought, you get 50% of the price. If they don't sell, then you get them back. Buyers like this because they don't have to risk anything by putting your pieces in their store. It is also good for you because you get 50% of the price which (almost) never happens in wholesale. This is a good option until you have successfully sold in about 5-6 stores, then begin to work with the buyers via wholesale.

3. Don't take your own pictures. Unless you are a photographer or have taken classes, do not attempt to shoot your own pieces. Jewelry is small and reflective= very difficult. The first thing you should pay someone to do is photograph the jewelry for retail selling on Etsy or your own site.

4. Make a website. A great place to start is Etsy.com because it already has a huge following and you can upload and provide credit card charges without much work. If I was just starting up now, I would definitely have started there and moved my way to my own separate site over time. Another option is to pay someone to create your site. I suggest posting a freelance job on a local art school website to find students who will do it for less (same goes with photography, see tip #3). Or, if you are ambitious, learn how to use Dreamweaver - this is the route I took.

Know how to use your tools

5. Learn how to make jewelry. No one taught me how to make jewelry when I started at 15 years-old, and subsequently a lot of my (ugly) pieces broke. They got better as I went along, but I would have been better off going to a jewelry/bead store and taking a class or asking questions.

6. Wear your jewelry. This sounds obvious, but tons of people I meet say they make jewelry and don't have their work to show me. If you aren't wearing/carrying some pieces, customers have no idea whether they want to buy from you. Every now and then I wear vintage jewelry but I still try to remember to wear at least one Jess LC piece, just in case.


... to be continued tomorrow!

business questions? i got answers!

More and more often I am getting questions about entrepreneurship, and starting a small business- which I LOVE to talk about. So I would like to offer my advice regarding small business, ways to grow, or what running a small business is like. Please post your questions in the comment section and on Friday I give my honest and candid opinion on the topics you propose.

I will also state that my advice is based on my personal experience in business and may not be applicable for all companies. (So please don't sue.) But I can say that:

• I started my company at the age of 15. Which means I have been a business owner for nine years.
• My jewelry is sold in over 95 stores across the country (and one in Canada- yea for Oliver and Lilly's!)
• I work alongside four part-time employees, interns, sales reps, and several freelance workers to keep Jess LC running.
  
• Jess LC is 100% organically funded (no big start-up funds for this little lady).
• I personally create and maintain the website.
  
• I graduated from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business with a Bachelors of Business Administration in 2007 and moved to Chicago to pursue Jess LC full-time.
  

So now that you have a quick idea of how I spend my time: Please, ask away!