Can Jewelry-Making Friends Become Jewelry Business Colleagues?

by Rena Klingenberg. © 2003-Present Rena Klingenberg. All Rights Reserved

Rena’s Tips: Some Benefits of
Doing Your Jewelry Business with a Friend

• Like many other jewelry artists, you may find that working together with one or more friends results in increased success, a decreased workload, and a much more rewarding jewelry business.
• You can get a creative boost by getting together regularly with a fellow jewelry designer, to try new techniques, fill jewelry orders, or prepare for upcoming shows. You might work together on projects you’ve agreed on in advance – and just like having a fitness buddy, you’ll produce more when you’re accountable to someone for what you said you’d accomplish. It can really boost your productivity and helps both of you set your priorities.
• Another advantage of joining forces is sharing the work and fun of doing a jewelry booth, and being able to take breaks during shows. A business partner can shoulder the workload when you need to be elsewhere, and the effort of setting up your tent and booth is much easier when you’re not doing it alone.
• You can also stagger the hours you spend manning your booth at shows. If one of you is a morning person and the other isn’t, you can each agree to take the shift that works better for you. Or if you have a sick child at the last minute, your partner can take over completely till you’re able to arrive.
• You can pool your jewelry supply orders to get the best possible price breaks and split the shipping costs.
• You can cut way down on your expenses by sharing things like your jewelry photography equipment, art show tent, displays, books, and jewelry magazine subscriptions.
• You can lend tools and supplies back and forth – “Oh, you need some chain? Here you go; can I have some silver half-round wire?”
• You can share the maintenance and expense of your jewelry business website. For example, you might have one website for both of your work, with a joint shopping cart and checkout. But you can each have your own individual section of the site to showcase your work.
• You can agree to respect each other’s successful products and not copy one another’s work.
• You can gladly promote each other’s jewelry to your customers – which actually is much easier than promoting your own jewelry to people. And it brings both of you more business!
• Between the two of you, your jewelry will encompass a wider range of styles, so together you can serve a wider group of customers.
• While many of your skills and abilities will probably overlap, you will probably each have talents the other lacks. Being able to add another person’s skills can be a huge asset for your jewelry business.
• Working with another jewelry artist keeps you from getting stuck in a rut with your designs, marketing methods, and displays. Brainstorming and bouncing ideas off of another person is absolutely invaluable to your progress! Two heads can come up with much more innovative solutions to jewelry business challenges.
• When compatible jewelry buddies join forces, your combined work is definitely greater than the sum of your individual efforts. It’s also a very rich experience when you combine the friendship of kindred spirits with your joy in making and selling jewelry.

Proceed with Caution if . . .

• You each have a different vision of what you want your jewelry business to be, and how you want to achieve your goals.
• You and your jewelry buddy have different financial-management styles. If one of you is frugal and the other is a spender, you may have a hard time agreeing on matters like which show fees are worthwhile, whether new displays or equipment are necessary, whether to stay in a motel at an out of town show, etc.
• You have different work ethics. If one of you tends to put more effort and time into the jewelry business, you’ll eventually begin to resent your less-involved partner. You must both be willing to put in an equal share of time and effort.
• You have different opinions on a lot of things related to your jewelry business. When you own a business, every aspect of everything you do involves making decisions. If you and your jewelry-making friend can’t seem to agree on a lot of important things, you are likely to be at odds with each other a great deal of the time. It’s a good idea to recognize this sooner rather than later.
• You both have a strong desire to have creative control over the details of your business. If one of the things you love about having your own jewelry business is getting to design and create absolutely every last detail of it, then you will probably be happier and more successful working alone. Much of the joy of your jewelry business can disappear when someone else chooses and designs the elements that matter to you.
• The two of you are polar opposites when it comes to neatness/messiness. While making jewelry together can be fun, business activities like handling paperwork, packing for shows, tracking inventory, and storing supplies will likely be a source of constant friction between you.
• Either of you is not willing to jointly write up a business agreement on paper that you’ll both sign and try to abide by. (See below.)

An Important Step in
Combining Business with Friendship

Whatever details you and your jewelry business colleagues agree to, be sure to write them down in either a formal or informal contract and have each member sign it. Each of you should have a copy of this agreement that states how you will work together and what is expected of everyone.

Your agreement should cover important points like:

• Your joint jewelry business goals.
• Specifics of how and where you plan to promote and sell your jewelry.
• What tasks each person is responsible for.
• The time, money, and resources each of you will contribute to the business.
• The items and resources you’ll share – and the ones you won’t be sharing.
• Ownership and running of the business’ online presence – website, domain name, blog, online shop, social media accounts, email accounts, etc.
• How to proceed when one (or both) of you decide to end the venture.
• How your business assets will be divided up when your joint jewelry business eventually ends.

This step can help prevent difficulties later as the jewelry business and its colleagues evolve. And of course the contract should be updated regularly by joint agreement as the business changes.

Rena Klingenberg