The Emperor Arrives in London

Another excellent email that I received the other day and felt that it needed as much exposure as I was able to give it.

Subject: FW: Fw: The Emperor Arrives In London.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS !!!!!

Do you really think that this is necessary, especially from a country that is going broke?

THE EMPEROR ARRIVES IN LONDON... Notice this is an English Newspaper, not an American one reporting.

If you're not sure what "BIG GOVERNMENT"

implies, look at this:But you have already read

about this in your local newspaper ... Oh no,

you didn't? OK then, you saw it on CNN...

No?... INTERESTING! You and I may never

see health care again the way it used to be,

but "Emperor Obama" took six (6) doctors

with him for a 3 day visit to London - along

with 494 other essential staff. You just gotta love this spread-the-wealth,

hopey-changey thing.

Why Retirement was Invented

As I slowly finished my day the other day - I realized how little that I had gotten done during the whole day...it was really depressing.  I can remember when I had 3 rug rats and  a couple of  dogs underfoot and I still managed to do several loads of laundry...fix meals...keep the house up ( notice, I didn't say "clean")...do all the bookkeeping for the house and a busy dental office...and have enough energy at the end of the day to do something fun.  Today I'm lucky if I can find my bed at the end of the day after doing very little.

One hundred years ago - people didn't retire, they  usually died before they had reached a retirement age.  We were a much more agrarian society, and no matter how old you were - if you were on a farm, you worked.  Even in the thirties when FDR invented social security, our life expectancy was considerably lower than it is today, and not that big a percentage of the population was around to collect...and if they did collect, it wasn't for a long period of time.

Today, we are living longer and supposedly, enjoying it more.  I'm not sure that I agree totally with that statement, but I'm trying to.  This month has been an example of how you don't want to spend your retirement.  We're into the third week here - so there have been about 15 working days this month...we were out of town for three days and I think I've had doctors' appointments on the other 12, or close to it.  I've been to the heart clinic for appointments twice. Had blood taken three times.  I've had two appointments with my G.P.. I've had two dental appointments and an appointment with an endodontist and got the scintillating news that I need a root canal...OH HAPPY DAY! ! ! The days that I didn't have an appointment, my husband did.  This is no way to spend those golden years - I don't even have time to make my jewelry that I love and sell at my online  shop.  This isn't fun - it's work.

I turned 70 this month - so not only am I not having fun, I'm feeling very old. Do you remember when you were a kid and how old 30 - 40 - 50 sounded?  Well, even as a dues paying real  adult, I thought that 70 was old.  And dear God....I am now there.  It is a scary thought. I'm hoping that things pick up soon and we can stay away from the doctor for a few months.  I'm also hoping that life becomes fun again - not just one medical problem, appointment, crisis etc. etc.after another.  I had a friend who used to say that after 50 it was patch, patch , patch....well, right now I'd like to replace the whole shebang rather than doing any more of this damn ( pardon me) patching.

Okay - back to my title - why they invented retirement. No gainfully employed person could have the number of appointments that I've had in the last three weeks and maintain their job. Secondly, no one's production could have dropped  as much as mine has and kept a job. "They" had to invent something so that seniors wouldn't get too depressed...and retirement was it.  It's okay if all you got done today was one load of clothes and a visit to the dentist -  such a minuscule accomplishment  is acceptable because you're retired. So I really think that they invented retirement as a face saving gesture for the older generation  -  can't do that any more???? That's okay, you're retired.

The Bottom Line in the Jewelry Business

Several years ago when I had barely gotten going on Artfire, I did a blog about time and artisans.  But I think that it is time for another one. No matter who you read or where you read it, there is a continuing theme about artisans and how they either do not value, or they undervalue, their own skills.  Going hand in hand with this is how we as artisans, think that if we get some portion of what we paid for supplies returned to us in sales, that we are doing great. I heartily , do not agree with that.

First of all, we need to review exactly what it takes to produce a piece of jewelry or any hand crafted goods.  We have many overhead expenses...electric, water, gas, heat, taxes, telephone..if your studio is at your home, whatever it takes to keep your home running, is also needed to keep your studio running.  Supplies do not magically appear on our benches to enable us to make what we want. ...wouldn't it be nice if they did.  I don't know about you, but I spend hours on line, first of all, being a very careful shopper, and secondly, trying to find that special piece of something that will help me to make my jewelry special.  Then there are the trips to the shops that carry my jewelry and at the end of a long day, I usually have to go home to some bookwork from the trip and usually make or alter something for one of the shops and that means a return trip.  Now, that makes my car part of my overhead and I keep very careful mileage and money charts for these "road days".  If you are on the show circuit, those days are like my shop days.

I probably spend one day a month, trying to find more boutiques to carry my jewelry.  These are frustrating days - owners are rarely in and managers don't like to come to the phone, nor can they make decisions.  I do not like to do cold calls, so I am always trying to set up appointments and that doesn't always work.  I get lots of information from the internet, and more often than not, the info is out of date or the phone number is wrong.  I have spent whole days without talking to anyone that I really want to talk to  -  so it's slow, frustrating and very time consuming.

Next we come to the computer - beside my Artfire Shop, I try to blog regularly, I need to keep up with my facebook pages, do my email, and show up at a few sites where I am a member.  The shop is the hardest, look at the amount of time that it takes to enter just one piece of jewelry, and that can only be done after the photos are taken.  I think that the forums are important and I wish that I had more time to build some relationships there..  Google tends to ignore you, if you ignore your shop...so you can't afford to let that happen.  I tend to use my web site as my catalogue so I'm not as paranoid about this aspect as I might be.

There are also 2 other time consuming factors to out businesses that vary from year to year, but are usually always there.  The first one is going to shows and taking some continuing ed at the
show and of course, checking out what's new to buy.  The second time consuming nugget is marketing ourselves.  Whether we do it all on the web, or we give a jewelry  party, or we send out emails or postcards to previous buyers, it is another time consuming, sometimes expensive proposition.

Okay...so we have all this stuff to do, and our "real" goal is to make jewelry, which we haven't done yet.  All of the above are part of your business - you cannot pay yourself  $10 or even $20 per hour for making a necklace and expect to cover the costs that you have incurred.  If you cannot cover the costs that have incurred, then you shouldn't be in business.  That is the bottom line, pure and simple.  If that sounds harsh, then I apologize, but you talented people need to take a close look at what you are charging and what you are netting from your talents.  If it's not enough, then raise your prices.

I read a fairly well known artisan who charged $60. /hr for when she was creating jewelry.  She felt that by the time she added everything in to her overhead, she was may be clearing $20.00/hr  for herself.. This was several years ago - she's probably charging $100.00/hr. now, and my feeling is, if she is, then God bless...I hope that it works.  I see women on the forums who have had a wholesale offer and they can't do it.  The wholesaler wants 50% off...the artisan has priced her product so low, that 50% off would break her...she is truly between a rock and a hard place.  Don't get yourself stuck in that same place. Realistically look at what you are charging for your product, and ask yourself what would happen if someone wanted a wholesale order from you...would 50% off leave you high and dry or where you should be????

Beam Me Up, Scotty

Okay, I think it's a pretty well established fact here that I am definitely a techno tard - I try, I really do, but it just ain't there.  A few weeks ago, I got a new computer, because my husband's had crashed and since I am now the one with the business, I got the new puter.  I love it and getting it up and going was tougher than I would have liked, but basically I got there, between me and the geek squad ( God bless them).

I elected to not have them make my recovery disks - it was a $90.00 charge that I didn't want to pay after all the new stuff and softwear and backup, etc., etc., etc., that  I needed for the puter.  During one of the numerous trips that we made to Best Buy - my personal geek told me that I really needed to do something about recovery disks - that if my baby crashed, I would basically be up old sh...t creek without them.  So on my next trip I told the geek, Jason, who was helping me that I thought I needed to do something about recovery disks - and he said, no big deal, I'll sell you the disks - it's easy, just go into the program menu and it will be under the section on your computer --- just click on the part about "recovery disks".  He said that it was time consuming, but easy.

Just once I wish what someone told me about computers would be true - unfortunately, it was relatively fast, but not so easy.  I started this travail,because there was nothing about recovery disks in my computer, out by calling Best Buy to talk to the geek squad - and was put on hold. A very annoying voice told me that I was second in line and fool that I am, I decided to wait. Well wait I did, and after about 1/2 hour I was put through and immediately, cut off. I waited about an hour and then called again, this time I was third in line and decided not to wait. A few hours later, I called and got through - unfortunately, the person that I spoke to needed to be fired.  Believe me when I tell you that this man did not finish first in charm school - because he was alone, he would not go look at a computer like mine so he couldn't answer my questions. He told me that I needed to call technical support and I said that all the help my husband and I had received up til now was from this store and this geek squad and that's who my sizable check had gone to.  He proceeded to inform me that I was in this mess because I was too cheap to pay the $90.00 for them to do it, and that the person who had helped me, was not a geek squad member, just someone who answered the phone.  By  this time my patience was wearing  a bit thin - I said something to the effect that this person had on a geek squad shirt with his name on it, and I was supposed to know that he wasn't qualified to do this by ESP???  He'd already given me the next phone number so when he started off again - I did a rude thing, my mother would have frowned at...but it felt good. I told him that he really needed to try and learn some people skills and hung up

I got technical support rather easily - too many thingies to push, but I got there and spoke to a very nice woman named, Civica,...I wondered if this might be an omen that someone was going to treat me politely...and they did, but she had no idea in hell what I was talking about and told me that she was going to connect me to the command deck.  I felt like I was on the starship Enterprize and Capt. Kirk was waiting around the corner to help me.  It was actually Daniel on the first call and Dustin on the second, they filled in for Scotty and Mr. Spock, but they got me where I needed to be and I now have 3 recovery disks if my baby  gets fatally ill.

I have come to the conclusion lately, that nothing is ever easy anymore - and some people take a perverse pleasure in trying to make things worse, but if you can see the funny side (and there usually is, at least one funny side) your life will be allot more enjoyable.  As soon as that picture of the Enterprize entered my head, I knew that I was going to get through this thing, and I thought that it needed sharing and that's what I'm doing...have a good one all and come visit my shop - it's more fun than my computer.