www.lesleyhphillips.co.uk
Business Tip of the week!

A well-known referral expert suggests "promoting referrals" instead of asking for them. Whenever a client expresses recognition of your value, say, "I'm glad you see the value of the work that I do. Please don't keep me a secret."

What do you read?

http://www.lesleyhphillips.co.uk/

As a small business myself my tip for the New Year is "What do you read?"

If you receive an email, how much of it grabs your attention?  What people see in their inbox differs among email applications. An email viewed in Gmail will appear different when viewed in Yahoo! mail or Outlook. To make an impact even before they open the email, keep your subject line within the 40-character limit.

Tip of the week - helping to sell your handmade silver jewellery

Tip of the week - helping you to sell your handmade silver jewellery
Don't Hide Negative Feedback

If you sell online - don't shy away from negative comments!  Instead, face them and address your customer's concerns.  Addressing them helps build trust and diffuse a tense situation and can help you win back an upset customer.  What's more, it gives you a chance to come to your defence.  Consider this.... one person out of ten will say when they've received good service. One person will tell TEN people when they've had poor service!

Often you will receive a customer compliment following the complaint if you've handled it well!
Customer Testimonials 

www.lesleyhphillips.co.uk

National Art & Craft Directory and Wedding Ideas Magazine

I received a 'phone call yesterday from the National Art & Craft Directory where my jewellery is showcased to advise me that she had been speaking to a lady from Wedding Ideas Magazine.  She had been asked to suggest one or two designers' jewellery to feature in their magazine.  My "He Loves Me..... Daisy Jewellery" fitted the bill exactly!
http://www.lesleyhphillips.co.uk/onlineshop/prod_1679178-Daisy-Earrings-quotHe-Loves-Mequot-JTAE5.html
http://www.lesleyhphillips.co.uk/onlineshop/prod_1783077-Silver-Daisy-Pendant-quotHe-Loves-Mequot-JTAP7.html

I was asked to send two images from the Je T'Adore Collection to see if they would feature them in their magazine.   Watch this space!

War Horse - Fact & Fiction at the National Army Museum

The War Horse "Fact & Fiction" exhibition is now running at the National Army Museum in Chelsea London.  War Horse "Fact & Fiction"

My Silver Horse Jewellery Collection is for sale at the National Army Museum in conjuntion with this exhibition which will be running until August 2012.
http://www.lesleyhphillips.co.uk/onlineshop/cat_477554--010-Horse-Jewellery.html

The A-Z of selling your handmade jewellery - K

The A- Z of selling your handmade jewellery

Letter K

Ever heard of the phrase KISS? - it's stands for Keep It Simple Stupid!

But, although it's an odd phrase it's one of those which actually does mean a lot.  Keeping it simple does help your customers.  The more complicated something is, the more people will be 'turned off'.  Supposing you have a website where the customers have to find out what you sell?  They're looking for earrings, but have to trawl 10 pages to find the earrings.... they're just not going to do it.  So, on your front page they need a link to the earrings for them to view them.

If you consider that most people when searching Google will only look at the top 5 listings because it's easier, it gives you an indication of how much effort a customer will put in to finding what they want on your website. 

http://www.lesleyhphillips.co.uk/onlineshop/cat_462824--005-Earrings-.html

A-Z of Selling Your Handmade Jewellery / Selling Your Handmade Silver Jewellery

Next week I will be attending the Dorset County Show, so I won't be updating my blog with the A-Z, but this week is

J  for JARGON

How many people are 'turned off' by you using phrases that they don't understand?
 It's important to try and remember the words you used to use before you began making and selling your handmade silver jewellery and remember the knowledge (or probably lack of it) you had.

For instance when I talk about Sterling Silver - what does that actually mean to a customer.  They know to ask, is it sterling silver, but do they know what it means?  Silver describes a variety of precious metals - for instance the silver is mixed with copper to harden it, so sterling silver is 925 silver and 75 parts copper - but there are other grades of silver around. Tibetan silver for instance, is vastly inferior quality and do the customers understand this?  Fine silver is 999 parts silver and 1 part copper (usually produced by precious metal clay workers) - so a better quality silver, but much softer and would be pretty useless for a ring which is frequently worn. Sterling Silver is the minimum quality of silver which is accepted by the Assay Offices.  Anything less which is sent for hallmarking by a British silversmith, would be destroyed!

Hallmarking is a another one which customers have very little knowledge of.  Again, I'm asked 'is it hallmarked?' - but do they understand what that means? You can bet that the majority don't.  It's worthwhile explaining in a little more detail what they have to look for to ensure that they know what silver hallmarks look like. The more people who understand, the less they're likely to get ripped off!