I’ve got something a little bit different for you this week on the blog, I’m sharing my three favourite books for jewellery business owners. These are the books that I wish I had read when I was starting out on my own handmade jewellery business journey. And if you’re worried about investing in these and only reading them once then don’t be, these are the sort of books that you’ll want to keep above your desk to refer back to again and again.
Above: Start & Grow a Profitable Jewellery Business with Jessica Rose
1) Start & Grow a Profitable Jewellery Business with Jessica Rose
How I wish this book had been around when I first started my handmade jewellery business! Jessica Rose is the founder of the award-winning London Jewellery School and Jewellers Academy. With over 15 years’ experience in the industry, Jessica has run a number of her own jewellery businesses and helped thousands of jewellers build thriving businesses of their own. Jess understands the challenges that jewellery business owners face because she has been there herself.
There are many books out there about starting and running a small business, but what makes this one so helpful is that it is specifically jewellery-focused. If you’re just starting out then Jessica’s advice is invaluable, but it’s a super useful read at any point in your jewellery business journey. It covers absolutely everything you need to know, from developing your signature style to ensuring your business is profitable and sustainable. Most importantly it tackles the sort of mindset issues that are specific to entrepreneurs who are also designing and making the products that they sell which is incredibly helpful.
The book is split into two parts – the first focuses on your vision, planning/goal setting, developing yourself as a jeweller and building your brand - and the second part is all about the ‘doing’ – choosing a sales platform, creating a website, writing a blog and growing a social media presence. Interviews with jewellery business owners (including yours truly!!) on what’s working for them right now and insights into how they’ve built their businesses sit alongside practical tips which help you to take action. Jess understands that as creatives we may struggle with the more marketing/sales side of things and strongly advocates just going for it rather than waiting until everything is ‘perfect’
What I love most about this book is that it’s clearly written and easy to understand, not packed with lots of confusing jargon. Whatever stage you’re at with your jewellery business you’ll find super useful insights and advice that you’ll refer back to again and again.
Above: Start & Grow a Profitable Jewellery Business with Jessica Rose
2) How to Style Your Brand by Fiona Humberstone
For those wanting to delve a little deeper into how to create a distinctive brand identity for their jewellery business, my final book choice is for you. How to Style Your Brand, by branding guru Fiona Humberstone, is the definitive guide to creative a strong brand written by someone who has experience of developing hundreds of brand identities for companies across the world.
The book is broken down into chapters which reflect the process Fiona uses when she is building a brand identity for a client. She starts with a brief overview of band styling basics and then moves into a series of questions designed to hep you plan what needs to be done. With topics including creating a vision board, logo design, the power of colour psychology, typography and photography, this in an in depth look at all those elements that make a successful and cohesive brand identity.
The book really helps you to draw out the important elements of what you do and ensure that you’re effectively communicating them to your audience through your own brand. By the end of it you’ll have developed visual branding guidelines that you can use across your printed & marketing materials, website, packaging etc with a strong brand identity that helps set you apart from your competitors.
You can buy a copy of How to Style Your Brand via Bookshop.org
3) The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
The strapline of this book is ‘A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity’ which I absolutely love, but don’t let it put you off if you’re worried it’s all going to be a bit fluffy. I’ve come across so many people who have found this book invaluable in their creative practice. Everyone gets a bit stuck from time to time and this is hands down the best way I’ve found to get that creativity flowing again.
Julia Cameron guides the reader through the process of discovering (or rediscovering) their creative self, chapter by chapter. This is in essence a self-help book, encouraging you to identify areas where you may be creatively blocked and providing advice that helps you to move forward. The two techniques that I have found most useful, and have returned to several times over the years, are the Morning Pages and the Artist’s Date.
The Morning Pages involves hand writing three pages of text each morning when you get up and before you do anything else. Full disclosure, I had to get up about half an hour early to fit this into my day, but I found incredibly helpful. Pretty everything I wrote was complete nonsense, a total stream of consciousness, but it definitely helped to clear some headspace for more creative thoughts.
The other technique I loved, and still sometimes use, was the Artist’s Date. Julia advocates taking some solo time once a week to do something that interests you. The emphasis is on fun rather than anything too worthy – so think art gallery, cinema or dance class instead of mastering Mandarin. For anyone interested in exploring their creative potential this book really is a must read.
You can buy a copy of The Artist’s Way via bookshop.org
Elin Horgan designs and creates handmade jewellery in her Bristol studio. Elin’s beautifully simple handmade jewellery is carefully crafted and designed to be worn every day. You can read more about Elin’s work and the ethos behind her understated jewellery brand on her About Elin Horgan Jewellery page.
If you’d like to enquire about a specific product or discuss a custom piece of jewellery, please have a look at the Bespoke Handmade Jewellery page or email info@elinhorgan.com