How to Build a Career Organizing Jewelry Parties

The home show concept of selling wares—be they plastic storage containers, lingerie or cooking supplies—has been around for decades. Jewelry parties are just another extension of the idea. But you don't have to actually sell the jewelry yourself. Instead, you can enlist people to host the parties, set them up with the product and collect a portion of the sales.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Contacts, such as friends and family
• Website
• Brochures
• Catalogs

1. Decide what type of jewelry you want to specialize in. Sterling silver is a popular choice, but custom made jewelry crafted by individual artisans and costume or fashion jewelry are also worthy products.
2. Determine whether you want to represent individual artisans, work for a direct sales jewelry company such as Lia Sophia, Susan Silver Designer or Silver Success (see links below), or buy from jewelry wholesalers such as Costume Jewelry Wholesale or SilverSource (see links below) to supply to hostesses yourself.
3. Ask friends and family members to host a party, especially ones who love jewelry. It's customary to give the hostess a gift consisting of her favorite piece of jewelry, a discount or credit towards purchases based on the percentage of the night's sales.
4. Use catalogs to create informal parties. For instance, drop them off at offices for workers to browse through together during lunch or coffee breaks.
5. Contact boutique and gift shop owners about hosting a party for their regular customers.
6. Conduct online jewelry parties through your website.

Tips & Warnings

• Starting out with a direct sales company offers advantages such as established product lines, advisors who will support and guide you, and ready-to-go catalogs—instead of having to create them yourself if you buy wholesale jewelry to supply to hostesses.
• Buying wholesale jewelry will require more of a financial investment and a lot of trust. You won't want to lend hundreds of dollars of jewelry to just anyone for a home jewelry party.
• Online jewelry parties offer less pressure and more convenience than in-home parties. There's still a hostess, but she doesn't have to clean the house or worry about providing food. Instead, all she has to do is send out invitations. Her "guests" do the rest by visiting your site and shopping at their leisure from the comfort of their homes.
• Don't forget to put your contact information on every catalog, especially ones you drop off, so people will know how to order merchandise from you.