At the finale to the Future of Design Business Incubator Contest the three finaists have to make a presentation. They are given some guidelines like "you should include up to 3 minutes of background (where you've come from/what you've done) and then the rest is a look forward: How you plan to build your company, what you think your challenges will be, and how you plan to overcome them. We want to gain a strong sense of you as business managers, planners, and leaders."
For many this was their first time on a stage and certainly their first time making such a public pitch. For many it was also the first time using Powerpoint!
Presentations take many forms -- to a prospective buyer (often the bigger the store the bigger the presentation) or an editor or perhaps even... Read More
Category >> Entrepreneurship
designerDAY 2013 is ready to roll -- we're so excited for this year's line up of speakers and for the two new features we've added. The theme is KNOWLEDGE IS POWER and we're tacking some of the most troublesome issues plagueing design'preneurs this year.
First -- we'll have a session by Belinda Pruyne of Business Innovation Group about finding your ISP -- innovative Selling Proposition. Belinda is a business coach who has worked with a lot of artists and creative businesses and she's expert at helping you articulate what makes you and your jewelry unique.
Next we delve into the issue of appraisals and what happens when a customer brings your jewelry to an appraiser who isn't famiilar with your work or the designer concept and appraises it for basic scrap costs. And your... Read More
Does the first week of September evoke any emotions in you? It does for me. It always fills me with optimism and a renewed spirit; of course, I know I'm not going back to school but still ... I can't help feeling the urge for new pens and notebooks. Fresh beginnings. And in that spirit we're having our September Sale. We want you to have new tools and a fresh perspective as you move into that all-important 4th quarter. Just be sure to take note of the awesome super bonus we're offering!
SPECIAL #1
Our Designer CEO event brought in experts who shared the big secrets to success for design'preneurs. They showed us the best practices in sales, branding and business management that any designer can adopt for greater success. We captured all... Read More
Top Ten Reasons Why You Should conFab on Sunday October 14th in NYC.
"Confab" is short for "confabulate," which means to "chat" or "confer." And at the MJSA conFab, you'll be able to do all that and more. The folks at MJSA have created a Top Ten list of reasons why you need to mark Oct. 14 as conFab Day.
Personally, I think spending the day with me is reason enough but they did come up with 10 more reasons, too. 10. To hear the laugh of Andrea Hill, rumored to have once made a Buckingham Palace guard grin, interspersed between insights into strategic planning, marketing, branding, and just plain how to run an amazing business. 9. To watch Arthur "Price Point" Skuratowicz and Gary "Profit Margin" Dawson go head to head in our version of "The Price Is Right" game... Read More
A few months ago Lilian Raji of the Lilian Raji Agency created a very comprehensive series of events in NYC for the government of Quebec's export division featuring 14 fine jewelry designers.
The Jewelry Artists of Quebec event was phenomenal --a monthlong exhibition at the beautiful Aaron Faber Gallery that started with a VIP party and press appointments. It was an organizational tour de force and Lilian did an amazing job.
I am proud to have been a part of the designers' educational events; we had a terrific business panel with several esteemed colleagues and then I spent two days doing one-on-one consultations with most of the designers. It's my favorite thing to do -- get to know a designer, their inspiration and their work and help them figure out how it should fit... Read More
