Whether you presently own a retail or web based business and are looking for an additional profit center or you are thinking of starting a business, jewelry is a ?no-brainer? choice for a proven product category. The buying public, (particularly women) never tires of jewelry as the choices in color, materials, finishes and styles are endless and innovations are continual. Every generation reinvents jewelry for itself in much the same way that it reinvents music and fashion. Styles change but the basic facts remain the same. If you are a seasoned professional, please consider the following a refresher course. To the new comer, use this information as a foundation for your ongoing jewelry education.The Facts About Gemstone JewelryNatural gemstones are found in nature. Laboratory-created stones, as the name implies, are made in a laboratory. These stones, which also are referred to as laboratory-grown, {name of manufacturer} - created, or synthetic, have essentially the same chemical, physical and visual properties as natural gemstones. Laboratory-created stones do not have the rarity of naturally colored stones and they are less expensive than naturally mined stones. By contrast, imitation stones look like natural stones in appearance only, and may be glass, plastic, or less costly stones. Laboratory-created and imitation stones should be clearly identified as such.Gemstones may be measured by weight, size, or both. The basic unit for weighing gemstones is the carat, which is equal to one-fifth 91/5th) of a gram. Carats are divided into 100 units, called points. For example, a half-carat gemstone would weigh .50 carats or 50 points. When gemstones are measured by dimensions, the size is expressed in millimeters (for example,7×5 millimeters).Gemstone treatments or enhancements refer to the way some gems are treated to improve their appearance or durability, or even change their color. Many gemstones are treated in some way. The effects of some treatments may lessen or change over time and some treated stones may require special care. Some enhancements also affect the value of a stone, when measured against a comparable untreated stone.Jewelers should tell you whether the gemstone you?re considering has been treated when: the treatment is not permanent; the treated stone requires special care; or the treatment significantly affects the value of the gemstone.Some common treatments that you may be told about and their effects include:? Heating can lighten, darken or change the color of some gems, or improve a gemstone?s clarity.? Irradiation can add more color to colored diamonds, certain other gemstones and pearls.? Impregnating some gems with colorless oils, wax or resins makes a variety of imperfections less visible and can improve the gemstones? clarity and appearance.? Fracture filling hides cracks or fractures in gems by injecting colorless plastic or glass into the cracks and improves the gemstones? appearance and durability.? Diffusion treatment adds color to the surface of colorless gems; the center of the stone remains colorless.? Dyeing adds color and improves color uniformity in some gemstones and pearls.? Bleaching lightens and whitens some gems, including jade and pearls.

Article Source: www.iSnare.com

Q: One of the big chain bookstores recently opened up near my small book store. Already I can see my business starting to decline. Is there anything I can do to compete with the bigger store or should I just accept the inevitable?– Peter Q.A: A wise man once said, “The inevitable is never a sure thing.”Don’t be so quick to close the book on your business, Peter. You probably can’t compete with the superstore on volume of inventory or on price, but there are other things you can do to help keep the customers coming in your door. One of the best ways to ensure customer loyalty is to offer superior customer service.It’s funny that you’re a bookseller. Let me tell you about my last visit to one of the big chain bookstores just a few weeks ago.I took my teenage daughter in to find the classic book, The Once and Future King, for a school project that has to be done over the summer. It was a Sunday afternoon and the store was crawling with customers. We spent fifteen minutes scouring this great warehouse of a bookstore, but couldn’t find the book anywhere. We also couldn’t find anyone who worked there to ask for help.Finally, I went up to the front counter and asked the apathetic looking teenager who was manning the register if they had the book in stock. She looked at me as if I’d asked her to do advanced calculus in her head and said, “I dunno.”I asked if she might check her computer for me. She looked at me again, this time as if I’d just asked her to rotate the tires on my car without a jack. After a minute of tapping the keys with her long fingernails (which were painted black, by the way) she said, “Yeah, we have it.”"Great,” I said. “Where can I find it?”She glanced at the screen again and said, “It says that it’s in the classics section.”"Great,” I said again. I use the word “great” a lot when I’m trying to restrain myself from strangling incompetent sales people. “Where might the classics section be?”She didn’t bother to look at me or the computer this time. She just shrugged and said, “Beats me, man. I’ve only worked here a week. “I wanted to ask if there was anyone who had worked there long enough to know where the ^%$# classics section was, but by that time there were a dozen or so people lining up behind me to pay for books they had somehow managed to find on their own.I went home and ordered the book online. So much for supporting my local bookseller.It’s a shame your store isn’t located near me, Peter. I’ll bet if I walked in and asked for a copy of The Once and Future King you would be able to tell me almost to the square inch where the book is on the shelf in your store. I’ll also bet that if you didn’t have a copy in stock you would go out of your way to order it for me.That is what superior customer service is all about: going the extra mile to satisfy your customer. That is what will keep customers coming back to your store time and time again.Superior customer service leads to greater customer satisfaction, which leads to repeat business, which leads to the holy grail of the retail business: customer loyalty.Here are a few tips on how to deliver superior customer service and build customer loyalty:1. Anyone on your staff who deals directly with the customers should be well groomed and dressed appropriately for the job. Customers over 25 years old will not get a warm and fuzzy feeling if the guy processing their credit card is wearing an Ozzy Osborne tee-shirt and matching nose ring.2. Sales people should be knowledgeable about the product they are selling. I can’t tell you how many times I have asked a sales person a simple question and only got a blank stare in return. A lack of product knowledge does nothing to instill confidence in the customer.3. Your staff should know where every product is without having to ask a manager or consult a computer. At the very least they should be able to point out the ^%$# classics section without blinking an eye.4. Make it a point to know your customer’s name. Nothing makes a customer feel special like the sound of his or her own name. You can’t remember everyone’s name, of course, but you should strive to remember the names of those customers who come in regularly. I f requent one particular restaurant and the owner not only knows my name, but the names of my wife and kids. And every time I set foot in his restaurant he calls me by name and shakes my hand and personally leads me to a table. I don’t feel like a customer. I feel like a friend.5. Offer personal services that the big boys do not. Anything you can do to make your customer’s life easier will be appreciated and remembered. If a customer comes in and asks for a book you do not have, offer to order the book and deliver it to their home so they don’t have to make another trip to pick it up. All this is going to cost you is a few minutes of your time and you will not only save a sale, but also make a lasting impression on that customer. The next time they need a book they will head your way.There are other things you can do to combat the bookstore Goliath, Peter, but offering superior customer service is a great place to start.Here’s to your success!Tim Knox

Article Source: www.iSnare.com

Q: I own a small decorating business and I?ll be the first to admit that I don?t know anything about taxes or retirement plans. I?d like to set up a 401(k) or an IRA or some other kind of retirement plan for me and my three employees. What are the various retirement plan options available for a small business owner and in your opinion, which would work best for me?– Wanda S.A: Wanda, I appreciate your confidence in my humble opinion, but asking me for financial advice is like asking Donald Trump for a recommendation on hair care products. I can tell you what works best for me and my business, but you?ll need to do your homework and seek professional advice to figure out what would work best for you. As a side note, I hear that Donald Trump is coming out with his own line of hair care product soon to be called ?Big Head.? The formula is 1% mousse, 1% liquid nails, and 98% hot air. It should be a big seller among the high brow, comb-over crowd.Here?s my best advice on retirement plans: find yourself a financial advisor (or financial planner) who is has experience working with small businesses and have him or her explain the options available and make a recommendation as to the type of plan best suited for you and your business. When I say ?financial advisor? I?m not talking about your know-it-all brother-in-law or your accountant. I?m talking about a broker or financial planner (or other licensed professional) who has a proven track record of making his clients money and is an expert on IRAs, 401(k)s, mutual funds, etc.The best way to find a good financial advisor is to ask for referrals from your most successful friends and associates. Find the richest, stingiest man in town and ask who his advisor is. Meet with several advisors, explain your situation, and ask for their recommendations. You should also make sure the advisor is a good fit for your personality and your business. If all goes well you will be doing business with this person for many years to come, so make sure the relationship feels comfortable to you and that you are confident in the advisor?s ability to manage your money.Let me give you a quick overview of a few of the retirement plans available to small businesses so you at least have an idea of what?s out there before you start your search for a good financial advisor.As a small business you basically have three types of retirement plans that you can take advantage of: the Self-Employed 401(k); the Simplified Employee Pension Plan or SEP IRA, and the Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees or SIMPLE IRA. Each allows you to make pre-tax contributions to the plan, which lets you save for retirement and lessen your taxable income by the amount of the contribution. Your investments also grow tax-deferred until withdrawal.A Self-Employed 401(k) is an option for self-employed individuals or business owners with no employees other than a spouse. The business can be a sole proprietorship, a partnership, or a corporation, including S corps. You can make salary deferrals to this type of plan of up to $14,000 for 2005.Next is the Simplified Employee Pension Plan or SEP IRA. A SEP is an option if you earn a self-employed income from a full or part time business, even if you are covered by a retirement plan at your fulltime job. A SEP allows you to contribute up to 25% of earned income, up to $41,000 for 2004 and $42,000 for 2005.My preferred type of retirement plan is the Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees or SIMPLE IRA. The SIMPLE IRA was created to make it easier for small businesses with 100 or fewer employees to offer a tax-advantaged, company sponsored retirement plan.With a SIMPLE IRA you and your eligible employees may contribute up to 3% of earned income (with a maximum contribution of $10,000) on a pre-tax basis to individual SIMPLE IRAs. You must deduct Social Security and Medicaid from your gross income, but you can then make your SIMPLE IRA contribution before other taxes are levied, effectively lowering your taxable income.As the employer you must make ?matching? or ?non-elective? contributions into your employees? SIMPLE IRA accounts. Matching contributions means that the business matches the elective deferral contributions made by employees. For example, if the employee opts to contribute 3% of his salary to the plan, the employer must match the 3% contribution.At first you might cringe at matching your employees? contributions, but as the business owner and an employee yourself this can be great news. As an employee of your own business you can contribute up to $10,000 to your SIMPLE IRA and the business can then match your contribution dollar-for-dollar, which means that you can put up to $20,000 in tax free dollars into the plan per year. The cost of the contributions is also deductible as a business expense.The non-elective contribution option requires that the company contribute 2% of every employee?s earned income to the plan on the employee?s behalf regardless of whether or not the employee contributes to the plan himself. For 2005 the maximum contribution you would be required to make is $4,200.Like a traditional IRA, you can withdraw money from a SIMPLE IRA at any time; however distributions within the first two years of participation are subject to higher early withdrawal penalties than traditional IRAs or Roth IRAs. Withdrawals within the first two years are subject to a 25% early withdrawal penalty. Withdrawals taken after the first two years are subject to a 10% early withdrawal penalty.As the employer, the advantages of a SIMPLE IRA include: company contributions to the plan are tax deductible as a business expense; plan documents are simple and easy to administer; administration costs are low; and there is no government reporting required by the employer.The advantages of a SIMPLE IRA for your employees include: contributions are immediately 100% vested; contributions and earnings are tax-deferred until withdrawal; employees can contribute 100% of earned income up to $10,000 for 2005; and employees can direct their own investments within the IRA.This is a complex topic and I?ve just tipped the iceberg here, but hopefully this will give you enough information to get the investment ball rolling.Here?s to your success!Tim Knox

Article Source: www.iSnare.com

Whether you presently own a retail or web based business and are looking for an additional profit center or you are thinking of starting a business, jewelry is a ?no-brainer? choice for a proven product category. The buying public, (particularly women) never tires of jewelry as the choices in color, materials, finishes and styles are endless and innovations are continual. Every generation reinvents jewelry for itself in much the same way that it reinvents music and fashion. Styles change but the basic facts remain the same. If you are a seasoned professional, please consider the following a refresher course. To the new comer, use this information as a foundation for your ongoing jewelry education.The Facts About Diamond JewelryAs with other gems, diamond weight usually is stated in carats. Diamond weight may be described in decimal or fractional parts of a carat. If the weight is given in decimal parts of a carat, the figure should be accurate to the last decimal place. For example, ?.30 carat? could represent a diamond that weighs between .295 - .304 carat. Some retailers describe diamond weight in fractions and use the fraction to represent a range of weights. For example, a diamond described as 1/2 carat could weigh between .47 - .54 carat. If diamond weight is stated as fractional parts of a carat, the retailer should disclose two things: that the weight is not exact, and the reasonable range of weight for each fraction or the weight tolerance being used.Some diamonds may be treated to improve their appearance in similar ways as other gemstones. Since these treatments improve the clarity of the diamond, some jewelers refer to them as clarity enhancement. One type of treatment - fracture filling - conceals cracks in diamonds by filling them with a foreign substance. This filling may not be permanent and jewelers shouldtell you if the diamond you?re considering has been fracture-filled.Another treatment - lasering - involves the use of a laser beam to improve the appearance of diamonds that have black inclusions or pots. A laser beam is aimed at the inclusion. Acid is then forced through a tiny tunnel made by the laser beam to remove the inclusion. Lasering is permanent and a laser-drilled stone does not require special care.While a laser-drilled diamond may appear as beautiful as a comparable untreated stone, it may not be as valuable. That?s because an untreated stone of the same quality is rarer and therefore more valuable. Jewelers should tell you whether the diamond you?re considering has been laser-drilled.Imitation diamonds, such as cubic zirconia, resemble diamonds in appearance but are much less costly. Certain laboratory created gemstones, such as lab-created moissanite, also resemble diamonds and may not be adequately detected by the instruments originally used to identify cubic zirconia. Ask your jeweler if he has the current testing equipment to distinguish between diamonds and other lab-created stones.A diamond?s value is based on four criteria: color, cut, clarity, and carat. The clarity and color of a diamond usually are graded. However, scales are not uniform: a clarity grade of ?slightly included? may represent a different grade on one grading system versus another, depending on the terms used in the scale. Make sure you know how a particular scale and grade represent the color or clarity of the diamond you?re considering. A diamond can be described as ?flawless? only if it has no visible surface or internal imperfections when viewed under 10-power magnification by a skilled diamond grader.

Article Source: www.iSnare.com

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