Notes from Chris

Episode 1695

Lexi Taub had it all. A degree, a career in finance, and a boyfriend.

Yet, despite all of this, she also had a nagging feeling that something was missing. All that glitters is not gold, and Lexi had always wanted to do something for herself. All she needed was the right idea.

Lexi’s mom was in the jewelry business, so when her boyfriend wanted to buy her a pair of beautiful earrings as a present, he went to her for advice. He’d found a pair of earrings he loved for $1,600 online. Lexi’s mom made a replica and only charged $165, about 10% of the original price.

The boyfriend was amazed and incredibly grateful. However, after he gave them to Lexi (and told her the whole story), he confessed that he felt that Lexi’s mom had undercharged him. But the more they learned about pricing in the industry, the more things clicked into place.

See, when it comes to the jewelry business, every person involved in the supply chain marks the price up by at least 100%, often 200%. So, if it costs the manufacturer $165 to make, then they will sell it to a designer for $330. Then the designer will sell it to a store for $660, and the store will sell it to the customer for about $1,320.

Lexi thought this was a good business to go into—after all, her mom was already doing it! The idea began to crystallize in her mind. If she could learn from her mom, she too could make high-quality jewelry for a fraction of the retail cost, and cut out all the middlemen!

After starting on Squarespace, she soon moved it to Shopify. Although it was easier to build a website on Squarespace, Lexi felt that Shopify had much better built-in SEO capabilities. Not only that, but Shopify has more integration opportunities.

The switch to Shopify and Google Smart Campaigns helped Lexi to receive a few sales every week. This consistency showed Lexi that she had a rock solid idea. As they got more sales, Lexi began to reinvest the money she was making.

Revenue continued to increase, and just two-and-a-half years after starting, Lexi quit her full-time job to run the business.

What does this look like in terms of numbers? The business now makes about $20,000 in revenue every month. At this point, Lexi is still reinvesting some of the money into her business, but she’s also living comfortably doing her side hustle full-time.

 

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  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Learn more about Alexis and checkout her beautiful jewelry at her website, AlexisJae.com.

SEE ALSO:

• Woman Uses Language Skills to Import Moroccan Jewelry: Knowledge of local culture—and an extended Moroccan family—help an IT manager set up a side business importing and selling jewelry.
• Bookstore Employee Crafts Paper Bead Jewelry: When an art student and bookstore employee looks for ways to supplement her income, she invents a new art form making paper beads from popular books.
• College Curriculum Developer Makes Minimalist Jewelry: When a professional development specialist can’t find “just the right” piece of jewelry, she makes it herself. Six years later, she’s mined a second income creating minimalist, Boho-chic jewelry.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work! Yours in the revolution,

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