I'd better post a page from my visual journal - I created it when I graduated this winter.
Don't you know I have a degree in economic risk analysis? :) I studied mathematical methods in economics for 5.5 years, and I'm so happy it's over! I have humanitarian mindset and it was very hard and uninteresting experience.
Now I've started to think how to connect my job with my passion - beads. I've come to idea of online bead store - we don't have enough of them here in Russia. As a matter of fact, there are only 3 bead stores in Moscow, 4 or 5 online stores with quite poor selection, and there are no bead stores in other regions at all. So we have here the same situation that was 15 or 20 years ago in USA: 3 bead stores, no beadwork communities, fery few books & magazines and growing interest to beads - a large business & creative field to explore.
I can't explain how enthusiastic I feel about making my own business! I'm so tired to work in big company - mostly because I can't see the results of my work. I make sales contracts of goods I've never seen, how stupid!
So, my own online bead store. I'm trying to find beads manufactures (mostly in Europe, esp. Czech Respublic, to minimize shipping costs). Do you have any experience in beads business, or maybe you do have friends who know advantages & disadvantages of running bead store?
I would be very grateful if you could give me some information about beads business & manufactures.
5 comments:
There can never be enough bead stores in the world:)
You are in a great position to open a bead store! The ones over here who have done well seem to keep expanding their inventory (I'd guess they put a lot of their profits into expansion) and listen to what their customers say they want and provide it, if possible.
Our trend here seems to be more toward larger beads and gemstone beads for the majority of beaders...they like to be able to make a nice bracelet in an hour. But there is also a good market for seed beads for the art quilters and the bead embroiderers. The Japanese beads seem to be a favorite if you are doing loom weaving or off-loom, like the peyote, herringbone and brick stitches.
So, maybe start out small but always try to get bigger....doesn't have to be a fast process...some of our biggest bead stores started out small.
Good luck to you!
P.S. I've never owned a bead store but I've worked in some and also sold online through ebay.
Oh...and Swarovski is really, really big here, so you might try to have some of their smaller beads that go so well with the Czech ones!
I can't give any advice on a bead store. But I can say that in France we buy a lot from the internet and the USA, especially the Japanese seed beads.
I'm surprised you don't have many beads in Russia. I would have thought it was easy for you to get Chinese and Czech beads, and maybe from Mongolia...
By the way, once I saw very nice jewels with tiny Russian Matriochkas.
My BJP size is 10cm x 14cm. I chose it because I don't have a lot of experience in embroidery. However after a few months, I see that the small size somewhat limits me. How do you feel about the little format, after 3 months ?
I never thought there are bead manufactures in Mongolia.. Well, Chinese beads are mostly being sold wholesale, as well as Japanese ones.
Of course I can purchase beads from online shops in USA, but I don't like shipping charges & long delivery time. It is useless to compare Russian and American bead markets. With our 4 bead shops we're standing at the beginning of this long journey =)
What about my BJP project.. Unfortunately I've given up. I'm so sorry, but I had a lack of self-motivation, and summer days were so beautiful & bright, I just couldn't sit at home..
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