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Art Fish – Prairie Jewelers
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You have found the Authentic Business
Adventures,
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the business program that brings you
the struggle stories and triumphant
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successes of business
owners across the land.
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We’re locally underwritten
by the Bank of Sun Prairie.
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My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,
author, speaker, and helpful coach
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to small business owners
across the country.
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And today we’re welcoming/preparing
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to learn from Art,
the new owner of Prairie Jewelers.
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So, Art, how are you doing today?
Good.
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Doing good.
I’m excited to be here.
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Well, I should say more importantly,
my wife is excited that I’m
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here I guess. So tell us, you bought
Prairie Jewelers recently.
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Yeah.
How recently are we talking?
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Two years ago.
I bought it.
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Two years ago.
Okay, so you’ve been around a little bit.
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Yeah.
So did you own a jewelry store before?
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No, I’ve never owned a jewelry store.
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I’ve been in the jewelry business,
though, for 33 years.
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All right, well, that’s a while.
That’s a while.
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So you know your fancy rocks.
Yeah.
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So what made you buy this?
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Did it just come across your plate?
Did somebody reach out to you?
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Did you knock on the door and say,
Hey, I got a bag of money?
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Pretty much all three of those things.
Oh, really?
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Okay.
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All right.
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Yeah.
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So take you back into the March, right
at the beginning of the pandemic.
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So 2020.
2020.
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Oh, perfect time.
Yeah, everybody loved it.
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Everybody loved it.
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Yeah, see it in two weeks
and we’ll save the world.
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Yeah, right.
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I was on my two week hiatus and I thought,
I wonder what Mike’s doing.
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Mike Durant, the previous
owner of the store.
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And I came down and saw Mike
and asked him, so how’s it going?
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And he goes, you want
to buy a jewelry store?
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So what are we talking about here?
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And so
I knew he was serious because he had been
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talking about retiring
for the last four years or so.
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And so we got down on the nitty
gritty of it all and it felt right.
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My wife was positive.
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She said, you’re never going
to get a shot like this.
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Go for it.
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And with the pandemic and COVID, it was
a crazy time, but it just felt right.
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So you knew Mike for a while before?
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Well, a little bit.
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A little bit.
Yeah.
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All right.
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And were you looking to purchase
a business necessarily?
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No.
No?
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Okay.
I wasn’t.
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But I think
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all people have that dream to be their
own business owner and to take that leap.
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But there’s a lot of fear
that goes along with it of course, too.
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Huge. Yeah.
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Yeah.
It depends which one wins, right?
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Right.
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You’re just going to stay
hidden or you’re going
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to go for it. Right.
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We talked a little bit more throughout
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the summer, and then I decided,
yeah, I’m going to do it.
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All right.
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Took about five months or so
to pull the trigger on that.
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You know, that’s pretty short.
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I guess I’ve sold
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one of my businesses and I’ve helped
a few people sell their businesses.
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I always, in the back of my head,
I’m just like, a week.
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We’ll get a couple of attorneys,
accountants go through the books.
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We could just bang this out, no problem.
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But there’s emotion, and I suppose anytime
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you involve attorneys, it takes longer
just because $250 an hour they want it.
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So.
It’s interesting just the process.
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I guess it’s not like going to pick up
a cup of coffee or something like that.
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It’s more there’s more to it, a lot of
moving parts.
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Yeah, it had a structure of business.
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I believe Mike was sole
proprietor and I have an LLC.
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So how do you do it and what’s the right
way to do it and what do you name it?
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Change the name.
Do you do that or do you do business ads?
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Have a name and do business ads.
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That was all the thought process.
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So a lot of times when people sell a
business, the new owner wants them to stay
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on a little bit to show them how
stuff was run and all that jazz.
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So how did you guys figure that out?
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I’m blessed in that way.
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Mike is my Goldsmith still.
Oh, really?
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Okay.
Yeah.
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So he sold me the store,
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but with the intention of me keeping
him on as being the Goldsmith.
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So basically, Mike can come in and do his
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Goldsmith work, but he doesn’t
have to stay till five or six.
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He can dip in here in the morning,
get his work done, and leave.
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So he can write his
own schedule.
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Got you.
So he’s not chained to the store.
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You get to be chained to the store.
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I have to be chained to the store.
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But it’s nice because his older customers
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that have come in and have gotten to know
him over the last 40 years, they see
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a friendly face in Mike and they know that
they’re in good hands with me.
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All right.
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You touched on a good
point because I imagine…
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Well, first, I don’t know much about
jewelry stores,
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but I imagine trust is a huge factor
because you’re essentially trusting
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the proprietor the salesperson to tell
you this is worth a lot of money
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to a person like me who’s like,
I have no idea what that
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is worth.
Yeah, it’s all about trust.
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If you don’t have trust in this business,
you don’t have a business.
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All right.
Got it.
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So are there any other
employees besides yourself.
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And Mike?
No, just me.
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Just you?
All right.
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So you’re here all the time.
Yeah.
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I do have a note.
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Be back in five minutes if
I have to run to the bank or something.
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Like that.
Sure.
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Yeah.
All right.
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So since you bought the business
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and pandemic has subsided,
has business gone up?
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Plateaued? Is it down? How
has the jewelry been?
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Interesting question.
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Our store did very flat numbers during,
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I guess, the last two years,
except for some peaks and valleys.
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This year, it’s supposed to be down,
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but I have gotten so much
traffic in the last three weeks.
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All right.
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So I think it’s on the up
swing for me, at least.
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Sure.
Well, now I don’t know why, but it has.
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Over the country, many jewelry stores have
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exceeded expectations
in the last two years because of all
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the influx of money
and people weren’t able to travel.
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And so they did a little retail
therapy on the higher end.
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Oh, sure.
Okay.
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So a lot of ladies, I think,
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were able to trade up on their engagement
rings and such in those last two years.
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Got it.
All right.
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Well, those guys are complaining now
because those numbers aren’t there.
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Oh, okay.
They felt that they could maintain it.
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They thought they could maintain it.
Yeah.
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All right.
Yeah.
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Interesting.
Yeah.
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So you in the store, I see a lot of stuff.
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I see necklaces, I see watches, rings.
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I mean, we got a whole plethora
of stuff going on here.
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When you purchase the business,
I imagine you purchase inventory.
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Yes.
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And, I mean, Mike had
the business for how long before?
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Mike owned the business
since ’82, so 38 years.
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That’s a while.
Yeah.
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All right.
So
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when you buy a business or you buy jewelry
store, you have all the inventory.
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I imagine you have to figure
out how to buy that, right?
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Well, I’m in a lucky spot where
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Mike’s inventory and my inventory
are combined in the store.
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When I sell something, Mike gets
paid and I get paid a little bit.
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We’re just running it.
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That way.
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Okay, so it’s almost consignment?
Yeah.
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Okay, so you didn’t have to come up
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with some huge bag of money to buy
all the jewelry in the store.
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Right.
Okay.
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This is just me not knowing
about jewelry stores.
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How do normal jewelry
stores do it typically?
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Do they have a car lot where they have
a loan on jewelry, or they just…
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You mean selling it or just in business?
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Just to have the inventory because
I imagine there’s a lot of volume.
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You got to have a lot of choices and all
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this stuff because nobody
knows what they want.
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I believe most of them start very small
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and put all of their resources
into buying inventory.
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Oh, and just build up gradually.
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And build up gradually.
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I’ve heard of others that get
small business loans.
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Recently, some have gotten.
Grants.
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Small grants to do that, depending
on what segment of ownership you are.
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But generally, it’s just
very slow in building.
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And if I don’t have something,
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me personally, I can always
memo something in.
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All right.
So this is so fascinating because I guess
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I never really thought
about jewelry stores.
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How many suppliers for jewelry are there?
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Is there just a few or is there millions?
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Oh, my gosh.
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Well, I’ve worked at several
different jewelry stores.
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And some of the stores that I worked at,
we’ve had, I think, 300 different vendors.
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300?
300.
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Well, that’s a lot to keep track of.
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Of course, you don’t do a lot of business
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with it, but there’s specific
vendors that do just one thing really
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well, and that’s who you go to if
that’s something you need done.
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So for the clocks, the watches,
are you buying directly
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from the manufacturer or do
they have distributors that.
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You’re going through?
From the manufacturer.
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You are?
Okay.
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Oh, that is so interesting.
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It’s fascinating how some industries work
certain ways and others.
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I came from the printer and computer side
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and you couldn’t buy something from
HP or IBM or Xerox.
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You had to go through one of three
distributors that you had to pay
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to be able to buy something from them,
like pay a membership fee.
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To get in the door.
To get in there.
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Amazon came along and you could buy stuff
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from Amazon cheaper than you
could from your wholesale.
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Lesson learned.
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That’s what drew me to sell that business.
Okay, I can’t win.
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Got it.
I’m out.
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So it’s interesting that you can buy
stuff directly from the manufacturer.
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I imagine that’s a good thing.
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Yeah, that’s a good thing.
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And of course, they vet you.
Sure.
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Make sure you’re in that business,
in the business.
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And some vendors are better
than others, of course.
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Some vendors hold you hostage to what
you can sell their merchandise for.
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You can’t sell it lower than what they
tell you to, or you’ll lose that account.
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Sure.
All right.
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Now, when it comes to jewelry,
I see looking at rings here.
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Do people don’t know?
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The run of the mill
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customer, are they as ignorant as me,
or they’re just like, oh, that’s a ring.
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Or do they know exactly what they’re
looking for as far as brand or.
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Any of that?
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So that’s a real open ended question.
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Okay, well, it’s more curiosity.
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So if I bring it back to the most obvious
question of if somebody’s looking
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for an engagement ring, they come in here,
they usually do a little bit of research.
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What’s a diamond?
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What am I supposed to look for?
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How much am I supposed to pay?
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What’s the reasonable amount
that I’m going to get myself into?
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And they do a lot of research.
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Then I have guys that just stumble in and
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wide eyed, not sure what
they’re looking for.
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My
thing is going back to being trustworthy
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and honest and information that I give
you is always going to be upfront.
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I want to educate you as much
as you want to be educated.
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But it goes back to if you’re happy
with a purchase and happy with a piece
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and what it looks like,
that’s all that really matters.
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All right.
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Are there fancier brands than
others when it comes to jewelry?
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Because I guess to my eye,
all jewelry looks fancy.
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So I don’t know if there’s like the pinto
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of jewelry versus the Bugatti
of jewelry or.
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Something like that.
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Well, going back to the vendors,
I’ll just throw out Rolex.
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Not everybody can get Rolex.
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And then there’s under
that same cloud, I guess.
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You can’t get certain bridal vendors to…
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You can’t sell certain vendors unless
you give them a $300,000 open ended buy.
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You buy into them for 300 grand and then
you can order from them.
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Interesting.
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So some of them bar you out,
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but some of them, the ones I
deal with, they don’t do that.
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They don’t do that.
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When you say some are better than others,
some are better than others, but
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anything you buy is going to be as good
as you can afford or want to purchase.
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Does that.
Make sense?
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It does, yeah.
I guess to a point, to me…
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A ring.
Let’s say as an example,
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because we’re sitting right here,
there’s nothing mechanical about it.
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It seems like from a technology point of
view, it’s a rock in a chunk of metal.
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I guess from my point of view, right?
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But I imagine there must be
something different about them.
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Sure.
I don’t know.
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Okay.
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With gold, there’s varying
different carats of gold.
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Okay.
I don’t even know what that means.
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I’ve heard carats.
Before, but.
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Is.
It purity?
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So purity.
Okay.
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24 carat gold is 100 % gold.
All right.
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So it’s going to be yellow
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all the time because it’s gold
out of the earth, 24 carat.
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All right.
You’ve heard of 18 carat gold?
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18, 14.
Yeah.
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18 carat gold is 18 parts gold
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and 6 parts something else,
the other alloids that they mix.
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Into it.
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So somebody, some time long ago said
we’re splitting gold into 24 parts.
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That’s our measurement.
Yeah.
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Got it.
Okay.
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So 14 carat gold is 14 parts
gold and 10 parts alloids.
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And with those alloids, you can make
white gold or yellow gold or rose gold.
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All right.
Interesting.
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So what makes one better than the other?
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Nothing’s better, but it’s more
expensive if it has more gold content.
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Most people buy 14 carat gold nowadays.
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And in America, it is 14 carat white gold.
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And is the reason being because they like
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the color of the white or the durability,
I imagine, because gold is pretty soft?
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Not so much durability.
Nobody buys it.
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Oh, that’s durable.
Oh, really?
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Okay.
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It’s optics, what they like,
marketing, their friends.
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It’s what they grew up to accustomed to.
Got it.
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All right.
Yeah.
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And so 14 carat gold
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with a round diamond is usually generally
what engagement customers look for. All.
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Right, so we got to talk about diamonds
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because I guess you got a lot
of them here in varying sizes.
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So
do people choose a cut and then a ring is
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custom made, or are they
buying it off the shelf?
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Right.
It could be either way.
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It could be either way.
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If we’re lucky enough that I have the ring
ready to go and I like it, I’ll take it.
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That’s a blessing, right?
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Nice.
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That doesn’t happen very often.
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It does not.
It does not.
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It’s usually that a customer comes
in and they have an idea of what they
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like, oftentimes built from a Pinterest
page that their girlfriend has built up.
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Honey, this is what I want.
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They say, Do you have something like this?
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I may or may not.
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If I don’t, I can build it.
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I can find it.
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If I can’t find it already made,
I can custom make it.
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And do you.
Do that here?
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No.
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Well, some things I do here,
but some things I have a custom computer
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generated guy, Jeweler,
that makes the rings.
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You’re.
Fancy.
[00:16:32.040]
Yeah.
He builds the waxes.
[00:16:34.830]
I get the wax approved,
[00:16:36.970]
and then we go forth and have it
cast and have the diamonds set.
[00:16:41.430]
The whole center fusion all I can.
[00:16:43.280]
All right.
[00:16:44.330]
Interesting.
[00:16:45.570]
So tell me, the diamonds,
I guess when you’re getting diamonds,
[00:16:50.080]
are you getting the rings as we see
them here in the box and everything?
[00:16:54.070]
So these are actually…
[00:16:59.710]
This is this is one of my major
vendors that I use is in the lady.
[00:17:03.650]
And these are all samples.
[00:17:06.080]
All right.
[00:17:08.360]
I sell off a sample idea.
[00:17:11.600]
So
[00:17:13.000]
when a customer
likes a certain ring or a sample,
[00:17:16.410]
we talk about how much the ring
is without the center stone.
[00:17:22.670]
We call that a semi mount.
[00:17:24.480]
And
[00:17:26.360]
then we talk about what diamond you want
set into the ring to the semi diamond.
[00:17:30.970]
To make the engagement ring.
[00:17:34.520]
A center stone can be anywhere from $400,
$500 up to $8,000, $20,000, $50,000.
[00:17:41.970]
Hope Diamond, whatever.
Yeah, whatever.
[00:17:43.880]
You want.
[00:17:44.560]
And then also with a ring system like
this, I always call it Frankenstein.
[00:17:52.250]
If it isn’t exact, then we can use two or
[00:17:55.790]
three rings and combine those
things and make a ring.
[00:17:59.500]
All right.
So if somebody likes, for example…
[00:18:03.000]
Now we’re getting technical.
[00:18:04.310]
But there’s.
[00:18:06.560]
A thing called with diamonds around
the center stone, it’s called a halo.
[00:18:10.200]
So.
[00:18:11.520]
You could put a halo
on a different ring shank.
[00:18:15.210]
There’s different kinds of ring shanks.
[00:18:17.450]
You can have a split shank that opens up.
[00:18:20.590]
You’re going to have a thin band shank.
[00:18:25.120]
And you can have a
cushion halo or a round halo.
[00:18:29.320]
So there’s many things
to think about when you’re.
[00:18:31.590]
Making a ring.
It can get pretty elaborate.
[00:18:33.880]
Yeah.
Interesting.
[00:18:34.560]
Besides all that,
you could set a sapphire.
[00:18:37.250]
All right.
[00:18:38.280]
Rather than a diamond in the tomorrow.
That’s popular also.
[00:18:40.720]
Stone.
Choices.
[00:18:42.070]
Stone choices.
Yeah.
[00:18:43.640]
All right.
[00:18:44.800]
So I imagine there’s a skill set that you
[00:18:46.430]
have for knowing
how to talk to a customer and steer them
[00:18:50.890]
towards figuring out what they want, as
well as knowing what you can even offer.
[00:18:55.600]
How do you gain that knowledge?
How do you.
[00:18:57.310]
Get there?
Yeah.
[00:18:58.320]
Right.
Because I’m imagining you can’t just pull
[00:19:00.040]
somebody off the street and be like,
You’re not my new employee.
[00:19:03.800]
Sell.
Stuff.
[00:19:04.930]
I
tend to try and read people pretty
[00:19:09.360]
quickly and be gentle because it’s a very
intimidating thing coming into a store.
[00:19:17.400]
The last thing that you really want
[00:19:19.230]
to talk about is money because it’s
the least romantic thing, is money.
[00:19:22.830]
But
sometimes that’s the first thing
[00:19:25.480]
that comes out of a guy’s mouth because he
wants me to know exactly how much he’s…
[00:19:29.120]
Give me the number.
This.
[00:19:30.240]
Is it.
This is it.
[00:19:32.250]
But also, I want
to be thoughtful for them.
[00:19:37.730]
Money doesn’t equate happiness.
Sure.
[00:19:41.080]
And a lot of times…
Not directly.
[00:19:42.560]
Not directly.
[00:19:43.150]
But oftentimes, he’ll say,
I was thinking up to $5,000.
[00:19:49.360]
But by the time we figure it all out,
[00:19:51.910]
he’s happy with a ring
combination and diamonds that’s 4200.
[00:19:56.690]
I’m not going to tap somebody
out just because I can.
[00:19:59.630]
Got it.
All right.
[00:20:01.040]
Put an $800 inscription in there.
Yeah.
[00:20:04.560]
Right.
That’s awesome.
[00:20:05.270]
All right.
So you’ve done this.
[00:20:07.960]
You’ve been in the jewelry
business for a long time.
[00:20:09.670]
Yeah, since 33 years.
That’s a while.
[00:20:13.590]
So when did you first get
in the jewelry business?
[00:20:18.760]
Right out of college.
[00:20:20.320]
But was it one of those, like,
[00:20:21.430]
I want to be a jeweler, or is it one of
those, like, hey, this guy’s got a job.
[00:20:26.250]
I need a job.
Here we are.
[00:20:27.670]
Yeah, I needed a job.
[00:20:29.030]
So it’s a funny story because my wife was
working in a forest inside of a mall.
[00:20:37.350]
Oh, okay.
[00:20:37.870]
And she was going to college,
and I had just graduated.
[00:20:41.410]
And she was working in a forest
right next to a jewelry store.
[00:20:45.110]
And the manager comes next door and she
says, Penny, do you need a full time job?
[00:20:51.910]
I need somebody at my jewelry store.
[00:20:54.730]
And she says, No, but
I know someone who does.
[00:20:58.010]
And the next day, I interviewed.
All right.
[00:21:02.930]
Well, two days later I interviewed and
thus started my journey.
[00:21:08.320]
In jewelry.
Nice.
[00:21:09.560]
All right.
Yeah.
[00:21:11.530]
So I was a credit clerk
and then I became a salesman.
[00:21:15.770]
And then after being in sales, your
motivation, you want to become a manager.
[00:21:22.000]
Sure.
Climbing the ladder.
[00:21:23.080]
I was climbing the ladder.
[00:21:24.710]
So I was climbing the ladder.
[00:21:26.320]
And so I was in corporate jewelry and then
made my way into Madison.
[00:21:33.320]
What is corporate jewelry?
[00:21:35.560]
Well, I worked for Fred Meyer Jewelers.
Oh, got you.
[00:21:39.200]
Okay.
So a.
[00:21:40.560]
Big chain stores.
Okay.
[00:21:43.280]
Got it.
Okay.
[00:21:44.310]
I was just trying to picture
a bunch of CEOs buying rings.
[00:21:48.200]
Yeah.
Got it.
[00:21:49.560]
Okay.
[00:21:50.120]
So what was your training like
when you got that first job?
[00:21:52.830]
Oh, it just threw you right into it.
[00:21:55.630]
Oh, just have at it.
[00:21:56.730]
Yeah, have at it and smile and talk.
[00:22:00.910]
The first jewelry store I worked
for was a credit jeweler.
[00:22:07.840]
Okay.
And so basically
[00:22:10.250]
that was completely opposite of what I’m
doing now, mostly
[00:22:14.650]
because f rom that experience,
I was basically
[00:22:18.290]
trying to open accounts for some people
to get them as much credit as they could
[00:22:23.320]
so that they were able
to purchase as much jewelry as.
[00:22:26.320]
They could.
[00:22:27.050]
Okay, so they’re essentially
taking out loans on jewelry.
[00:22:30.040]
Security.
Agreements.
[00:22:31.680]
Interesting.
[00:22:33.010]
And you guys were running the financing
right there?
[00:22:35.840]
Did you run it through a bank.
Or something?
[00:22:37.390]
Yeah, we would run the financing
[00:22:39.530]
and we would sell the accounts
eventually to Wells Fargo.
[00:22:42.840]
Oh, wow.
[00:22:43.450]
Yeah, back in the 90s,
out of the Bay Area.
[00:22:46.190]
What could go wrong?
Yeah, things can go wrong.
[00:22:49.390]
All right.
[00:22:51.240]
Interesting.
[00:22:52.650]
So somebody comes in off the street
[00:22:57.050]
and they’re like, Hey, I want
credit to buy some jewelry.
[00:23:00.930]
Are they expecting
the jewelry to appreciate?
[00:23:03.880]
T hey’re treating.
It like an investment?
[00:23:05.480]
No, they just don’t have the funds.
To buy it.
[00:23:07.600]
Got you.
Okay, they want something,
[00:23:08.830]
they can’t afford it, so they’re going
to get credit so that they can afford it.
[00:23:13.200]
Got it.
[00:23:13.430]
But I moved on from that jewelry store
four years after I worked there.
[00:23:18.030]
But it was good, solid experience.
[00:23:20.390]
How to deal with people, how to deal
with emotion, how to deal with stress.
[00:23:26.480]
For sure.
But I imagine four years at a job.
[00:23:28.830]
Now it’s forever. I guess compared
to some of the resumes that I’ve seen.
[00:23:33.280]
So it’s interesting.
I imagine you said in the.
[00:23:36.630]
80s or what?
It was in the.
[00:23:38.360]
90s.90s, okay.
So internet was not much of a thing.
[00:23:42.310]
Non existent.
All right.
[00:23:43.960]
I imagine just doing credit checks
[00:23:45.450]
and stuff like that where you make
a phone call or how do you call Experian?
[00:23:50.010]
No, we type it in and then we get the.
Oh, nice.
[00:23:53.870]
The dot matrix thing.
Yeah.
[00:23:56.360]
All right.
[00:23:56.830]
Rip it off and check it out, see how many
ones people had, see if they had any.
[00:24:00.770]
Oh, funny.
Yeah.
[00:24:02.200]
Bankruptcy.
Let’s talk about this bankruptcy.
[00:24:05.080]
All right.
Yeah.
[00:24:07.040]
Interesting.
Yeah.
[00:24:08.470]
All right.
[00:24:09.960]
So let’s go back to you
buying this jewelry store.
[00:24:12.120]
Okay.
I mean, you’re going to bounce around.
[00:24:14.680]
That’s what we do.
It’s all good.
[00:24:17.280]
So you’re in a strip mall in Sun Prairie.
[00:24:19.120]
I imagine this got to be a different
feel from the corporate.
[00:24:23.720]
Jewelry stores.
Yeah.
[00:24:25.720]
Okay, so taking us back,
so Fred Meyer brought me out to Madison.
[00:24:31.390]
T hen I worked in the malls
for several years.
[00:24:36.070]
And then I became manager
of Chalmers Jewelers.
[00:24:39.320]
Oh, wow.
Sure.
[00:24:40.650]
I didn’t even think of that.
[00:24:43.040]
Yeah.
[00:24:44.440]
And so going from from the mall
to Chalmers,
[00:24:48.600]
I was thrust right into a huge
independent jewelry store.
[00:24:53.280]
Yeah, it’s a big one.
Yeah, very big.
[00:24:54.990]
Biggest in the county for sure.
[00:24:57.150]
And managing all those sorts of jobs.
[00:25:05.290]
We had the salespeople,
the jewelers, the office people.
[00:25:09.890]
And that’s where I learned a lot and
[00:25:12.450]
how to do business
in an independent environment.
[00:25:15.290]
For sure.
I learned a lot.
[00:25:16.890]
After years with Chalmers Jewelers,
[00:25:19.950]
I moved to Goodman’s Jewelers
downtown on State Street.
[00:25:24.110]
I was a sales manager at
Goodman’s Jewelers.
[00:25:27.310]
T hat’s where I had my foothold of an
[00:25:30.690]
independent jewelry store
and learning that.
[00:25:34.320]
Then I bought the store.
[00:25:36.320]
It’s very different.
[00:25:38.210]
Everywhere I’ve been is very different
from the mall setting to Chalmers to
[00:25:43.050]
downtown Goodman’s Goodman’s,
very old established people.
[00:25:48.750]
Everybody loves Goodman’s Jewelers
[00:25:50.970]
and the Brothers
and what they’ve done for the county.
[00:25:56.480]
And that’s where you learn
[00:25:57.570]
also how to be a good steward is when I
worked at Goodman’s is seeing John Hayes,
[00:26:02.350]
the owner of Goodman’s, how he treats
the community and his customers.
[00:26:07.510]
So here I am in a small, taking it back to
Prairie Jewelers, in a small strip mall.
[00:26:14.600]
I am I’m at a different level, a smaller
[00:26:18.050]
level, but I’m still
very community minded.
[00:26:20.690]
I love some Prairie community.
[00:26:24.690]
But not just that, I
[00:26:26.530]
have the surrounding community customers
that come and see me all the time.
[00:26:30.910]
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
[00:26:31.970]
My De Forest customers, I love those guys.
[00:26:35.320]
One day I had three customers from Rio.
Oh, really?
[00:26:39.830]
From Rio come and…
Oh, interesting.
[00:26:43.810]
Yeah.
They probably all knew each other, right?
[00:26:45.640]
It was a pretty.
Small town.
[00:26:46.360]
No, none of them knew each other.
[00:26:47.590]
It was very odd.
[00:26:48.750]
But yeah, very different.
[00:26:51.420]
Everywhere I’ve worked.
Interesting.
[00:26:53.360]
All right.
[00:26:54.050]
I imagine just the places that you named,
just the walk in traffic is going
[00:26:59.640]
to be different because State Street, you
got people coming and going all the time.
[00:27:03.640]
Where I would think Chalmers is probably
[00:27:05.070]
more of a destination
where it’s located, memory serves.
[00:27:10.170]
But I’m in the mall,
it’s going to be a different game.
[00:27:12.930]
Oh, very much so.
[00:27:15.360]
I am a destination for sure.
[00:27:17.970]
So if somebody walks through my door,
I know that they’re here with a purpose.
[00:27:22.800]
Sure.
Not just killing time.
[00:27:24.740]
Not just killing time.
[00:27:25.840]
Their wife is at the store or whatever.
[00:27:27.360]
But it’s nice.
[00:27:29.210]
It’s a gain, my story is just me.
[00:27:33.050]
So everything
goes through me, relies on me,
[00:27:36.250]
and I have just enough traffic to keep
everyone happy.
[00:27:41.670]
I have to say my customers are very,
very they’re
[00:27:47.400]
great because they understand
that if I’m with one person and somebody
[00:27:51.770]
comes in, they understand that and they
allow me to help them both.
[00:27:56.270]
Sometimes I struggle customers,
sometimes I can…
[00:27:59.930]
They’ll just wait patiently.
[00:28:01.390]
All right.
[00:28:02.600]
Patience.
[00:28:03.720]
I know.
[00:28:05.160]
Is that a thing?
[00:28:06.320]
That’s interesting.
[00:28:08.320]
You’ve owned the business
for a couple of years now.
[00:28:10.360]
Are there any regrets?
[00:28:12.960]
No.
No?
[00:28:13.880]
Okay, well, that’s good.
[00:28:14.590]
Is there anything that you’re like,
Oh, my gosh.
[00:28:17.160]
I wish I would have known that.
[00:28:18.350]
Wish I would have.
[00:28:19.520]
Yeah.
[00:28:21.560]
There’s a lot of regret, not regrets,
[00:28:24.990]
but sometimes when you buy certain
inventory, that’s my only regret.
[00:28:28.950]
And that’s a pathetic little regret.
[00:28:31.770]
You don’t know until you.
[00:28:33.080]
Do it.
[00:28:35.320]
Certain pieces of inventory that I bought
[00:28:37.320]
that are still here after 18 months,
I’m like, God, why did I do that?
[00:28:41.450]
That’s liquidity that could
have went somewhere else.
[00:28:44.080]
Got it.
All right.
[00:28:45.590]
That’s a small regret, and that’s a very
easy learning curve.
[00:28:49.890]
But I imagine with any retail store,
[00:28:52.430]
you have inventory and you probably don’t
order it and it shows up the next day.
[00:28:56.830]
You’re probably guessing
[00:28:58.960]
or estimating what people are going
to want a few weeks or months down
[00:29:01.840]
the road based on trends
and fads and all that stuff.
[00:29:05.040]
Right.
Yeah.
[00:29:05.970]
So the people that I know that own retail
[00:29:08.490]
stores, some of them,
they’re looking out six, nine months ahead
[00:29:11.960]
because when they place their order
for Christmas, they’re placing it in March
[00:29:15.170]
or April for the following,
trying to figure out what’s going to be
[00:29:18.910]
the tickle me elbow in nine months
or whatever it is.
[00:29:22.520]
You know what I mean?
[00:29:23.110]
They’re trying to figure out what the
trend is going to be when you don’t know.
[00:29:28.600]
My store is not a trendy store.
[00:29:30.670]
My store is a classic, solid
[00:29:37.080]
gift giving store and not the small,
tiny little purchase that comes and goes.
[00:29:44.760]
Got it.
My
[00:29:47.400]
solid customers are the ones that buy
engagement rings, anniversary bands, and
[00:29:54.440]
maintain those relationships through their
specific gift giving throughout the year.
[00:30:02.080]
All right, fair.
Maintain the relationship.
[00:30:04.480]
It’s more timeless.
Yeah, more timeless.
[00:30:06.600]
Okay.
Yeah.
[00:30:08.150]
All right.
[00:30:09.240]
From working at all these other places
before you got to this place,
[00:30:12.310]
I imagine you learned some things
not to do with Jory Store.
[00:30:15.880]
You saw like, Oh, those are mistakes,
[00:30:17.280]
or those are things that I can
see they’re operating that way.
[00:30:20.150]
I don’t want to.
[00:30:21.200]
What are some of the things that you
[00:30:22.800]
picked up on that you
learned that you did not.
[00:30:24.560]
Want to do?
Right.
[00:30:26.050]
Well, I don’t want to get myself into
[00:30:31.560]
an agreement with a vendor that forces me
to purchase inventory that I don’t want.
[00:30:38.760]
Okay.
[00:30:39.360]
So there are those vendors that say, Well,
yeah, I can ship you this bead,
[00:30:46.320]
but you have to buy three of these
other beads that nobody else wants.
[00:30:50.210]
So that’s a situation
that I’ve seen happen.
[00:30:53.600]
And unfortunately,
the situations that that happened under,
[00:31:00.080]
nobody knew that that was coming
until it happened.
[00:31:03.750]
And then you’re just in.
[00:31:05.530]
Trouble with it.
[00:31:07.170]
Got it.
[00:31:09.230]
So what else?
[00:31:11.730]
I think it’s mostly inventory.
[00:31:13.310]
It’s like
getting yourself stuck with a bunch
[00:31:16.710]
of inventory that you don’t
want because what is that?
[00:31:19.430]
That’s an anchor.
[00:31:20.650]
It’s really a.
Bad thing.
[00:31:22.240]
Yeah, it’s just capital sitting there
[00:31:23.480]
that’s not necessarily appreciating
or earning you anything.
[00:31:26.030]
I imagine just like any retail store,
you bank on turnover.
[00:31:31.960]
Yeah.
It’s taking up space, not moving.
[00:31:34.160]
Yeah.
[00:31:34.270]
And most things, not most things, but some
things I can get in less than three days.
[00:31:40.320]
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
[00:31:41.400]
Okay.
I mean, I can get loose diamonds tomorrow.
[00:31:44.360]
All right.
[00:31:45.170]
So that’s the beautiful
thing about diamonds.
[00:31:48.250]
It’s the ring itself
that needs to be manufactured.
[00:31:51.890]
Got it.
[00:31:53.040]
All right.
[00:31:54.960]
So tell me, the diamond thing is
always just so interesting to me.
[00:31:58.760]
I know.
Me, too.
[00:32:00.840]
Like, right?
[00:32:02.200]
So I just imagine,
is there some warehouse, or I meant to be,
[00:32:04.800]
it’s just like a room because
diamonds aren’t that big.
[00:32:07.080]
Where diamonds, all the diamonds are,
[00:32:10.360]
and they just get distributed
to all the jewelry stores.
[00:32:12.390]
Or how does that distribution work?
[00:32:18.280]
Yeah.
So generally speaking, there’s diamond
[00:32:20.600]
vendors that are out of large
cities, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles.
[00:32:28.310]
These large companies, they’ll focus
[00:32:35.960]
usually on three different
kinds of diamonds.
[00:32:40.600]
Some are more expensive,
well cut diamonds that cost more.
[00:32:48.600]
Some are the bulk of everything.
[00:32:50.930]
Yeah, we have a little bit of everything.
[00:32:53.210]
And then some are more specialty cuts or
[00:32:57.840]
high value color diamonds,
say like a canary yellow diamond.
[00:33:02.230]
Some are very specific that way.
[00:33:04.410]
Okay.
[00:33:07.200]
So you’re right.
[00:33:07.800]
I mean, it doesn’t take a whole lot of
room to have a whole bunch of diamonds.
[00:33:10.830]
But their business model is to
[00:33:16.040]
take the call, give you the price,
ask you if you want it,
[00:33:20.730]
and get it in a FedEx box as soon as
possible, out the door and to you.
[00:33:26.600]
All right.
[00:33:28.960]
And again, that’s trust.
[00:33:31.120]
Have I gone through diamond vendors that,
[00:33:33.720]
yeah, this is what I have and this is what
I send you, and it’s a disappointment?
[00:33:37.190]
A piece of glass or something?
[00:33:39.530]
Not glass, but it’s just not graded.
[00:33:42.010]
It’s not as nice a diamond as
was explained to me or such.
[00:33:50.360]
Those ones you tend to not
order from anymore.
[00:33:53.270]
You stick with the ones that you trust,
[00:33:56.010]
that deliver and give you what is
expected All right.
[00:34:00.710]
How do you learn
what to look for in a diamond?
[00:34:04.770]
Because you see the little glasses
and those things are so small.
[00:34:08.680]
Just experience.
[00:34:09.490]
But diamonds are graded off of
a few different things.
[00:34:15.230]
The four Cs.
You got it.
[00:34:18.200]
Clarity.
[00:34:20.120]
Oh, my goodness gracious.
[00:34:21.200]
I should know this.
[00:34:22.970]
My wife is like, Oh, my God.
Damn.
[00:34:24.960]
Sorry.
[00:34:26.330]
Cut, clarity, color, and carat weight.
Oh, okay.
[00:34:32.360]
And how heavy.
It is.
[00:34:33.280]
Got you.
Okay.
[00:34:34.840]
Yeah.
[00:34:35.490]
So it’s all graded on these
four different things.
[00:34:38.750]
And that’s a whole other story.
[00:34:41.890]
But basically, the Gemological Institute
of America came up with these guidelines.
[00:34:48.090]
And as jewelers, we
try and stick by those grading systems.
[00:34:56.070]
And you said, how do you know?
[00:34:57.950]
It’s just from experience.
[00:34:59.560]
It’s under a microscope,
you’re looking at it.
[00:35:01.750]
How many inclusions give you clarity
[00:35:04.570]
and location and the size and the color
and all these different things.
[00:35:09.230]
And it’s no way to really
explain to a person until you just dive.
[00:35:14.090]
Into it.
Sure.
[00:35:15.030]
A lot of those, I think of something
[00:35:17.610]
like color, that seems to be
almost a subjective judgment.
[00:35:22.280]
Or is there some laser that they shoot
[00:35:24.090]
at it and they’re like,
This is whatever color science says.
[00:35:27.850]
It’s this.
Yeah.
[00:35:28.870]
Color is actually lack of color.
Oh, okay.
[00:35:31.890]
So diamonds are graded
upside down against master stones.
[00:35:39.200]
Okay.
[00:35:40.090]
So there’s stones that gemologists
have set up with…
[00:35:46.650]
Okay, so color starts at D,
and then it goes down the alphabet.
[00:35:52.200]
Def is colorless.
[00:35:54.400]
Okay.
[00:35:56.160]
Ghij is near colorless.
Okay.
[00:35:59.330]
And then LM on down is just warmer
and warmer and warmer as it goes.
[00:36:04.680]
Got it.
[00:36:05.720]
So if you compare a diamond that you don’t
[00:36:07.610]
know the color on to a master
set of color stones, you can match it up.
[00:36:15.670]
You can go, Okay, it’s a G, H, it’s I.
[00:36:19.030]
It matches up to the I in the color.
[00:36:21.110]
And so that’s the way they can grade it.
[00:36:23.470]
Because your I, there’s no way
[00:36:26.570]
your I can distinguish
an E to a G if I went, Okay, what’s that?
[00:36:32.960]
And you’re looking at it.
[00:36:34.240]
There’s no way you’re going
to go, Oh, that’s a G.
[00:36:37.680]
But if you held them together,
you’d go, That E looks whiter than.
[00:36:42.030]
The G.
I imagine even just different light.
[00:36:44.930]
You’re outside, 100 %.
[00:36:46.240]
Light.100 %.
[00:36:47.850]
That’s what makes diamonds so…
[00:36:52.680]
Well, you said subjective,
but they’re graded objectively.
[00:36:57.360]
All right.
That’s okay.
[00:36:59.530]
But people’s tastes and their eyes,
[00:37:05.760]
they like one thing or
the other oftentimes.
[00:37:08.930]
So the market may say,
I like the look of an H.
[00:37:12.120]
Yeah.
[00:37:14.000]
So you mentioned lab diamonds.
Yeah.
[00:37:17.600]
Is that what they’re called?
Lab created diamonds.
[00:37:19.680]
Lap created diamonds.
Lap grown diamonds.
[00:37:21.910]
Lap grown.
So can you tell us about those?
[00:37:24.920]
Sure.
[00:37:25.680]
So this is an example
of my small lab grown collection.
[00:37:32.800]
I see that I’ve sold quite
a few here that need to be replaced.
[00:37:36.810]
That’s good.
Yeah.
[00:37:38.790]
So lab grown diamonds are…
[00:37:40.450]
I’ll just show you.
[00:37:43.680]
They are diamond diamonds
that are grown in a lab,
[00:37:49.720]
basically, instead
of being mined out of the ground,
[00:37:54.890]
delivered to the surface of the earth
by a volcano like natural diamonds are.
[00:38:00.330]
They’re delivered in
[00:38:06.800]
a basically not an oven or anything like
that, but they’re grown, lab grown.
[00:38:11.000]
With
[00:38:13.560]
a lab grown diamond, you can get a whole
lot of diamond for a lot less money.
[00:38:18.800]
Okay.
Yeah.
[00:38:20.370]
It’s a very affordable way to have
[00:38:22.630]
a diamond and a good diamond,
but not pay the natural diamond prices.
[00:38:29.680]
Is there any downside?
[00:38:32.570]
The downside is most likely…
[00:38:38.490]
The only downside is the
reason you buy jewelry at all.
[00:38:44.810]
The tradition, the folklore,
the romance of having a diamond.
[00:38:55.090]
Some might argue that’s the reason
you should buy a lab drone.
[00:38:59.240]
So there’s a lot of emotions
[00:39:01.130]
involved in terms of buying
a natural diamond or a lab diamond.
[00:39:04.550]
Okay, sure.
So I have folks who buy natural diamonds
[00:39:09.130]
for their engagement ring, but
they’re very happy
[00:39:15.160]
with a pair of lab grown diamond stud
earrings that are going to sparkle
[00:39:20.010]
and give off all sorts
of brilliance and scintillation for
[00:39:25.120]
more than half or less than
half the price of natural.
[00:39:28.840]
So it’s pretty.
Substantial difference.
[00:39:29.960]
Very substantial.
All right.
[00:39:32.290]
And to me, that looks cool.
Yeah.
[00:39:34.680]
Can people tell, oh,
that’s a lab grown diamond?
[00:39:38.030]
No, you have to be very trained to even
[00:39:42.010]
have an idea that they’re
lab grown or over natural.
[00:39:45.680]
All right.
Yeah.
[00:39:47.230]
There’s a danger in that, too, because.
[00:39:51.120]
You buy something
that you’re told is real.
[00:39:53.600]
Right.
Is it lab grown?
[00:39:55.680]
Well, the beauty of all of my lab grown
diamonds, they all have
[00:40:00.850]
a lab grown cert number engraved on their
girdle on the side of the diamond.
[00:40:06.400]
You can’t see it with your eye,
but I can see it under a microscope.
[00:40:09.510]
So that keeps everybody
aware of what’s lab grown and what’s not.
[00:40:16.560]
With
[00:40:17.960]
the idea being that you couldn’t then sell
it as a real one and somebody says, Hey.
[00:40:22.480]
Exactly.
Got it.
[00:40:23.920]
Exactly.
Yeah.
[00:40:25.370]
So some people would…
[00:40:30.280]
They want lab grown diamonds
throughout their engagement ring also.
[00:40:34.400]
All right.
So it’s all up to the customer.
[00:40:36.970]
So these rings are actually all very small
[00:40:39.770]
lab grown diamonds that I can have
a lab grown loose diamond set into it.
[00:40:48.040]
All right.
[00:40:50.320]
So the nice thing is I
[00:40:54.080]
can give you what you want at the price
you want at the value that you want.
[00:41:05.040]
In jewelry, there’s so much communication
because
[00:41:09.360]
we were talking about the guy who walks
in and doesn’t know what’s going on.
[00:41:13.090]
I have to make sure that I give him
[00:41:16.370]
enough information
that he can make an informed decision.
[00:41:20.990]
But of course, I
[00:41:23.530]
can’t have a five hour lecture over
this is the history of everything.
[00:41:30.160]
We rally and talk about different
things and get to the end.
[00:41:36.870]
And I make sure people
are happy along the way.
[00:41:40.290]
Stop, take a breath, enjoy the process.
Fair.
[00:41:44.490]
It should be fun. L ab Drone Diamond,
how long have these been around?
[00:41:51.450]
Well, they’ve been around since the ’70s.
Has they really?
[00:41:54.560]
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
[00:41:55.570]
General Electric, well, probably the ’60s,
[00:41:57.790]
but the ’70s, General Electric
started making them.
[00:42:02.450]
The thing was they weren’t gem quality,
[00:42:06.150]
except for a few of them,
because they were very yellow.
[00:42:09.630]
Nitrogen makes diamonds yellow,
[00:42:11.590]
and they couldn’t keep the nitrogen
out of the process.
[00:42:15.970]
But in all essential purposes,
[00:42:19.450]
lab drone diamonds have been around
for about six or seven years,
[00:42:24.330]
but most recently in the last two or
three years have been very available.
[00:42:30.010]
It’s been that recent.
Yeah, very recent.
[00:42:32.630]
So it’s a shock to the system,
to the jewelry industry.
[00:42:37.720]
Right.
So has that come around because
[00:42:41.720]
where natural diamonds come from is
not necessarily the greatest?
[00:42:45.490]
I think it’s opportunity.
[00:42:47.240]
And also
[00:42:50.560]
the availability of the machines to grow
the diamonds have been mass produced,
[00:42:58.970]
thus producing more app diamonds,
giving them more availability.
[00:43:04.130]
Got you.
So supply has gone up.
[00:43:06.090]
Supply has gone up because of supply.
[00:43:10.810]
Demand has gone up because of supply.
Sure.
[00:43:13.080]
Interesting.
All right.
[00:43:14.810]
So I guess prediction wise,
[00:43:19.600]
do you speculate that that’ll
become more the norm and the natural
[00:43:24.160]
diamonds will become more of a fancier
thing and their value will go up?
[00:43:29.200]
I’m only speculating.
Sure.
[00:43:33.160]
I mean, I won’t hold you to it because I.
[00:43:34.410]
Don’t know either way.
[00:43:35.770]
I do imagine that they will be very
popular because they’re more accepted.
[00:43:41.390]
All right.
[00:43:42.850]
Yeah, that’s okay.
[00:43:44.270]
You got what you wanted.
[00:43:46.170]
But to a certain group of people,
they will definitely never be considered.
[00:43:54.050]
Overall, in our industry, I think
we will sell a lot of lab grown diamonds.
[00:43:59.610]
All right.
[00:44:00.930]
Interesting.
[00:44:02.450]
That’s fascinating.
[00:44:04.560]
It’ll be interesting to see,
I guess, what happens.
[00:44:06.610]
That’s a conundrum.
[00:44:08.530]
There’s a whole lot of jewelry stores,
though, that will never sell lab diamonds.
[00:44:14.360]
Oh, really?
Yeah.
[00:44:15.390]
That’s not for us.
All right.
[00:44:18.410]
I don’t have that luxury.
[00:44:19.850]
I sell what people want.
Fair.
[00:44:22.690]
I’m not that way.
[00:44:24.170]
All right.
[00:44:25.850]
We talked a lot about diamonds,
rings, gold.
[00:44:29.120]
Tell us about just some of the other
[00:44:30.720]
things that you have here
because it looks like you have
[00:44:32.930]
a medley.
[00:44:35.520]
Well, at my store at Prairie Jewelers, we
do watch batteries.
[00:44:40.070]
Simple things like watch
batteries and jewelry repair.
[00:44:44.010]
I have a jeweler on site.
[00:44:45.690]
Mike, the old owner, he’s still here,
does jewelry repairs on site.
[00:44:51.650]
Also, I have some silver jewelry
for gifts, lower price point.
[00:44:57.890]
I’ve got gold jewelry,
earrings, color stones, pendants.
[00:45:04.730]
I’ve got little crosses.
[00:45:08.270]
I’ve got a selection of a
lot of different things.
[00:45:11.830]
Gotcha.
[00:45:12.600]
I imagine if you don’t see it here,
you can probably
[00:45:14.510]
figure out how to get it. Yeah.
[00:45:16.370]
Many, going back to the vendor,
I have many resources
[00:45:19.090]
that sometimes I can get things
in the store in less than a week.
[00:45:22.680]
All right.
Oh, wow.
[00:45:23.670]
That’s super cool.
[00:45:24.970]
So is there anything, I guess,
[00:45:26.680]
that you would think if someone was
considering opening up a jewelry store?
[00:45:29.760]
Not in Sun Prairie.
Yeah.
[00:45:31.160]
But considering
[00:45:32.640]
opening up a jewelry store that you think,
hey, you should know this,
[00:45:36.240]
or maybe this is something the
best kept secret of the industry that
[00:45:41.120]
a potential entrepreneur
of a jewelry store should know?
[00:45:44.480]
I would say customer service.
[00:45:49.850]
It sounds so cliche.
[00:45:52.730]
Well,
you could argue pretty strongly customer
[00:45:55.890]
service has gone down
over the past few years.
[00:45:58.490]
I guess from my experience,
[00:46:00.170]
not necessarily everywhere,
but in a lot of places.
[00:46:03.480]
Mine too.
[00:46:05.010]
If you see a kiosk instead of a person,
it probably wasn’t like, oh, that sucks.
[00:46:09.590]
I mean customer service and
[00:46:12.450]
communication
in the jewelry business is so important.
[00:46:18.850]
Don’t thrust your opinions on someone.
[00:46:22.850]
Let them expose what they want
and why they want it.
[00:46:29.310]
And if it’s an absolute ridiculous
situation, then tell them why.
[00:46:34.430]
That’s not a good idea.
[00:46:35.790]
But
I don’t think there’s any secrets except
[00:46:39.650]
being honest and trustworthy
and follow through.
[00:46:42.330]
Well, that’s huge for any business, right?
Yeah.
[00:46:46.950]
Name of the game.
[00:46:48.040]
I love it.
[00:46:49.680]
Under promise,
[00:46:51.170]
over deliver.
Fair.
[00:46:53.730]
That’s the game.
[00:46:56.360]
So you’ve had this business
for a couple of years.
[00:46:57.830]
Where do you see it going
in the next et’s say 3 to 5?
[00:47:01.800]
Yeah.
[00:47:03.240]
I see myself as the go to in this regional
[00:47:07.370]
area of the place you want
to buy your engagement ring.
[00:47:11.280]
All right.
[00:47:11.750]
That’s all I ask is that if you’re looking
for an engagement ring or an anniversary
[00:47:16.890]
band, you make an appearance,
walk through my door, give me a shot.
[00:47:20.720]
All right.
That’s all.
[00:47:21.650]
I ask.
That seems simple enough.
[00:47:23.490]
Yeah.
People seem to be getting married all
[00:47:25.480]
the time.
Right.
[00:47:25.950]
Engaged all the time.
[00:47:27.330]
They’re always love in the air.
[00:47:30.530]
Yeah. Valentine’s Day
is just around the corner.
[00:47:33.240]
That’s funny.
[00:47:34.360]
Where can people find you?
[00:47:35.670]
Just for address and website.
[00:47:38.880]
Sure.
[00:47:40.240]
SunPrairieJewelers.com.
[00:47:42.000]
All right.
Easy enough?
[00:47:43.360]
Yes.
SunPrairieJewelers.com.
[00:47:45.587]
And we’re located at 976
West Main Street here in Sun Prairie.
[00:47:52.680]
I often say
right near Chang Jiang Restaurant,
[00:47:56.650]
or if you don’t know where Chang Jiang
Restaurant is, right by Saint Vinnies.
[00:48:02.840]
And we’ve been here for 40 years
and we have plenty of parking.
[00:48:07.800]
40 years doing anything is a long time.
That’s right.
[00:48:11.110]
That’s super cool.
[00:48:12.160]
I appreciate you being on the show, Art.
[00:48:13.750]
Thank you.
[00:48:14.880]
This has been
Authentic Business Adventures.
[00:48:16.120]
The business program that brings you
the struggle
[00:48:18.550]
stories and triumphant successes
of business owners across the land.
[00:48:22.480]
We are locally underwritten
by the Bank of Sun Prairie.
[00:48:24.640]
Authentic Business Adventures is brought
[00:48:25.590]
to you by Calls on Call,
offering call answering services
[00:48:29.010]
for service businesses across
the country on the web at callsoncall.com.
[00:48:33.330]
As well as The Bold Business Book,
[00:48:35.680]
a book for the entrepreneur in all of us
available wherever fine books are sold.
[00:48:39.560]
We’d like to thank you,
our wonderful listeners,
[00:48:41.070]
as well as our guests, Art Fish,
the owner, newish, of Prairie Jewelers.
[00:48:45.570]
And Art, can you tell us
that website one more time?
[00:48:49.330]
SunPrairieJewelers.com
[00:48:51.850]
SunPrairieJewelers.com.
[00:48:54.190]
Also on Facebook.
[00:48:55.750]
Oh, thank you.
[00:48:56.880]
Instagram, all that good stuff.
Sure.
[00:48:58.350]
All right.
Well, it’s endless.
[00:49:00.880]
Endless.
[00:49:00.920]
Speaking of which,
if you could do us a huge favor when you
[00:49:03.400]
watch and listen to this,
if you could give us a big old thumbs up,
[00:49:06.610]
subscribe, and of course,
share it with your entrepreneurial friends
[00:49:10.010]
as well as the people that like
jewelry because it can’t hurt.
[00:49:13.790]
It can’t hurt.
Thank you for watching.
[00:49:16.440]
We will see you next week.
I want you to stay awesome.
[00:49:18.360]
And if you do nothing else,
enjoy your business.