Business plan
Sample plan · fictional businessA complete jewelry business plan: Fernwood & Flint Jewelry
Asheville, NC · Startup plan · a fictional jewelry business, written by the free generator from five answers
Executive summary
Fernwood & Flint Jewelry is a new jewelry business in Asheville, NC offering hand-fabricated sterling silver rings, earrings and pendants; 14-karat gold pieces made to order; custom engagement and wedding rings; jewelry repair, resizing and restringing; small wholesale runs for boutiques; and permanent (welded) bracelets at markets and events. The model is one designer-jeweler at a bench in a spare room, making sterling silver and 14-karat pieces in small runs and to order, selling through an online store, at ten markets a year and by appointment, with repairs as the add-on and a storefront later.
Startup budget: $17,666 across 15 items, funded from savings. Target: $9,000 in monthly sales.
Twelve months from now, success looks like this: About $9,000 a month of sales by the end of the first year — forty-five pieces a month at an average $200, online, at ten markets a year and by appointment — with three custom rings a month and a repair bench that pays the studio's rent
Products and services
Fernwood & Flint Jewelry's core product is hand-fabricated sterling silver rings, earrings and pendants. Every piece is priced from the trade's formula, stamped with its quality mark and the registered maker's mark, and sold online, at the market table or on a custom quote with a 50% deposit; repairs are ticketed in and out and shipped back insured.
- Hand-fabricated sterling silver rings, earrings and pendants
- 14-karat gold pieces made to order
- Custom engagement and wedding rings
- Jewelry repair, resizing and restringing
- Small wholesale runs for boutiques
- Permanent (welded) bracelets at markets and events
Market analysis
The customers are people who want a ring or a pendant made by someone they can name; couples ordering a custom ring on a budget a chain can't meet; gift buyers in the eight weeks before the holidays; customers with a clasp to fix or a ring to resize; and the boutiques and galleries that stock local makers.
- People who want a ring or a pendant made by a person they can name, not a mall chain
- Couples ordering a custom engagement or wedding ring on a budget a chain store can't meet
- Gift buyers at markets and online in the eight weeks before the holidays
- Customers with a broken clasp, a ring to resize or an heirloom to restring
- Boutiques and galleries that stock local makers on consignment or wholesale
Marketing strategy
Most pieces will sell to people who saw them on Instagram or tried them on at a market, and most custom rings start by word of mouth from the last couple; the rest find Fernwood & Flint Jewelry on Google — “jewelry repair near me”, “custom engagement ring” plus the city — so the Google Business Profile, the photographs and a website with online ordering and the custom process decide whether a look becomes an order.
- Instagram and TikTok — the bench, the torch, the finished piece on a hand — and the email list they feed
- Markets and craft fairs: ten a year, where people try pieces on and the custom orders start
- Google Business Profile and Google — “jewelry repair near me” and “custom engagement ring” plus your city
- Referrals from every custom-ring couple, and from the wedding photographers and planners who see the rings
- Boutiques and galleries found at the markets, with a line sheet
- A website with the collection, online ordering, the custom-ring process, repairs and your story
Operations plan
The owner is the designer, the bench jeweler, the photographer and the market stall in year one: casting is sent out, finishing and setting are done at the bench, the stock lives in a safe, the price list follows the metal price, and every stamped piece carries the registered mark.
- A bench, a flex shaft, a torch and a saw in a spare room; casting sent out to a casting house, stones set and finished at the bench
- A price list built from the trade's formula — materials plus labor plus overhead, doubled for wholesale and doubled again for retail — and checked against the metal price every month
- Every piece stamped with its quality mark and your registered maker's mark, as federal law requires
- A written quote, a 50% deposit and a sketch for every custom ring; repairs ticketed in and out
- Stock and metal in a burglary-rated safe; a jewelers block policy once the stock is worth insuring
- Online orders shipped insured with a signature; markets booked a season ahead
Startup costs
What it will take to open the doors, funded from savings.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| A jeweler's bench and chair | $457 |
| A flex shaft and a torch | $1,105 |
| Saw frame, blades, pliers, files, hammers, a bench block and mandrels | $550 |
| A rotary tumbler, an ultrasonic cleaner and a polishing motor | $725 |
| Opening metal: sterling sheet, wire and casting grain, and a little 14-karat | $2,388 |
| Stones, chains, clasps, ear wires and findings | $1,250 |
| Casting for your first designs, sent out | $500 |
| A burglary-rated safe | $1,275 |
| Insurance (first year): general liability or a business owner's policy | $678 |
| Product photography: a light tent, backdrops and a macro lens or phone rig | $325 |
| Boxes, pouches, cards and mailers | $650 |
| Market and craft-fair booth fees, a tent, tables and displays (first season) | $1,900 |
| Business registration (LLC), EIN, seller's permit and resale certificate | $170 |
| Website with online ordering and Google Business Profile | $0 |
| Working capital: two months of running costs | $5,693 |
| Total | $17,666 |
Typical range to start a jewelry business in the US: $8,482–$28,849. Your list is what you decided to spend — replace estimates with real quotes as you get them. Website with online ordering and Google Business Profile: Your Zarla plan includes the website — the collection, online ordering, the custom-ring process, repairs and your story — and walks you through your Google Business Profile. Having one built typically costs $1,000 to $2,000 from a freelancer.
Financial plan
The numbers below come from your own startup list and typical monthly costs for a one-maker jewelry business in the US. Startup is the bench, the tools, the opening metal and the first season of markets; the monthly lines are metal, casting, insurance and the markets; and the formula — materials and labor doubled twice — decides what is left after the owner's hours.
Typical monthly operating costs for a jewelry business: $1,629–$5,250 a month, before the owner's own pay.
At $9,000 in monthly sales, Fernwood & Flint Jewelry would clear $3,750–$7,371 a month before owner pay and tax, and recover the $17,666 startup budget in roughly 3–5 months.
| Cost | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Metal, stones and findings (scales with sales; about 45 pieces a month) | $800–$2,000 |
| Casting sent out | $100–$400 |
| General liability or a business owner's policy | $38–$75 |
| Email marketing, bookkeeping and the phone (included with Zarla) | $30–$100 |
| Booth fees, averaged over the year | $100–$400 |
| Ads, giveaways and photography | $150–$500 |
| Boxes, pouches, insured shipping and the postage you don't bill on | $100–$300 |
| Studio rent, if you leave the spare room | $0–$600 |
| Card and marketplace fees (on about $9,000 of sales) | $311–$875 |
US ranges for a small operation; replace with your own figures as you learn them. Lines marked (included with Zarla) are what those tools cost separately — with Zarla they are part of one monthly plan.
Risks and honest downsides
Every jewelry business plan should say out loud what can go wrong. For Fernwood & Flint Jewelry, the real risks are:
- The metal price moves daily, and a price list set last spring loses money this fall
- Markets are the holiday season: half the year's sales land in eight weeks, and a rained-out December Saturday is a week's revenue
- One theft — the car after a market, the spare-room window — without a safe and a jewelers block policy is the whole inventory
- A custom ring that misses the wedding date is a refund and a review
- Hours at the bench don't scale: forty-five pieces a month is the owner's month, and growth means casting more and fabricating less
- A karat stamp without the registered mark or your name beside it, or “sterling” on a piece under 925, is a federal labelling violation
Licenses, permits and insurance
What Fernwood & Flint Jewelry needs before it can legally trade in the US. Rules vary by state and city — confirm each item with your local licensing office and an accountant.
- Business registration, an EIN, a seller's permit and a resale certificate — In the US no state licenses jewelers as an occupation; most makers form an LLC with their state — $40 in Kentucky, $300 in Texas, and California charges an $800 yearly LLC tax on top of its filing fee — take a free EIN from the IRS, register for the state's sales tax before the first sale and use the resale certificate to buy metal and stones tax-free. Confirm the entity choice with your accountant.
- The FTC Jewelry Guides and the Stamping Act — In the US the Federal Trade Commission's Guides for the Jewelry, Precious Metals and Pewter Industries (16 CFR Part 23, revised 2018) decide the words: “gold” on its own means 24 karat, anything less states its karat conspicuously beside the word (the 2018 revision dropped the old 10-karat floor for solid gold; “gold plate” and “electroplate” keep it), “sterling” means 925 parts per thousand, plated pieces disclose the plating, and a laboratory-grown diamond is called one. Under the National Gold and Silver Stamping Act (15 U.S.C. §297) any karat or sterling stamp must be accompanied by your registered trademark or your name, applied the same way, at least as large and as close as possible.
- Lead and cadmium, and children's jewelry — In the US jewelry for children 12 and under is a children's product: no more than 100 parts per million of lead in any accessible part, 90 in a coating, a tracking label and a Children's Product Certificate from a CPSC-accepted lab. California's Metal-Containing Jewelry Law reaches adult jewelry too — no more than 500 parts per million of lead in metal and 200 in plastics, and for children under 15, 100 of lead and 300 of cadmium (since June 1, 2020). Most makers skip children's lines until the testing is worth it.
- Buying gold and secondhand jewelry from the public — In the US a business that bought more than $50,000 of jewelry or precious metal from the public (not from dealers or other retailers) in a year is a dealer under FinCEN's rule (31 CFR 1027) and must run a written anti-money-laundering program; and most states and cities regulate the buying itself — Florida registers secondhand dealers with its Department of Revenue ($6 a location plus the fingerprint cost) and makes them hold jewelry and precious metals 30 days before resale. A maker who only sells skips all of it.
- Insurance — In the US general liability or a business owner's policy covers the studio and the markets — Insureon's jewelry-store medians are $38 and $75 a month — and a jewelers block policy from a specialist insurer covers the stock, the customers' pieces in for repair and the inventory in transit; every market and boutique asks for a certificate.
Milestones: the next 30 days
The first month's to-do list for Fernwood & Flint Jewelry, in order:
- Decide the line — the metals, the price points, custom and repairs — and cost five designs from receipts
- Form the LLC, take the free EIN, open a business bank account, register for sales tax and get the resale certificate
- Apply for the trademark on your maker's mark, and have the stamp made
- Set up the bench, the flex shaft, the torch and the hand tools, and buy the opening metal
- Send the first designs to a casting house and finish them at the bench
- Buy the safe and get liability quotes; ask a specialist about a jewelers block policy
- Photograph the first twelve pieces and put the website live with online ordering and the custom-ring process
- Book the fall and holiday markets now — the good ones fill by summer
- Claim your Google Business Profile for repairs and custom work, and tell every wedding photographer and planner you know
Appendix: what a lender will ask for
This plan tells the story and shows the numbers. If you take it to a bank, expect to be asked for these documents as well:
- Two years of personal tax returns and a personal financial statement
- A month-by-month cash-flow projection showing the holiday season and the custom deposits
- Your price list with the cost of goods per piece, from receipts and the current metal price
- Market acceptances, wholesale orders or consignment agreements
- Proof of liability insurance and a safe for the inventory
- Your credit report and your portfolio