How to start a jewelry business in 2026

In the US, about $8,482 to $28,849 for one maker at a bench in our jewelry business plan's itemized ranges — the bench and chair, the flex shaft and torch, hand tools, finishing gear, the opening metal at the refiner's dated prices, stones and findings, the first castings, a burglary-rated safe, insurance at Insureon's medians, photography, packaging, a first season of markets, the registrations and two months of running costs. A kitchen-table start from the makers' list prices is $2,058.46 — the Foredom flex-shaft kit ($599.76), a Bench Basics starter kit ($285), a saw frame ($22.17), a butane torch ($34.88), an ultrasonic ($74.95), five ounces of sterling ($287.70), a year of general liability ($454) and a Texas LLC ($300) — and $3,045.16 with a $699 bench and ten ounces of silver. A shop adds rent at $25.65 a square foot a year, about $2,138 a month for 1,000 square feet.

In the US there is no jeweler's license in the four states we read, and the paperwork is the sales tax. Texas says outright that a general business license is not required, but every seller registers for the 6.25 percent sales tax and uses Form 01-339 to buy materials for resale tax-free; Florida registers you for its 6 percent tax with an annual resale certificate, and a city may levy a local business tax; New York registers you before you sell even once a year from home, and jewelry is taxable despite the clothing exemption; California issues a seller's permit at 7.25 percent plus district taxes, a temporary permit for a market season of 90 days or less, and Los Angeles registers the business for a tax certificate. Form the LLC ($300 in Texas, $100 plus $25 in Florida, $200 in New York, $70 plus an $800 annual tax in California) and check your city's rules. Buying gold from the public is the one licensed activity.

For stores, the only openable survey says yes at the top and no at the bottom: in Instore's 2025 survey of 630 jewelers, more than one in five owners earned over $250,000 last year, 4 percent earned $500,000 to $1 million and a little over 1 percent more than $1 million — while 13 percent of stores sold under $250,000, and the Jewelers Board of Trade counted 177 discontinuances against 97 new businesses in one quarter. For makers the profit is the formula: wholesale at about 50 percent of retail, a net of 25 to 40 percent at retail after all costs, with Etsy taking a 6.5 percent transaction fee plus 3 percent and 25¢ processing and a 20¢ listing, or Square 3.3 percent plus 30¢ online. No openable survey prints a maker's median income; employed jewelers' 2025 median is $52,540.

Employed jewelers and precious stone and metal workers had a median of $52,540 a year in 2025 — $25.26 an hour — with $47,590 in Texas, $60,790 in California and $61,720 in New York (O*NET, from BLS data), in a survey that leaves out the self-employed, who are many of the trade. Store owners are another matter: more than one in five earned over $250,000 last year in Instore's 2025 survey, and 4 percent earned $500,000 to $1 million. No openable page prints a self-employed maker's median; the makers here describe covering $600 of rent from a month of farmers markets three months in, and funding the next order from the last one.

The makers here say yes with conditions. The trade is shrinking slowly — 23,497 jewelry businesses in North America at mid-2025, down 3 percent on the year, with employed jewelers projected to decline to 2035 — and the metal has made gold pieces expensive: Maguire's 14-karat casting alloy was $131.74 a pennyweight on October 19, 2026 and spot gold $4,018.57 an ounce on October 23. What works, in their words, is a market table before a website, orders that fund the next batch of metal, custom rings and repairs that earn the most per hour, an email list that outlasts the algorithm, and a shape you can fund — a $2,058.46 kitchen-table start from list prices rather than a shop at $2,138 a month in rent.

No openable page shows a jewelry business started with nothing, but one maker here describes the nearest route: Izaskun Zabala started in 2012 with no investors and no savings set aside, and used the money she had to produce an order, deliver it and get paid quickly enough to keep going — wholesale accounts and private clients grew from there. Under $100 buys a saw frame ($22.17) and a butane torch ($34.88), not a business; $300 is roughly a Bench Basics starter kit ($285); $500 does not reach the Foredom flex-shaft kit ($599.76). The lean start with a year of liability insurance and a Texas LLC is $2,058.46 from list prices. A curated brand can list on Etsy for a 20¢ listing fee, but the inventory is the cost.

With a pulse-arc welder, spooled chain, jump rings, a market table and the sales-tax paperwork. No maker's or dealer's page we could open prints the welder's price; the chain does — 14-karat gold-filled flat oval cable is $79 for five feet at Pepetools, about $15.80 a foot. The owners here all started at pop-ups: Krista Robbins bought a welder and practiced for three months before launching from home in 2022 and taking a Richmond storefront in 2024, with chains from around $50 to $500; Kelsey Thomas in Texas did a few pop-ups and it took off; Chelsea Vadnais held her first pop-up at the salon where she still works. California issues a temporary seller's permit for sales in one location for 90 days or less; New York registers you before the first market.

The maker's shape in this guide: a bench in a spare room, casting sent out, pieces sold at markets, online and by appointment. From the makers' lists, the Foredom K.2820 flex-shaft kit is $599.76, a Bench Basics starter kit $285, a saw frame $22.17, a butane torch $34.88, an ultrasonic $74.95 and a Gerstner bench $649 or Esslinger's $699; sterling casting grain was $57.54 a troy ounce at Maguire on October 21, 2026. Register for sales tax before the first sale even from home — New York says so in as many words — get the resale certificate for the metal and stones, insure the table at Insureon's $38 a month median, and buy a burglary-rated safe ($750 to $1,800) before the stock is worth stealing. Our jewelry business plan itemizes the full start at $8,482 to $28,849.

With the inventory and the platform's fee stack read first. Etsy charges a $0.20 listing fee, a 6.5 percent transaction fee on the full order including shipping, and 3 percent plus $0.25 in payment processing; Square's free plan takes 3.3 percent plus 30¢ on online card payments with no monthly fee. On $9,000 of monthly sales across 45 orders that is about $311 on your own store or $875 through Etsy, our jewelry business plan's arithmetic. The federal wording rules apply to every listing — gold with its karat, sterling at 925, plated said plainly, lab-grown called lab-grown — and California's lead and cadmium limits apply to any piece shipped into the state. Shopify's US plan prices did not open for our reader; its page served Australian dollars.

From the metal's price this week and the trade's formula. Wholesale starts at materials plus labor plus overhead — the floor — and typically runs at 50 percent of retail, or 50 to 60 percent for consignment — and a healthy net at retail after all costs is 25 to 40 percent (Craftybase, 2026; Jewelry Making Journal). So a sterling pendant with $20 of silver and an hour's work wholesales near $100 and retails near $200. The silver in it: a 10-gram piece holds $18.53 at the $57.64 a troy ounce Maguire printed on October 19, 2026, and the price moves daily, so a list set last spring loses money this fall. Check it monthly, and quote custom work with a deposit.

In the US, only as the FTC's Jewelry Guides allow. "Gold" without qualification means 24-karat; anything less states its karat conspicuously beside the word, and since the 2018 revision there is no minimum karat for calling an alloy gold, only the duty to say which; "vermeil" is sterling plated with at least 10-karat gold; "silver" needs an accurate quality mark, and sterling means 925 parts per thousand; a lab-grown diamond is sold as laboratory-grown. And any karat or sterling stamp must carry your registered trademark or your name beside it under the Stamping Act — the USPTO's application is $350 a class. Children's pieces add the 100 parts per million lead limit and a tracking label; California caps lead and cadmium in adult jewelry too.

A styling rule, not a business one: two bold pieces, one medium and one small accent spread across hands, neck and ears — or two pieces in a lead metal, one in an accent metal and one two-tone. Only a question-and-answer site opened with a definition; no pricing source, the FTC's Guides or the Stamping Act use it. The business rules that do have numbers are the wholesale formula (about 50 percent of retail) and the federal 100 parts per million lead limit for children's pieces.

In independent stores, rings: they made up the largest share of sales, an average 27 percent, followed closely by earrings and necklaces, in National Jeweler's 2016 survey, and the average price per unit sold was under $1,000; in December 2023 diamond earrings were 10 percent of the month's sales and watches 13 percent. At markets, the makers here sold earrings and bracelets first, and permanent-jewelry studios sell bracelets by the appointment at $50 to $500 a chain. Custom rings and repairs are where a small maker earns the most per hour.

In the US, yes in every state we read — it is the one licensed activity in the trade. Texas registers crafted precious metal dealers with the Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner and holds each purchase 11 days; Florida registers secondhand dealers with the Department of Revenue at $6 a location plus the fingerprint cost and holds jewelry and precious metals 30 days; New York City's secondhand dealer license is $340 for two years; California's comes from the police chief or sheriff. Federally, a business that bought more than $50,000 of jewelry or precious metal and sold more than $50,000 in the prior year is a dealer under FinCEN's rule and runs an anti-money-laundering program. A maker who only sells new pieces skips all of it. Confirm the details with your accountant.