Perhaps due to the meticulous nature of the craft, the Jewelry Business attracts perfectionists. Holding ourselves to high standards can be an asset, but this tendency can make it difficult to move on in the face of poor performance. Business is full of pitfalls. From marketing to inventory management, we don’t always have the information we need to make “Perfect” decisions. A successful entrepreneur must be able to forgive themselves for making mistakes. And I mean BIG mistakes. I once invested a quarter of a million dollars in a gorgeous new product line that I was sure would be a huge hit. It wasn’t! I had to drastically discount and even melt down a huge part of the inventory. After the initial shock, I realized that I needed to repackage the way I thought of liquidating obsolete inventory. Now I call it “liberating capital” and we do it regularly.
We like to think that our success or failure is the result of talent and hard work. While these elements are important, luck plays a greater role than most of us are willing to admit. In situations where there are many factors out of your control, as in business, luck is often a deciding factor. In The Drunkard’s Walk, Leonard Mladinow explores the role of random chance in our lives. He asserts that ” success or failure sometimes arises neither from great skill nor from great incompetence” but from mere luck of the draw. This is important to remember in fashion. If you hit a trend one year, it does not necessarily mean you will nail it the next year. In fact, the laws of probability almost guarantee that over the course of a career we will sometimes hit it big and sometimes completely bomb. Don’t take it personally, it’s just math!
No one makes the right call all the time. Over the long haul, a successful business person makes more good decisions than bad decisions. But in the short run, how you handle your flops is crucial. Learn from mistakes and move on. Persistence is a better strategy than beating yourself up.
Gorgeous Clasps that Bombed!
50% OFF!
Nina,
This was a great blog! You are so right in business you have to learn from you mistakes and turn them in to a positive.
Comment by LaNorma Huggins-Hopes — August 31, 2009 @ 12:38 pm
Nina,
this is a great story to share, I think this also points to the challenge businesses have (any type of business, really) to continue to innovate and gain new customers. While the clasps you created are gorgeous, perhaps they were not in line w/the Nina aesthetic customers are familiar with, and therefore didn’t embrace them (quickly enough)? Are there ways to test new design ideas without breaking the bank, or using past customer data to inform new designs/innovation? I deal with these questions daily at my day job as well as when trying to decide ways to grow my jewelry design business. It’s not easy!
peggy
Comment by Handmade Jewelry by Peggy Li — August 31, 2009 @ 2:48 pm
Good point. We usually do a great deal of testing but we got carried away in India with all those gorgeous gemstones!
Comment by nina — September 2, 2009 @ 2:18 pm
carried away with the gorgeous gemstones, easy to do …..maybe these would make gorgeous clip earrings though….kind of ladylike in the “madmen” vein also why not do them with silver chain and beads or just the chain. i’d love to see some more of your ” mistakes” i bet you have some beautiful stuff, all best, myra
Comment by myra — September 8, 2009 @ 8:04 am
Hi Myra, I still love the India gemstone collection. If you want to see more, just visit the discontinued discount section of our website. There are some fabulous deals. I think Peggy hit the nail on the head when she suggested this collection might have been too different from what people expect from Nina Designs, even though it is gorgeous. There is a great opportunity for someone to buy up these treasures below cost and re-brand them.
Comment by nina — September 8, 2009 @ 9:33 am