Watch our video about how to make sales using the My Accessory Business catalog. It's fun and easy to do! Then you can download the current summer 2012 catalog to print at home here: www.myaccessorybusiness.com/content/MAB_summer2012.pdf
Or, visit our website in the catalog section to sign up to receive a printed catalog in the mail here: http://www.myaccessorybusiness.com/catalog/
My Accessory Business is a blog that highlights women who have their own businesses and gives business and marketing tips.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Create your own online store for FREE with "Storenvy"
Sell your jewelry, accessories and anything else you sell online for free. Check out this website: http://www.storenvy.com/
Storenvy is a marketplace and store platform for the world's most unique businesses. Shop thousands of indie merchants or open your own store for free.
It's easy to open an online store and social marketplace. It's as easy as blogging!
• You can customize your store to fit the look of the products your selling.
• If your selling jewelry from "My Accessory Business" you can righ click on the picture of the jewelry pieces and save them to your desktop to use in your online store and sell your pieces.
• There are no monthly fees, no set up fee, and no listing fee.
• powerful tools for both beginners and experts.
• Get your store on your facebook page easily.
It's easy to open an online store and social marketplace. It's as easy as blogging!
• You can customize your store to fit the look of the products your selling.
• If your selling jewelry from "My Accessory Business" you can righ click on the picture of the jewelry pieces and save them to your desktop to use in your online store and sell your pieces.
• There are no monthly fees, no set up fee, and no listing fee.
• powerful tools for both beginners and experts.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Woman in Business profile: Divergent Designs Studio
For Liz from Divergent Designs, a unique distinct artisan jewelry business, starting a business blossomed from one simple phrase that she uses to describe her passion: "Art is my life and I live to create." Working in an art related field was a given for her. Liz originally started jewelry design and
construction as a hobby during high
school and went on to minor in jewelry in college because she says that she found it to be a lot of
fun working with all the different types of tools and materials. After college it remained something she did in her spare time she never really thought about it being a real business until
she lost her job as a graphic designer in a local print shop. "I made a pair of
earrings as a gift for a friend and they urged me to pursue it as a business
and I thought, why not? I'd like to work from home, on my own time schedule and
be my own boss. It's my pleasure to share my creations with the world in a
mutually beneficial way." Liz explained.
Liz says that she didn't have to invest a lot of money at the start
for materials or tools since she had acquired a good deal of them already while
it was still just a hobby. She tried to take advantage of as many free
resources as she could, and the internet helped her a lot in that regard. Websites like about.com, manta, linkin, facebook, zibbet,
pinterest and more were very helpful to her in the beginning.
Her jewelry business is unique because she strives to provide distinct artisan jewelry pieces
born from natural materials at affordable prices. Liz believes that quality is
better than quantity. Therefore, all of her items are not mass produced, but are
crafted one at a time for each client. She also believes that time is valuable, so
you won't have to wait long to receive your items. All items are shipped one
business day after receiving cleared payment via USPS priority mail. All items are proudly made in Michigan, USA!
When asked what advice she would give other women who are interested in starting their own business, Liz suggests to find something that gives you happiness and pursue
that. "I know people say that a lot, but its true. If it doesn't make you happy,
you won't have the motivation to actually turn it into a business and keep up
with all the day to day stuff. Your passion and your love for what you do will
show in your work and your customers will respond to you positively as well." Liz said.
"Also, the internet is your friend, use it. It's full
of free resources to help you promote yourself and your business. Join groups,
message boards and post listings for your business." she explains. "However I strongly advise
against using those free business card printing sites, especially ones that put
their logo and info on the back of the card. The stock is wafer thin, the
graphics are generic and the designs aren't anything that will get you noticed.
Invest in a graphic designer for your logo, business cards and banner ads. This
will pay off in the long run when it comes to building a professional image for
your business and building trust with your customers. (I also offer these
services through my graphic design website: http://divergentdesigns.com)" Be sure to check out her graphic designs services also for your own business!
Liz says that nature has inspired a lot of her work. She likes natural
stones and rocks, also really likes bold colors. She says that she's always trying to find
a way to incorporate nature into each piece. But her work in general is also inspired by lots
of things; like the client themselves, the materials, the weather, music,
ancient cultures, textures, anything really. Liz says "Life is full of inspiring moments
if you're paying attention. As for the inspiration to start the business I
would have to say my family and friends for their support, belief and urging me
to open my own shop."
Be sure to visit Liz's websites to see the types of jewelry she creates. They make great gifts for family and friends! While the items in the shop currently focus on
feminine themed jewelry, she plans to expand the inventory to include more
masculine items such as cuff links and tie clips.
Business website:
Contact/purchase:
Facebook & other sites:
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Woman business owner profile: Beth Doane- Andira International
Beth Doane has been an entrepreneur since the young age of only 22 years old. She created Andira International and imported exclusive
European apparel and accessories brands across the U.S. market. Andria International is now a full service consulting firm helping her clients launch their own brands. But Beth's focus is not just on running her successful business, she also wants to make a difference in the world. After witnessing the human rights violations and
environmental pollution so prevalent in the fashion industry she created her
own fair trade line, RainTees, in 2008. She also speaks at a variety of international conferences about human rights and issues relating to helping the environment.
Throughout her journey as a fashion designer and humanitarian, Beth has worked with some of the world's largest corporations. She is an excellent role model as a female entrepreneur. When she speaks at conferences around the world, she hopes to inspire other individuals with her story. The topics she highlights include her journey from being a fashion designer, creating a social business and her work as a humanitarian.
Her company, Andira International, has worked with start-ups as well as major corporations who would like to make their line more sustainable. Beth and her team work with each company to help them manage, design, manufacture, create events and come up with fresh ideas. The types of lines they work with include anything from clothing to skin-care to eye-wear and more.
Her own fashion line, RainTees, launched at the highest attended show at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in 2008 and became an internationally selling brand in its first year. Every RainTee is made by donating school supplies to children living in critically endangered areas around the world and every RainTee plants a tree. To date, RainTees has helped plant thousands of trees around the world and has helped children in over 30 countries.
If you would like more information about Beth Doane and her company Andira International and RainTees, visit:
http://www.andiraintl.com/
http://www.raintees.com/
Throughout her journey as a fashion designer and humanitarian, Beth has worked with some of the world's largest corporations. She is an excellent role model as a female entrepreneur. When she speaks at conferences around the world, she hopes to inspire other individuals with her story. The topics she highlights include her journey from being a fashion designer, creating a social business and her work as a humanitarian.
Her company, Andira International, has worked with start-ups as well as major corporations who would like to make their line more sustainable. Beth and her team work with each company to help them manage, design, manufacture, create events and come up with fresh ideas. The types of lines they work with include anything from clothing to skin-care to eye-wear and more.
Her own fashion line, RainTees, launched at the highest attended show at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in 2008 and became an internationally selling brand in its first year. Every RainTee is made by donating school supplies to children living in critically endangered areas around the world and every RainTee plants a tree. To date, RainTees has helped plant thousands of trees around the world and has helped children in over 30 countries.
If you would like more information about Beth Doane and her company Andira International and RainTees, visit:
http://www.andiraintl.com/
http://www.raintees.com/
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Tips for getting your jewelry seen on Pinterest
Pinterest isn't really set up for advertising. It's set up for sharing photos and information. But using Pinterest can help you get more traffic to your website and make more sales!
Here are some tips for getting your jewelry seen on pinterest:
- If you have your own logo for your jewerly business, place your logo or website address as a watermark on your picture either in the center or better in the right bottom corner.
- If you have a website where you make sales, make sure you add a link to your website to your post. All you have to do is write the web address in and it automatically becomes a link.
- Use popular keywords to describe your product so that it can come up on google searches. "celebrity inspired" "bling" "rhinestones" etc...
- Use tags like (gold like) ("celebrity name" like) (vintage inspired) ("celebrity name" inspired) for items that could be associated with common words that are looked up relating to your target market.
- Use the price of the jewelry in your advertising such a (only $9.99!) be sure to add that to your description because pinterest will add a little banner to the top left corner of your image to let everyone see the price right there at the top of the image.
- Place your images in folders that relate to the category you are trying to market to. For instance, jewelry could be in a folder titled "hot jewelry and accessories" or "my fashion style"
- Take great wonderful artistic shots of your product for pinterest. People are a lot less likely to even look at your picture if it is poor quality. If you buy your jewelry from "My Accessory Business" you can download the pictures from the website www.MyAccessoryBusiness.com and use them on Pinterest.
- Make a step by step description or tutorial on wearing or putting together and outfit with the jewelry. There are a lot of "how to's" on pinterest. People like to get tips on fashion and other informational posts.
- Be sure to post your pinterest posts to your Facebook so your friends can see your activity on there and repost it!
Here are some tips for getting your jewelry seen on pinterest:
- If you have your own logo for your jewerly business, place your logo or website address as a watermark on your picture either in the center or better in the right bottom corner.
- If you have a website where you make sales, make sure you add a link to your website to your post. All you have to do is write the web address in and it automatically becomes a link.
- Use popular keywords to describe your product so that it can come up on google searches. "celebrity inspired" "bling" "rhinestones" etc...
- Use tags like (gold like) ("celebrity name" like) (vintage inspired) ("celebrity name" inspired) for items that could be associated with common words that are looked up relating to your target market.
- Use the price of the jewelry in your advertising such a (only $9.99!) be sure to add that to your description because pinterest will add a little banner to the top left corner of your image to let everyone see the price right there at the top of the image.
- Place your images in folders that relate to the category you are trying to market to. For instance, jewelry could be in a folder titled "hot jewelry and accessories" or "my fashion style"
- Take great wonderful artistic shots of your product for pinterest. People are a lot less likely to even look at your picture if it is poor quality. If you buy your jewelry from "My Accessory Business" you can download the pictures from the website www.MyAccessoryBusiness.com and use them on Pinterest.
- Make a step by step description or tutorial on wearing or putting together and outfit with the jewelry. There are a lot of "how to's" on pinterest. People like to get tips on fashion and other informational posts.
- Be sure to post your pinterest posts to your Facebook so your friends can see your activity on there and repost it!
Monday, July 16, 2012
Woman business owner profile- RetroFIT
Shana M. Byas is helping women get in shape in new and exciting ways with her Michigan based creative workout business RetroFit! Weights and bulky machines
are a thing of the past! YOU are the weights, and YOU ARE THE MACHINE!!
What could be more unique and exciting to do than hula hooping for fitness? S.V.E.L.T.E. (Sculpting
Voluptuous Energetic Ladies Today & EVERYDAY) is a Hula Hoop Aerobics Class
that will burn 400-600 calories per hour, improve posture, and shape you up
into that hourglass figure you want! Each Hula Hoop is weighted
with water and range from 2.5-4lbs! It only costs $10 per person with your own hula hoop and $30 if you need a hula hoop that you can take home with you afterwards to practice.
Shana started her business because she says that she always had a passion for movement and also to get back in shape after high school. Shana said "I danced all my life, and
even choreographed a lot of routines for my HS Pom-Pom Squad. Sadly, after High School and no more Pop-Pom practice, I started putting on weight.....lost it, then put
it back plus 10 more; because I was always on some type of fad diet that gave a
quick result but never lasts long. I blew up to 230 lbs (The
Depo-Provera shot packed on quite a few pounds on me too, so LADIES STAY AWAY
FROM THAT SHOT!). I'm now at 157lbs thanks to the fact that I finally got
it! I finally understood it!"
DIETS SUCK!! Shana wanted to help all the ladies that
struggle to lose weight by helping them realize that its about sculpting what
you have instead of using surgeries, pills, and deprivation (fasting and all that
foolishness)- all you need to do is MOVE! Her suggestion is to cut out the sugar, go easy on the
salt, DRINK WATER, and eat the foods you love, but in moderation.
When asked what makes her business unique, she said, "There are a lot of women
involved in Hula Hoop Fitness, and they all have their own style of doing things.
My company is unique because I come up with strength exercises that can be done
with the hoop.Example, demi-pliés, Leg-extensions, I basically throw in a lot of
Pilate's type movements in the workout to block out boredom. Yes we hoop around
our waist to strengthen our core, but I thrown in lifts and spins to add flare
to the workout too!"
Like most businesses, it takes money to make money and Shana struggled a bit in the beginning to get her business started on a very tight budget. "I'm blessed to have the love and support from my family, friends and my
beau David Skoll! They all had my back in this and believed in my dream,
so all had a part in inspiring me!" Shana said.
She also mentioned that her ad on Living Social created a lot of buzz for her business. The deal offered 5 Hula Hoop Aerobics Sessions+ a weighted
Hula Hoop (that Shana makes herself) for $35/ $25 if you have a hoop and just want
lessons. And 90 people purchased her deal!
When asked what advice she would give to other women who were interested in starting their own business, Shana said "DON'T GIVE UP!! If this is something you
believe in then go for it! We're all here on borrowed time anyways so make the
most of your gift and share it with the world and GIVE BACK!"
For more information about RetroFIT, visit the links below:
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Neat website~ "Lista" helps you turn stuff you don't want into stuff you really want!
Turn stuff you don’t use into stuff you really want!
What a neat concept. I always buy a lot of really random stuff, jewelry, clothes, shoes, etc... but it's so hard to get rid of my stuff because I always feel like I don't want it to go to waste, but I would love to give my old stuff to someone that would really want it and in exchange, get credits to get some new stuff I really want! Check out this neat trading website: http://www.listia.com
Here's how it works:1) List Old Stuff
Give away stuff you don't use anymore like clothes, electronics, DVDs, toys, books... anything!
2) Earn Credits
People bid on your stuff using credits they've earned. Thehighest bid wins.
3) Get New Stuff
Use credits you've earned for giving stuff away and winsomething you want!
When you join, you get 500 free credits. Check it out!
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