Guts & Glory

When I first heard about Noelle and her store, I have to admit I was skeptical. I figured this must be like the time a friend told me she was opening a bead store only to find out she was sharing office space with a hearing aid salesman. Then Noelle told me she had a great location off of Atlantic Avenue, a well known street in Delray Beach, Florida full of sidewalk cafes, night clubs, and specialty shops. That was it. My curiosity was more than peeked. When I mentioned Noelle's store to a beady buddy of mine, she became as curious as I was: ROAD TRIP!

It didn't take us long to find her store and to finally meet this friendly lady I'd been exchanging emails with for a few months. Noelle had just arrived at the shop with her daughter. After a quick tour, we sat down to enjoy a cup of delicious coffee together and chat about, what else, jewelry making.

After making jewelry for only five years, Noelle was gutsy enough to open her own store, and she is already gloriously successful. It all started with her Body Beads Wrap ™. She saw a necklace and decided to make a similar one, but she didn't know anything about jewelry making. She didn't know how to add a clasp, so she just left it with out one and wrapped it around her necklace. People started complimenting her on her necklace, and the next thing you know she was selling them. Guts & Glory: Business Beginnings
Though her wrap design is still one of her staples, Noelle quickly learned more about making jewelry and eventually started participating in art shows. As many of us know, these shows were exhausting and frustrating. She explained to me how they were "pot luck" until she found Clematis by Night, a street festival held every Thursday evening in West Palm Beach which is just a few minutes north of where her shop is now. "I was finally making some money, and the nicer my displays were, the more money I made. I found a direct correlation," she explained. She also started raising her prices because she started having confidence in her work. In addition, she said it seemed that when she raised her prices, customers seemed to think her jewelry was worth more. It wasn't unusual for her to make $800 in just one night at this weekly festival.

After nine months of Clematis, she made the big leap and opened her store on Atlantic Avenue. Today she pays rent on a gorgeous store in a prime location at a rate of $40 a square foot. And, she is "making it" - literally! "I make jewelry all day and all night, but I love it. I wake up, and I can't wait to get started. I'm constantly thinking up new designs and color combinations," she declared to me.

I know many people are saying, "Is she crazy?" However, after talking with her, she makes a lot of sense. Before she even got started, Noelle explained that she calculated her family's finances and figured out exactly what they needed to live on. With the numbers crunched, she figured out what her costs would be and what she would need to earn. So, instead of paying herself $10-20 an hour like many of us do, she decided she needed to make $100 an hour. She knows the cost of every bead and piece of wire, and she also considers what the market will bear when she decides on the prices to charge.

Guts & Glory:Jewelry Spirit
Though she only opened her shop in September of 2000, Noelle has become so successful that her husband recently quite his job and helps her now. For example, he makes a lot of the wire components which she then assembles into her designs. She still insists on making each piece herself, even though she is constantly asked by other jewelry makers if she needs help. Noelle said she thought it was important to make it herself because it is "her" jewelry.

Besides being approached by jewelry makers about making jewelry for her, Noelle admitted to me that it's not uncommon for a dozen people, like myself, to come in every week and ask her a zillion questions about how she did it. Like me, they are surprised. Both my bead buddy and I were especially surprised at how generous Noelle was with her information and personal experiences about selling jewelry. As many of us have, she's done shows, tried wholesale, done consignment, you name it. What's the difference? Is it just that she has fabulous jewelry? No, she has a lot more going on than just beautiful jewelry. Noelle is dedicated to her goal heart and soul. Just the short time I spent in her shop, I could tell that she can connect with customers, so they aren't just buying a gorgeous piece of jewelry. They are buying a piece of Noelle, a piece of her spirit.

My friend and I left her shop full of ideas and hope for our own jewelry businesses. So, we got to take home a little piece of Noelle's spirit with us too.