Awesome! Thank you so much for this note. I look forward to meeting you in PJX - I hope you're coming to one of my talks. Dana

Hello Atlanta!!! I've been there and loved my 5 day stay. You're very welcome for the video.

Hello Elizabeth from Minneapolis!

Thank you for this note! Glad you're back in the swing of things!

You got this! I often feel that when one door closes, another opens. I know it's cliche. However, that's how life has worked out. As long as you're constantly on the hunt for the opportunities and the silver lining, you will get there. Unfortunate, and even terrible, things happen all the time. The difference between success and failure is how you view and use those challenges. Always keep that in mind. I came from zero money because we were poor immigrants (I can tell you stories about how I had to stand aside during gym class in elementary school and watch as other kids play dodgeball etc because we couldn't afford proper running shoes and in those days, teachers were jerks . I couldn't bring myself to tell my parents this because I knew we could barely afford rent. My parents don't speak English and at the time, my dad was cleaning floors and my mom worked in a cafeteria - 2 minimum wage jobs in a large city with 2 kids. Their families LOST everything when the communists confiscated their businesses and land over night). You can start from nothing again and win it. The key is resilience. I am with you, Sister!

Hello Florida! Thanks for watching and for this note, Michelle. Best, Dana

Hello LA and Dallas!!! Great to see this - you have much warmer weather than I do.

Hello Ms. Houston!!!

Hello from this side of the pond! Hope you're having a good day, Ms. London.

Hi Miss Missouri ;) thanks for watching and letting me know!

Hello - so happy to read this! I have close friends from Jamaica - warm people who like to laugh and party. Thanks for watching!

LOL - if you have a small population and very little foot traffic, consider doing events, weekend markets and create events yourself by reaching out to local sports leagues to set up and donate a portion of the sales to their league. My mentor once said "Don't wait for business to come to you, you go to the business. Observe what the people, you want as customers, are doing, wearing and watching. GO TO THEM." Make it a challenge for yourself. It's video gaming - and you can slay it!!!

Hello Bellingham! Thanks for letting me, Cindy. Hope you enjoyed the video

It isn't recommended because a larger number of people are allergic to it. It contains nickel and also seen as a cheaper substitute for sterling silver - so it is seen as an inferior product. Unless it is very chunky, the difference in cost of Italian 925 silver to stainless steel is minimal. Silver would be approx US$2 - $2.80 for a 7" bracelet. You can charge more for it and easily make up the difference. Providing a superior product will help elevate your branding as well.

Hello Houston! Thanks for watching.

Hello Uganda! This is very interesting, indeed. Thanks for watching.

Agreed, that is true of any business, in any industry. It just so happens that the upside potential for this is much bigger than mature industries such as traditional jewelry or beauty industry - at this point in time. This, too, will eventually mature, as have Pandora style bracelets. Each person should perform a SWOT analysis, focusing on the opportunities and competition, that is particular to their market. THey should also really consider how much time and effort they can commit to this , or any new venture. I believe that is why so many small businesses fail - many don't understand the obsession for success that one must have to reach explosive success. There's luck and timing, but also a huge amount of commitment.

@@stonesandfindings I think your reply is more in-line with reality vs what came across in the video, and is very valuable advice. And again I appreciate the message of inspiration, Pj margins are great. But so is coffee, makeup and shoelaces. I understand your motives and really I respect the business you’ve built. social media has blurred the lines between “friend” and someone trying to sell you something.. so I guess sometimes I feel the need to make sure newbies popping around Facebook and KZfaq have a sense of the big picture.

I appreciate your thoughtful responses. It is completely true - there are many things that have great margins and people can make money doing all sorts of things. It is often difficult to encapsulate that in one video. I wanted to make a video in response to a number of questions I had been receiving "Is permanent jewelry a profitable business?" And it really is. Perhaps it is a combination of high margins + it is on trend, which may change or become saturated soon. I would like to think that it would morph into mainstream as tattoos have, and the bigger market, would be customized jewelry (made to measure) for all jewelry retailers. I am a data collector and that's actual data from customers of ours, who tend to higher quality and are perhaps more marketing savvy. Mind you, I am certain there are customers who don't respond to my questions because they have not been doing well, hence, skewing my results. That's a distinct possibility. There are so many variables and it's so hard to put that into a short video. I had posted a video last year, where I just rambled about whether PJ is right for you. In it I talk about all that it takes and there are so many other ways of making money; unless you love being in front of people, working closely with them, committed to really hard work and sacrificing your free time, it's not for you. Interestingly enough, I have seen a great deal of resistance from traditional jewelry retailers. Perhaps there is an elitist view that it is not real jewelry - rather it is kitsch. I have not been able to break through to them. The ones who have embraced wholeheartedly, have done well, and I mean really well. On the other hand, I have seen a couple of stores where, they've purchased a welder (either from me or from someone else, but we sell them the chains), but the long-time employees have just put it to the back instead of creating a marketing campaign to launch it and shout out to everyone that they have it. It confounds me. I feel that you have to be in it 100% - everyone must be on board. It's not just getting the machine or high quality chains. You have to work at it. Yes, coffee has perhaps even bigger margins. We see so many fold, we see Starbucks going strong, we see boutique roasters doing extremely well. There is variance as with any business. It is a given that one must work and put effort into it. The thing that makes PJ different is that it is still in the naissance of the trend for most places. This is your opportunity to get in and work hard and then cross the chasm into wealth and empire building.

@@stonesandfindings Thank you for the reply. the question of "is PJ a profitable business?" is kind of a funny one. I could ask, is a restaurant a profitable business ? There are so many factors to that answer but the same thing rings true, for every profitable one, there 10 that make little to nothing. I applaud your efforts to try and break down your answer with data collection and there is no doubt people are making a lot of money (myself included) --for now :). Are you running a retail PJ operation or just doing wholesale supplies? Experienced retailers know these trends phase in and out. That is partly why you are getting resistance. Training and Liability issues is another. The duration of the PJ trend for sure has gone beyond my expectations, but I do not agree it's in its early stages in the US. Globally I"m sure, but in every major city here, there are dozens of folks doing it. You yourself are populating a list of PJ vendors (brilliant marketing btw!) by area. So I'm sure you know exactly how saturated it has become. In my case, we are profitable bc we were profitable before PJ. PJ just added massive fuel. But to those without an existing business model and loads of competition entering the market, the answer to "is PJ a profitable business?" is more than likely: no. But that never stopped the dream, and for people like you say, who are committed a 100%. That person will not fail. They will not fail no matter what they do.

I am happy to read that PJ is making you a lot of money. As for the question "is PJ a profitable business?", I can and have said this without hesitation because the high rate of success is what qualifies it to be labelled as such. I definitely would not tell anyone that a restaurant is a profitable business despite some of them being highly profitable. Money making restaurants are the anomaly, not the norm. I can say the same for coffee shops and clothing boutiques - in fact, most brick and mortar (non-service) retail businesses in this current environment. I strongly feel the reason why PJ is such a successful and desirable business is because: 1. it is a service that has no online competitor 2. unlike other services, it (still) has high margins and fast turnaround time 3. taps into the trend of permanence and self-expression in the age of disposable/transience 4. low start up cost (low barrier to entry) As for saturation - yes, it is getting there for many major American cities. It is interesting that I see the same thing for tattoo parlours and I don't really know where that is going. Tattoos were not mainstream when I was growing up - they were always situated in some sketchy basement or above a fast food restaurant. Now, they have taken prime retail locations and there are many of them. I would have thought this would have died down. How many tattoos can one get? How can they afford such high rent? There are so many competing parlours. However, I think tattoos have become mainstream and the good ones are here to stay. I am hoping that permanent jewelry will go the way of these tattoo parlours. I am not running a retail PJ location, but I work closely with many who do, as in I help out and have personal conversations with them on a weekly basis. I ran a jewelry and accessory retail store for about 3 years and wholesaled jewelry to retail boutiques for about 25. I have many loyal customers and long time friends who own jewelry retail boutiques. They are all resistant, and I was only able to convince a few of them to try PJ, by leveraging my friendship and reputation as a long time supplier. They absolutely do not regret it, but still grumble as they are making loads of money. I feel many of my finished jewelry boutique customers have (had) been highly successful before the pandemic and feel things should go back to the way it was. However, there's far more competition from online retailers and people who used to support local brick and mortar have been forced to buy from the likes of Amazon and now will not go back 100%. Who suffers from this? The traditional small boutiques - and it breaks my heart. I think retail and consumer behaviour has changed permanently and one must evolve. I feel the next thing will be to offer customizable length for necklaces and bracelets - on the spot. No waiting for the jeweller to send it out; no trying to measure yourself and order from Amazon on Etsy the approximate length, if they even offer this. It is done on the spot and no extension chains. Every chain length is bespoke. So, I feel my boutique owning friends should all invest in a welder. It's not even about selling to them and definitely not what's in it for me. I can make money doing a lot of things and I don't need this. I just see the evolution so clearly and I'm a business analyst at heart.

Yes, we are based in Toronto. However, we ship all over the world and we are one of the largest distributors of permanent jewelry supplies in the USA. We just love being Canadian and living here! The prices in this video, and as in most of our videos, are in USD.

@@stonesandfindings awesome! Do you do 1:1 trainings for permanent jewelry

So cool! I love your weather!! Thanks for watching.