Lots of bead store training sessions coming up: September 11 & 12, September 29th & 30th, and October 10 & 11. Please give me a call if you'd like to join us for any of these classes.
Barry 800-230-8941 x201

Since June 1994 we have helped our clients open bead stores in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Illinois, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Maine, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Iowa, Vermont, Texas and Florida. In addition to thorough training in all aspects of operating a retail bead store, we can also provide parts of your startup inventory at competitive prices.

Our training takes place during a 2-day (full days!) visit to our headquarters in Portland, Maine. The program covers all aspects of owning and operating a retail bead store. Here is a partial list of topics we cover during training:

• Advertising and marketing
• Bead store accounting and suggested software
• Inventory selection and display
• Sources for inventory
• Tracking inventory
• Employees
• Making beaded jewelry
• Selling finished jewelry in your bead store
• Classes
• Point of sale choices and decisions
• Pricing
• Plenty of time for questions and answers

If you are seriously considering opening a retail bead store and would like more information about our training, please call 800-230-8941 and ask for Barry. Email is quick, but it can't replace a personal conversation. Before you call, please make sure you know the following: the population of your town or city; the population within a 20-minute drive of your prospective store location; and how many other bead stores or sources for beads presently exist near you.

The fee for our training is $900 per store. This fee includes follow-up support via email or phone for as long as you have questions.

-Additional things to ponder:

Almost all of the bead stores we have helped start up are still open and doing well. Some, however, have closed. Here is some cautionary advice if you are considering going into the retail bead business.

1) Population is critical. The stores that have closed are all ones which did not have an adequate year-round population to draw from. Your local (within a 20 to 30 minute drive) population should be at least 150, 000; 250,000 or more is better. Counting on tourists or college students to make up the difference is risky.

2) Adequate financing is critical. While it need not take huge amounts of capital to open a bead store, there will be slow times during the first few years when you will probably be spending more than you are taking in. The money to cover those periods should be available before you open your business.

3) Don't count on the store to support you during the first two to three years. Early profits are almost always put back into additional inventory.

4) Owning and operating a small business takes a lot of time and energy. Working 60-70 hours or more per week is common. If you are an artist or designer, owning a store will take a large chunk out of your creative time.

5) The more you know before you open your doors, the higher your chance of success. Look at real estate, take advantage of small business courses, talk to the owners of other small boutiques in the area you are exploring.

6) If there is already a bead store in your area (or more than one), think very seriously about whether it makes sense to compete with an established business. Will your local population support multiple bead stores? Established stores, if well-run, have many advantages over newcomers, and I am hearing with increasing frequency of stores opening and then closing within a year.

7) Be cautious of wholesale suppliers that advertise "one-stop shopping" for bead stores. No single company has everything you need, and those which claim to do so are more interested in their profits than they are in your long-term success. Take your time, do your research, and get references before you trust people with your hard-earned money.

8) I'm not the only person in the country offering this sort of training, although I believe that I've done it for much longer than anyone else. I suggest you talk to everyone and make sure you ask for references (the more the better) before you decide who to work with. If you can't find other people doing the training and would like to compare what they offer and cost, let me know and I can point you to them.

Good luck!

Barry Kahn, President, Caravan Beads Inc.