But back to learning about running a small business. It’s not just the making of the jewellery that I need to learn about. Figuring out what to make. What will sell? What won’t? And how to price my jewellery is a big enough challenge. And then there’s the marketing (which I’m just about getting to grips with) The photography to handle – which isn’t simple with silver.
And then there is the packaging.
When I first set up shop I bought boxes that were too deep to go through the post as a large letter, even in a thin plastic envelope – which meant my postage costs were really high.
Then I moved to earring and bangle boxes that were postal sized, but I was told that sometimes in the postal bags, the jewellery boxes I’d carefully picked out, were turning up with dinks and dents in them. Which obviously isn’t ideal!
Queue me looking for another solution! And this is where these little beauties from Lil Packaging came in. They arrive flat packed so they take up minimal space in my already crowded craft room studio, but are easy to build up and they are really sturdy once put together too!
I managed to find 3 mailing boxes that will be perfect for my postal requirements.
A couple of the boxes I chose are from the Letterbox Ready Packaging section, which means they’ll post as a large letter. I found these letterbox depth boxes in two sizes to accommodate two of my bangle boxes side by side and also a bangle and an earring or necklace box to give myself some flexibility with packaging multiple orders.
The double bangle box, as seen below, even comes with a handy tear-off strip to secure the box with, so I don’t even have to hunt out the sellotape when packaging. I’d love to eventually be able to find all my packaging with this feature because it’s just so so handy!
The final box size I decided on is one that is deep enough to accommodate a ring box. My ring boxes have to be deeper than the others to allow things like my Open Circle ring to sit in them happily so they won’t fit through a letterbox. With this in mind, I chose a box that would let me post out all sorts of combinations of jewellery in them.
So if someone was to purchase a couple of rings, a bangle, some earrings AND a necklace, they will all fit in one box. But equally, it’s not too big that I can’t pad the space to make sure the box doesn’t rattle too much!
