035: Making the Most of Slow Times in Your Permanent Jewelry Biz

Jen Thyrion: Hey there, I'm Jen Thyrion. I'm so glad you're here. I'm a former nine to fiver that dove into entrepreneurship eight years ago with zero business experience. I'm a wife, mama of two young girls, boutique owner, jewelry designer, and now the proud owner and coach leading Goldie Links permanent jewelry. I have a passion to empower fellow business.

This podcast is made to equip you with everything you need to succeed from actionable marketing steps. to digging deep on your mindset. I know firsthand the heart, hard work, and let's be real at times of struggle that makes up this amazing journey. You want to know what has enabled me to shine the brightest coaching plus community here at Goldie Links.

We share openly educate and lift each other up, expect to get links with fellow PJ owners that will do just that sprinkled with plenty of fun along the way. Competition is an old school thought and connection is the way get ready to feel inspired. Welcome to the Goldie Links podcast.

Hey there. Did you know that we offer handmade permanent jewelry supplies? Go to GoldieLinkSupplies. com to view our beautiful chains, connectors, bangles, and more, including our non permanent stretchy bracelets that are available to you for wholesale. Everything is created by our tribe of mama makers.

What is a mama maker? Stay at home moms that create on their own time between raising their children, serving as a self care creative outlet and supporting their families. Your items come with signage on how these supplies are made along with gemstone property info as each gemstone has a special meaning.

If you want to level up your business with handmade supplies, not made by a machine, but made by hand with love, then check it out at goldilynxsupplies. com. Now onto the show. Hey there! So I want to do like a super mini episode just about what to do during slow times. I've been hearing this a little bit more.

Members in my membership, I feel like depending on where you're located, you might be kind of going through a slow period. Funny enough, holidays can be a little bit slower for permanent jewelry. I personally remember last year, granted it was, I was focused more on doing pop ups versus parties. And for me, I really tried to zero in on parties this year because I felt like at pop ups at boutiques and whatnot, there's a lot of people, but not a lot of people buying permanent jewelry because of course they were buying for other people and didn't want to spend that much money on themselves.

Granted, even with gift cards, they just, it just wasn't as, it was definitely not my busy time. Having said that I would approach it differently. And if I were to tell one, if that's your circumstance. To maximize, though, the people walking around, even though they're not buying, this is no excuse to sit behind your little table and mope.

Um, definitely get out there, start chatting with people, telling people about it, because even though they might not buy during the holidays, January, February, March is going to come, starts getting warm, they want to do a party, they think about you, and they will contact you. If you made an impression, And they liked you and then there's a reason why they're going to think back and be like, Hey, I really want to try that permanent jewelry.

Remember that one girl I met, she was super nice and we connected over dog scarves. Then yeah, they're going to remember you. So spark a conversation and take advantage of the amount of people out there for the holidays. So if you feel even you're at a market for some reason, it's super slow. And that's what I would say to this to you.

Not only a slow season, but say you're at a slow market. Okay, we've all been there. There's not people there. Get it. But that way, honestly, not that only. There's other vendors. So go talk to vendors. Like this is my thing. I'm always because I've actually been to markets personally where I'm just a customer.

And say it's a really slower market. And I walk into a vendor's booth and I actually like, there's been so many times where I like love what they have, but they're just like sitting behind the table. They don't even say hi to me. And who knows, I don't know what's going on. They might've not sold much.

They might be just like thinking like, you know, this was a waste, but yet I'm somebody who is truly interested, but I almost feel like awkward if they don't seem interested in me being there. So then I just walk away. Right. So. Maximize your situation. Okay. Even if it's slow, talk to vendors, talk to you, any customer coming in your, I would, I always say this one customer could lead to like 10, 000.

I'm not kidding. Like one customer. And I can speak, I have a few of them for myself where they started off as just coming to get a permanent bracelet led to having them having a party led to me meeting someone else at their party that led to another party that told someone else that led to something else, an event that led to like, I have one person that personally has led to me doing 1, like 6 events.

I'm not joking from one person. So maximize Everything you're doing, okay, whatever you can do, make the best out of it. Even if it's slow, you never know what can happen in the future from someone you meet, someone you connect with, someone you seem interested in, someone that you're kind to. It is never wasted.

So, that is like slow market, whatever, you're out there, it's slow. But let's just talk slow season in general. Maybe you're not booking stuff, no one's booking parties. Um, being slow at an event or actual place of business, there's definitely still ways that you can, even if it's like at a boutique and the boutique is slow, go talk to the owner, go talk to who's working.

Like again, you never know who they know, who might be interested. And if you just sit back in your little space and just sit there and just like, and not take the opportunity to talk to who you can talk to, or even if you walk around the store and you see an item that is made by a small business owner and you just love the vibe of the, of the shop.

And you reach out to them to talk about collabing like there's just so many things that so many things that can happen out of even a slow situation. But let's talk slow season because honestly for me, October is actually pretty slow and I don't know what to expect. I'm definitely going to give an update after like I took the first weekend off of November for personal reasons.

Uh, then we had a huge snowstorm that came through. Ah, my gosh, it was so disappointing. So I had a cance I had an event canceled that was gonna be pretty large this past Saturday. So I only had one party so far in the month of November, and here we are, it is November 14th for me right now. So we'll see. I have some great events coming up this weekend and next weekend, so we'll see how the month pans out.

But I'll definitely give you an update for mine. I think everyone has I've been seeing it a lot, like, out there, and just, like, my permanent jewelers in the membership talking about it, and everyone has different experiences. Someone had the best month of their year. in October and some had the worst. So, but just whatever slow is for you.

There is so many ways to maximize your slow time and make it productive and make it where you're actually making money. It might not be right in that period of time, but you're going to prime yourself to be more successful. And there's a few ways, right? So there's so many things on our to do list. We know as business owners.

So what is it for you? We do want to take this time to like research new products that you've been meaning to, because again, when you're so busy, maybe you don't have the time to do that. You want to add a new chain. You want to add some new line of connectors. Take the time to ask polls in your Instagram.

What are people liking? Speaking of that social media, do you feel like you really struggle with that? Maybe this is time to batch some social media posts. Think about content, come up with some captions, chat. GPT though is a great resource. So, but you could just even just come up with the subjects, right?

Just kind of plan. Like whether it be, if it is this time of year and say, December is your slow time for whatever reason, you can maximize talking about the new year. Let's prep for that. Valentine's day is around the corner. There's so many opportunities for permanent jewelry and for it to signify something again, whether it be their new year, permanent jewelry can signify and symbolize their.

Say New Year's resolution, although I'm not a fan of that, I'm a fan of word of the year so you can even, you know, maybe talk about that and then like getting a bracelet to commemorate the new year and their goal for the year and just kind of symbolize that or we can talk about Valentine's Day and getting linked with your besties or getting linked with your partner, right?

There's so many things to think about. That you can plan for, for marketing and creating strategies. So that is a great place to be. Canva templates. Do you use those for your business? You can, you can go in there and batch a bunch of Canva templates, get more schooled with Canva. If you feel like something like, again, you have always been like, well, I'm not good at that.

Well, this is a time to maybe dive in and play around a little bit with it. Watch some YouTube videos, get accustomed with something that you won't feel confident in. Um, like your numbers, cause that's the one thing for me. So we're approaching the end of the year, speaking of, but are you, do you have your numbers ready for next year tax season?

Do you find that you're struggling keeping track of your numbers? Do you know enough about how to keep track of your numbers? Do you know what your profit margin looks like? Yeah. Have you done your profit, your P and L basically, right? And have you, or are you struggling with that? And you've been meaning to find an accountant.

Is this the time to start looking? So there's so many things maybe in the back of your mind on your to do list. This is the time when you're slow to dive into that to do list, right? Is it website? We actually, we just covered that in the membership. There's a lot of people asking about websites and wanting to create one or having one that really they don't do anything with.

So do you want to elevate or create your website? Start researching, start, you know, just start, start. Gotta start somewhere. I know sometimes some things seem overwhelming. Yeah. But I promise you it seems overwhelming, but once you actually just take just one little step in front of the other, really in the end, it isn't as daunting as you think.

I promise you, especially with how much help and assistance, assistance is out there now, um, with YouTube in general, right? How we can literally look up anything and it'll show us what to do. Granted, all these things are business building. Okay. So even if you don't see it as it's like scaling your business, it is whether, so you're working on social media, you're working on Canva, all this is enriching your business.

It might not be immediate monetary benefits, but it is like benefiting your business, right? It's strengthening your business. So that way you have this new skill, you have something where you can focus and you can be more focused on when you have your busy time because you created this thing during your slow time, like your website.

And now you have that. Now you have more people finding you on Google and maybe you found out more about SEO and you took an SEO crash course. You not kind of know about keywords a little bit more and more people are finding you on Google. That's pretty cool. That is benefiting you in the future. You might not see it right now, but the things you're working on now is going to benefit you and get you more customers in the long run, right?

Let's talk. Okay. Even like photography, speaking of social media, all the things, website, you, the photography, so important to have content for social media. If that's what you struggle with, like, what do I share? I don't have a photo to share. I'm going to plug it because I love it, but it's going to link society.

We have a membership. We actually offer photos every other month. They're very like. Seasonal focus to and have themes. They're great to have, but not only should you have that, you should also, of course, have your own photos. Like I would suggest, I mean, at least once a year, of course. Getting your own Brandon's branding sessions.

I mean, it's specific, specific to you that shows your face, shows your setup in your environment, whether it be your brick and mortar, have them travel with you to a pop up. So you can really have a lot of really good detail shots and a shots of you personally to share in your social media and your website.

So if it's a, if it's downtime and you have time for a photo shoot. Go for it. Research like local photographers, maybe trade with them like fine. And also that's another way to connect with someone in your community that you can possibly collab with or just create that connection. Hey, busy entrepreneur, as you know, being a business owner, you have to wear all the hats.

You're a social media manager, marketer, graphic designer, accountant, photographer, videographer, web designer, business coach, scheduler, and the list goes on. I know how overwhelming it can be, and this is why I created the Golden Link Society. It's our monthly permanent jewelry membership. We have a weekly call to talk about all the things, but not only that, including monthly photography and video to use for your social media and marketing.

Canva templates, monthly business expert, monthly training, support group, discount, and first dibs on Goldilocks supplies and more. My intention is to create a beautiful community of permanent jewelers that want to level up their businesses together by creating lasting friendships and having fun. This is what I wish existed when I started my business almost 10 years ago.

If you want to know more, check it out at GoldieLinksSociety. com or at AllTheThingsPermanentJewelry. com. I hope to see you there. This is a time to go through your inventory. I find that when I'm so busy, it is so hard for me to sit down and go through inventory and really get straight of what I need, what I don't need.

What's kind of not been selling? What's selling? What do I want to phase out of? Like, just really get content intentional with your business displays. Do you love them? Have you been meaning these are things like you're always like, I'm meaning to do that. I don't really love this. I've been wanting a new display.

This is the time to do it, right? Start researching, start looking into what you love. Um, you know, kind of bite the bullet on those things, right? Cleaning. Okay. Cleaning to me is therapeutic. I'm sorry, but like it is. It just makes your life function better. Okay? Like systems and cleaning. Okay? So when I feel like my life is kind of out of control or I'm feeling a little blah, I'm like, literally I'll be like, I need to clean out a closet.

I'm going to clean my pantry out. I'm going to go through my permanent jewelry, hulking bag and get organized and just, you know, go through my jump ring tray and literally, feel like I just, I cleaned it up and there's not just random like remnants of chain in there that accumulated over time. Okay. So this is the time to clean your things.

Okay. Go through everything. Sharpen all your tungsten. Do what you need to do to feel like you are just prepped for when it does get busy and you just feel organized. But then not only permanent jewelry, right? Like if you're a brick and mortar, obviously deep cleaner, brick and mortar, your shop and. But if it's your home, even right, because everything bleeds into another if your home's chaotic, it's it's going to bleed into your personal life and your business.

There's no doubt about it. I mean, it's all connected, right? We have to live here. So I'm actually in my home right now. As you can tell, I feel like, of course, if my home feels chaotic, my life feels chaotic. Hence, my business feels chaotic, right? So I just find that If you feel like there's been something on your mind, you've been wanting to organize or go through and just like, this is the time to actually, again, take time to do it.

Like, speaking of that and like your home life, anything else like to, and you're in your personal life, like, have you been meaning to start like a new way of cooking or, you know, even meaning to like groom your dog? I mean, these are like, I don't, it just seems like no brainers, but really it's just like, Try and use this time to do those things that you feel like you always say when you're so busy with your business.

I have no time to do that. I have no time to do that. This is the time to do that, right? So if you're, obviously if you're slow this time too, it's like, okay, decorate your house for Christmas early, right? Before you hit the busy season, like do these things that you feel will benefit you so that when you are busy, you're not running with your head cut off because you're like, Oh my God, I have no time to do anything because of, you know, I'm so busy with my, my business and my life and my kids.

Whereas like, take this time to just be be able to kind of batch those things, even like speaking of cooking, like if you want to batch meals and freeze them so that way when you are busy and you're doing weekend things and you have no time to cook for your family, you're like, Oh yeah, during that slow time, I froze a bunch of food.

Cool. You know, like I'm good. So just think of it that way of how you can again, make your life more productive that serves you even during your busy time. It's not just right now during slow time, but really it's going to serve you and be like a residual effect right in your, in when you are busy. And so that's also speaking of is like clarity.

So I find that like, for me, I'm a very, like, I'm always doing something right. My mind's always, I'm very ADHD. I'm like, Ooh, we got to do this. And I do this and there's a million things to do. Right. And I find that I always have to remind myself that just not doing something physical is the only time I'm productive.

When I slow down, when I actually meditate, when I take a walk, when I take a long shower, when I just be still, because even like for me, I always have to have something going. I don't know if you're like, If I'm just, I'm even just same cleaning or I'm doing some kind of mindless task, I have something playing in my ear, whether it be music, whether it be a podcast, whether it be like a friends re what I was gonna say rerun, but that's so like old school that I just was about to say that to people still say reruns.

I don't know. Anyway, I watch friends like literally every day. Um, so anyway, that can literally play in my ear, like a podcast. I don't have to watch it because I know what, like the back of my hand. So, you know, I always have something in my ear, the times where I shut it off. Okay. And I just let myself be.

That is when I have the best ideas. Okay. That's when I think of something for my business or I become clear on something because I'm not just like muddying myself with like, you know, because we're just so used to having like our devices in our hand and we're constantly scrolling or, you know, we just have something going on where I feel like, you know, correct me if I'm wrong because maybe it's just me, but I feel like more than ever, we always have Something in our faces, computer, the screens, the computers, the phones, iPads, you know, it's like there's always something being played and just being shown and like these bright lights in front of our face.

So I think once we take that away, just sit with everything, right? It's a time to gain clarity and actually gain inspiration. Like you kind of just, you really just come back to yourself and Again, that's when you might have an aha moment about your business or have this great idea or who knows what might happen.

So maximize the slow time and just kind of be quiet. You know what I mean? Be quiet and maybe try. I know who meditates out there. I've tried so many times when I say meditate, everyone can meditate in their own way. Like for me, when I used to go like definitely on walks. You know, I feel like I haven't done that in a while, um, but like I, that was like my meditation, right?

I would walk and just like not play anything and just, just be, and I would have these beautiful, amazing ideas. And I would just feel so clear. And so like, I like, I like, I figured out my life, you know, after a walk. So not really, but you know what I mean? So yeah, I just feel like it's a time to just be quiet and just think and ask yourself questions.

Like, you know, I love asking myself questions. There's actually a business roadmap that I'm making and putting in the membership and it's like a basically downloadable and it's a series of questions because I think all in all, like there's so much information and we pretty much know what we need to know.

It's just a matter of asking ourselves, right? You know, I kind of, I come back to that every year because we are constantly evolving. And things are constantly changing, but I just think sometimes we're not, we're doing it so mindlessly because we're just doing what we know without checking back in with ourselves and asking like, okay, do I like where my business is?

Do I like where my life is? What would I change if I could, where would I be a year from now? What is my perfect day to look like? What do, how do I want to feel? How do I feel now? What is the difference between how I want to feel and how I feel now? Like for me, monetary, you know, what does that look like to me for success?

How much, how much do I want to bring in? Let's. Say per year, per month, whatever. Well, how can I get to where I want to get to? Let's look even, even to like what's, what's effective in my business. How, how can I maximize, is it for me? Am I gaining the most ROI? I should say return on investment, you know, whether it be time or money, whatever, from social media, or is it from, you know, connecting physically in my community, which speaking of that, use this time to connect with people, check in with your past customers, people you've seen maybe a long time, like a few times and haven't seen in a while, check back in with them.

Ask out people who have had parties for you before. How is their jewelry doing? Check, go out in the community. Go to the local coffee shop and introduce yourself. Go to a boutique. Go to the old plant shop. Connect, connect, connect. If you physically can't go out, which I highly advise, because that's the best.

I mean, of course, DM. Spend some time messaging influencers or things that, again, you would like to do when you're busy, but you feel you're too busy to do and fit in. So yeah, that's just kind of, but yeah, I just truly believe in like, and always for me, I'm of course like the first month of the year I like to do this, but I always check back in with myself to see like, okay, how did this past year go?

What did I like about it? What did I not, what would I like to change? How would I, how, what do I want to change? How can I change that? How am I going to approach that going forward? There's just so many things to ask yourself, right? Like, what am I not doing well in business? What do I need to improve on?

Is it your bookkeeping? Is it your social media? Is it email? Is it gaining a website? Like, what do you feel you need? And that would benefit you and your business communicating with your customers. Let's go back to that because actually one of the things, you know, if you do not have a website yet, you can, and if you're using square point of sale, I'm sure you've gotten those emails where you can communicate with your customers through text and email.

So. So maybe that's something again, being a slow season and kind of reminding people, Hey, I'm here. You know what I mean? Maybe utilize that, like communicate with your customers in different ways and try it and see what for you works the best. Is it text? Is it email? Is that like a good investment for you?

And I, I'm a lover. I have a website and I do have a newsletter sign up. I love email newsletters. I will talk all day long. Yes, social media is amazing. And I have met amazing people through social media. I've connected with amazing people. It's definitely vital in my business, but I have to say email is also vital.

And if social media just disappeared tomorrow, what would I do and how would I communicate with my customer? So just one other thing to consider of, you know, again, you know, reaching your customer and communicating with them. Have you always wanted to start blogging? Let's start, let's talk about that.

Let's like, let's try and put a blog out there. Just try something new, try something new you haven't tried before. And it's only going to grow you as a person, as a business owner, and you never know where it can lead. And like what kind of, again, ROI you can get on that. Right. And then last, I mean, Oh my gosh, if it's like not even business and going back to your house and maybe just even Focusing on yourself with gaining a new skill, not even saying for business, but like, have you always wanted to learn how to crochet and you want to crochet blankets for your family for Christmas, take this time and do what the heck you want to do.

You know what I mean? If it's slow in your business, you know, it's going to pick back up. Don't get dumpy about it. Okay. That's my advice to you because I know it's so easy to do be like, well, I guess this trend is over. I'm going to pack up and sell my things. Like, no, it's just a slow period. Just keep letting people know you're here.

Right. Do your social media, do your thing. Right. But just know that slow times happen in every single business. There's ups and downs and funny enough, weird enough. Ups and downs for permanent jewelry is different. Any location and different businesses. It's just is what it is, right? So just because someone's having a bang in month and you're not doesn't mean there's not anything wrong with, okay, but okay.

Use this time, travel, go see your family, go go on a trip, right? Like use this time as time to do that. I feel like, um, over here when with the boutique, like it would be deathly slow. In February, in February, I mean, I, it's for me here in Colorado. It's my least favorite month of the year. I'm over being cold.

It's usually the snowiest month when you're over it and you're like, I just want it to be warm. And then business is super slow. So you're making like zero money. It's just dreary. You're just like, Oh, I want spring so bad. Okay. So I was like, that is the month I'm going to travel. That is the month I'm going somewhere and something to look forward to because.

You know, so just make it benefit for you, really make it productive in a different way. It might not be productive in the fact that you're making the most amount of money you're making, but it can be in other ways to as self care as you know, as a way to strengthen your business, gain a new skill, focus on something you need to do that you, you know, again, it's hard to do when you're busy and just, it can be if you let it be such a beautiful time in your business.

And in your life is because that's honestly kind of the beauty of business. Like, could you imagine if we were constantly jammed with business? Like, I don't know, maybe you're that person who's like, no, I wouldn't want life to be that way. But literally, if you were busy and like jam packed every single day of the year, wouldn't that feel crazy?

It's like we need a downtime. That's why I appreciate it even about the retail business. It's like, I know life is crazy. The last three months, the last quarter, life is crazy. OK, like I'm working for sure. Black Friday, small business Saturday. It's. It's crazy, but I know January I can chill and February I can chill and literally I, I then that's what I do.

Like all the things I listed, I reassess. I, I plan for the year. I, I strategize a little bit. I would think about my goals and it was just, they're such beautiful times and I really would enjoy, don't get me wrong. Would I be so stressed out and overwhelmed during Christmas time? I would shed tears at least three times and have breakdowns.

Yes, but. But again, like monetarily, it was a beautiful time. Oh my gosh. It was amazing. And met so many new customers and all the things that happened. Right. But I just knew this is the thing that kept me going to though. I knew that January was around the corner and that I could take a deep breath and decompress and focus on the other things I need to focus on.

So yeah, it's a beautiful time. Both times can be beautiful. Okay. They both can strengthen your business if you're looking at it business wise, but not only that, but also your life, right? Like fulfilling, right? Filling both cups. So I hope that you found something good from this episode, because I know for me personally, I'm working on a lot of things coming up, but actually speaking of this, are you making handmade jewelry?

Are you doing, do you want to learn a new skill? Do you want to learn how to do bangles? Glow ups? What do you want to learn? Wire wrap? Do you want to make your own connectors? This is the time. You know, dive in, like, see what that's like. See if you enjoy it. For me during my downtime, I'm working on, have you guys heard of ear mullets?

Well, they're super fun and it's super easy. It's just using your little remnants of chain and making a little chain that dangles in the back of a stud earring. Um, actually I'm working on displays currently for those right now. I'm working on new designs for glow ups and as well as stretchies. I'm working on a new Goldilinks supplies website because it's integrated now and combined with my retail website, which is confusing.

So I'm separating it. So I'm working on that. There's a lot of things that I'm working on during my quote unquote downtime. So, and honestly, if you're at a place where literally there isn't even anyone to connect with, let's like the things I just said, like say you're there's people around, but you're not really making sales.

That's one thing. But if there's literally nobody in the store, which I have experienced recently, actually in October was one of them, I brought my laptop with me. And I literally would did. the things I spoke about, like working on my website and, and, you know, purchasing products that I needed to, um, doing inventory on my chains.

Cause I was sitting right there. I mean, I always, even at slow pop ups, like I always make it worth it. I bring wire with me. I make jewelry or I, I, again, I walk around and I talk to people or I get on my, I get on my laptop. I never just sit there and mope. I'm always doing something. Okay. Make it maximize your time.

Like if you're going to be there, make it, make it work for you and your business. Even if it's not literally. bringing people up. Right always making the best of it. All right guys. I hope you are maximizing whatever stage of business you are in now. And I don't know. I kinda want to say happy holidays because we're there.

So happy holidays. Talk to you soon guys. Well, how do you feel? I hope you found value in today's episode and you walk away feeling inspired. I would love to hear from you. Let's link up. You can find me on Instagram at goldielinkssociety. You can find out more about our permanent jewelry membership at goldielinksociety.

com Our handmade permanent jewelry supplies of connectors chain and more at goldielinksupplies. com Okay, I will see you next time. Have a golden day