Introducing: One Business, One Plan
With our love of makeovers, we’re launching this yearlong
series that will follow the overhaul of a business
and all aspects of its marketing from logo and print
materials to designing a new website. In each issue
throughout 2007, DG
will share the process and the
new designs—those discarded and selected—for Bead
Girls Jewelry.
Like DG’s constantly brewing five-pot coffee
machine, Bead Girls Jewelry resulted from a strong
addiction—in Shari Lorbiecki and Lisah Vander
Heiden’s case, a jewelry fixation. To feed their growing
need for more beads, the two began selling some
of their original handmade designs. “We’ve been
designing jewelry since 2001,” says Lorbiecki. “We
both pretty much taught ourselves.” They’ve also read
books on jewelry making and design, taken close
looks at jewelry at shows, attended classes and grilled
associates and owners of bead stores. What began
as a hobby snowballed into their joint investment,
with Bead Girls Jewelry now selling at trade and craft
shows and in homes across the upper Midwest.
“We make handcrafted, original jewelry pieces
with quality crystals, metals and semiprecious
stones,” says Lorbiecki. “We offer a wide variety
from formal to everyday pieces. We target women
between 15 and 55 years of age—all of them need to
accessorize, right? We haven’t started a men’s line yet.
Creatively, we’d like to start making more expensive
pieces.” She believes that they’ll “have a better chance
of selling more expensive pieces on a website,” rather
than in homes or at shows.
At first glance, DG thought the Bead Girls have
some ambitious financial goals, but as Lorbiecki
explains, “Financially, we’d like to be able to pay
off our base costs and start paying ourselves. That
probably sounds strange, but it doesn’t cost a lot to
maintain the type of business we’re doing. We haven’t
even taken out any loans!” So along with designing
the Bead Girls Jewelry logo, marketing materials and
generating a design for a new website that the Bead
Girls plan to launch, we will provide an estimate of
costs, comparisons and alternate possibilities for their
marketing pieces and website.
In 2006, Bead Girls Jewelry met with DG in our
office to discuss their plans, how they hope DG can
help, and what we’ll focus on throughout 2007. The
Bead Girls brought along a number of their favorite
pieces to share. Vander Heiden and Lorbiecki share
an enthusiasm and love for their jewelry, as well as a
fun, quirky sense of humor that DG aims to capture
and represent in our designs. Don’t miss reading One
Business, One Plan in the April/May issue when DG
dishes out new logo looks for the Bead Girls.
