Bead Jewelry Business Software

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I don’t have to tell you that a lot of women (and even some men) are working at making bead jewelry at home now and many of those people are trying their hand at selling the bead jewelry they make. And while I’ve seen people spend thousands of dollars setting up a bead jewelry workshop or room in their home, I rarely see them spend a tenth of that on a few basic jewelry business software applications which could make their bead jewelry business a whole lot easier to run.

Here are a few pieces of software I think every beading business or jewelry making business owner should consider buying:

Bead Manager Pro – Imagine a piece of jewelry software that tracks your bead inventory, gives you pricing information (wholesale, direct and retail!), creates invoices, tracks customers and runs just about every aspect of your business! There are more expensive beading and jewelry inventory software packages that you can buy but this is a great piece of software for anyone starting her own handcrafted jewelry business. If you’re going to buy one piece of software for your jewelry business it should almost definitely be this one! It is available for Apple Macintosh computers as well as the PC.

Bookkeeping Software – I’ve seen small bead stores that kept track of their accounting in giant black leather ledger books, but I’ve also seen those same people spend hours trying to balance the books and often giving up. This is where a basic piece of bookkeeping software will make running your bead jewelry business a whole lot easier. Most basic software will allow you to keep track of income from a variety of sources (selling bead jewelry, selling bead jewelry repair services, etc.) and allow you track just about every type of expense imaginable. As long as you take the time to enter everything the right way you’ll be able to press a button and immediately see where you stand. You’ll have to talk to your bank, but some accounting software actually automatically synchronize with your bank statement to avoid errors. The “pro” and “premier” versions of some of these accounting programs can be expensive, but they often include inventory control which can save you money in the long run. You can expect to spend a couple hundred dollars for bookkeeping software but that software will save you hundreds of hours and maybe save you thousands of dollars due to bookkeeping errors!

Office Software – You may need to write up bead jewelry descriptions in a word processor or may want to keep track of your bead inventory in a basic spreadsheet program. Even if you don’t have an immediate need for them right away you may find yourself needing to produce simple letters to vendors or working out a list of supplies with this software very quickly. Google offers free “Google Apps” which has program called “Google Docs” that includes a word processor and a spreadsheet program, all for free! This free software can almost always read documents and spreadsheets made with other programs, so it’s a pretty good deal. If you want to go with name brand software then you might want to budget $200 – $300 to get the newest versions.

Graphic or Digital Photo Software – If you’re going to sell your jewelry online then you’ll most likely need to post digital photos on your website for everyone to see. Most digital cameras come with some basic software and there are plenty of free versions of software for graphics editing available. Again, Google offers a bunch of free software, including digital imagery software called “Picassa” for free in something they call the Google Pack. If you want to buy your software instead of getting it for free then plan on spending about $100 or more on software to edit digital photos and make computer graphics.

As your business grows you may find your bead jewelry business has even more needs beyond these. Yes, there is a lot of free software from Google out there, but they don’t make it all! They don’t, as far as I know, make any beaded jewelry inventory software yet!

Most software you buy for full price can later be upgraded for a price that is lower than buying new, so once you make the initial investment you may be able to keep up with the current versions for less than you think. If you’re serious about making money by selling bead jewelry then you really should think about making an investment in your bead jewelry business. Remember: the amount of time and energy saved with these programs will allow you to do what you love best: make more bead jewelry!