Connect with us

David Geller

David Geller Tells How He Went from Failing Jewelry Shop Owner to Successful Retailer and Consultant

It required diving into the numbers with knowledgeable experts.

mm

Published

on

BY NOW, MOST JEWELERS know that I’ve handed over the Geller Blue Book to Jewelry Repair & Design to my nephew, Jonathan Geller, who also runs my brother’s three bridal stores. The new website for the Geller Book is gellerbluebook.com. Since this is my final column for INSTORE, I thought I would share how I started and how I got to this point in my career.

My brother and I are 14th generation jewelers, taught in my father’s trade shop/wholesale manufacturing company. I started working summers at age 10, my brother at age 8. Our father and grandfather immigrated from Odesa, Russia and worked side by side in New York City as diamond setters. Later, my parents came to Atlanta and started their business. At age 16, I worked after school as well.

My father and I never got along, so I left at age 19. In 1972, I was hired at Neiman Marcus as their jeweler here in Atlanta, gold was $65 an ounce. It wasn’t uncommon for me to set a $50,000 emerald or diamond.

In 1974, I started my own trade shop doing work for one major store and other independents. I didn’t know how much to charge, so I got a copy of my father’s trade shop price list and called jewelers around town asking what they charged. I was doing ok until I started hiring employees and five years later changed to a full-fledged retail shop.

Ten years later, I was struggling financially while having over 12 employees. December 1985, I owed a lot of accounts payables and a bunch to the IRS for non-paid withholding taxes. On Christmas Eve, I let go half of our employees and no one got Christmas bonuses. In January 1986, after paying what I could to vendors, I had $125 in the checking account.

After speaking to a diamond setter friend about my problems, he sent me his accountant, Ben. Summer of 1987, I got a call from the IRS; they put a lien on my business and my home. Ben worked out a payment plan and told me we had to find out the correct costs and what to charge.

Advertisement

We bought my five jewelers and waxer a time clock and had them clock in and out on an envelope. I now had a much better idea of what it really cost to do a job. We weighed sizing stock, got costs from Stuller. What I found out after doing this for six months: Every job takes 25% longer to accomplish than what we thought. So, whatever the time clock said, we added 25% to it.

In 1987, I was paying $9 to $11 an hour for a jeweler. After doing the time study, Ben said the cost of a jeweler should be 26% of the retail labor. A $10 solder should cost $2.60. We took the five jewelers off of hourly and paid them piecework at 26% of the labor. But they complained that “$2.60” didn’t pay enough, so I just decided to give them a raise. In 1988, I made the decision that “on the average,” they should be earning about $15 an hour, not $9 or $11.

Ben further showed me that adding in matching FICA/Medicare/unemployment insurance, vacation and sick days added 25% more expense to what they were paid. Since we were paying 26% to the jeweler, these added costs meant they really cost 33% of each repair labor.

I wrote up a book that factored in three-time markup on labor and a three-time markup on findings from Stuller. That year, I printed 40 books for the store and trained the sales staff how to sell repairs and custom with bi-monthly sales training. Within six months, shop sales went up 35%, as did the jewelers’ paychecks, because now they were paid on their productivity. It took a few years, but I got out of debt and became profitable.

In 1991, I brought The Friedman Group in, and they enhanced the selling of shop sales and changed the sales staff from an hourly wage and 1-2% commission to a really strong commission system. Sales went up in six months 35% as well.

When you go to trade shows and talk to fellow jewelers, they might ask “Hey, what does your store charge to size a ring, new head and set, tip a prong?” I carried my book with me, and people started asking “Where’d you get that?” so I started selling it as a side hustle.

Advertisement

I belonged to a jewelry mastermind group at the time, and the owner suggested selling the store and just helping jewelers with the shop (and later QuickBooks). In 1999, my best salesperson, Jamie Kresl, asked about buying the store. We came to an agreement, and in January 2000, he took over Jewelry Artisans and I started JewelerProfit. The last year I owned the store was 1999, and that year here were the stats:

Total store sales: $1,850,000

Total shop sales: $1,450,000 (63% gross profit margin)

Product sales: $450,000 (47% GPM on $265,000 in inventory)

The Geller Book is now in over 6,500 jewelry stores in America, Australia and Canada. It has been my great pleasure to help shops and jewelers across the USA. I know as I enter retirement, my nephew Jonathan Geller will continue the tradition.
Have a great 2025.

Advertisement

SPONSORED VIDEO

Retiring? Let Wilkerson Do the Heavy Lifting

Retirement can be a great part of life. As Nanji Singadia puts it, “I want to retire and enjoy my life. I’m 78 now and I just want to take a break.” That said, Nanji decided that the best way to move ahead was to contact the experts at Wilkerson. He chose them because he knew that closing a store is a heavy lift. To maximize sales and move on to the next, best chapter of his life, he called Wilkerson—but not before asking his industry friends for their opinion. He found that Wilkerson was the company most recommended and says their professionalism, experience and the homework they did before the launch all helped to make his going out of business sale a success. “Wilkerson were working on the sale a month it took place,” he says. “They did a great job.”

Promoted Headlines

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Subscribe


BULLETINS

INSTORE helps you become a better jeweler
with the biggest daily news headlines and useful tips.
(Mailed 5x per week.)

Latest Comments

Most Popular