INVENTORY
We’ve got rings that have been sitting in the cases for almost a year. My manager says they’re still sellable. Am I right to be concerned?
Your instincts are correct — and your manager is rationalizing. Business coach Bob Negen, co-founder of WhizBang! Retail Training, puts it bluntly: inventory should not have anniversaries. An optimal turn rate for a jeweler is above 1. Anything sitting on the boards for close to a year isn’t just dead weight — it’s actively boring your customers and draining cash that could be funding something that sells. Reduce the price, bundle it, do a stock balance. Do whatever it takes to move it. Turn and earn.
HIRING
We’ve been asking the standard interview questions — “Where do you see yourself in five years?” and so on. We never feel like we really know who we’re hiring. What are we missing?
You’re asking the wrong question. Anand Sanwal, co-founder of CB Insights, says the most revealing thing you can ask a candidate is simply: “Tell me how you prepared for this interview.” That one question exposes commitment, work ethic, and analytical ability all at once. Strong candidates who’ve done their homework often arrive with fresh observations about your store or market. According to Sanwal, “it goes from being an interview to a conversation.” The five-year question tells you what someone thinks you want to hear. This one tells you who they actually are.
FINANCE
My accountant keeps telling me not to worry about taxes until Q4. But I’m always scrambling in April. Is there a better way?
There’s a much better way, and Tim Sherrer of Lou’s Jewelry in Mobile, AL, figured it out years ago. He deposits 12 percent of everything he takes in — every sale, every repair ticket — into a dedicated tax account, no exceptions. According to Sherrer, that covers both sales taxes and property taxes by year’s end. Simple. Automatic. No April scramble. The secret isn’t discipline — it’s removing the decision entirely.
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SECURITY
We got a call recently saying our merchant account was flagged and we needed to act immediately. Something felt off, but the pressure was intense. How do these scams work?
That pressure you felt? That was the whole mechanism. Psychologist and author Maria Konnikova, who wrote a book on con artists, says the playbook never changes: force a decision before the target can think clearly. “Time is the great antidote to emotion,” she says, and scammers know it — which is why they always manufacture urgency. The moment someone is pushing you to act right now, that’s your signal to slow down, not speed up. Take space to reflect. The legitimate calls will still be there in an hour. The scam ones count on you not waiting.
MANAGEMENT
I feel like I keep tweaking our approach — new tools, new ideas, new vendors. My store manager thinks I should stick with what works. Who’s right?
You’re both right — in different proportions. Technology writer Kevin Kelly suggests the optimal ratio for exploring new things versus deepening proven ones is 1 to 3: roughly one-third of your energy on fresh ideas, two-thirds executing what already works. What Kelly also points out is that the urge to explore tends to shrink as people get more experienced, because experimentation “seems unproductive.” But that’s exactly when it matters most. The answer isn’t to stop trying new things — it’s to be more deliberate about when and how much. You and your manager need each other.
BENCH
How do I get more customers to say yes to starting a custom project? They seem interested but then stall out.
The biggest barrier, says Scott Vandenberg of Vandenbergs Fine Jewellery in Edmonton, AB, is the fear of getting stuck with something they don’t love. His solution: remove that risk entirely. Vandenbergs creates custom pieces with no obligation — if a client doesn’t like the finished piece, it goes in the showcase. “The biggest barrier to custom design is, ‘What if I don’t like it?'” Vandenberg says. “Being involved in the process sets them at ease, particularly when you take the time to do the CAD, the painting, and interact three or four times.” The no-obligation policy has cost him almost nothing in practice — the process is detailed enough that surprises are rare. What it has bought him is a much shorter path from “I’m interested” to “let’s start.”
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