Eileen McClelland

Top Experiences That Should Be on Every Jeweler’s Bucket List

Published

9 years ago

October 13, 2015

Eileen McClelland

A few months ago, we asked INSTORE’s Brain Squad to share the top experiences that should be on every jeweler’s bucket list.

The overriding theme in nearly all of the suggestions is to be sure you take time now to do at least some of the things on your list. Don’t wait for retirement, which you keep putting off anyway.

“Do anything that gets your adrenaline flowing and gives you joy,” says Denise Oros of Linnea Jewelers in La Grange, IL. “Learn something new as often as possible. Travel more. Be a tourist even if it is just in your own city. Hike, run, bike, fly, boat. Just go, get out, do! Live longer, love harder and laugh more. Regrets not allowed. That should be on everyone’s Bucket List.”

While the whole story will be published in December, here are a few top suggestions:

Set a goal. Seek to sell big diamonds – over 5 or 10 carats, for example.

Take some time off – soon! Take Christmas week off. Or take weekends off for a while, just to see how the other half lives. Or take a six month sabbatical.

Have an adventure: Drive across the United States. Hike Half Dome in Yosemite. Go on a night dive. Take a cruise. Rent an apartment in Manhattan for a month. Get a pilot’s license. See one of the Wonders of the World.

Take a jewelry-related trip. Visit the Gem Gallery of the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. Visit the Hong Kong jewelry show. Visit a gem mine. See how a diamond is cut in person. Join a buying group. Stay longer than you need to at the Tucson gem shows and take time to explore. Take GIA courses.

Take your business to the next level. Remodel your store. Spend some time learning jewelry design and/or working on the bench. Enter INSTORE’s America’s Coolest Stores contest.

Looking for a Seamless Sale? Call Wilkerson

After almost 60 years in business, Breakiron Jewelers in Erie, Pennsylvania, was closing its doors. And the store’s owner, Linda Breakiron, was ready for it. She had run the store as its sole owner since the beginning of the millennium and was looking forward to a change. Of course, she called Wilkerson. Breakiron talked to other jewelers who had used Wilkerson and was satisfied with their response. “They always had positive feedback,” she recalls. With the sales, marketing and even additional inventory that Wilkerson provided, Breakiron insists she could never have accomplished her going-out-of-business sale without Wilkerson’s help. She’s now ready for the journey ahead, but looking back, she’d be sure to recommend Wilkerson. “They just made the whole process very seamless.”