What You Can Learn From Insurance Companies to Make More Money in Your Shop

REDOS, STONE LOSS and breakage are the bugaboos of any shop. Stuff happens, but who pays for this?

Do you think Allstate pays for a car repair when you wreck your car? No! All Allstate customers share in that repair, which is built into their premiums. We all pay.

Jimmy Degroot

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Jimmy Degroot

The Business of Jewelry Podcast Special Edition (Part 2)

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That’s how stone loss, breakage and redos should be paid in every store: by charging more for all repairs to cover these procedures.

Let’s talk profit-and-loss statements for a moment. As a reminder, here’s the breakdown:

1. Sales minus cost of goods = your gross profit
2. Expenses are paid out of your gross profit
3. After paying your expenses, what you have left over is net profit

Let’s say you size a ring and months later the customer comes back and says, “Hey! You sized my ring I had for 12 years, and 30 days later, my 5-pointer fell out. Now take care of it!”

We’ll assume you will give her a new 5-point diamond at no charge. Your cost probably $30. Where on your P&L does the $30 cost come from? It comes out of your net profit.

The typical American jewelry store has a net profit of 5 percent. So, the “Allstate question” is, “Who’s going to pay and by how much?”

It’s simple really: Just divide the cost of this problem (the lost diamond) by your net profit percentage.

$30.00 divided by 5% (“0.05”) = $600.00

Your store will have to do an extra $600 in sales, above and beyond your goal, to have $30 left over to pay for the lost $30 diamond!

The easiest way to get this extra $600 is by charging customers an additional fee for the jeweler to check all stones, tighten any that are loose and guarantee them for one year against loss.

You charge this same fee if:

1. All stones are loose when ring comes in.
2. If just a few of the stones are loose.
3. Even if none are loose, because we are still guaranteeing after we work on the ring that the stones won’t get loose or fall out in the following year.

Sounds like Allstate, doesn’t it?

Here are our current Geller Blue Book prices to check and tighten stones:

• Up to 4 stones, no charge.
• From 5 to 20 stones = $34
• From 21 to 35 stones = $52
• From 36 to 50 stones = $70
• Each additional stone over 50 = $1 per stone

The typical store will take in an additional $18,000 to $40,000 with this extra income, whereas typical store losses in a year are less than $5,000.

Like Allstate, you’d make money on crashes. Imagine that.

Is your store in good hands?