I often get asked: Is Permanent Jewelry Profitable as a Business? So, I decided to make this video to explain why permanent jewelry, also referred to as PJ, is an incredibly profitable business.
If you actually look on social media and track some of the businesses offering PJ, you will find what started out as side hustles have now financed the opening of stores and boutiques, some even multiple locations. There are dedicated PJ boutiques, while many have opened boutiques selling complementary services and products. Their success and profits are real.
The Average full-time PJ business profits over $350,000 on a $2500 investment. Many part-time pj artists are making $200-$600 per hour. This is because permanent jewelry offers huge markups with 10x to 18x cost, unlike normal jewelry sales, which usually doubles or triples cost. Also, you cannot order PJ online, so you are not competing with online shopping. It is a service that requires welding and customers love that personal experience.
The data I am going to reference has been collected from hundreds of PJ businesses – these are our customers and focus group PJ Artists. The figures are compiled through interviews, looking at their online prices and also seeing how much they are reordering in chains and components from us. Individual figures will vary depending on the size and demographics of their local market. But these are fairly accurate averages.
I have filmed a video on all the costs of starting a PJ business, follow the link for the full break down.
For this segment, I will focus on Revenue and Profits with only a short mention of cost details that you can find in that video.
Average Retail Prices and Profit Per Bracelet
PJ offers huge markups with 10x to 18x cost of the components, whereas most jewelry retailers mark up only 2x-3x. This is because PJ is a service rather than a product.
It takes seconds to do and you are earning on average $60-$90 profit per bracelet. Some PJ businesses go even more luxe and offer warm hand towels and massages – with a much higher price tag, of course.
For now, I will just talk about the basics and break it down for you.
The average length for a bracelet is 7 inches, and because permanent jewelry will be worn for months or even years, the metal must be durable, non-fading and high grade.
The most popular metals are sterling silver, gold filled,10 karat solid gold and 14 karat solid gold. Some even offer stainless steel for lower price point markets, but this is not suggested, and as you will see, it is not necessary.
Here are the average retail prices INCLUDING welding.
Average price for thin bracelets:
$65 for a silver
$75 for gold filled
$150 for 10 karat gold
$175 for 14 karat solid gold
And of course, it is more expensive for thicker chains.
Based on wholesale prices, the cost of the bracelet chains and jump rings are:
$3.50 for sterling silver made in Italy
$6 for American made gold filled
$70 for 10k solid gold made in Italy
$85 for 14k solid gold made in Italy and the US
The margins are phenomenal – with an industry average of 15 to 18x markup for sterling silver, gold filled is about 10 to 15x cost and 10 and 14 karat gold is a less percentage markup, but the dollar figure is higher.
This is $60 to $90 per bracelet that takes only 2-3 minutes customize and complete!
Average daily sales volume
This is actual information collected from our North American customers over the past year.
First, average for pop-ups (these are short sales events held inside of stores and boutiques, they are advertised, and are usually 2 to 4 hours long, with sales of around $2000).
If you have a location, you may still wish to do pop-ups elsewhere to promote your business, and at $1800 profit, it is also not a bad idea.
Then there are craft markets, where there’s been more traffic, and the average revenue has been about $3000 per day, with a range between $2000 to $4000 and profit margins of about $2700 each.
Markets have been seasonal, held weekly or monthly, and they tended to be better-advertised events with a good following.
For Spas and Boutiques that offer PJ themselves, additional sales from the service have been on average $1400 per weekday – with some of them being lower or higher, depending on their location and the population size. It is about $2400 for weekends.
PJ is an easy add-on sale for customers who are already in the salon for an appointment.
During peak season it gets even busier – the sales have been on average $5000 per day for those that promote the service.
The record that I know of is 290 bracelets (over $21k for one day only on bracelet sales). Now that was with two machines and a sleek operation with extra staff to help measure cash out. That is in one day, close to Christmas, but there will be many similar days throughout the Christmas season. So, it gives you a good idea of the sales volume.
Yearly Income from Permanent Jewelry
To provide an idea of the size of the business, I will calculate the estimated income of a permanent jewelry with the following assumptions:
the business will be operating five days per week, there will be three days that are less busy and two days that are busier. Average sales will be similar to the daily sales data I had collected earlier.
From this, we derive $8100 per week of extra profit margin, – before your labour cost, overhead and the cost of the machine. We will assume we will be operating 52 weeks per year – some people work 7 days a week through busy season and take holidays during slow. This is a reasonable assumption for a start up business.
To give a more conservative estimate, we do not include any peaks during the holiday season – assuming that perhaps they’ll be slower days for poor weather or slow season.
This gives us a total profit margin of $421,000 per year – before rent and staff (which will be very low if you are operating it out of your home, existing business, or mobile studio and you are going to work it yourself)
This is significant profit for any business.
$420k gross profit for an investment of $2500 to $5000 is over 160x return. There are very few businesses that are able to provide this.
Permanent Jewelry is phenomenal – it is the next wave and will be even bigger than Pandora bracelets. Just a note: You still have to educate your customers and advertise that you offer this service. It is still very new, but that is the beauty of this – you can be one of the first businesses offering permanent jewellery.
If you already have a business, but are still unsure of whether it is for your customers, perhaps it may be a good idea to partner with someone who is offering this on an occasional basis, Stones and Findings has created a free and revolutionary online service called PJ Match Finder that matches boutiques, spas and salons with permanent jewellery artists for pop-up events. You can collaborate with someone who already has the equipment and experience to come and work events at your business.
