Retailers who offer repair and custom design know how their customers value these services. Having an heirloom jewel restored or creating a new, personalized piece that will be valued for generations to come… Such offerings create value, trust, and enduring connections. But finding everything required to provide them can sometimes feel like a treasure hunt without a map.
- How can you find and attract workers, and how can you best train them?
- Where can you find trusted subcontracting services?
- When you run up against unexpected problems, where can you find reliable expertise?
- Where are the latest tools and technologies that will enable you to stay ahead of the curve?
MJSA knows these challenges well. And, as you would expect from a trade alliance that’s been helping professional jewelers and designers for over 120 years, it has a few solutions.
- MJSA’s Concierge Sourcing Service can connect you with the industry’s most trusted suppliers of tools, technologies, alloys, components and chain, packaging, custom services… basically, anything you need to run well and efficiently. All are MJSA members and agree to abide by the alliance’s rigorously enforced code of ethics.
You can also find many of them at MJSA Expo, where jewelers “play” to their heart’s content with all available tools, design technologies, gems, components, alloys, etc. This year’s Expo will take place March 10–12 at the Javits Center in New York City, alongside JA New York.
- You can find monthly updates about new tools and technologies—as well as advice from some of the industry’s finest bench jewelers and custom designers—in MJSA Journal, the alliance’s award-winning monthly magazine. From time-saving tool modifications and techniques to best practices for working with custom customers, the MJSA Journal and its related videos, podcasts, and webinars offer the expertise to work faster, achieve more, and worry less.
- Need even more information? We can set up individual consultations with technical and business experts.
- “Where are the workers?” is a common refrain among retailers, and it’s especially heard among those looking to hire bench jewelers. MJSA’s Career Connections program is working with schools to prepare the next generation of professional jewelers; connecting prospective jewelers and employers through its online Talent Bank, Jobs Board, and the Career Connections e-newsletter; and helping retailers attract and train new hires through its Mentor & Apprenticeship Program, recently approved by the U.S. Department of Labor as a national standard for the jewelry industry.
To learn how MJSA and membership can benefit your business, go to MJSA.info/retailer; there, you can download free copies of our Guide to Custom Design, our Guide to Subcontracting, and the Mentor & Apprenticeship Training Package. Or contact Lucy Ferreira at 1.800.444.MJSA (6572), x3020, [email protected].