Diversify styles and sizes to broaden your market.

As I'm working on cropping pictures and getting a new batch of items ready for my stores, I was thinking about why I choose to make a wide array of sizes for things and adjustable clasps and such. My thought process traced the origin of this practice and it was born in something I learned about real estate. I've never been in real estate and I've only bought one house. But in that process, we studied quite a bit and we went through a phase where we watched a whole lot of HGTV and DIY network shows about buying, selling and decorating houses while they're on the market. We learned that as you display your house for sale, you tone down colors to a neutral palate. You take down very personal decor that labels the house as yours (such as family photos). You basically try to make your house as generic as possible, but not too bland, so that anyone could come in and feel like they could live there. You want it to be a good fit for a wide variety of personalities which broadens the market that will consider buying it.

Now, I'm not saying I try to make my jewelry generic. My aim is quite the contrary. However, I do diversify my designs so that hopefully many types of personalities could find at least one thing in my stores they might like or that they see I could easily do something custom in their style, if they're looking for something specific. But when it comes to sizing items, I try to make necklaces and earrings of all different lengths. Anything choker length, bracelets and wrist watches get a small length of chain to adjust the clasp. I don't want someone to come see something and think, "wow, I really love that, but it won't fit me." I don't want to close any doors. I work in a medium that allows me to make my pieces fit a wide variety of people. If I were making clothing, I couldn't do this necessarily. But since I make jewelry, I try to take advantage of the positive points about the medium to diversify my pieces for my potential clients.

I know it's hard not to get worked into a niche. But as you're designing and sizing, maybe think about how you can make each piece work for lots of potential customers. Also, think about your lines and what they may be lacking, if anything. Are there any styles you've wanted to explore but haven't because you're just so comfortable doing steampunk or contemporary or deco or nouveau or boho or whatever?

And try to keep your mind open for lessons learned from other areas of life. There are so many applicable lessons that can be learned from the most unlikely places.