David Geller49 mins ago Take A Tip From A Massage Therapist - INSTORE MAG

[massage]

BECAUSE OF MY back I get regular massages. It’s also one of the few times during a day I don’t need to talk to anyone at length. Today I asked my massage therapist how long do you have to go to school to become a therapist and she said “about 7 months”. I Googled that and saw “about a year”.

My regular place to get a massage was in a health club, but with Covid I had to change. This lady is great and works out of a one-person office and I’ll continue with her even after Covid is over.

When I first met her, she told me her hourly charge was $85.00 and then added “I will give you a $5 discount if you pay in cash rather than a credit card or check.”

I know why she says this, but I scolded her: “No! Do not discount to get the cash, charge more to use a credit card! Tell them $85 for cash and if you use a check or credit card it’s $90.”

(P.S. Its legal now to charge your customer a fee for credit cards, limited to 5%)

She took my advice and said all of her customers said “OK”. Her income has gone up

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I give her a $15 tip so with me she takes in $100 for an hour’s work, which got thinking about how much do my bench jeweler friends charge per hour.

I started bench training at age 10, worked for 2 other jewelers, had my own place for 25 years doing ¾ of our 1.8 million from the shop. My price book was developed halfway into my stores history and since 2000 have been selling my price book, talking to jewelers in person, on the phone (a lot) and prior to Covid, store visits and speaking at ¾ of the countries 45 jeweler state associations, AGTA, RJO, IJO, Vegas Show, Instore Chicago Show, The Atlanta Show as well as a few others.

I think I have an incredibly good feel for the bench jeweler mentality, don’t you agree?

My book is based upon a store charging/receiving $100 to $150 per hour for a jeweler’s workmanship. But many jewelers don’t think about what they NEED to charge but rather “what the customer will pay”, which is crazy as you know my mantra is

Repairs are not Price sensitive but trust sensitive!

Being on 3-6 jeweler Facebook groups I get to see and participate in pricing discussion a lot. Often people talk about how much they charge to do one procedure (i.e. Sizing; Tipping; etc)

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Sometimes they discussion is on how much to charge per hour. Some of these jewelers are doing trade work so you’d expect them to be less.

You won’t believe the range. Many quote anywhere from $25 an hour, $36 an hour to $75 an hour for retail charges for their labor to their customer.

Jewel-Craft in Kentucky is the countries largest trade shop, 200+ jewelers at the bench, doing work for small independents as well as big jewelry chains. They told me 2-3 years ago their pricing is based upon charging wholesale $85.00 an hour for their work and many jewelers are charging less than that retail!

(David’s math: If Jewel-Craft does a repair or custom job for you for a charge of $85, keystone you’d charge $170 for their hours work or at triple key you’d charge $255. Why should you be getting less than this for your own work?)

So back comparing my massage therapist to bench jewelers and let’s think about those bench jewelers charging $85 an hour or less including jewelers not using my book or those who discount my book.

My wife and I have been to three independent massage therapist and all 3 have small, lower rent offices. Let’s compare bench jeweler expenses to the therapist. I just randomly Googled Atlanta area for the attached chart.

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