Below are companies and resources I’ve personally used and found genuinely helpful as a small business owner. This list includes suppliers I’ve bought from, courses I’ve taken, and other tools I’ve tried. None of the links are affiliate links and I have no formal association with any of these businesses. I simply want to share things that have worked for me, in the hope you might find something useful too.
Tools
Trello
I love Trello and use it to plan all my blog posts and marketing. It’s free, though there’s a paid version you can upgrade to if needed. You create boards, then lists within each board (I have one list per day for Pinterest for example, and one per blog category for my blog planning). Then each card represents a single task, blog post or pin.
Canva
Another one I’m sure you’ve already heard of, but just in case you haven’t, Canva is for image editing and creating marketing materials. It’s easy to use and something I think I use every single day.
A page-per-day diary
As much as I love trello for organising my marketing and blog schedule, on a day to do basis I’m old school and feel you can’t beat a page-per-day diary where you can write down your to do list and get the satisfaction of ticking each item off as you go along. I’ve not linked to a brand for this one as pretty much any diary with enough space to write in will work.
Gemology Tools Professional
If you are serious about identifying gemstones, this database/tool is essential. While a traditional reference book works, it can take hours to flip through pages and narrow down possibilities. With this tool, you simply enter your test results and instantly get a filtered list of potential gemstones. The gemstone and inclusion galleries are also incredibly helpful for confirming your identifications.
Erank
It’s an Etsy-specific tool, or rather a suite of tools, that uses actual data about Etsy search results and your shop’s performance to help you improve discoverability and conversion.
Suppliers
CooksonGold
I’m sure you’ve heard of them before, but I love that all their silver and gold is recycled. They’re the only place I ever purchased silver from, although if I’m honest I usually found their tools a little pricy.
Westpac
They make great quality, eco-friendly jewellery and postal packaging. I especially love their eco-friendly foam inserts so the whole of the jewellery box can be sustainable.
Spa Plating
If you do gold plating, or want to start, these are where I used to buy my equipment and plating solution from.
Free Learning
Andrew Berry, At the bench – As a jeweller I’m sure you already know about this one. Andrew is a guru of all things jewellery making and has a wealth of tutorials and Q&As on his channel.
Deborah Engelmajer, Tizzit
As well as her paid community and courses (mentioned below), Deb also has a great YouTube channel where she does bite-sized training videos for handmade sellers.
Simple Pin Media
This is a brilliant Pinterest channel where Kate and her team offer really helpful Pinterest tutorials and advice.
Pin Talk Podcast
This is another Pinterest-themed channel where Tony and Carly (the lady who offers the pinterest strategy course I mentioned above) talk about their different approaches to pinterest.
Starla Moore
This is the lady who is responsible for Handmade Alpha Academy (mentioned below). Her YouTube channel is mainly focused around selling on Etsy, and she does a live video every Friday usually ending with a Q&A.
Pam Duthie
Another Etsy based channel, Pam does a really good weekly Etsy news update that’s well worth watching if you sell on there.
eRank
Another Etsy focused channel that complements the eRank tool above. Their channel tries to educate and help you become successful on Etsy. They also do a live Q&A every Thursday.
The Product Boss
A great general small business podcast (not just handmade) that does lots of interviews with people at various stages of small business to talk about how they’re getting on and give them advice on where to go next. Sometimes I find great business tips in her conversations, other times I find them to work like a mini pep talk. I haven’t taken her course, but the free content is excellent
Paid Learning
I’m a serial course taker. I love learning new things! My take on it is, even if one day I outsource some jobs, it’s still important to understand the task myself so I know if they’re doing a good job. I’m sure this list will grow over time.
Tizzit HQ
I love Debs teaching style. She takes big complex topics, like handmade business, and breaks them down into manageable chunks. Tizzit isn’t a single course. It’s a collection of courses and a roadmap guiding you through them. Plus it’s a community of like minded people who are always willing to help out. I’m not currently a member, but I was for quite a while and found the content of tizzit HQ extremely helpful.
Handmade Alpha Academy
Starla has updated the course since I took it, which will have improved the content even further. This is mainly aimed at Etsy sellers, but it also has a great deal of general small business advice including things like marketing psychology and knowing who your customer is (something I think is the most important step for a business).
Pinteresting Strategies
I’ve done a few pinterest courses and found most of them try to teach you everything there is to know about pinterest, which is great, but this course isn’t that. It’s an easy to follow posting and SEO strategy. It’s not the only way to be successful on pinterest, but it is one tried and tested method. Personally I quite liked the straight forward approach it offers.
Profitable Blogging Jumpstart
This course was the reason why I re-built my website. It’s a great guide for setting up a wordpress website with a blog. If you have a blog and want some pointers to improve it, or if you’re looking at adding a blog to your site this is a worthwhile course to do.
At the bench
This isn’t a course, it’s a collection of jewellery making tutorials. Pretty much any technique you could think of has a video or series of videos on here. I’m no longer a member, but when I was actively trying to expand my jewellery making skills and found it very useful. My only negative about this site is it’s not a course, so it left me feeling like I needed to know what I wanted to learn to make it really worthwhile.
Professional Gemologist Certification Course
I learnt to identify gemstones through the International Gem Society. It is a remote, self-paced course and there is a lot of reading involved, so it does require commitment. You also need a small collection of known gemstones so you can practice using the identification tools properly. There are tests at the end of each section and for the final exam they send a parcel of unknown gemstones that you have to identify. That hands on exam was incredibly valuable and really cemented the skills.
This route gave me a strong foundation and practical experience, and it was also a more accessible way into the industry. I know many people do not have the thousands needed for a traditional gemology school so I wanted to include it here as an option for anyone who wants a solid starting point.
IGS also offer some great mini courses for deep diving into individual gem types.
Insurance
Guild of Jewellery Designers – I’ll admit I do find their website a little confusing to navigate around, but with the gold membership you get insurance for your jewellery making, and there are lots of suppliers that give you a discount for being a member. Depending on your suppliers and order volume, the membership discounts can almost cover the cost in a year.