This month, Jeffrey Samuels, owner of William Jeffrey’s Jewelers near Richmond, Virginia, joins host Jimmy DeGroot and co-host Doug Meadows of David Douglas Diamonds in Marietta, GA to talk about how a jewelry store owner can build a business that supports their lifestyle.
Samuels started in the industry as a loose diamond sales rep covering nine states. He decided to open a retail jewelry store in his hometown of Mechanicsville when his oldest son was born in 1990.
At that time, store hours were six days a week from 10 until 8. Today, the store is open Tuesday through Friday until 6 and Saturday until 3. And this year, Samuels will only work four days a week in the store.
He discusses how a store owner needs to train their team to take ownership, but more importantly, how the owner has to train himself not to micro-manage and how to ignore that “little gremlin” that says you could have done something better than your employee did it.
One impressive feature of Samuels’ operation is that his average inventory turn is 6 — whereas most jewelers have an average turn of about 1. “It’s not about how much you sell,” Samuels says, “but about how much you make in profit.”
Samuels goes on to discuss his aversion to traditional advertising and insistence on ROI, and how he’s found reliability in Podium and Google Reviews. He also talks about why he doesn’t sell lab-grown diamonds, gives his thoughts on CRM (customer relationship management) software, and shares his preliminary exit plans.