• Moving to a smaller space – When people live in the same space for a long time, it’s easy to accumulate many things that seem important, but end up just becoming clutter. Downsizing a household due to death, divorce or changed life circumstances are all reasons many choose to sell a stash of gold jewelry, coins, etc.

• Need money for bills or extra expenses – This is a common reason and what many have done over the past few years. What better way to shore up incomes than by selling unused gold pieces?

• Inherited gold – While less common, children who lose a parent often find themselves with jewelry boxes and safe deposit boxes filled with items they didn’t know their parents had. Unless there’s a sentimental value, this windfall may best serve the inheritor by being sold, especially if the jewelry will never be worn or other pressing needs override the desire to keep the “found treasure.”

• Cashing in an investment – For people who’ve been investing in gold for years, selling at the higher per-ounce price can make for a lucrative payday. For example, if someone bought 10 ounces of gold in 2000 when it was at $275 an ounce, they paid $2,750 for it. In today’s market, selling their 10 ounces would result in a cool $16,650 in cold, hard cash. Subtract out their initial investment and the investor nets $13,900 – an over 500 percent gain! Not bad for sitting on their gold for nearly 12 years.

Regardless of the reason, now is a great time to sell your gold.

The same is true with life goals. Being clear about what you want gives clarity and direction. They help you focus squarely on what you want out of life and make positive progress to get there. It’s important to remember that you need clarity in your goals. Why? This will make it much easier for you to reach them!

When you write out detailed instructions regarding your goals instead of vague ideas, you have a much better chance of achieving success. You’ll not only know exactly what you need to do, but you’ll likely be invigorated and enthusiastic.

Follow these tips in order to clarify your goals:

• Figure out your ultimate goal. Define exactly what you want. Instead of a goal like “I want to be successful,” be specific by listing things such as “I want to own my own business which brings in at least $10,000 per month.”
• Don’t be afraid of the details. You make the ultimate decision on what you want. But don’t be afraid to set the details. Avoid goals like “I want to be rich” because there’s no details as to how you’ll get there. Instead, consider the lifestyle you want, what your overall needs are and then answer these questions:
  • How much money do you want to make?
  • What will this money provide for you that you desire?
  • What lifestyle do you want? A nice home, the ability to travel the world, philanthropy, be debt-free?
  • How do you want to earn this money?
  • When do you want this to happen?
  • How can you prepare for this?
  • What must need to change in your life in order for this to happen?
• Break down your goals into bite-sized pieces. When you stare at your ultimate goal, it may seem intimidating and unattainable. It’s important to break down your main goal into manageable bits. Write out detailed plans about how you’ll reach each of these more manageable pieces. For example, if you want to start your own business, a small goal would be to research your local and federal business laws and register a name.
• Give yourself deadlines. It’s vital to give yourself deadlines so you know you’re making progress towards your goals. Each of your small goals should have an attainable deadline. In the business example above, maybe you’d give yourself a week’s time in order to research different business structures and laws.
• Keep track. Make detailed notes about what you have done so far. Keeping track of your progress will help you stay organized and on top of your goals.
• Make alternate plans. Sometimes you won’t be able to make the deadline you have set out for yourself, or maybe you’ll be unable to follow through with a current plan entirely. It’s important to think of alternatives in case certain situations don’t work out in your favor. If you already have back up plans in place, you’ll save time if you run into snags on the way to your goals.

Get Organized

Organization can mean keeping all of your detailed plans and journals in a binder with tabs for easy access to your notes. Alternatively, you may opt to keep your materials organized by using project management software on your computer. Just remember to make backups of your digital information so that you don’t lose it.

No matter what method you’ve chosen, determine the details, set small attainable goals that lead toward your ultimate goals, be flexible so you can conquer challenges and keep track of your progress. Doing these things will bring you ultimate clarity and success.

So what has me thinking about happy people? I found this image on Facebook and it made me smile. I love the sentiment – wrinkles in the right places because of smiling. And then I thought about laughing. Who doesn’t like a big belly laugh? I’d heard that laughter could have positive effects on our health, so I did a little digging and found some information I wanted to share.

Laughing is way more fun than eating apples.

There’s a time-honored phrase, “laughter is the best medicine.” Believe it or not, it dates back to biblical times – but still makes sense for us today. That’s because laughter brings people together; it can diffuse a difficult situation; it can turn a bad situation into a good one – and it just feels good to laugh! We learn to laugh as early as 3 months old.

Laughter affects us in many ways that resonate through not just our body, but also our mind and spirit.

How laughter affects the body:

Ah endorphins. These are released in plenty when we laugh. This stimulates muscles, nerves, organs and tissues. Why is this noteworthy? Endorphins can help ease stress, improve immune system functioning and relieve chronic pain. Laughter helps heal the body!

How laughter affects the mind:

It kind of makes sense that if you’re thinking happy thoughts, you are lead naturally to a more positive outlook on life. When we’re participating in things that make us happy, like sharing a great conversation with a friend or having dinner with someone special, we feel lighter and life seems brighter and better.

But if we’re stuck with negative people or those with down attitudes, our own outlooks will eventually suffer. If this describes your life, you might consider finding new friends.

How laughter affects the spirit:

Laughter naturally lifts our spirits, helping us feel less troubled. Laughter is also contagious, so when one person in a group starts laughing, others usually follow. Shared laughter is the best!

How laughter affects relationships:

Have you ever shared a funny event with someone that had you both laughing? After that, you then shared many more moments recounting the funny event? If so, you’ve experienced the unique situation that is created when two people experience something funny together. This becomes the inside joke that’s special to (and only understood by) those who’ve shared in the moment.

Laughter can be the glue that holds people together. When couples spend time laughing with each other (not at), a stronger, more lasting relationship develops. Studies have shown that couples who laugh together stay together much longer and have a deeper connection. If this doesn’t describe your life right now, you can create it if you want! By choosing to embrace laughter in our lives, we’re able to get through many more rough spots and be happier and healthier.

Try to find the joy in every situation and laugh as often as you can every day. By spending time around positive, happy people, you’ll be amazed at how good you begin to feel!

Image from www.thegoldjewelry.com

In its natural state, gold is a very soft, very yellow metal. All newly discovered gold is 24 karat, its purest form. But in this state, its softness makes it too soft and unreliable for every day wear. In the U.S., we like our gold harder. Then our investment can stand the test of time and retain its original beauty far longer than if it was made of a purer form of gold.

To enhance the strength and durability of gold, other metals are then mixed with it. Knowing this, you can probably guess that the lower the gold content, the more other metals are mixed in.

So, back to our question, “What is ‘white gold’?”

White gold is yellow gold mixed often with palladium, silver and less frequently nickel. Nickel has fallen out of favor as a white gold additive because it can cause an allergic reaction over long-term wear. While the reactions are generally mild (a slight rash) most people don’t buy jewelry to have their skin react badly.

While mixing these metals together creates a much less yellow hue, the actual color of white gold is closer to gray. The bright white luster of white gold comes from a coating of rhodium, another complementary metal. Rhodium gives white gold its brilliance, sheen and highly reflective appearance. However, this coating does wear off over time, and the piece must be recoated to retain its original luster.

White gold may be all the rage, but not everyone agrees they look good with it on. Personally, I’m a blonde and yellow gold is much more complimentary to my coloring.  I think I’ll stick with yellow gold. How about you?

It’s true. Have you ever bought something from someone even though your “gut” or intuition was telling you “NO!” with dire results? You can’t underestimate your instincts, or if you’re a a business owner the importance of those three seemingly little words.

So how do these play off one another? And what makes them important?

Know:

What do your potential and current customers/clients know about you? How much of You do you reveal in your business dealings? Are you genuine when working with people or do you hide behind a persona? (It’s better to just be you.) This doesn’t mean airing all your dirty laundry, personal or business, but it does mean presenting yourself in a way that people feel they understand who you are. It’s being approachable, not off-putting. Which ties well into the next point.

Like:

As Sally Field so famously said at the Oscars in 1985 – “You like me, right now! You like me!” Being liked isn’t absolutely necessary in business, but it sure helps. This doesn’t mean you need to be a pushover or give in to every demand or request of a client. It does mean being cordial, friendly and respectful of others. It could mean having a sense of humor by laughing at a client’s latest joke, which means you’re giving the other person space to be himself, too. Who knows – you may end up liking him.

Trust:

This might seem obvious, but you can act one way and do things another way, crushing any hopes of building trust with someone. Don’t return phone calls in a timely manner? Forget to do something you said you’d do? Nickel and dime a client on a project? All of these things can erode trust and start a customer looking elsewhere for someone he feels more comfortable dealing with.

In the gold buying business, buyers are a dime a dozen. It seems everyone is buying gold these days – and why not? It’s a lucrative business. At Glitterbug, our focus is less on our buyers and more on our sellers. We believe the best business practices reward both. That’s why we consistently pay out higher than our competition and why our gold buyers are compensated on how much they pay out instead of how much they bring in.

We believe in ethical business practices and only hire people who think like we do. We also do a thorough background and criminal check to make sure we’re not inadvertently working with someone to represent our company that might not be of the highest caliber.

Honestly, when it comes right down to it, our sellers know, like and trust our gold buyers because our buyers embody all of the best qualities you’d want in someone who’s evaluating your gold, silver and gems … and excited to give you top dollar for any or all of them.

Are you looking to sell some gold pieces? Interested in possibly joining our team? Contact us today to learn more!

What often happens is that someone will attend a party, see how the business works – and how lucrative the business can be for the gold buyer – and then become interested in starting their own Glitterbug business. Does this sound like you?

However, it’s not a business you can simply jump into. It takes preparation, training and an upfront investment. After all, if the new gold buyer doesn’t have any “skin in the game,” they might not take the business as seriously. And we want serious (and fun) business people in our mix!

So what do you get for your investment? That’s simple:

• The right equipment. You can’t buy gold if you don’t know what you’re looking at. We’ll provide you with the best equipment available to test the gold your sellers bring to you.
• The knowledge. All gold is not created equal. Could you spot something that’s gold plated? Do you know the differences between the different types of gold? For example, why is 24 karat gold not used in U.S. jewelry very often? We teach you what you need to know to be an informed and educational gold buyer.
• The skills. Testing, evaluating and assessing are all acquired skills. We happily give you the skills to be successful!
• The systems and processes of Glitterbug. Yes, we have our own way of doing things. We teach you those, too.
• The support. We are here for you! That’s not idle chatter; we really do support our gold buyers fully. After all – your success is our success. We are behind you 100 percent.

So how do you work up your initial cash outlay if you don’t have any extra lying around? That could be easier than you think – and might result in you having NO out-of-pocket costs for your Glitterbug business startup. How cool would that be?

Here are some ideas to get you thinking:

Sell your own gold. With gold prices still at record highs, it only takes a few pieces to cover your startup costs. To make it even easier, you can skip the party and send it directly to us. We’ll provide you with a prepaid UPS label so you don’t even incur any costs for postage, plus it will be insured all the way to us!

If you don’t have any gold, you could host your own GlitterBug party and use your Hostess Cash to get started.  Our average hostess makes $350 in Hostess Cash, but it can be much more if you “work it.”

Ask friends and family to give you their old gold pieces. Send it to us (remember, we’ll cover the shipping costs), and instead of us paying them directly, we’ll pay you so you can use this money for your startup. After you earn the money back on the first one or two parties, you can pay your friends and family back.

If no one close to you has any gold to sell, then you could ask to borrow money from a friend or family member. Because you’ll be able to buy gold immediately after your one-day training, you will have the money to repay the loan in your first couple of parties.

As a last resort, you could have your credit card company lend you the money. Use your credit card (or split up between multiple cards) for the startup. Then book three parties within your 30-day billing cycle. By the time the bill is due, you’ll have the money in your account to pay it!

When you want something bad enough, you can get creative in making it happen. Being a Glitterbug gold buyer is fun and lucrative, even done on a part-time basis. People are selling their gold every day. If they don’t sell it to you, they’ll sell it to the person down the street. Someone is going to make money. Why not let it be you?

After all, buying jewelry as an investment is a good thing. Isn’t it? According to financial wiz, Suzi Orman, buying jewelry as a long term investment is actually not such a good idea. Her biggest point is that the markup seen in stores overrides the benefits of buying jewelry as an investment. She has a good point.

Silver jewelry demonstrates this perfectly.

There are several factors that go into the pricing of jewelry. And it’s typical for sellers to mark up their pieces 100, 200 or 300 percent of the cost to manufacture it, which really shouldn’t be surprising. But these other points just might surprise you.

Gram Price

The most important aspect of silver jewelry pricing is the price per gram. This is the basic material cost of the piece. For example, the price of silver today is $35.00 (give or take some change) per ounce. To determine the gram price, you must divide the per ounce price by 31.5. The result is $1.11. So, the raw material cost for a 10 ounce necklace is $10.11. So why would someone pay $40.00 or more for a necklace that only cost $10 to manufacture? Well, I can’t answer that, but there are some reasons for the price difference between manufacture and retail cost.

Additional Materials

Any time you add something extra to a piece of jewelry, the cost will increase exponentially. So, if there’s a gemstone or two, other precious metals, pearls or a rhodium finish all add to the cost of the manufacturing.

Labor Costs

Someone has to make the jewelry, and that cost must be accounted for in the final price. The additional labor costs associated with a piece are driven by the amount of craftsmanship involved, the types of settings needed for any gemstones and the time necessary to melt, cast, polish and finish a piece.

Shipping and Customs Costs

Since it’s not unusual for silver jewelry to be made outside the U.S., shipping and customs costs must be figured into the final pricing.

Overhead of the Jeweler

It does cost money to run a jewelry store, and if owners aren’t including their overhead costs, they won’t be in business very long. How much these impact the final jewelry price is determined by a number of factors including number of employees, size of store, cost of inventory, etc.

Oh yeah, Profit

You have to include this! Otherwise, a jewelry store is simply in business to be a pass-through. How much profit to include is decided by the business. Of course, they can’t go too crazy or they won’t sell anything.

Now that you know what goes into the pricing of a silver piece of jewelry, this next statement might not surprise you. Silver jewelry is pretty, but it’s not a great investment. We see disappointed faces all the time when a hopeful seller brings in a pieces of silver jewelry expecting a windfall and leaving with pocket change.

Believe me, this hurts us to see. We want our sellers to be excited and happy with their decision to lighten their gold and silver loads. It’s sad to see someone who realizes they paid a lot of money for something that really wasn’t truly worth a lot. Often, we’ll suggest they keep the piece if it has any sentimental value. At least that has some worth, if only to that person.

Gold has always played a role in Indian society; there is even a Hindu God dedicated to wealth and prosperity (among other things) called Lakshmi. One day each year is dedicated to Lakshmi. Hindus are taught that buying gold on that day will result in prosperity for the buyer. Gold buying one day before or one day after won’t have the same outcome.

Effect on World Gold Market

India’s demand for gold is so high that they represent 32 percent of the total world gold market. That’s a lot of jewelry (and bars and coins)! In fact, India ranks as the key driver of the gold market today (followed by China). Its insatiable demand for gold is nearly unprecedented. This is largely because the majority of their gold is imported, which means it has a profound effect on the world gold market. (India does have gold mining, but it represents less than one percent of the total gold mined worldwide.)

Gold and Weddings

Gold is most obvious in Indian weddings, where a show of gold equals the family’s standing in society. Dowries used to be commonplace in India, without one a woman couldn’t marry. Those were outlawed in 1961, but the expectation of heaps of gold being worn and presented at weddings still applies. The importance of gold for the woman is exemplified when a new baby girl is born. Parents begin the gold collection at that point to ensure their daughter will marry well. In fact, in 2011, fully one-half of all gold purchased was for weddings.

Gold as Wealth

In the U.S., currency is seen as the way to wealth. In India, the path to wealth is literally paved in gold. The more you have, the higher standing you have in society. With India’s economic improvements has come a growth in the upper and middle classes. These now outnumber the lower class. For a typical Indian family, gold is like another family member. Without it, life is incomplete.

Even lower class households scrimp and save to buy what gold they can. This might mean gold plated pieces, but for them, it’s still gold. Families that can’t save enough money to buy expensive pieces (Indian households save up to 30 percent of their household income, compared to U.S. households, which are lucky to save 5 percent), can arrange financing to meet their gold buying requirements.

Gold is a way of life in India. A recent 60 Minutes piece gives insight into the Indian obsession and how it’s shaping the world economy. You can view the video here. (It’s just over 12 minutes long and worth watching.)

Today, the lines have blurred between sales and marketing. Understanding how these two formerly different business roles have merged will be the key to keeping your business top-of-mind with prospects and current clients as well as make more sales.

In a recent blog post at Duct Tape Marketing, author Josh Jantsch outlines how these two areas have come together to change the face of business acquisition and communication. This doesn’t mean the old ways aren’t still “out there.” However, the old “tried and true” ways of doing sales and marketing work less well in the new economy, especially with the inclusion of digital mediums such as social media.

Check out the article here. In it, he discusses a variety of topics, listed below.

• Prospecting for clients means listening
• Presenting is less about selling and more about educating
• Sharing information means sharing insights
• Telling stories is the new way to nurture clients – current and prospective
• Hard closes are a thing of the past; now it’s all about the relationship

Basically, his conclusion is that if you’re marketing and selling for your business, you are a one-stop-shop for all things that relate to communications in your business. And when you really think about it, it’s all about the relationship.

How can you apply this to your Glitterbug business? Give us your thoughts below.

Of course, it’s only a bad habit if it interferes with your health, safety, sanity or well-being – or that of others. It could also be that you have a habit you’re not even aware of. In that case, you’ll need to ask people you trust if there’s anything about you that might be worth looking into more or changing. If they care about you, they’ll be honest, as long as they feel you’re asking with an open and willing heart. If you get mad at them for giving you an answer you might not want to hear, you’ll alienate the person or people who might be your biggest champions.

Breaking bad habits isn’t impossible, but there are some defined steps that you’ll want to follow in order to let a bad habit go.

So the first step is…

1. Deciding you really want to rid yourself of a bad habit. If the answer isn’t a heartfelt, resounding, “Yes!” you may not be ready to let a bad habit go yet. We’ll assume that you are for this article.
2. You do – you really do! Yeah for you! Now you need to understand the “why” behind your desire to let a bad habit go. It helps to stick with positive statements. For example, say you wish to quit smoking. Your list could start with:
   • So I live long enough to see my daughter get married.
   • So my clothes and hair don’t stink.
   • So I don’t develop those little lines around my mouth that tell the world I’m a smoker.
   • Etc.
3. You have a choice. You can choose to follow through with your desire to quit your bad habit. Every day you can choose whether to continue your fight to quit or give in and give up. It’s all up to you.
4. Get in action! While quitting offending habits cold turkey works for some people, it doesn’t work for all. You much evaluate your style of accomplishment and decide on a framework that will support, not derail, your efforts to lose a bad habit.
5. Solicit help. When you’re working toward a big goal, such as ending a bad habit, it helps to not keep it to yourself. Tell someone who can be your champion and cheer on your efforts. Don’t, however, tell anyone who will be a naysayer or detractor. If they can’t believe you can do it, how can you?
6. Don’t beat yourself up if you backslide. Nobody’s perfect and I’m betting you aren’t either. This means you might slip up once in a while. Oh good. You’re human. The trick is not to let yourself get down about it or beat yourself up. Acknowledge that you had a moment of weakness, assess how it happened (what was going on, what might have triggered it) and learn from the experience. The next time you feel tempted, you can use this initial event as a reminder of what not to do.
7. Create milestones for your successes. If you’re not going cold turkey, but setting up a stair step approach to reducing and then eliminating a bad habit, set up rewards along the way to keep your motivation up. Without rewards, you may become frustrated because the end result is still out of reach. Acknowledging that you are making progress could be the key to you being ultimately successful. Besides, it’s fun to have a reason to celebrate.

Stay positive, acknowledge you’re human and keep plugging away at that bad habit. Sooner than later you’ll look back on your efforts and feel that total sense of satisfaction that only comes from a job well done.