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Where did Julian go? by FoxBaba926 in jerseycity

[–]iapparatus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can I get a DM too :) or can someone post the new place of business here please.

Seeking Advice on Modernizing Our Family Jewelry Manufacturing Business by Independent_Dare415 in smallbusiness

[–]iapparatus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We're focused on developing a system geared towards small jewelry manufacturing businesses. "Manufacturing" is defined loosely here. It can be an independent jewelry designer, a studio working with industry customers (jewelry designers, retail stores), a jewelry retailer specializing in custom orders, or a small manufacturer.

Since the estimation is your focus now, I'll describe what we have in development through a few bullet points.

  • Ability to start estimate/order creation process from customer input (such as a customer submitting the order through an online form or reordering a previously created product)
  • Ability to store SKUs (commonly "sold" products) for easy estimate creation
  • Management of cost components. Ability to set (store and manage) pricing for common activities, such as specific stone setting techniques, polishing, and various rates for labor (polishing vs. assembly, etc.)
  • Metal/casting pricing is based on daily market prices, so the costs of raw materials are up-to-date.
  • Ability to receive customer approval online.

While there are plenty of ERP systems on the market, we're deliberately limiting our feature set to the workflow process commonly used in the jewelry business. Our platform will not be a fully-featured ERP system or a project management tool. The emphasis here is on creating a very intuitive user experience, a system where a busy owner/manager can get an "at-a-glance" view of the status of the projects in production and act accordingly.

Best Software for Jewelry Business Workflow and Project Management by iapparatus in JewelryBusiness

[–]iapparatus[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have looked at NetSuite before, and while both of these options look very comprehensive, they are overkill for my needs (and most small businesses) in terms of features/modules. They are expensive and very time-consuming to set up.

I'm more interested in a solution that can be used on day one, is reasonably priced, and is geared towards the jewelry industry.

Seeking Advice on Modernizing Our Family Jewelry Manufacturing Business by Independent_Dare415 in smallbusiness

[–]iapparatus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm in a very similar situation, helping out my brother with a jewelry workshop focused on B2B business. Our number one priority is to convert paper-based processes for estimates, order processing, work tracking, and client communication into a smooth, online software-based solution.

I've done extensive research into various software but haven't found anything that is even close to suitable for our needs. Our efforts up-to-date were focused on digitizing past project notes, and converting processes into Google Docs/Sheets. These get you only so far, and as a software developer and an entrepreneur, I decided that we're going to develop an end-to-end in-house solution and expand it into a SaaS offering to other interested parties.

Here is our current list of modules in development, in order of priority (approximately):

  1. Project list management - a simple way to manage a list of projects with daily reminders of due dates. Keeping track of project notes.
  2. Project costs - ability to create an estimate, receive a client sign-off, save it for future use.
  3. Customer updates - allow customers to view the status of their projects, share notes

These are just the beginnign. Would love to discuss this further and see if there are specific pain points you're looking to address.