While in a business trip to Arizona, I meet Mr. Ken McGee, an entrepreneur in the jewelry design and manufacturing, Mr. McGee’s company is well known in the jewelry industry for its intricate and exotic designs.
What is your business philosophy?
My business philosophy is to never turn down work, and just make sure that I get paid enough money to make it worth while.
Mr. McGee could you tell me a little bit how you started your company?
It was an accident, I went to school to learn design and hand engraving to be able to put my name on the plaque and art work since I am an artist. one evening while doing sketch for a fellow student who needed to put it on a drawing for customer approval, took me about 20 min to draw the sketch, and the customer liked it, so my friend paid me about $75 cash so I made up my mind that this was the market I needed to be in and I signed up for jewelry design the next day.
Could you give me some examples to illustrate the challenge you faced in starting your company?
In the jewelry business is difficult to set up accounts, it takes years to established and become known, you need to be established in the business to be able to start, so I went to 5 years of apprentice to establish myself so people will know me and I could start my business.
What kind of problems you face in your business?
Is a very competitive market and you have to know the market and who you are dealing with, the market is not easy to enter, and once you are in you have to work very hard to be able to succeed. Other challenges I faced was finding that niche for my business, and it took me a while to find it but, I did and offered my customers a service that no one else had at the moment.
How have the experiences that you have had during your entire career influence the way you run your business?
I had to change my mind as to not being and artist and become a business man, sometimes artist tend to forget that they have customers and get a little carried away with pricing their art work as if you have a business mind set then you can handle customer complaints and problems in general, I learned to listen to people and not confronting people. And review their needs and satisfy my customer’s needs.
How do you motivate and reward your employees?
First of all I made sure that my employees understood and knew how to do their job, if they are not doing they job right then I have not trained them properly, I like to reward my employees for a well done job, and keeping a relax and enjoyable work environment.
How do you select people to join your company?
It depends for what department they are applying for, if is a technician then I like for them to be responsible, honest, and ethical about all their doings, if is someone for customer service then I like that person to be very outgoing, pleasing to the eye, this person is the first contact with my customers so he/she has to be nice and pleasing, if is sales then they have to be sharp and know the product very well, they need to be able to get along with my customers and help them in every way possible.
How do you keep up with best practices in your company?
Well I have a profile for all my employees and we follow this profile pretty close every time, I have rules in my company and all my employees need to follow them, since we work with the public most of the time I like to make suite that my people are presentable at all times and ready to receive our customers.
How do you reward your employees?
Best reward is money that is why people work so I make it a reward.
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What advice would you give to someone who was considering a career in the jewelry business?
My best advise is to find another industry, because now days is very hard to be and independent jeweler, corporations have taken over the industry and it makes it very hard to survive in this industry now days as independent jeweler.
