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This site is Hu-z guide to getting your gem business on the web and running well....You may choose to bookmark this page to check for updates. Contact me if you have questions.
Hu

After years of playing with Gems, rocks, minerals, and computers, I am dismayed at how poorly the Gem Industry as a whole has come to utilize the tools available. Every year when I come to the show, I ask dealers if they have a website and if they have email...I can't tell you how many think having e-mail means they have a website....A small number of wholesale gem dealers are using the internet effectively, it is my guess that it is less than 1%...although about 5% have a "website, the vast majority of those websites only have a Domain Name parked and reserved. Every year I hear the same story....I'll have my site up in a few months...and then when I come back the next year, the site is still not up...These are some trends I see..

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Trends

Trend One...
Gemstone dealers are for the most part very reluctant to use the Internet, and very few actually even have a website up.

While this may not be a surprise to other gemstone professionals, it is to those of us who like to play with both gems and computers. The prevalent themes are:

1)"I have no use for the internet, it won't make any sales for me because you have to see, feel and touch the stones to buy them."
2)"I am in the wholesale business, the internet is for those who are in the retail business"
3)"It will take too much time, I will have to hire someone full time and that will cost me at least $50,000 a year"
4)"my wholesale customers will be very angry with me if I am on the internet, they will think I am trying to take their business"
5)"I am too busy already, I can't spend any time doing anything else"
6)"I already have all the business I can handle"
7)"I don't want to put a site up until it is ready"

and you will get my perspectives on these themes shortly....for now let me just say that this is what I am hearing.....and from what I am seeing, less than 5% of the gem dealers have an operational website up and running, although more now are starting to use e-mail.......till tomorrow...
bye Hu

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Basics

First off the internet is not for everyone...it is not for anyone who doesn't want it. It is just like the telephone...it is not for everyone...it is not for anyone who doesnt' want it...Of course life is less expensive with no phone bills, but then again there isn't as much income either.......

That said....it is easy to perceive why gem dealers are reluctant to use the internet...that is the normal state of human affairs...Psychotherapists were reluctant to use computers several years ago, and are now just beginning to find ways to make them effective tools. In every field other than computer science, there has been resistance to computer use...there has been the fear of obsolecence of the human...this is an understandable, but unfortunate misperception. There is that it is impossible to learn to use computers unless you are young. There is the fear of making life far more complicated. But computers are only a tool...there is no one forcing you to use the tool, however if you can be much more effective because of the tool, so much the better.....

There is a learing curve that you will have to go through to understand how the tool can be effective to you, and if you choose to let someone else do that part of the job, it will be expensive, challenging, frustrating, and ultimately ineffective....Think of it this way, if you needed to hire an operator every time you needed to use a phone, how complex would life be? You could either keep an operator on the job full time, or all your business would come to a standstill everytime you needed to make or answer a call. The phone operator would have you by your crystal spheres (gem show humor injection). Phone operators could command an outrageous wage, could make the process sound far more complex than it is, and could suggest ongoing upgrades to phone equipement, ongoing training, etc.....

After playing with computers since the 1970's, I have come to a number of realizations....the first being about software salespersons...(a vast majority have earned reputations equal to politicians)... promise the world before the sale, after the sale they are almost impossible to get in touch with, and if you can get in touch it may be at a very high price.......the worst among them have evolved into software engineering salestypes....those who customize your system...that way you are very dependent on them because you believe no-one else can understand your system...ultimately you can get locked into a losing proposition, unless you learn for yourself how to use your computer, you are dependent on someone else....the irony is that it is not that difficult to learn what you need to know, and how to get what you need out of your system......but unless you understand what the system can do, what your needs are, and how to mesh to two, you're not as likely to get that.....

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Addressing Fears

Okay enough rambling without issues, back to themes presented by gem dealers
1)"I have no use for the internet, it won't make any sales for me because you have to see, feel and touch stones to buy them."
Computers and the internet are complex and highly versatile. If you look at them from a unilateral perception you will always be able to find reasons they don't or won't work. Making sales is a rather complex process that involves more than just the exchange of goods for money. First you have to have a good product, you have to make contact with the person who wants that product, you have to be able to provide an incentive to purchase the product from you instead of your competitors, and you should maintain an ongoing relationship (business or more) with the person who buys from you. Perhaps you do all of this automatically, and don't even realize that this is a multi-faceted task. If any part the process breaks down, your sales decrease....
1) if you don't have a good product, you won't have many sales
2) if you don't make contact with the buyers, you won't have many sales
3) if your competitors provide a better incentive (lower price, better product, better year round support, faster turn around on orders, etc), you will probably lose sales to your competitors.
4) if you do not maintain an ongoing relationship, you need to make new contacts every year, and you lose the opportunity for repeat sales. Well that is enough for now.......I will address the other Issues as presented by gemdealers later, but for now.. read on if you wish

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Computers and Your Business

I can however give some basic generalizations that I have come to see from talking to many vendors, from analyzing the net, and from watching many on the net make errors.....so perhaps some of this advice can assist you....

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Simplify

Start Simple: With hardware, software, and service, my basic message is the same...Start simple and as you learn what you can do and what your needs are you will come to realize what features you need and don't....Again I cannot tell you how often I come across a dealer who doesn't want to put a site up until it is "Visa compatible", with an automated "shopping cart".... sometimes they have the perception that once the site is up, sales flow automatically from it....and that if they wait to get the perfect site up that will be the end of it...it won't require maintenance or other work....other times I come across dealers who know some one somewhere who put up a business website, and wound up spending all their time on the web instead of doing business....You can eliminate this possibility by starting simple then gradually adding features after you have learned how to control basic websites.

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Hareware

If you buy your hardware new, it will probably come with a one year warranty, if you can extend that to 3 years for less than 15% of the cost and it is a transferrable warranty it is not a bad idea..... More than that and your equipement may devaluate more than the value of the warranty.

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Software

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Service

There are different types of services available for computer users, and this sometimes adds to the confusion about what is needed, or what your overall expenses may be. I have defined service here as connecting, or accessing the internet, and hosting, or putting a website up. There are also many other ancillary services, that may or may not be to your advantage. It is important to note that you do not need to get all your services with the same provider.

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Connection

DSL also frees up your phone line, so if you factor in the cost of having a second phone line to receive calls while you are on the net, the deal gets better all the time.

I highly unrecommend SouthWest Bell or Pac-Bell DSL services....they kept promising me service for 8 months, failed to even call for 3 appointments they missed, called to cancel the fourth on the day they were supposed to show up, and then two hours after Earthlink installed DSL after only a 2 week wait, called to say they would be right over to install DSL even though they didn't have an appointment for that day.....needless to say I was very unhappy with their service......Once you have spent enought time on the net to understand uploading and downloading you will probably want DSL or other high speed if you search the net more than 6 hours per month.......(Think about it...if your time is only worth $5/hour...which I believe is even less than minimum wage, at $40 per month you are only spending an extra $5/hour to eliminate 90% of your wait time......)
One problem with both local and nationwide ISPs is that they both traditionally oversell their services, and so there is often a traffic jam at peak hours (7pm-11pm).....

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Hosting

Check back .....I'll post more shortly
Hu

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