Positive Relationships and Creative Marketing Spell Success at Masterpiece Jewelers

Sisters at Daytona Beach jewelry store hit it big with consistent, high-quality service and unique designs

Meet small business owners and sisters, Stacey Hill and Traci Jordan. In 1988, they took a small, Florida shop and grew it into a popular jewelry store worth well over $500,000.00. Today, Masterpiece Jewelers, www.masterpiecejewelers.com, is one of Daytona Beach’s most well known shops to get customized jewelry, unique redesigns, appraisals, and more. Recently, I caught up with these ladies to discuss their success, especially working together as siblings. Here’s what they had to say…

How did you start Masterpiece Jewelers?

Traci: Stacey and I have always loved art, jewelry design, and being creative. We started when my husband, who wasn’t my husband at the time, had a jewelry store. He liked to do more of the backend work, and we were really good with the marketing, design and the retail end. After we dated and got married, Stacey and I took over the front end of the store, and Masterpiece Jewelers was born.

The designing came naturally because people would bring stones or jewelry pieces in to be redesigned. Maybe they inherited them, it was an old piece of jewelry from a failed marriage or something else, and they wanted to capture the memories if they were good. Or, if they weren’t, they wanted to redesign the piece into something that then they would really enjoy. As my husband would say, once you take a torch to it, it takes all the bad memories away, and it’s like it’s christened and goes on to a whole new life!

Stacey: Jewelry is a very personal business, and there is a story behind each piece. We’ve built a positive relationship with each and every customer, and I think that is an important part of our growth and success.

What’s it like to work together as sisters?

Stacey: The number one thing is we’re both committed to working together very well. Our number one commitment is that we’re not going to let any small thing get in the way of our friendship and sisterhood relationship. We were also raised to be nice people and to be kind to one another.

Traci: We have a lot of respect for each other and each other’s’ opinions. And, we carry that throughout the business, which is nice. You’ll hear all of us and our staff continually thanking each other.

Stacey: Plus, Traci is the bookkeeper and very good with numbers and designing. I’m the person who mostly works with the employees, computers, marketing, and things like that so our skills work well together, too.

What is one of the major challenges you’ve had to overcome together, and how did you do it?

Traci: The recession in 2007 and 2008 was very tough so we got creative and focused on people who wanted to sell their jewelry, remake it into new pieces or buy gold. We wanted people to feel that they were really rich when they came to our store, so we started giving things away every week.

Stacey: We sent out postcards to give people a piece of jewelry, a scarf or something else just for coming into the store. We’d also have parties where anyone could come in and get a gem out of the gemstone mine. This increased our store traffic significantly during that time, and we still continue this tradition today.

You both just won an Entrepreneur of the Year award. What insights can you share with other, female entrepreneurs out there?

Stacey: We always have our foot on the accelerator, always. We’re always hungry. I don’t know if that’s quite the right wording for it, but there’s never a time when we sit back on our laurels, and there never will be. This is because we have come from, like many people, a time when we didn’t have as much, and we’re not about to slide backwards. So we are constantly working. You have to be not afraid to work.

Traci: And I would say, continually learning is very important. Listen to audible books in your field. If you’re in sales, there are a lot of audible books out there that will help you with sales and to keep improving it. We never will stop learning. It’s a continual process.

Do you have any tips specifically for PINK readers?

Traci: Well, women have a lot on their plates, but I think that they can organize their life so they can actually get every single thing that needs to be done in a day finished, and it’s really amazing.
If you start getting more things on your plate, don’t give up. Just figure how to compartmentalize and just keep going forward.

Stacey: That is a really good point. I would also add that, if you can, surround yourself with other business entrepreneurs that are in your same area or that are like-minded. It seems like a really basic thing to say, but that’s one of the ways we’ve really grown. We’ve been part of mastermind groups and special groups with different gurus. Even if everyone is not in the same business, we’re all in the business of marketing.

To learn more about Stacey and Traci and Masterpiece Jewelers, visit www.awardwinningjewelers.com.