I started my career counting diamonds and schlepping gold jewelry around the world. The jewelry business is a very, very tough business - tougher than the computer business. You truly have to understand how to take care of your customers.
The jewelry business is a very, very tough business - tougher than the computer business. You truly have to understand how to take care of your customers.
Having been in the restaurant business, our job in the restaurant business is to be responsible for our customers' happiness. It's the nature of the hospitality business. You need to take care of people. You take care of customers above all others. Customers are your lifeblood.
I started experimenting with jewelry in my 20s - I was playing around with gemstones and painting things in gold leaf, and it turned into this huge obsession for me, so I launched my first jewelry line, Jade Inc.
I started my company with no previous experience in jewelry, or business for that matter! I pounded the pavement, learned as I went, and I feel so lucky to have received mentorship from some truly remarkable people.
The reason we went into jewelry was we were trying to cater to our consigner base, who was saying, 'Can you sell this for me? Can you sell that?' And we said, 'You can bring in your jewelry and watches; we have a gemology and a watch expert on site.' And it just exploded our business.
What I do is take the jewelry back to the jeweler and they redo the jewelry with the same gold from the last thing.
It might take some here and there, but Apple's market share in the global computer business has really shrunk pretty far, and where they've been making success recently is not in the computer business but in the iPod music business.
I do not understand how it is that financial institutions could think that they could take taxpayer money and then turn around and act like it's business as usual. I don't understand how they can't see that the world has changed in a fundamental way, that it is not business as usual when you take taxpayer dollars.
Once you've been around this business long enough, anything is a possibility. It's a business first and foremost. Guys play it because they love it, but it is a business, and if you don't understand that it's a business, you're lying to yourself.
I would say there is probably a little bit of me in each character. But Purrscilla is a lot like me because she is very into glam and glitz and jewelry and everything very girly. And some of the jewelry in the illustration is even my own jewelry. But I'm not a cat fan - that's the only thing! I'm a dog person.
Call on a business man only at business times, and on business; transact your business, and go about your business, in order to give him time to finish his business.
My family was in two businesses - they were in the textile business, and they were in the candy business. The conversations around the dinner table were all about the factory floor and how many machines were running and what was happening in the business. I grew up very engaged in manufacturing and as part of a family business.
Never stop asking yourself whether you can do things better. Keep testing every aspect of your business to the nth degree, and challenge every one of your assumptions. The tougher you are on yourself now, the tougher your business will be out there in the real world.
I mean the business is just so rough man, people always think the business is easy, and the business is very rough. This is probably the worst business that you can get in, as far as, business-wise.
You have to be passionate about your business. If you don't love your business, you are doing a terrible disservice to your customers and clients, your team members and business partners, your family and yourself.
We have invested in many of our customers in the health care business by lending or leasing money for equipment purchases or investing in some customers to help them grow business.