The business side of this hobby...
Hello, I have a question for you people of this amazing subreddit. I've recently gone through some rough news in my life that has put my dream career into a grinding halt, forcing me to search for an alternative.
Since jewelry making always fascinated and interested me I decided I'd like to give it a go. I'm an mechanical engineer by background and welder by trade and I've worked with metals my whole career so I do have a decent foundation a at least some skills. I even made a few rings with resin set inlay materials such as opals, ambers and sapphires, kind of like Patrick Adair so I'm fairly confident that I have at least something to get me started with a decent heads up.
What I'm not sure about though is the business side of this hobby/occupation (jewelry maker). It is a hobby but I'd eventually like to start making some revenue out of this and so the question for those making money out of this, how do/did you start getting clients and orders ?
The issue I had with my resin inlayed rings was that I couldn't just make a bunch of rings, there's a ton of sizes and designs so I was kind of relying on "made to order" i.e. I made a ring specifically to what one particular customer has asked for who in my case was a member of my family.
I appreciate any input.