Women empowering women...one bead at a time

September 25, 2004 -- How does one change from a stay-at-home mom into a purveyor of custom designed jewelry? It is simple-go on vacation. That is exactly how Kristen Conrad founded her company, The Glass Bracelet. While on family vacation in 2000 with her husband and two boys, a chance visit to a gift shop spawned an idea that now empowers women in 23 states. The Glass Bracelet is one of the fastest growing direct sellers of custom designed jewelry. Kristen has taken an idea and turned it into a company that was accepted for membership in the Direct Selling Association earlier this year.

A "Hands-On" Experience
The Glass Bracelet distributes its products exclusively through in-home parties. Unlike jewelry stores that keep jewelry locked in cases, participation at a Glass Bracelet Jewelry Showing is mandatory because customers get to design their own jewelry. The Jewelry Showing begins when a Glass Bracelet Consultant spreads her 250 handmade beads on a table. A short presentation is given at the beginning of each party to explain how and what to design and the remainder of the time is spent in jewelry design. This allows the customers to spend as much or as little time as she wants in designing her jewelry. Consultants and guests don't need to be crafty or handy as no jewelry construction is done at our parties. Professional stringers at the Home Office construct each piece of jewelry to ensure consistent quality.

Each piece of jewelry has a template. The Design Consultant helps her customer design the jewelry using this simple template as a guide. For example, customers designing one of our bracelets need to choose six beads. A bookmark contains two beads. Several styles of necklaces can be designed. Customers feel that they successfully designed their pieces of jewelry whether they spent two hours or two minutes in the design.

594,711,936,000 Unique Products
The Glass Bracelet has continued to expand its product line from the original 3 customer designed items to over 20 customer designed items today. The product offerings continue to grow each Spring and Fall when the new products and beads are introduced. However, the uniqueness of The Glass Bracelet concept is the overwhelming number of unique designs available to the Glass Bracelet customer. According to Lana Markham, Director of Production "with an average of 65 different bead styles and 10 different clasp types, our customers can create over 590 billion unique bracelet design alone."

Bead Shui
Many of our hostesses, guests and consultants view Glass Bracelet parties as much needed social outlets. Think about the concept - a group of friends getting together to design their own jewelry for a couple hours one evening during the week. What a great way to reduce the stress of everyday life. According to Conrad, one of the company's Florida consultants reported holding one of her largest show ever in the aftermath of Hurricane Frances. The guests simply needed to feel some sense of normalcy and to relieve some of the weather related stress.

The future is positively "beady"   
Conrad's vision for The Glass Bracelet is very simple . . .to provide incredible opportunities for women. "These opportunities are there for the taking and the benefits to our consultants and their families are enormous. Flexible hours allow consultants to spend time with their families. As a mother of two busy boys, I know that flexibility is a must. Between school, church, piano and sports, we are on the go all the time. It is the flexibility in my business that allows me to be with my children so much and still create excellent professional opportunities for myself." This sentiment is echoed by many of my consultants. The opportunity to create extra income for families is also very important. "I share this business with everyone because you never know what needs people have that might be fulfilled by becoming a Design Consultant with The Glass Bracelet." Whether it is braces, car payments, groceries, "mad" money, or just social interaction, The Glass Bracelet provides a means to empower women . . .one bead at a time.

The Glass bracelet is an active member of the Direct Selling Association and adheres to one the most developed and strictest ethical codes in business today.




This article courtesy of http://www.allbracelet.com/.
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