The Lunar Jeweler | Application Preview
**Summary of The Lunar Jeweler's Government Grant Application**
The Lunar Jeweler is a small, home-based business seeking government funding to enhance its jewelry-making operations. The requested funding will be used to purchase high-quality raw materials like crystal and stone beads, upgrade crafting equipment for better efficiency and precision, improve marketing efforts, and acquire specialized tools for processing geodes and creating custom beads. This includes items such as a wet saw, drill bits, tumblers, carving and polishing tools.
The business has a five-year plan that includes expanding its presence at larger events, launching new product lines through improved tooling, and innovating by casting and molding custom gemstone settings—particularly in animal themes. The applicant emphasizes a deep passion for crystals and a commitment to ethical sourcing.
The motivation behind this venture is rooted in a long-standing personal passion for stonework and an ambition to build a livelihood through artistic creation. The business also aims to educate customers about the properties and origins of the materials used.
Facing competition from a few local sellers—some with storefronts or consignment deals—the Lunar Jeweler differentiates itself in two key ways: being one of the few male artisans in a female-dominated space and focusing heavily on natural materials. Unlike competitors who rely on metals, glass, or single-type bead designs, this business blends various natural stones and crystals into unique creations, combining their visual and metaphysical properties.
The grant would enable growth and help fill a unique niche in the handcrafted jewelry market.
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General Information
Business Registration Number: 312983784
Location: Austin, IN, United States
Length of Operation: 1-5
Number of Employees: 1-10 Employees
Annual Gross Income: Less than $100k
Annual Gross Expense: Less than $100k
Open to Loans: YES
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Funding Usage
This funding will supply my small business with high-quality crystal and stone beads and gemstones, an improved workstation for greater visibility while crafting, better advertising both online and in person, equipment to process geodes such as a wet saw, drill bits to bore my own beads, tumblers to smooth and gloss raw ore and crystals. Funding will also provide more tools to processing stone and crystal, saws, cutting tools, carving and polishing materials and tooling.
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Business Plan
Within the next five years, I plan on attending larger events more often (currently attending 2-3 per calendar year), adding new products via better tooling, casting my own rings for gemstone setting. I plan on also molding metals for stone setting in animal forms, such as spiders, cats, dogs too. For many years I have aspired to run my own business, doing something I truly love. I am enamored by crystals and stone, fascinated by the sheer variety and beauty they bring to people's lives. I respect the bounty of earth, seeking to source my gemstones, crystals and stone as ethically as possible, vetting suppliers on where they obtain their crystals. I have a passion and drive to create things that are not only beautiful to behold, but to educate people on the crystals and stones themselves.
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Self Identified Competition
My top competitor is also a close friend, who has encouraged me to embark on this journey. She runs a formal store front, brick and mortar shop, whereas I am still working from a home office, without a central storefront. She attends events and shows locally. Another competitor does consignment within a few other, larger, stores in the region. A third competitor is exclusively consignment, does not attend shows or events. The major differences between me, and my competitors is two-fold. First and foremost, I am a male, in a generally female-dominated realm. Secondly, I focus my efforts on natural crystal and stone works, whereas my competitors use mostly metals and pendants, glass and plastic beads. Typically, when my competitors make beaded jewelry items, they focus on a singular type of stone, crystal, or glass bead. I expand those, combining the appearance and beauty of multiple crystals and stone, merging their strengths together to form something new. I bring a masculine touch to an otherwise feminine field.
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Contact Applicant
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