15 Stories: Chrissy Cook, MADE Jewelry, West Reading, PA

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Jewelry started as a hobby for me when I was growing up in Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania, about an hour away from where my shop, MADE Jewelry, sits right now in West Reading. I’m tucked into the cutest Main Street-style area called Penn Ave. It’s a dream to be here amongst so many small businesses, all of which support one another – the entrepreneurs cheering each other on every year. 

Often our most exciting Saturday is Small Business Saturday®. What an awesome day – the mood on Penn Ave. is usually electric. There are balloons at the doors of many small businesses (mine included) and signs encouraging people to Shop Small®. I find that many people make the day its own holiday – they grab brunch with their friends and then walk in groups from shop to shop, delighting in the act of helping the small business economy. It's exhilarating to watch and I really enjoy making new connections with customers – many of whom are first-timers in my shop.   

I like to greet each customer with a smile and often some snacks like cookies and cheese from a charcuterie board. Everyone who comes in has the chance to enter a raffle for a gift certificate or a piece of jewelry. This serves two purposes: I’m able to gather contact information for every person who enters, so I can keep in touch when I send out email newsletters announcing new collections – and it's great for the customers to win a prize.

I'll often sit back on Small Business Saturdays and just bask in the glow of being a small-business owner. There’s nothing like the feeling of joy in having a holiday that is specifically designed to celebrate the choices you made in starting your own company. 

A Fire-Fueled Journey 

That said, my journey to get here has been a long and curvy trail. I feel grateful every single day when I walk into my shop, its white walls illuminating the glimmering glass cases filled with my creations. My love for jewelry-making developed when I was just a high school student. I was always an artistic kid and had an untraditional upbringing where I had a lot of freedom to be creative. 

I remember as a kid going to a juried art show and it opening my eyes to the possibility of being a working artist – making it an actual career. I ended up going to college for jewelry and following that with an apprenticeship. 

After that, I worked for independent jewelers for 20 years before going off on my own. I love working with silver. I love making jewelry because it is so tactile, but it's also dirty – like there's an edge to it. I worked on my own stuff for years, exhibiting at art shows on the side. Finally, in 2015, I decided to open my own shop and MADE Jewelry was born. 

I spent my life savings on buying the building where my shop would go – a three-story structure where the shop is on the bottom floor and an apartment with a live-in tenant occupies my top two floors. I’ll never forget my opening day: Sunday, July 17, 2015. The whole community came out to support me; it was so heart-warming and exciting. 

 

My first Small Business Saturday was a little more than four months later, and what a day it was. Customers with foldable passports – given to our Main Street manager by American Express – poured into my shop to say hello and get a stamp showing they had graced my doors. 

What was incredible was how many people stayed to talk and shop and introduce themselves. People were so friendly and excited to be there, to be supporting small businesses. Many made purchases and the ones who didn’t left me their information to keep in touch on future opportunities to buy. 

I was riding high with the start of the holiday season. My first year was amazing. But then, I hit a bit of a hiccup. Well, some would call ‘a hiccup’ an understatement. In August 2016, right after my one-year anniversary in business, my building caught on fire. I was in my shop and all of a sudden smoke started flooding the space. I called the police and they identified the fire as coming from the apartment on an upper floor. 

Turns out, my tenant had been smoking a cigar and put it out in a planter on his wooden deck before leaving for work. The place burned. It was horrific. No one was injured, but the firefighters immediately linked the fire to the cigar. My tenant felt awful. Thankfully, I had loss-of-income insurance, but having only been open for a year, it wasn’t much money. 

I had to completely shut down my business for 10 months. The apartment took another eight months before I could get renters in there. For my business, there were no online orders. Nothing in person. It was devastating. It turned out that nothing in the original building was up to code, so everything – the electrical, the plumbing – had to be rebuilt. By the time we re-opened, in spring 2017, the building was basically new. 

And wow, the support we received upon re-opening was mind-blowing. The local paper did a write-up when the fire happened and then did a follow-up piece when we opened again. The community completely came out for us. It was beautiful and I felt very supported. 

How American Express Helps 

Small Business Saturday in 2017 was really exciting. It reminded me of my first, in 2015, with the balloons and the community support and the snacks and the raffle. I love that Small Business Saturday allows me the chance to connect with my customers face-to-face. It makes a difference to me. I’m not great on social media and I don’t ever feel like I can communicate as effectively as if someone is in front of me. That is a gift that Small Business Saturday gives to me. 

I also appreciate that the day is an American Express invention. I’ve been accepting American Express since day one and have found that, in my experience, people light up when they see that you accept American Express. 

I now have an American Express Business Platinum Card®. This may sound silly, but I feel a strong sense of pride about that. I feel like it's a marker of success. And as a jeweler, I must say that I love that the Business Platinum Card® is metal. It just feels so nice. And this summer, I took my family on vacation for a week using Membership Rewards® points.¹ Our shop also accepts American Express Cards. 

I’m counting down the days to this year’s Small Business Saturday on Saturday, November 30th, 2024. I’m planning to make a big deal of it again. Interacting with my customers is something I always look forward to. And honestly, it is just so nice to have a day dedicated to small business. Small-business owners do so much throughout the year. Small Business Saturday is just plain fun, and it is really nice to have fun. 

Want to learn more about how to encourage your customers to Shop Small on Small Business Saturday? Visit the Small Business Saturday Resource Hub for marketing materials and business insights that can help you engage with your customers and find new ones. You can also read stories from 15 small businesses that have seen success on Small Business Saturday and beyond.

As told to by Katie Morell, American Express Business Class freelance contributor 

Photos: Josh Dalsimer 

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¹ Terms and Conditions for the Membership Rewards® program apply. Visit membershiprewards.com/terms for more information. Participating partners and available rewards are subject to change without notice.    

The value of Membership Rewards points varies according to how you choose to use them. To learn more, go to www.membershiprewards.com/pointsinfo.