MJSA, the trade association dedicated to professional excellence in jewelry making and design, has introduced a new membership tier—Premier Associate—to better help its smaller member companies compete.
Available to companies with one to three employees, the Premier Associate tier builds on the foundational benefits of MJSA's Associate membership. Those benefits, which take advantage of the collective strength and expertise found in the MJSA community, include a free subscription to the monthly MJSA Journal; unlimited access to the MJSA library of technical and business articles; discounts on technical books and media; and a free MJSA Buyer's Guide, the industry's recognized resource for jewelry-making supplies and services.
The Premier Associate membership offers several additional benefits that enable companies to better promote their products, source supplies, and find the expertise needed to expand their businesses. Those offerings include:
• One free placement per year in the MJSA Retail Link, a biannual publication that promotes MJSA members' finished goods to more than 20,000 retailers.
• Assistance with locating subcontractors that can perform both common and specialized services.
• Free product placements in the annual MJSA Sourcebook for tools, equipment, and supplies, which goes out to nearly 25,000 manufacturers, designers, and retailers.
• Discounts on business consulting services offered by Andrea Hill and Marlene Richey. Hill, the owner of Chicago-based Hill Management Group, has more than 30 years' professional experience as CEO of start-up through mid-sized companies. Richey is the former owner of a wholesale jewelry design business and a retail gallery, and the author of the award-winning Profiting by Design: A Jewelry Maker's Guide to Business Success.
"The new Premier Associate membership offers a middle ground for those companies that need more promotional and sourcing assistance but aren't quite ready for our full Premier Professional membership," says David W. Cochran, MJSA president/CEO. "In pricing the membership at $295 annually, or less than $25 per month, we've tried to ensure maximum value. The promotional opportunities alone offer an especially significant value—just mailing a small postcard to 20,000 people would cost thousands of dollars."
He adds that if Premier Associate members want to upgrade at any point to a Premier Professional membership—which includes a full, robust package of benefits that range from trade show discounts and research services to full "concierge" sourcing assistance and cost-saving discounts—they can easily apply their Premier Associate dues toward the upgrade.
To learn more, contact MJSA at 1-800-444-MJSA, or visit MJSA.org.
