Mom loved onion rings.  So at a restaurant with some friends, she is given the whole order of onion rings.  She had a saying, "Make friends before you need them."  I objected to this thinking it meant you were just making friends so they'd be there IF and WHEN you might need them.  

But she explained that when you are friendly all the time to everyone you meet sometimes you are that "friend" they need.  Making friends in life lets us into the personal details of people so that when they do have a problem or a crisis we are more confident to step up and offer help. 

We were always amazed at the people who showed up to help our family when we needed it.  Most often it was those who were least likely, sometimes disables, and many times with the fewest resources of time and money!  There is another saying,  "A friend in need, is a friend indeed."  

This can be applied to business too.  It happens to a degree in networking when we pass off referrals to others and they in turn do the same when we are in need of good prospects.  How many times when someone says to us, "You should go see so-and-so at this place or that..." And when we do, we find that having that introduction makes all the difference.  In business we call that a 'warm lead' versus a 'cold one'.  What our friend that recommend us has in common with the referral is usually the basis for beginning a good relationship. 

So we hope we are making friends with you, if you are reading this and agreeing with this statement with examples of your own, either in your personal life, or that of your career or business.  " Make friends before you need them?.... or just Make Friends... period!" 

This is what  I do in our small urban back yard.  I have a comfortable place to sit in the sun with a good book and a cup of tea.  I have some pots of plants with a nice mixture of greens and colors so I have something beautiful in my view.  

I don't have the faith for the substance of enjoying flowers I have to plant from seed!  So I go to the nursery where they have used their faith to plant the seeds, look after them, grow them up, and sell them to me.  I feel like I've actually bought TIME.

Our summers here in Western Canada are so short, May to maybe September, so I want the biggest 'bang for my buck"! My faith is in the nursery and it's  substance for everything that happens in my life.  

Our cottage industry business, Jesmic Jewelry by Esther Susan, was born out of faith.  If the definition of faith is "... the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things unseen", then Susie and I were on the right track when we decided to apply our experience to opportunity. 

My faith comes from knowing that from whatever I plant, I will get a harvest.  I've planted seeds and not all of them germinate.  I make sales calls and not all of them 'germinate', but many do and then my faith is used to prepare samples and sales sheets for the meeting.  My faith in planning comes from my very active, God-given imagination.  

I know that with the right care and following good principles and my prospects buying process, I will reap a harvest.  Not only for increase in cash flow, which every business needs, but also in making great friends and long term acquaintances with our customers.   The testimonials, references and networking from these are like getting multiple harvests from a single plant!   

All faith becomes substance.  What you believe for, and take action towards, eventually manifests and you can then see it, touch it, feel it!  Even as a little seed becomes a plant, or even a very large tree, our ideas, when sown into the right soil, actions, circumstances, or even Divine Appointments we didn't plan, turn into the substance that we hoped for! Where is your faith being directed today? 

If you see our products and have faith to believe that they will manifest a profit for you from your market, then we encourage you to act on that faith and try our BLING THINGS to hang or wear!  We'd love to hear from you! Check out those who have: Where to Buy One

Dad had so many jokes and he would tell the same ones over and over.  Mom always laughed no matter what and the rest of us would just groan!  "Dad, that joke's stale.  It's now a groaner." Now days some of his jokes would be considered not 'politically correct' because of the references to different races or cultures.   

Our maiden name was Gamble.  So his favourite tale was to tell people that Mom took a Gamble when she married him!  When I'm shopping, I like to look at the name tag of the customer service person and use their first name.  They often look at me puzzled as if to ask, "Do I know you?"   If it's a foreign name, I like to ask them how they pronounce it.  We rarely ask people what their name means which is why researching names to get the meanings can be really interesting.  And it's amazing how many times the personality of the person fits the meaning of their name. 

JESMIC Jewelry was a challenge.  My sister, our long time jewelry designer, wanted her name Esther Susan to be in the name of our company.  When we investigated we found that JES Jewelry was taken so we began to look at other options.  Our business was started because of an opportunity to create a "Made in Canada" line for a client of mine so one day I casually did the acronym and of course it spells M.I.C.   Some pronounce it 'meek' and some 'mik'. Adding that to the J.E.S. made the complete word Jesmic and we were able to take it as a brand, domain name, and registered business.   

My curiosity led me to research the meaning of "jes" as a word and it turned out to be a Greek word that means "majesty".  Well that was delightful, since our BLING THINGS can represent a lot of majestic things, especially in all the light they reflect!  We might refer to a magnificent stained glass window as "majestic" if we were standing in a cathedral seeing the details and colors come to life with the back light.  The beauty of our Sun Catcher Pendants is that they reflect light from the front and all around which makes them 'majestic' even in candlelight! 

When I researched the word "mic" that was even more surprising.  It's a Hebrew word that means "who is like God"!  Well, I liked that.  It was just like God to orchestrate an opportunity that we applied our experience to.  And it's tied to our faith and our father who was a preacher by profession and a jeweler by trade!  We often feel that we are on a divine mission and following in the footsteps of our father in this industry.   Like him we use our hands and tools to create beautiful jewelry.  Unlike him we are giving up on telling lame jokes.  Is business a Gamble?  You bet!  But each day brings us closer to making a 'name' for ourselves and the Jesmic Jewelry Brand.   We love it that you are sharing this journey with us.