Appraisal skills are key to a pawnshop’s success

The last several years have been a good period for pawnshop industry. Unfortunately, even in this very good business atmosphere for pawnshops I have seen clients badly hurt by not implementing and following the basic and proven proper pawnshop management procedures. This always pains me because by the time I get to such a client much damage to the business has already been done. Fortunately, I have been able to help the client the implement proper procedures to help save the business.

One of the central tenants of MIM Pawnshop Skills and Services is the proactive approach to pawnshop management.  I believe the best defense is a good offense. Pawnshops have to employ the basic strategies that have made pawnshops a successful industry from the beginning.  One of those basic strategies is properly trained appraisers.

The central concept of operating a pawnshop is to lend money in exchange for collateral. In order to lend money for collateral a loan value must assigned to the item the pawner brings in and in order to set the loan value a proper appraisal must be made.

Experience teaches that assessing ones staff’s appraisal skills is big factor in the success of a pawnshop. Appraisers can be key to a successful pawnshop business. They can make the difference between success and failure. What makes successful appraisers? They need the confidence and motivation that can only come from proper procedural training that gives them a foundation of knowledge to carry out their tasks. They also need to keep their skills updated.

Following proper procedure on jewelry and precious metals cannot be overemphasized. The picture you see at the top of the page is a picture of a FAKE gold chain accepted by numerous pawnshops in the Phillipines. This fake gold was even was accepted by some of the big pawnshop chains that should really know better.  Do not let this happen to you. Following the proper appraisal procedures would have detected this metal as fake and saved the pawnshops some lost revenue.

Accepting electronic gadget items can also be profitable for a pawnshop provided that the appraisers have the proper knowledge and skill to perform an appraisal. It is especially important that the appraiser have updated knowledge on electronic items such as laptop computers, digital cameras, cell phones and even original watches. Appraisers must have updated knowledge on all models, makes and their prices so when the item is foreclosed it is easy to sell. They have to stay on the pawnshop motive on “how fast can you sell the items” when foreclosed. This gives the best return for your investment.

Whether you are talking about diamond appraisals, precious metals appraisals or electronic gadget appraisals, MIM Pawnshop Skills and Services appraisal training courses outperforms its competitors. My training is part lecture but very much a hands-on course that takes the student from the beginning to the end of a procedure. I believe in the hands-on method where the more you practice a skill the better you get at it. I believe that a hands-on approach to training works especially well for adult students. After a hands-on training course adult students come away with better skills than an all lecture course.

I go over the material as often as is necessary and I am always there to guide and answer questions. I have been in the pawnshop industry my entire adult life and I take pride in teaching the procedures that have worked for me throughout my career. I know these procedures will work for you. Finally, I take the right amount of time on a subject and cover the points necessary to perform proper appraisals of gold and diamonds.

If you are an established pawnshop, my appraisal training courses will give your staff the confidence and motivation that leads to more accurate appraisals that go to your profit margin.

We also have appraisal training courses for those who are interested in getting into the pawnshop industry or those wanting to start a small capital home-based business. My training will give you the confidence you need to get you started.

Please feel free to use the contact form below to contact me by email to inquire about any of MIM Pawnshop Skills and Services’ training programs.

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MIM Pawnshop Skills and Services – Diamond Appraisal Course

MIM Pawnshop Skills And Services

What is the value of a diamond? If you own a pawnshop or want to buy and sell diamonds it is a critical question that your profit margin depends on.

The answer to the question is that appraising diamonds is a complex task. It is a task that only an appraiser with skill and experience can answer. There is no room for mistakes.

That is why training is so critical when it comes to diamond appraisal. Training is the process of developing skills in order to more effectively perform a specific task. It emphasizes achieving a certain level of skill attainment. The goal of the training is to teach someone to be able to successfully perform procedures such as appraising diamonds and precious metals. In return, a positive return on investment comes from the benefits gained by applying the new knowledge, skills, and information.

A Diamond appraisal procedure involves multiple skills. This is where the training from MIM Pawnshop Skills and Services outperforms its competitors. My training for diamond appraisal is very much a hands-on course that takes the student from the beginning to the end of a procedure. I believe in the hands-on method where the more you practice a skill the better you get at it. Some may believe that is old-fashioned but in my experience it works best. Hands-on training is also a method proven to be effective when training adult students. After a hands-on training course the student come away with better skills than in an all lecture course.

I go over the material as often as is necessary and I am always there to guide and answer questions. I have been in the pawnshop industry my entire adult life and I take pride in teaching the procedures that have worked for me throughout my career.  I know these procedures will work for you. Finally, I take the right amount of time and cover the points necessary to perform proper appraisals of gold and diamonds.

MIM Pawnshop Skills and Services Appraisal Diamond appraisal courses include a thorough covering of procedures to appraise 4 C’s of a diamond.  The 4 Cs are the most important and relevant points when determining the quality of a diamond.

CARAT WEIGHT

 
Carat is the unit of weight for all gemstones. One carat is subdivided into 100 “points”. Therefore a diamond measuring 75 points is 3/4 carat in weight, or 0.75ct. There are five carats in a gram.

carat – weight

 CUT 

When applied to diamonds, the term “cut” simply refers to the cut of the diamond. The “Cut” of a diamond ensures that a given stone has maximum brilliance and sparkle which would not be the case if the stone cut for weight alone.

The overall cut grade is assigned on a scale from Excellent to Poor and depends on the proportions, angles, polish and symmetry of the facets. If any one feature is out of line the entire cut grade is affected. An excellent cut grade is preferred as it maximizes the diamond’s light performance. A low cut grade is often assigned to diamonds that are too shallow or too deep which results in lower shine.

 

diamond shapes

 

COLOR

Ideally, a diamond should have no color at all, like a drop of spring water. Increasing degrees of body color are measured on a scale ranging from no color at all (D) to deeply colored (Z). Beyond “Z” is the range where the diamond’s color is vivid and rich, called “fancy colors”.

Diamond Color Examples  

CLARITY

A diamond’s clarity is determined by the number, nature, position, size and color of internal characteristics called “inclusions” and surface features called “blemishes”. These irregularities occurred when nature created the diamond and show themselves as the various characteristics which make up the clarity of a diamond (included crystals, feathers, clouds etc).

Clarity is measured on a scale ranging from pure (flawless) to heavily included (I-3). The clarity of a diamond is graded by using 10X magnification under good lighting by an experienced grader. The final clarity grade is usually determined by how easy the inclusions and blemishes are for the grader to see.

diamond clarity chart

 

Other procedures included in the Diamomd appraisal course are

1.      The Procedure in testing gold

2.      The Procedure in appraising gold

3.      How to determine the approximate current price range of diamond’s loan / market value.

If you own a pawnshop or want to buy and sell diamonds, do not leave your appraisals to chance. There is no room for mistakes when appraising diamonds. MIM Pawnship Skill and Services Diamond Appraisal Course is designed to teach the appraiser how to precisely determine the price of a diamond by following step-by-step procedures.

You can contact me by using the form below or see the contact page above for other contact information.

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Pawnshops need to be proactive about raising productivity and their employee’s skills

A lunch break at the training session for JPA Pawnshop in Tarlac Province

Last week I posted on a report in the Philippine Star that highlighted the mismatch of skills of the unemployed and the skills needed to fill the new jobs the economy is producing.  In the story, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz characterized the situation like this: “Jobseekers have difficulty finding jobs because they possess skills that are not needed by companies.”

(Click here to learn more about the Philippine Star story.)

In my earlier post I said that this dilemma may have brought Philippine pawnshops to a crossroad. Pawnshops in the Philippines are growing and while there is a high unemployment rate the simple fact is the skills needed to fill positions in the growing pawnshop industry are unlikely to be found in the ranks of the unemployed.

So where will the worker come from to fill the news jobs.It is easy to suppose that pawnshops can lure employees away from each other but that does not address the basic imbalance that there are more jobs in the pawnshop industry than qualified applicants.One solution to the problem is application of technology within pawnshops in order to run a more efficient operation. Technology is always going to be a part of the solution. In one example computerized software can make an impact on productivity. Another critical example is analytical devices like precious metal testers and diamond that can make assessing quicker and more accurate at the same Time. This type of productivity improvement is always going to be part of the solution.

(Click here to see the MIM Pawnshop Skills and Services “Pawnshop Tool Catalog.)Training the successful JPA graduates

After productivity improvement come the basic skills of the employees themselves. First, when employers add computerization and precious metal testers to businesses employees have to run the computers and the testers.

There will always be a manual component to jewelry assessment. My field experience also tells me there is already a problem with pawnshops using faulty procedures to assess gold and diamond jewelry. This can be disastrous for a pawnshops profit margin. Proper loan values cannot be determined without an accurate assessment.

(Click here to see the MIM Pawnshop Skills and Services Skill Courses.)

In the examples above the skill set of the employees are critical. If a pawnshop industry is going to grow and thrive the problem of skilled employees has to be addressed.

Earlier this week the Wall Street journal published a story that shows this mismatch of skills between the unemployed workers and new economy jobs is not unique to the Philippines. It is also characteristic of the economy in the United States. There are two important aspects to the story that I think are applicable to the Philippine pawnshop industry. It shows that a lack of skilled employees can impact a business’s growth, sales revenue and bottom profits. It also showed what some companies there are doing to overcome the problem.

At Mechanical Devices, which supplies parts for earthmovers and other heavy equipment to manufacturers such as Caterpillar Inc., part owner Mark Sperry says he has been looking for $13-an-hour machinists since early this year. The lack of workers is “the key limitation to the growth of our business and to meeting our customers’ expectations,” says Mr. Sperry. He estimates the company could immediately boost sales by as much as 20% if it could find the 40 workers it needs.

Trips to several job fairs yielded almost nothing, so the company set up a 10-week training program to create its own machinists. Out of the first group of 24 trainees, 16 made it to graduation.

(Click here to learn more about the Wall Street Journal story.)

The first thing to note about the case above is that a lack of skilled employees is costing the company, Mechanical Devices, 20% in sales revenue. I believe it is not going too far to say that could also be the circumstances the Philippine pawnshop industry.

The second thing to note is that the company is now proactively combating its crisis by setting up an in-house training program. That is what I promote and that is what my clients are doing. It may be the only way out of this situation.

If you own a pawnshop, do not be caught short of productivity improvements and skilled employees. Be proactive and solve the crisis before it affects your profit margin. If you are in need of answers contact me and I will work with you to improve your productivity and help you to set-up in-house training programs. My consulting and training programs are the best in the country and are designed to make your pawnshop a success.

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The pawnshop industry dilemma: Where will the qualified workers come from to staff a growing business?

A July 14, 2010 story in the Philippine Star story tells us that “at least a million Filipinos have quit looking for work according to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).  “Baldoz said jobseekers have difficulty finding jobs because they possess skills that are not needed by companies.” The story also noted,

“At this time, it take months or almost a year for employers to find the right workers to fill in vacancies in their companies and the situation could even get worse unless the mismatch problem is properly addressed,” said Criselda Sy, director of DOLE’s Bureau of Local Employment (BLE). (Click here for the more on the Philippine Star story.)

There lies the dilema of the the pawnshop industry. There is a large pool of unemployed workers available for hire but they do not possess the skills needed for new work. Can a pawnshop owner in need of competent staff afford to wait a year in hopes of finding a qualified appraiser to hire? And due to the fact that pawnshops are one of the few growing enterprises in the Philippines, qualified appraisers may be in high demand and expect higher rates of pay – if they are available at all.

It is very doubtful that a pawnshop owner can wait a year in a growing business atmosphere to hire a needed appraiser. One solution is to try and use equipment such as precious metal testers to take some of the manual work out of the assessing business. (Click here to view the precious metals testers available from MIM Pawnshop Skills and Services Pawnshop Tool Catalog.) Another solution is in-house training. (Click here to view the training courses available from MIM Pawnshop Skills and Services.)

It is clear that assessing gold and diamond jewelry will become ever more important in the world of higher jewelry prices. Precious metals are now at the highest level in a decade and many projections have them going higher for years to come. A pawnshop cannot afford mistakes in jewelry assessments as those mistakes will come right off the bottom line of profits. It is also safe to assume that pawnshops will see more fake items as connivers try to pawn fake gold and jewelry to capitalize on the high prices. The only defense against fake jewelry is proper assessing.

Pawnshops owners may be at a sort of crossroad. Pawnshops require a skill set not easily found in the population of workers.  And even with the high unemployment rate in the Philippines pawnshops may not be able to hire qualified personnel to staff a growing business.

The solution to the problem may be that pawnshops have to take it upon themselves to ensure proper assessing either with tools that lessen the manual labor involved in assessing or with raising their present assessors’ skills. More than  likely pawnshop management will decide that the solution will be a combination of both. One thing for sure is that a pawnshop cannot wait a year or more to find the qualified workers to staff a solidly growing business.

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Management practices are the key to avoiding pawnshop malpractices

MIMPSS jewelry assesing graduates from LGRS Pawnshop

I am just now returning from a trip to the provinces. I have been meeting with clients and doing training of assessors. I am always glad to get out into the field because that keeps me in close contact with the business from the view of the pawnshop operator. After finishing this trip I can say that once again the pawnshops are a flourishing business. I still see more room for growth and room for more entrants into the field.

Pawnshops can be a business where 25% of growth revenues flow to the bottom line. We are also in a period of higher unemployment where many unemployed have been cut-off from the traditional banking sector for loans and are now relying on pawnshops for loans.  It should be a very safe time to be a pawnshop owner.

However, field experience never fails to remind me that some pawnshop owners still do not completely understand their business. These owners are always well-intentioned people trying to run their business in a fair, efficient and legal manner. But what every pawnshop owner must realize is that pawnshops, despite the positive business atmosphere surrounding pawnshops, can – and do – fail.

Pawnshop owners must realize that pawnshops do not run themselves. They are also not like baking a cake – you cannot just buy a box of ingredients off the shelf and mix and bake them and get a successful pawnshop. Running a successful pawnshop takes hard work and management skills. The successful practices of prosperous pawnshops must be adopted and adapted at even the smallest of pawnshops.

Last April, I wrote a post called “Pawnshop Malpractices never stop…unless…” In it I said, “Pawnshops with multiple number of branches nationwide, in reality is very hard to control over the malpractices considering the connivances having between the employees. Temptation has been always there because daily transactions involve cash and jewelry.” My recent field experience bears this out to me again that however well-intentioned a pawnshop owner is a successful pawnshop is one that uses proper management techniques.

Employee connivances can take their toll on any pawnshop. They can cause an otherwise good business to fail. But it does not, and should not be that way. If pawnshops use proper management skills like inventory management in their business that will be a big step forward for the pawnshop owner.

Inappropriate gold and diamond jewelery appraisal skills is another area that can hurt a pawnshops bottom line. I have seen some very poor skills in the field. A big challenge in the upcoming years is to properly appraise the jewelery coming through their door and establish proper loan values. With ever rising precious metal prices, jewelery appraising skills of the staff will be critical. Pawnshops can not afford appraisal mistakes and must also be capable of detecting fake gold and diamonds that will become more common as jewelry prices rise.

In my practice I stay close to the businesses in the field. I do not work out of an office in fancy surroundings for the reason that staying in the field keeps me in contact with the business in an up-front and personal way because the real work is in the day-to-day practices of the industry. Not in an air-conditioned office in the city.

That is why I believe that my consulting can be valuable to a pawnshop owner. When I come into a business for consulting purposes the first thing I do is conduct a needs assessment. The words needs and assessment are almost self-defining. A need is some deficiency or lack of something. To assess is to evaluate whether something is or is not present. Therefore a needs assessment evaluates what is lacking.

When I consult the first thing I do is to assess accounting practices, inventory management, security, inventory management, all aspects of jewelry assessment. And if I find management practices are lacking I will suggest solutions. My suggestions could include, for instance, computerization, inventory auditing to avoid employee connivance or raising the staff’s gold and diamond jewelry assessing skills.

Through my many years in the pawnshop industry I have been employed at every level of the industry. I have managed inventory, performed appraisals and approved transactions large and small. I am familiar with pawnshop regulation compliance, pawnshop security, pawnshop auctions (I am a certified as a pawnshop auctioneer by the BSP) and pawnshop accounting techniques. It is through this lifelong learning in the pawnshop industry that I am able to offer my services as a pawnshop consultant to those just beginning in the industry or to already established pawnshops.

If you are a pawnshop owner having trouble raising your profit margin in this very favorable time for pawnshops, that may be a sure sign that your management practices need improved. That is why I am in business. For the struggling pawnshop owner help is only a call away. Do not hesitate to contact me.

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In the Pawnshop Industry Training Is a Must

Pawnshops in the Philippines are still poised for more expansion. This is on top of the very large growth in the pawnshop industry over the last several years.  This is partly because of the demand for financial services that pawnshops provide. Filipinos who do not have access to banks and other lending institutions can go to a pawnshop and receive cash for a hard asset in a few minutes rather than trying to go to the bank for a loan.

This growth in the pawnshop industry represents new jobs, new opportunities and new challenges. For an individual looking to get started in the pawn industry this is an opportunity to get a new profession. For the owners of pawnshops it raises the challenge of making sure that their assessors are properly trained.

Training will be an important component of the pawnshop industry in years to come. An individual that has training will surely be hired to a position before one that doesn’t have training. And an individual will also surely find it easier to move into a higher position if they have the proper training. For pawnshop owners, the challenge is to make sure their staffs are properly trained to avoid costly mistakes

In today’s world, pawnshops see more electronic instruments like cell phones than in the past and less jewelry. Yet the ever rising prices for precious metals make appraisal for gold and silver just as important as it ever was. The last thing a pawnshop needs is a bad appraisal on precious metals.  This is where the training comes in.

Training is the process of developing skills in order to more effectively perform a specific task. It emphasizes achieving a certain level of skill attainment. And the goal of training is to teach someone to be able to successfully perform a procedure such as appraising jewelry for its gold content or appraising a diamond for its karat value.

Of course, training costs money.  And whether it is an individual student or a pawnshop that is paying for a training course there is always a cost benefit analysis to perform. An individual must ask him/herself will this training benefit me and, in the end, will I get more out of it than I put into it? If a pawnshop is thinking of training its staff, they must also determine if the training will add to their profit margin. In other words, no one pays for training just to spend money. There has to be a benefit from it.

First, for an individual looking to get started in a new career, I believe training in pawnshops skills is training in the right industry. The job growth is there to make the training valuable.

Second for an established pawnshop, the growth of the industry and rising precious metals prices make training a must. A pawnshop that makes incorrect appraisals is a pawnshop that won’t be around long.

This is where the training from MIM Pawnshop Skills and Services outperforms its competitors. My training is part lecture but very much a hands-on course that takes the student from the beginning to the end of a procedure. I believe in the hands-on method where the more you practice a skill the better you get at it. Some may believe that is old-fashioned but in my experience it works best. After a hands-on training course the students come away with better skills than an all lecture course.

I go over the material as often as is necessary and I am always there to guide and answer questions. I have been in the pawnshop industry my entire adult life and  I take pride in teaching the procedures that have worked for me throughout my career.  I know these procedures will work for you. Finally, I take the right amount of time on a subject and cover the points necessary to perform proper appraisals of gold and diamonds.

If you are interested in getting into the pawnshop industry, my training will help get you started. If you are an established pawnshop, training your staff with my courses will lead to more accurate appraisals that go to your profit margin.

In either case, don’t hesitate to contact me for details.

MIM Pawnshop Skills and Services Appraisal training courses include but are not limited to:

         GOLD APPRAISAL 

• Tools and equipment and the art to use
• Distinguished the different “ KARAT “ fineness in gold
• Procedure in testing gold
• Procedure in appraising gold
• Formula in computing the conversion of troy ounce into grams
• The computation of gold volume per karat per gram (loan value /market value)

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MIM Pawnshop Skills and Services consulting can make a difference in your pawnshop operations

Through my many years in the pawnshop industry I have been employed at every level of the industry. I have managed inventory, performed appraisals and approved transactions large and small. I am familiar with pawnshop regulation compliance, pawnshop security, pawnshop auctions (I am a certified as a pawnshop auctioneer by the BSP) and pawnshop accounting techniques. It is through this lifelong learning in the pawnshop industry that I am able to offer my services as a pawnshop consultant to those just beginning in the industry or to already established pawnshops. I do this as another aspect of MIM Pawnshop Skills and Services.

To gain a better picture of just what kind of consulting MIM Pawnshop Skills and Services has to offer it is probably best to describe what a consult does. A consultant is usually a person brought in from outside the organization to help solve a problem. A consultant offers insight, advice and experienced based strategies that can help an organization more effectively reach its goals by solving problems.  The goal of my consulting is to solve problems and bring more money to the bottom line of a business.

As a consultant I can provide advice about an aspect of the business to make the organization more effective. For instance, as a consultant to an established pawnshop I can analyze their current strategies and make suggestions for improvements. These suggestions might be to provide more staff training, better accounting methods or more security precautions.

Consulting by MIM Pawnshop Skills and Services can help by offering a set of skills or services that compliment the already established procedures within an established organization.  Or, if opening  a new pawnshop is your goal MIM Pawnshop Skills and Services can help by offering strategies to get you started.

Among the areas of expertise that MIM Pawnshop Skills and Services consulting can help you with are:

1.   Pawnshop Business Management

• Strategic measures
• Pawnshop malpractices
• Pawnshop policies
• Supervision
• Physical inventory
• System on auction sale
• Accounting system
• Public relations

2.   Pawnshop Operations

• BSP registration requirements for new pawnshops.
• BSP rules and regulations
• Legal aspects
• Standard operating procedures ( SOP )
• Bookkeeping
• Location
• Security

If you are in need of experienced pawnshop consulting contact MIM Pawnshop Skills and services. I am here to help you.

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The Marcos jewelry collection is now a Philippine national treasure. Let’s keep it.

The history behind the Marcos jewelry collection doesn’t matter. Neither do the personalities behind it. Both the history and the personalities are from a sad era that is now passed. The only thing that matters now is that the jewelry collection is in the possession of the Philippine Government.  I think this is where it should stay permanently as a possession of the Philippine people.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has decided to leave the sale of jewelry to the incoming administration. I support this decision for my own reasons regardless of the reasons given in the press. There have been attempts to sell the jewelry collection for some 10 years now. The jewelry collection, said to be worth P15 billion, includes a ruby pendant, a 100-carat diamond necklace and other valuable pieces. But jewelry appraisals prices have risen dramatically in value in the past ten years and in five years the collection appraisal price could double. In 10 years it could double again.

Today Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel F. Zubiri strongly suggested the Marcos jewelry collection could be lent to the National Museum for viewing by all citizens rather than auctioned off. I like that idea.

The Marcos jewelry collection is now in the possession of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and is being held in a vault.

Maria Gracia Pawnshop Successful Professional Appraisers

Being evaluated as to the accuracy in the procedure for appraising jewelry.

Graduation Day! February 28, 2010

Enhance your Knowledge in Gold and Diamond Appraising. Be a Professional Pawnshop Appraiser.

Most pawnshop appraisers get in to a pawnshop industry with ZERO knowledge. They learned the skill from an experienced appraiser to the other. To be a professional appraiser, you should learn the right knowledge on the skill – gold and diamond appraising – Theory, art to use pawnshop tools, accuracy in the procedure, accuracy in appraising and public relations – Makes it PERFECT to be a professional one..Upgrade your knowledge now!  Enhance your expertism  in the field.