Take charge!

Derin Thorpe

Home shopping networker

THE DIYer: Laura Cardillo, jewelry designer

THE CAUSE: Cardillo has been creating high-end baubles for three decades. But when sales started waning two years ago, she began disentangling herself from the usual industry channels to go her own way and save money. First, she pulled out of the group showroom she’d been a part of, which took a 15 percent commission; then she stopped buying into trade shows, where a booth can cost $10,000. “Now I basically try to lure clients to my apartment with tea, cocktails and garden parties,” she laughs.

THE EFFECT: She’s not kidding: Cardillo now works out of her midtown home. Using her contacts and experience, she invites buyers to her duplex garden apartment when they’re in town for trade shows—without having to shell out exorbitant fees like her competitors do. “The people who buy my jewelry would rather deal with me than with a showroom,” she says. “With me, they’re coming to visit an artist. And business is fine. Not thriving, but fine.”

HOW TO DO IT: Don’t pay other people when you can avoid it: “I try to make everything myself,” says Cardillo of cutting out pricey middlemen. For the things she can’t make, Cardillo barters—or tries to. She put an ad on Craigslist hoping to teach Italian in exchange for a website. “I found a bunch of people who would make me a site—students who need it for their portfolios—but nobody is interested in Italian!”—Kate Lowenstein

NEXT: Why couldn’t I just…?
How to exploit this crummy economy.

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