Local (Great Falls) jewelry store owner emphasizes commitment to customers, networking

Business owners enjoying some degree of success often become complacent, believing that their business somehow ‘owes’ them something.

By ERIC BORGGARD For The Tribune

Or so says Claire Baiz, the owner and president of Great Falls-based Big Sky Gold & Diamond Brokers, http://www.bigskydiamond.com/index.html a wholesale jewelry and diamond brokerage established 10 years ago.

It also is the antithesis of her approach to her business.

Baiz, a 45-year-old University of Great Falls graduate with degrees in history and political science, has energy and enthusiasm to spare, and complacency isn’t part of her vocabulary. The business has enjoyed considerable success in recent years, in spite of the sagging local and national economies.

A significant portion of her business is conducted on an appointment-only basis with individual customers, but the keystone to her business lies in diamond brokerage to retail jewelry stores. She serves accounts mainly throughout the inland Northwest, but as far away as Atlanta.

While the interesting mix of wholesale and retail business has enabled Big Sky to prosper during the economic downturn, Baiz said there are four underlying components to her business success — no matter what economic conditions exist.

Those components are a commitment to customers, a vast network of personal and industry contacts, the positioning of her business at the cutting edge of the jewelry industry and a willingness to give back to the community.

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Big Sky Gold

Business: Big Sky Gold & Diamond Brokers

In charge: Claire Baiz, owner and president

Address: 1125 2nd Ave. N.

Mail: P. O. Box 313, Great Falls, MT 59403

E-mail: [email protected]

To learn more: 453-7300

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According to customers, her reliability, versatility and trustworthiness border on legendary. Terri Dunwoody of Dunwoody Jewelry, a 51-year old retail jewelry business in Spearfish, S.D., is so impressed with Big Sky Gold & Diamond Brokers that she hasn’t used the service of any other broker in the past five years.

When asked if that was unusual, Dunwoody said, "No, I don’t think so. Once you’ve developed a rapport with someone you can truly trust…she’s, well, worth her weight in gold. You won’t get that with somebody in New York or Chicago. Claire has helped us grow our business, plain and simple."

Part of that trust is engendered through competitive prices.

"We are not afraid to expose our margins, because they are very fair," Baiz said. A high rate of inventory turnover, coupled with the fact that the inventory isn’t financed, allows her the luxury of slim margins.

"If people comparison shop," she says confidently, "I win."

Great Falls resident Joe Farley, 28, did some comparison shopping when looking for a piece of jewelry for his wife’s birthday a couple of years ago. After finding Baiz, Farley said he wasn’t likely to be going anywhere else.

"Claire was extremely knowledgeable, and her ability to explain subtle differences in layman’s terms," helped him feel comfortable, he said. Farley also described Baiz as "super-connected" with an ability to find, in a timely fashion, exactly what he was seeking.

A broad network of industry contacts is essential to pricing and selection. Baiz represents a large number of fine jewelry designers, and is among a select group of distributors for companies specializing in large-ticket, or "luxury" pieces.

It is that web of wholesale, designer, retail and dealer contacts that drives her daily business. The glue that holds everything together for Baiz is technology. Internet and database technology has dramatically improved almost every facet of her business. Demanding nationwide and worldwide customers can have an array of options in their hands within 24 hours.

Through e-mail and digital photography, communication with her existing client base is efficient, and it allows her to do business with people in places like San Francisco and Dallas — markets that would have seemed impenetrable to a small Montana jewelry company only a few years ago.

Big Sky Gold & Diamond Brokers has qualified for access to several closed Internet trading organizations where her inventory is posted nationally along with those of up to 4,000 other dealers.

Baiz said she has a keen desire to be a good corporate citizen in Great Falls and northcentral Montana.

She has donated funds or jewelry to charities and organizations including the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Modern Art, the Benefis Foundation Mayfaire event, the Humane Society Foundation, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Cascade County Historical Society.

As a fundraiser for the Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Baiz recently designed a limited-edition pendant that is being made in Utica by the Yogo Creek Mining Co.

The constant challenge of staying at the forefront of jewelry technology and trends, while daily putting her skill and knowledge to the test, is like "an endless game of chess," asserts Baiz. Perhaps the most rewarding thing, she said, is her ability to serve both retail customers and an intricate array of wholesale accounts from the comfort of her Montana hometown.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20030206/localnews/928261.html