Erickson Jewelers: small business supporting local community

IRON MOUNTAIN — For our third installment of National Small Business Week, ABC 10’s Dan Callahan traveled to Dickinson County to meet with a small business that is hard at work on making some custom products.

Erickson Jewelers, a small business located in Iron Mountain is a store that puts a lot of heart and time into their work. They are also the only jeweler in the Upper Peninsula that travels to Antwerp, Belgium, to handpick diamonds for their customers. They are very fortunate to also have and on-site jeweler available within their store.

“We have an on-site jeweler and we do custom design which a lot of businesses can’t offer services on-site like that, and have to job it out,” said, Owner of Erickson Jewelers, Sherri Erickson. “So we are really fortunate to have that available in Iron Mountain.”

Not only is it handy that they have the jeweler on-site, but also have Computer Aided Design or also known as C.A.D. which is computer software that helps the jeweler create the jewelry designs quicker and more efficient.

“So that means instead of sitting at a work bench and hand carving waxes, I use a computer so that everything is really precise,” said, Owner of Erickson Jewelers, Randy Erickson. “What I can do is take a drawing after sitting with a customer, we can take that drawing and turn it in to a computer rendering and then I can print a model of it and show the customer what it is going to look like.”

They have this software because they want their business to stay ahead of the game so that they can compete with larger stores and corporations.

“I think a lot of small town jewelers; they get stuck in the way things used to be and they just kind of roll along,” said Randy. “But we really want to be on the cutting edge and be just like the larger manufacturers that are there and have the same things to offer but in a small town.”

Erickson Jewelers also puts time back into the community to show that they support other local businesses, as well as, local organizations, events and sports teams.

“We really try to get involved,” said Sherri. “We like to try to sponsor local sporting events or different sport teams, or somebody comes in and they have a need for a benefit or something. We really try our best to help out and get involved as much as possible.”

The Erickson’s see how important small businesses impact communities in small towns within America. Therefore they want to do everything they can to help support these other small businesses within their community.

“There are a lot of small businesses across middle America that are dying because of corporations that are moving in,” said Randy. “To be one small business and fighting that is hard. But when you link arms together with other small businesses and work together, there is nothing I think you can’t accomplish.”

Erickson Jewelers will be moving location to downtown Iron Mountain in July of this year and they hope to grow their business even further with the new store.