Etsy Forum Rewind – Etsy Seller Reaches 1,100 Sales In Less Than A Year And Tells All
When I first opened my Etsy store in October 2009 I wasn’t completely sure what I would sell patterns or product I did a little of both in the beginning but quickly found that I loved to create new items and being a stay-at-home with two very busy boys I wanted something I could do in my own time.
So Speckled Frog Crochet was born. Over the past 9 months and more than 1100 sales, I have learned so many useful things I want to share with anyone will to read this post.
First and foremost Etsy is an incredible site! I could not and would not do what I am doing if it weren’t for Etsy. Setting up my store was so inexpensive, professional looking and easy. I am not incredibly computer savvy but I was able to do it in just a few hours.
The opinions posted hear are only my opinion take or leave what you like but someone, may find this useful.
So let’s start at the beginning!
Deciding What to Sell
Because I do so many different crafts this was a little hard for me to decide. Like I mentioned before I am a stay-at-home mom so I needed something that worked in my time frame and was flexible. Also space was an issue I love to sew but with no area available to dedicate to that it really wasn’t an option.
Choosing to sell Crochet items and patterns was a great fit both time wise and space wise. All I needed was an area for my yarn and laptop. I worked on my patterns once the boys were in bed and sold some odds’n’ends along the way.
I now have another shop Offthehookphotoprops where I list a few items that I really enjoy making. Special mention here to OopsIknititagain for helping with the name.
So take into consideration the time, money and space you have to work with. If setting up is a chore every time this will infringe on your production time and you may not be working as efficiently as you could be.
HOW MUCH TIME AND MONEY TO INVEST
Well what I would say here is that expect to spend money and not necessarily make any in the beginning anyway. I was pretty frugal here. I did not invest in many extras till much later. Basically I paid for my listings and my yarn. However as most crafty people will agree it is very easy to overspend when investing in your favoured craft.
As your business grows expect to spend more time doing other things other than crafting. I would say I easily spend at least 6 hours a day doing something related to my business. It could be staying in touch with customers, reading the forums, organizing my work space, jotting down ideas (always keep a note pad handy if you are like me they will come and go in an instant), cleaning up my store, and finally crafting.
I made many items which were sent to photographers and those are basically a write off – no money made there (be sure to ready the section on professional photos)
I set goals for myself and would invest more money once those goals were met.
BEST INVESTMENT!
#1 Quality Materials whatever you are making will be far more impressive with quality materials. I see it all the time at craft shows. People buy cheap materials then spend hours at their craft why? Is your time and creation not worth it? Make your product the best it can be!
#2 would be my Blackberry – I love that I am alerted right away when I get a sale and that I can communicate with people immediately. I offer full support with all my patterns and if someone gets stuck or has a question for any reason it is nice to be able to respond quickly.
#3 best investments would be purchasing my domain name www.speckledfrog.ca which I forward to my Etsy store. It is short and really easy to remember.
WORST INVESTMENT
#1 Cheap yarn! Spend the money and buy good supplies – people are paying for what they expect to be quality items. Now I have yarn that I will never use. If your supplies are expensive work it into the price it will be worth it in the end.
#2 Would probably be my business cards – only though, because I sell patterns which are emailed – what was I thinking? I spent $60 glossing them up printing on the back side matching fridge magnets etc. Man does my fridge look good! Lol
#3 Items sent to photographers at n/c don’t do this – see the next section.
Read More HERE:
The Etsy forums are packed full of amazing information. Etsy Forum Rewind brings these buried posts back to life so more people from the community can benefit from the information. Read, Learn , Apply!
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