There’s an old saying: “If what you’re doing works, keep doing it!”. But what if it doesn’t work or, at least, doesn’t seem to be working as well as you’d hoped? Quite a few of us with Etsy shops haven’t realized our goals yet, shall we say … What to do? Maybe it’s time to experiment, to try something a little different and see what happens. That’s what the business management guys call “thinking out of the box.” Can it be applied to Etsy?

Out of the Box #1: I knew I was having trouble drawing people to my Etsy shop. I knew also that my product, my beaded jewelry, wasn’t the problem. My earrings and necklaces are made of astonishingly beautiful beads of all kinds that I’ve amassed over twenty years of collecting (see my earlier Spark posts).

I have a good design eye and can put beads together into a pleasing piece of jewelry in a wide range of styles and materials. My prices are affordable and fair; the shipping is free.

My jewelry sells great at face-to-face art fairs and craft shows. I often get heartwarming remarks from repeat customers: “These turned out to be my favorite earrings; I wear them all the time” or “I wore those dressy crystal earrings I got from you to a dinner party over the holidays and got so many compliments.” As you yourselves know, that kind of comment can make your day … or your week.

The policy section seemed okay, the profile, the banner, etc. I had lots of items available (around three hundred). So … what was missing to catch people’s attention? Well, my photos were okay but nothing special, nothing different to catch the eye. They showed the jewelry, but were they interesting? Maybe not.

Also, I kept having too little time to re-take the photos or crop them. Too little time to tweet when I did a new listing.

So one day my friend Eleanore Brown of Etsy shop Ebrown2503, maker of fabulous fiber beads, e-mailed to say she had an idea.

We met for lunch to talk it over. It was a bit out of the box … of course. Collaboration?! Can you do that on Etsy? Well, why not? She was going to be spending a lot of time tending the flower garden she shares with her uncle. She likes taking photos and tweeting.

We decided to give the collaboration idea a try. So now the jewelry is being rephotographed as it comes up for renewal (and new pieces too, of course) by Eleanore in her garden, with charming blooms offering up their interesting and eye-catching backgrounds to the gleaming beads.

Out of the Box #2: I think that talking with Etsy friends is a great way to brainstorm, even when you’re not really trying to. Again, Eleanore and I were chatting about this and that – how much she enjoys making fiber beads, how much I love designing beaded jewelry, what is involved in the creative process, and so on. We were sitting in my bead studio at the time.

She complimented me at the amazing breadth of my bead collection. Then she asked about how I could do such great color matching in the earring designs.

Well, I wasn’t sure how exactly, but I told her I thought I had a good color memory – that I could look at a bead of a particular color and remember where I had another bead that matched.

Then I told Eleanore that, at craft shows, I had often noticed an interestingly colored outfit that someone was wearing as she came into my booth and would say, “Hey, I have a pair of earrings here that would go great with your outfit.” And it would prove true; I’d take them off the display stand and hold them up next to her and it would be a terrific match. Sometimes this even resulted in a sale!

Then there was the time that my friend Cindy had come to visit, wearing a lovely new tapestry jacket with an interesting and unusual color scheme. The dominant color was one that’s hard to define – some would call it burgundy, wine-red (like the “wine-red sea” refrain in Homer), pomegranate, perhaps; or maybe bing cherry; or just maroon, or even just dark red.

I remembered the color somehow, and later on, when I was sending her Christmas gift, I included a pair of earrings I’d made in exactly that color and in the style she preferred – medium length and weight, classic design, not too dressy for wearing everyday in the classroom (she’s an English teacher).

Eleanore looked a bit surprised and then started to grin. “You know,” she said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that kind of thing offered on an Etsy shop … or anywhere else for that matter.” I asked her what she meant and she suggested that I offer to color match outfits for people online from my Etsy shop. How would it work? They could send me a digital photo of the blouse, dress, jacket, or whatever by convo. They’d give me some indication of what style they liked — long, medium, or short; dainty or bold; classic or funky – and whether they preferred a particular material like stone, glass, crystal, or bone. Then I’d make a pair of earrings and send the photo back to them. I’ve just put a brief explanation “Take the Color Match Challenge” in my shop announcement.

Outcomes of thinking out of the box on Etsy:

What are the outcomes of thinking out of the box like this on Etsy? I have no idea. These two experiments are in the very beginning stages. I’d love to hear comments and suggestions from Spark readers and hope you’ll drop by my shop at http://www.beadedjewelrybysusan.etsy.com to see the new garden photos as they are listed!