The Challenges of a Small Success

Despite the fact that I've had my Etsy shop open for over a year now, I still consider myself a newbie because (until recently) I didn't really mess with it much. I think over the past year I've posted 15 items and 10 of those were in the past month.

I sort of jumped the gun when I first opened shop. Bright and early one morning, while the rest of my house was asleep, I hopped on my Mac, got myself a cup of coffee and said, "Really, how hard can this be?" I grabbed a scarf that I'd knitted a while back, took a couple of photos and voila! An Etsy shop was born. 

My first item sold within a month or so, and frankly that was a surprise. After my initial spurt of confidence, I hadn't really thought too much about the shop or the solo item that I'd thrown on the web. A woman in Australia bought my scarf for $15, but I hadn't really researched my shipping costs and ended up losing money in the end.

Did that bother me? A little. But I was riding the Cha-Ching high from Etsy.

This spurred me to convince my parents to go in halfsies with me at a local antique mall on a booth. 

I didn't have the inventory.

I didn't have a business plan.

I didn't really think past that blur of I can do this!

And so, a year of significant monetary losses later, my contract is almost up and I'm about to close down my booth. Actually, Friday is my last day. And I'm okay with that - I jumped in without really thinking. My parents were more geared towards selling knick knacks and interesting small pieces that they found at auctions while I was more interested in making and selling my wares. It didn't mesh well. Frankly, it looked like an awkward hodge-podge of just stuff.

To make matters worse, the booths on either side of mine were well-done and exactly what I had been hoping for my own.

So now I'm taking a BIG step back, revamping my Etsy shop, researching SEO and marketing. I'm hoping that this next step with EclecticMES is a little more successful than my last one and definitely hoping that it'll be at least more organized and focused.

Lesson learned: Don't let a small success go to your head and interfere with your business plans and goals. Keep a clear, calm head, work hard, and the rest will follow!