This post and everything herein is in no way intended to be a self promoting or egotistical post. This is for my personal documentation of my own journey to how I got here. I like to document my journey along the road to success because, "It is not the Destination, It is the Journey."
PERSONAL JOURNAL FROM FEBRUARY 2011:
So I had made a decision to do what I love and that is Arts and Crafts. I am an all around crafter who started my love for arts and crafts when I was very young. I first started out with sewing because my grandmother and mom were both very good seamstress. And as I got older I have had a grown curiosities for all of the other forms of art. I pretty much do everything now except for floral arrangements and wood working...although I have dabbled in both as well. I have nothing against those 2 forms of crafts, it is just they are not as enjoyable for me (the wood working is pretty stressful with the tools, I find it too dangerous). Anyways, so it began with a passion and so I have made a conscious decision to try to make it work.
Here is my timeline:
- Opened Etsy shop in September 2010
- Opened a 2nd Etsy shop in October 2010
- Wasn't active until December 15, 2010
- Missed the holiday selling frenzy, so I brushed it off and planned for next year (2011).
- Listed more items in both shops.
- One shop had only 26 items (which had a goal to list more items)
- One shop had 50 to begin with and then slowly climbed up to 100-110.
- Started to join Etsy teams
- Joined a local team and didn't find it very helpful because it was too small
- Joined an international team and began to network.
- Joined more teams and read everything I can and connect with as many people as possible.
- Gave in and set up a Facebook page for my business
- Gave in and set up a blog for my business
- Wasn't getting what I wanted out of the Etsy teams, so I started my own team with a friend.
- 1st day we had almost 50 members joined
- 2nd day we had almost 100 members joined (it was 90 something).
- 3rd day we had about 150+ members joined
- 4th day, we went VIRAL, we got over 300 members that one day. I couldn't figure out why or how we were having so many members that day, and then I checked my email and then I knew why...Etsy featured our team in a daily email that they send out to their 5 millions+ shop owners. And our team was 1 of the 5 featured team.
- The membership keeps going up and up and up...so now on average we have been getting about 40-100 new members on a daily basis.
- It helps to have good information and a genuine heart to want to help others out. I am going on this journey and I am doing it with almost 1000 other shop owners on Etsy...this makes me happy because I am not alone anymore. And plus there are so many nice people that I have meet along the way that I feel so Blessed.
- Started to go crazy with networking
- Adding and sharing so many "likes" on facebook fanpage
- Following and sharing with so many blogs
- Started a Team blog.
- And after 2 weeks of networking, I got my stuff in some boutiques in town. And I still got a few more interested boutiques. Went to a networking event with other Etsians. And have at least 2 shows to attend for the next coming months.
- 500+ Facebook fans "likes"
- almost 100 blog followers
- Team was featured on Etsy email blast
- Got my stuff in boutiques
**If you like my "Personal Journal Series: Journey to Success," please comment and let me know that I have fans out there. If I get enough comments and feedback from my readers, I will keep this up and will posts more updates. Hopefully my "Personal Journal Series" will help some of you out :) And please write to me if you want me to cover a certain topic that I have not yet covered in my blog. I LOVE to give business advice and love to help others in anyway that I can. God Bless!**
My journey has included many of the same steps (probably true for quite a few fellow Etsians!) and some have brought me great joy (blogging) and others I've found to be no fun (FB)! Too much time networking takes me away from what I enjoy most... making stuff!! ;) Congrats on your business, so far, so good! :)
ReplyDeleteI really love how you wrote this post with the facts. So many times I read how to's that have the same typical ideas for getting ahead. You took action and look what happened! Way to go!
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