Search results (tags) for: "full time"

Quit Your Day Job: adVintagous

2009-12-28T15:30:00-05:00

I'm excited to bring you the next Quit Your Day Jobber who just so happens to have taken the plunge to focus full time on her success in selling vintage on Etsy. Allison of adVintagous started out listing a couple items from her closet in order to clear out some room and make a few extra dollars after realizing there was a Vintage Category on the site; she never imagined she'd soon be making a full-time living from it. Allison went from a recent graduate during a recession working full time as a character photographer at a theme park to being her own boss bringing new life to vintage finds. Her best marketing advice is keeping up a shop newsletter and taking photos in natural light with a simple background. Allison is most thankful that Etsy has allowed her to concentrate on her true passions in life including vintage and birds.

How did you originally get into the business of selling vintage?
I've always loved the different eras of vintage — mod 60s, glam evening dresses, big poofy 50s skirts, all of it! I'd been collecting vintage dresses at thrift stores and estate sales personally for years, as well as shopping on Etsy for handmade goods. One day last year, I noticed that Etsy had a vintage section and decided to put some pieces from my own closet up on the site, and things just went from there. It's great because if I find something really amazing, I get to buy it, even if it doesn't fit! I always hated to leave something wonderful behind because it was too small or too large.

Tell us about your previous working situation.
After I graduated from college, I found myself working as a character photographer at a theme park in Orlando. While the park was fun, and the people were great, it was not a career that I wanted, and graduating during a recession didn't leave me many options.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
I knew that other people had been able to support themselves through Etsy, but it wasn't something that I thought I would be able to do. My goal was to maybe find new homes for some of my dresses, and make a little bit of money to supplement my income. After spending a few months with just my toes in the water, I started selling vintage seriously this past March. I wasn't expecting much, maybe a sale once in a while, but I was overwhelmed by the response to my finds, and was able to quit my day job this past summer. I've sold wedding gowns to brides, prom dresses, and even shimmery sequin pieces to bands for their photo shoots! I love the interaction with customers on Etsy, it's very different from my experiences with other online selling venues, and everyone is so friendly and happy to communicate.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time, feel free to give us the nitty gritty business details?
At first, I cut my hours to part time, to make sure I wasn't getting in over my head. Then, when I left the park for good, my husband and I made sure we had enough saved up to last a few months if things didn't work out, sort of a safety net.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?
I've tried a ton of things — Twitter, Facebook, blogging, Flickr — but I think the most effective thing I've done as far as marketing is to have a newsletter. Once or twice a month, I'll send an email to people who sign up, letting them know about sales, and things like that. I also had little business cards printed up for my shop. I'm always meeting people who ask what I do, and it usually starts a big conversation about selling online. It's still a pretty novel idea to most people! It's nice to have a card to hand out so they can see my site when they get home.

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
I've tried a few paid blog advertisements, and while I got some views, I didn't really see any sales from them. In the end, I didn't feel the money was worth it. I'm still experimenting with paid advertisements in different places.

Walk us through your typical workday.

I wake up around 8 a.m., when my husband leaves for work.
After he's gone, I spend some time with our little bird, Peanut, eating breakfast and catching up on email and Convos.
Three days a week I volunteer at a local bird of prey rehab center, so on those days, I head to the center and spend the day with the birds.
Other days, I usually spend time visiting estate sales looking for those special vintage finds. In the afternoons, if the light is right I'll take pictures, if not, I'll process photos, and list items.
I usually pack up the day's orders at night, so they are ready to go out in the morning mail the next day!
Afterwards, my husband and I will usually watch some junky TV or play video games to unwind.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
The best best best thing about not having a day job is that most of what I do on Etsy can be done in the evenings, or on the weekends. Having an "unconventional" job has left my days free for a different kind of work — volunteering! Animals, and birds especially, are one of my big passions in life, along with vintage and traveling. So three days a week I get to volunteer at a local bird rehabilitation center helping to care for sick and injured birds of prey, as well as educating the public about their importance. I love being able to devote so much of my time to something that means so much to me, and I would never have been able to do that without Etsy.

On a more selfish note, I also love not having a commute. Before, I was driving an hour to and from work each day, and usually getting up at 6 a.m. to do it. I'm a born night owl, so now I can wake up at a comfortable hour, and work into the night if I have to. I really miss having coworkers and friends that I see every day, though. Sometimes it gets a little lonely doing everything myself. I do make time to spend with friends and family, but it's not the same as having people that you work with every day.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
One of the hardest things is having no one else to rely on. If I get sick, or have to go out of town, nothing gets done. Since I do everything myself, the photography, the listing, the buying, and the shipping, if something goes wrong, I know I have no one to blame but myself. I take it pretty hard when something like a lost package happens, even if there's nothing I could have done about it. Also, it is frustrating when I tell people what I do, and they act like I told them I live on the moon.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
I would love to go back in time and change the way I was taking pictures in the beginning. I had been switching back and forth between trying to take photos outside and trying to bring light to a dark room. When I switched to a well lit room with natural light and a simple background, it was like a breath of fresh air. Now I have to move furniture every time I want to take pictures, but it's a trade I'm more than willing to make. I think photos are the most important part of your listing, the best description in the world can't help a blurry, underexposed photo.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?

Aside from, of course, more hearts and sales, I would really like to make a dedicated shipping area at home. Somewhere I can lay things out for packing, and not have to run around finding tape, tissue paper, the scale, and all that. I think it would make shipping so much faster.
I also need to work on keeping up to date spreadsheets and records of expenses and sales. Not my favorite part, but something I would like to accomplish.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Having an online shop, and being your own boss is fantastic, but also a lot of hard work. I have so much respect now for others who do it full time! It's not something that I ever expected to be doing, but I love it, and I've long since stopped wondering about the crazy places that life has taken me.

Thanks to Allison for sharing her story. You can see some of Allison's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: alinahayes

2009-12-21T16:26:00-05:00

Alina of alinahayes spent seven years in the medical billing and collections field before getting married and moving cross-country. Alina decided to take a pottery class to get back in touch with her creative side and make new friends. She soon realized she wanted to take the plunge into selling her wares full time via Etsy. Alina now successfully supports herself making and selling pottery, loves her newfound freedom, is expecting a child, and is reaching for goals such as a guest feature on the Martha Stewart Show.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
I always loved making things. What still amazes me is that it’s possible to create something out of nothing. While attending The School of Visual Arts in New York, drawing and painting was a huge part of my life, until I discovered pottery and the beauty of three-dimensional objects. Clay had completely won me over.

Tell us about your previous working situation.
As a single girl in New York City, I needed a day job. Somehow I managed to get into the Medical Billing/Collections profession. Yikes! I was very good at it, so one job led to another, a promotion, a bigger pay check. Before I knew it, this “career” was going on for seven years. When I got married, my new husband had a job opportunity that would require us to move to Los Angeles, and we jumped on it! Sticking to what I knew best, I got yet another job in an office as a medical collector. I knew I was sinking. I was newly married to an incredible man, living in a fabulous city, and yet I was miserable. I decided to take some pottery classes to release some creative juices and make some friends, and so here I am!

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
Yes! As soon as I saw how well some of Etsy’s sellers were doing, I realized that quitting my day job was a real possibility. I plunged into making as much pottery as I could in my spare time to fill up my Etsy shop.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time? Feel free to give us the nitty gritty business details!
I am not much of a planner, and I tend to second-guess myself, so I decided to jump in with both feet before I changed my mind.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?

Consistently listing new items kept me more visible and active in the Etsy community. Joining the Etsy Mud Team was great and helped me get into some of my first Treasuries.
Treasuries are a great way to get to the elusive home page! Creating Treasury lists and including your favorite sellers likely ensures they will return the favor.
Participating in Etsy-wide promotional sales is always helpful and will direct extra traffic to your shop.
My blog, which I started because all I wanted to do was talk about clay and pottery, has helped in my marketing efforts.
Facebook and Twitter are great networking sites to consider if you don‘t have time to devote to a blog.
I also think it’s important to go beyond the Internet to grow your business. Doing local shows and sales as well as swinging by gift boutiques with your product will ensure that more people know you exist. The more people know you’re out there, the better your chances are for a sale.

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
Discounting work for the sake of doing so. Knowing what your work is worth is important, and just because it’s cheaper, does not mean you will sell more any faster.

Walk us through your typical workday.

I wake up, walk over to my laptop to check for Etsy sales and Convos (even before I make the coffee…just can’t help it).
I like to pack up my orders first and get them ready for the post office.
I then make my way to the garage where, depending on what pottery making phase I am in, I will either throw, trim or glaze pottery. I like to spend at least four hours a day “making” pottery, otherwise I don’t feel productive.
Often times I will be so caught up in it all, I'll forget to eat lunch. However, I am pregnant at the moment, so that is not a possibility. Gotta make time for lunch!
When I feel I need a break, I’ll make a trip to the post office and answer daily email.
I don’t really keep a constant daily work schedule.
Some days I will work well into the evenings. Others, I will end around 4 p.m. The same goes for weekends.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
I enjoy the freedom! The fact that I do not have to be in an office for a given number of hours every day. I love working in my pajamas! I love that I do not have a supervisor watching over my shoulder. I love that I get to do what I actually LOVE. I miss absolutely nothing, and that is how I know I have made the right decision.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
Separating my personal and professional life. Working and living at home sometimes makes it difficult to stop doing one and start doing the other.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
Have confidence and take the leap.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
To maintain a steady and flowing production schedule. At the end of my first year on Etsy, I wanted to double my sales the next year and it was something I was able to accomplish. Now that my Etsy shop is my full-time job, I would like to double (if not triple) this year’s sales. I would like to keep increasing traffic to my store and continue to create quality product people will enjoy. Oh, and I'd also like to be a guest on the Martha Stewart Show. Hi, Martha!

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Your Etsy shop will only be as good as the amount of time you’re willing to devote to it. Take great dynamic photos and sell quality products. Do not be discouraged. It takes time and a lot of effort, but I assure you it is possible to succeed.

Thanks to Alina for sharing her story. You can see some of Alina's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: jill2day

2009-12-14T14:10:00-05:00

Jill of jill2day spent many years in corporate design departments until the economy's downturn left her unemployed. She took her career change as a motivating opportunity to start her Etsy shop, learn more about the ins-and-outs of e-commerce and begin supporting herself through her artistic voice. She's now successfully making her living through her Etsy business, loves making her own schedule, and if she could go back in time, she would have advised herself to do it sooner. Keep reading to find out how Jill uses customer service as one of her best marketing tools.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
I can’t remember not making things. One of my prize possessions is a clay dog that I made in 2nd grade and I can remember making things even before that. I can honestly say I would not have graduated from high school if it weren’t for my art classes — and the fabulous teachers I had. They taught me that making things was of value.

Tell us about your previous working situation.
Ironically I left art school and entered the corporate world. I remember working as a bank teller and seeing an ad agency come in to pitch an idea. It was then that I realized that there were people who were actually making a living coming up with ideas and creating things. I went back to school for graphic design and spent the next many years in corporate and agency design departments. I also taught graphic design for a while. I liked the problem solving and customer service parts of these jobs almost as much as the creative part. However, the longer I was in the corporate environment the more I started to get the “been there done that” feeling during meetings.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
My day job quit me before I started selling on Etsy! I am one of the “recently unemployed” from this economic craziness. I spent a while looking for another position, but really wanted to see if the fiber art that I had been doing for myself could be a full-time endeavor — or at least keep me occupied until the economy picked up again. I also really wanted to increase my knowledge of the world of online commerce and advertising.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
Yes. I bought a serger! I found one that I could buy on a no-interest one-year loan. My goal was to just make enough to pay this off before the one year ended and interest kicked in. I had my own B+M graphic design firm years ago, so I already knew about record-keeping, etc.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?

First and foremost: Join Etsy and use all the tools available to you. It was a great sort of “start-up franchise.” I read all the info on starting up, joined in the Forums, and generally just decided to focus, focus, focus.
Secondly: Customer service. My background included a lot of both vendor and customer relationships, so I have just applied lessons learned previously to my Etsy shop. I always keep in mind that repeat customers are gold — and fun. So I really am trying to build relationships and listen to my customers' ideas — not just sell them stuff! Consequently I am doing many custom items. I love to do these, because they are often for people who have had a hard time finding their size in “fun” clothes before, so they are so excited to have these items made, and we have so much fun planning the garment. They come up with some great ideas to challenge me!

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
So far so good. I have had success with the Showcases, Weekend Deals and renewing (a reasonable amount!). I will be in my first show in a couple weeks, and also am participating in the Etsy Pavilion at the Chicago One of a Kind Show — so ask me that question again in a month! I don’t tweet, and my Facebook is purely for family and connecting with friends: no business.

Walk us through your typical workday.

I stumble downstairs and take the dog out — but first I turn on the computer so that when I come in it is all set to check in with my “positive thread” buddies in the Forums. (Hey, look guys: I'm in an article!)
After my husband goes to work, I spend some more time on Etsy: check Convos, Forums, renew, etc.
At 9 I turn off the computer (usually) and I head off to the studio (getting dressed first is optional).
Then it is sewing until lunch.
During lunch it is another check on my shop, Convos, Forums, etc.
The afternoon is either photo time, post office time (I love going to my small town post office with a load of boxes), or back to the studio to plan, cut apart my found sweaters and adding the parts to my stash, or make “sweater bundles” — bundling together all the various parts for each sweater, or sew.
Once a week I go material shopping and once a week I do some bookkeeping.
I usually emerge from the studio when my husband gets home, and run another Convo and blog check while he is checking his computer.
I resume hand sewing while watching the TV, but usually don‘t go back to the studio in the evening, as I am spoiled by the daytime daylight!

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
I love making my own schedule. In the corporate world I had to react to all the deadlines imposed on me. But on Etsy I can prioritize and pace myself to my life much better. I am also loving the solitude and the community! (And my local NPR station.) I have this quiet, productive life that is intermittently enhanced by my fellow Etsians and customers through their Convos and emails. It is so lovely to have these interactions, but because they are electronic they are so much easier to manage than the people popping into your cube or office all the time…and I do not miss meetings!

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
No back-up and, because I am new to this production mode, and am generally a complete optimist, judging how long things will take. I have occasionally bitten off a bit more than I should chew.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?

Myself: I would have done this earlier!

Others: Decide why you are here. If you want to make a living, then you have opened up a business and you must approach it as such — 100% x 24/7. If you are here to subsidize your hobby, great, but don’t expect to have the same results as those who are full-time businesses.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
Well, I have the money to pay off my serger, but have already decided I might need a commercial serger next year! Beyond that, I want to keep coming up with new designs and products that my customers will love to wear, and that will enable me to keep enjoying what I am doing. I will probably do more shows. Technically, I would love to get better at SEO and maybe open my own site as a hub for my blog, Etsy, shows, etc. Who knows, maybe I will even learn to tweet!

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
A big thank you to Etsy and my fellow Etsy sellers and buyers, and to my husband and friends. I am sure that this year of unemployment would have been very tough without all of you. In losing my job I have found out that Richie Havens was right when he said, “Backwards is not necessarily a negative direction!”

Thanks to Jill for sharing her story. You can see some of Jill's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: cicadastudio

2009-12-07T16:39:00-05:00

Michelle of cicadastudio was determined to quit her day job of 15 years as a design director and opened her Etsy shop with the intent of doing so. Michelle is a believer that being kind to one's self and keeping a positive "can-do" attitude have been her own secret recipe for success. While she doesn't miss the daily aspects of her day job, she now faces the challenge of juggling motherhood while being the CEO of her own business. She attributes the incredible opportunities she's experienced as a direct result of opening up her shop on Etsy.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?

I can't remember a time where I didn't make things. It seems that being creative and having a constant flow of hands-on projects is my whole reason for being. There's been more than one instance in my life where someone has said "you should sell these," referring to one thing or another that I'd taken up as a hobby or creative outlet. Finally, in 2004, I decided to take that more seriously and began the "master plan" to work for myself. I formed Cicada Studio to combat the dullness and stress of my day job's demands and I went with the project du jour, which was greeting cards.

Tell us about your previous working situation.
I was a design director for a private label company, which primarily entailed the conceptualizing, merchandising and producing of surface patterns and plaids for men's and boys' boxers and pajama programs. The job itself wasn't bad — as far as garment industry jobs go — but it was dry.

I had been there for nearly 15 years and I was literally burnt out. There were the stressors of daycare and kids' transport before a harried commute and hours spent away from home. As design director, I was the liaison between sales, designers, buyers and production, so I wore a lot of hats. In addition to the demands to make thousands of surface designs each year, there was the frustration of compromising my aesthetic judgment, conceptualizing new ways to do the same old thing, wowing everyone with blandness, and meeting crazy tight deadlines. I was thankful for the experience, and it's helped me immensely in my newest career, but I was really ready to move on.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
I had dreams of quitting my day job before I started selling on Etsy! Seriously, it was the reason I opened my shop. I was determined to make something of my own and I thank Etsy almost daily for giving me the opportunity to do this. I'm not sure where I'd be right now without this venue. Etsy made it possible for me to achieve my goals and opened up doors to incredible opportunities.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
I had recently remarried and had, for months and months, discussed my occupational unhappiness with my husband. He knew it was important for me to leave the job — even if it was for another, except there really weren't any available to me. Each time I neared the end of my rope and I thought I'd just quit on the spot and deal with the repercussions later, something made me reevaluate the situation: I was making a great salary, we were renovating the house, I became pregnant and needed the benefits, my husband was laid off...life stuff. It just kept me at my desk longer than I'd hoped.

It was during these times that I really began to hone my Etsy shop and the products I was selling. I created a niche in original textile designs and self-produced fabrics and was building both momentum and focus. As that began to solidly take shape, my dreams of quitting became a lot clearer and more accessible. Opportunities began to arise as I opened myself up to future possibilities. I began licensing designs for quilt collections for Henry Glass, taking on graphic design projects and sewing custom items — whatever I could get — and all of these things combined allowed me to make my bold move.

When my husband secured a job with great benefits, he encouraged me to quit because he believed in my abilities and determination. To offset the lost cash flow, we decided to live off my savings for a time, which I'm thankful I had. It was the best investment I could have made as it afforded me the opportunity to spend my time developing my business goals, sourcing, producing and marketing — basically building my businesses. It has not been easy, but it's been rewarding.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?

My blog and blog social life have been the most instrumental part in getting myself out there, seen and heard. I can directly attribute success through the promotion of my blog.
To boost traffic, I will often hold giveaways on my blog. Hands down, my most successful giveaways revolve around fabric. The sewing and crafting community is very vast, and yet simultaneously very tight. Once the word is out that there's free fabric afoot, people will magically appear.
I also love Flickr and post images to appropriate groups. When I first joined Etsy I was very active in the Forums and still have many close contacts from those days.
Being featured, either by circumstance or by submitting products to bigger (and relevant) design and sewing blogs, has also been very rewarding.

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
I haven't had any luck with paid advertising on blogs, nor have I seen any boosts in sales based on any magazine press I've received (but it sure is nice to get that!). Facebook doesn't seem to be working for me either, but I really don't dedicate myself to that venue, so it's probably my own doing.

Walk us through your typical workday.

I try to get up before the boys (one is 8, the other is 2) to take care of emails, manage the shop, read blogs and do some Twitter chit chat and organize the day. This is what I hope to achieve. If I actually get one of these things done in that time, I count myself lucky. The mornings are a frenzied routine of getting my act together and the boys out of the house to school, day care, etc.
When I get back home around 9:15, the day is now mine. I strap myself in and attack my to do list. Like any other job, there are days when I'm not so motivated. I try to set a schedule for myself, but I have realized that I am not one for routine. This is the way I roll, but it certainly can be counter-productive. Mostly, I act on impulse — everything is done when the mood strikes: shipping, designing, sewing, emailing, ordering, marketing, etc. I have from 9:30-2:45 to get as much done as possible. When there's a deadline, I make it, but I'm definitely not one to be done with a comfortable time buffer — I always seem to be working up to the last minute.
It's important to note here that I am not only the shop owner of Cicada Studio. Earlier this year I partnered up with a former colleague to create another business, Cloud9 Fabrics, which is an organic printed cotton company that wholesales directly to shops. We've been extremely successful. (Psst! there are a number of Etsy fabric shops that sell our product!) Between these two distinct jobs, there is never a dull moment. These days, my primary focus in the Etsy shop is my 2010 tea towel calendar production. I'm so excited about the response to this seemingly simple item. It is not, however, simple for me to make...and it's a big time consumer. I need a lot of self-propelled motivation to put on my mass-production hat, and there are days I want to toss it in the corner.
Eventually, I have to collect the kids, do housework, and try to find time to relax. This last part is the thing that suffers most. Since my job is now a short walk down the hallway, I am never NOT at work, and it invades my life at all times of the day. My desk is in the office, but the work itself is spread all over the place: the ironing board is like a console table in my living room, the kitchen table doubles as my sewing room, my bedroom is the photography studio. My family is very patient, but I have to admit, I am more than frustrated by all this and it's a real motivator for expanding my business further so I can successfully find an off-site situation. I like having goals like this because they keep me determined.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
There's nothing I miss about being ejected from bed, doused with water and then pushed out the door to frantically catch a train bound for NYC. I worked in the Herald Square area and it's pretty chaotic and intense. I probably had the easiest of commutes — off the train and a short walk to work — but that 5 minute walk was the most tiring aspect of the job. I also don't miss having to answer to someone and having to bend my aesthetics to fit someone else's idea of what looks good or what something should look like. Trying to read someone's mind and guess what they will want (and most times, that someone had no creative background) was mentally exhausting. That part of my job left me very dry and frustrated. It's nice that I only have myself to answer to now, even though I'm probably a tougher boss on myself than I ever had in my career....at least my wild notions make sense to me!

I miss the steady paycheck. If I'm really honest, I miss getting away from the house. And I really miss the time I spent on the train (though I really did loathe the commute). That time alone was mine to think, dream, plan, sleep, sit, rest, and zone out. I don't get that anymore. I go from mom, to business, to mom, to business in a day, and there's no pause between. It's very tiring.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
Doing every single little thing myself. I'm a pretty self-sufficient person, but man, what I wouldn't do for some helping hands now and again. I get so entrenched with the minutia though, even when a family member will extend an offer to help, it's hard for me to change gears and let go. It's all very time-consuming and I'm very detail driven: two things that translate to lots of audible sighs during the day.

My blogging life has been a real boost for my mental health. I became part of an amazing and supportive community that acted as a reciprocal sounding board, which I felt was key, as I had gone from working with many to working by myself. The solitude took some getting used to. I had to learn to have confidence in my own work as a stand-alone thing. Honing my own personal style was something I struggled with earlier on, but through feedback and interaction, and sales of course, I began to feel more at ease with what I was doing.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
"Focus, lady!" I am still telling myself that every day. It's not easy... ideas come from all sides, the energy is up, the creative side of me is sparked and I want to do it all. Only I can't and in order to have a cohesive shop and brand, it's really important — for both the business and myself — to keep it tight.

Advice to others: Be open to change and opportunity. Of course, I'll add "focus" to the list, but the real key is flexibility. I found that was necessary to not only quit my day job, but also settle into my own niche. When things aren't going exactly as you think they should, don't be afraid to change your perspective. Focus on what you really want, not necessarily the exact thing that gets you there. The more open you are to possibilities, the more options you'll find you have. I will also add "Be true to your nature and your ideals" — that kind of consistency shows in everything you do.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
Next year is going to be a bit of a departure for me.

I am in the process of streamlining Cicada Studio.
I have decided to stop selling my fabrics in fat quarter measures and only focus on the sale of full yards.
I'm in the process of liquidating my on-hand fabric inventory this month.
Going forward, I will offer more handmade items as home and personal accessories as well as doing customized products, using what I have left.
I have ideas for more fabric designs, but I'm currently rethinking my base cloths and printing methods, so a lot of what will go on for the early part of next year is research and development. That's not very exciting, but it's necessary. I'd rather spend time on developing a good plan for the brand at this time vs. keeping a stocked shop. As a one-person show I have to balance my time and energy — and for now, the right thing for me to do is step back, let things glide for a time while I chart my next plan of action.
I do plan to have a 3rd annual tea towel calendar for 2011, for sure. I also have another little fabric based idea that seems quite doable and unique, but I haven't had the chance to do my homework yet.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
I've been really blessed with all sorts of wonderful opportunities and people in my life, but I also feel like I deliberately put myself in their paths, too. I believe nothing is just luck. It all takes energy. It's really important to keep a positive "can do" attitude. It isn't always easy and there are some days when I have my doubts and insecurities, but when those things start eating at me, I reach out to my friends and family and listen to their supportive words; I take a look at all I've accomplished and pat myself on the back. Being kind to myself is essential. Plus, it makes it easier for me to push myself harder when I feel how emotionally and energetically rewarding it can be.

Thanks to Michelle for sharing her story. You can see some of Michelle's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: lulubugjewelry

2009-11-30T16:00:00-05:00

Sue of lulubugjewelry began her Etsy shop as a way to help support her newfound passion for jewelry making using Precious Metal Clay (PMC) jewelry supplies; she never imagined it would be a means to quit her day job. Her previous jobs lent her skills not only in jewelry design and manufacturing, but also the business know-how to eventually run her own business. While she couldn't be happier being her own boss, Sue had to cut expenses, such as her love of motorcycle racing, to make her dream a reality. Her tip for others considering taking the plunge is to be prepared for less free time and to make sure you love what you do — as you will most likely be working much harder than you ever did for a regular paycheck.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
I’ve always loved making stuff. I went to art school but didn’t discover metalworking until after I graduated. I loved it so much that I got a job at a small manufacturer of cast gold, silver and bronze jewelry. I’ve worked at several small jewelry companies since then, doing all aspects of manufacturing and most recently design. Working in manufacturing was a great way to build my skills, but grinding, filing and buffing someone else’s jewelry for eight hours a day left me with little desire to do my own work.

Tell us about your previous working situation.
My most recent job was as the designer for a small fabricated jewelry manufacturer. I was the entire art department — I designed and drew plans (in Spanish) for all the jewelry, set up photo shoots (experience that is coming in very handy now), designed and produced all the print materials (including a large 4-color catalog with over 800 photos every year) and designed, built and maintained the company website. Phew — I’m tired just writing all that. It should have been a dream job, but for a variety of reasons was pretty much the exact opposite. Despite the misery, anger and despair, I did learn a lot in the seven years I was there that is very helpful to me now.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
No, not at all! I’ve always liked having a regular paycheck and never thought about being self-employed. I started doing my own work again after discovering Precious Metal Clay (PMC) about two years ago, and saw Etsy as a way to hopefully help pay for my PMC habit. As my Etsy sales grew and the dissatisfaction with my job increased, I figured that after seventeen years in the jewelry industry, maybe it was time to see if I could do it on my own.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
I did all the basic business setup (business license, bank account, resale number, etc.) before I opened my shop. The first thing I did when I decided to start working towards leaving my job was to take a hard look at my finances. I haven’t balanced my checkbook since Reagan was in office (seriously) so paying attention to money doesn’t come naturally to me. I knew that if I was ever going to work up the courage to quit, I needed to have a nice cushion in the bank to fall back on, so I looked at ways of cutting my expenses. I’m fortunate in that I had a huge expense I was able to cut — my unusual hobby, motorcycle racing. I raced motorcycles for seven years, and though it’s great fun it’s also ridiculously expensive and takes up a large amount of time. I knew that it had to go (at least for now) so I didn’t race at all this year. I researched health insurance costs and made sure I could get it, and started buying my materials in bulk. Those of us who work with precious metal have the added challenge of following the various metal markets, which have been quite volatile for the last couple of years. In the end I just couldn’t take my job anymore, so for my sanity I quit about three months earlier than I had planned. It felt great to leave on my own terms, and was the right thing to do. I haven’t been in a blood-curdling rage since then!

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?

I pay more attention to my product design and development than marketing, because all the promoting in the world isn’t going to work if your product falls short. I started off with a variety of different styles, and let my sales determine which concepts and styles to develop further and which to leave behind. If there’s a design that I really believe in but is not selling I try modifying it in some way, perhaps the size or shape, and see if that helps. It often does.
I find craftcult.com to be a great tool for seeing which products are getting a lot of attention but are not selling and may be in need of a bit of tweaking.
Introducing new designs regularly is a great way to keep your audience interested and encourages repeat customers. Repeat customers are the ultimate compliment, in my opinion.
I do have a blog (which I need to pay more attention to), and I recently set up a Facebook fan page. I’m always surprised when I look at my Google Analytics and see how much traffic comes from my blog, so it’s a worthwhile thing to have.
My best marketing tip is to read this excellent blog post from Etsy seller eyeful, these are great marketing tips!

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
I have to say that I do not like Twitter. I come back to it every so often and give it another try, but I just don’t care for it. I know some people have great success with tweeting, but for me it’s just one more thing to take me away from creating that has dubious results. And I prefer reading and writing in complete sentences, with correct spelling, punctuation and capitalization. I guess I’m just old fashioned that way.

Walk us through your typical workday.
It’s long, not least bit glamorous, and involves lots of coffee.

I get up a bit before 7 and join my boyfriend Kelly at our favorite local coffee house until 8. I don’t especially like getting up, but I enjoy this morning ritual that we’ve been doing for years and it’s good for me to get up and get my day started.
I return home and do all my shipping and any other business stuff that has to get done before doing anything else. I have to make chains and do a bit finishing work to just about everything before it ships, so if there’s a lot going out this can take awhile. I relist anything that has sold, answer Convos and do some renewing too. A varying amount of time is wasted on the Internet during this period, and more coffee is consumed.
I go to the mailbox (or the post office if shipping internationally) in the afternoon and run errands while I’m out. This is when it’s nice to have gotten dressed and presentable first thing in the morning.
If I’ve been up late the night before (which is usually the case) a short power nap is in order about now, and then more coffee, and perhaps a little more internet time wasting, depending on the work load.
I might do photography, new listings, work on custom designs, or do finishing work for the rest of the afternoon. I check my Convos throughout the day and try to respond as quickly as I can.
At some point in the early evening some exercise and dinner will likely happen.
I’m a night person and like to do the bulk of my creative work at night. I tend get going around 8 p.m., and will usually work at my bench until midnight or 1 a.m. I like doing design work at this time too. If I’ve had a lot of sales during the day, I print invoices and shipping labels to get a start on the next day’s shipping work.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
I enjoy the fact that my talents and hard work are fully benefiting me and that I’m responsible for my own success or failure. I like the fact that I no longer have to do something I disagree with just because the boss said so. I love not having to go to long, pointless meetings anymore. I can’t say that I miss one single thing about the job I left, other than a few of the people there.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
Pretty much all the business stuff! I went to art school and not business school for a good reason, but having worked at small companies my whole life I’ve actually picked up quite a bit of small business knowledge. I don’t have the temperament needed for accounting (see earlier checkbook comment) so I figured out early on that it would be very worthwhile to pay someone else to do this for me. I also have someone else do my taxes. My time management is not quite as good as it was when I had a job, so I keep a small whiteboard on my bench and keep a running list of what needs to get done when. Finding balance between work and personal time is much harder now too. When this was not my only source of income it was much easier to take time off.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
To be prepared for even less free time. There’s an old joke about how you only have to work half days when you’re self-employed, and you even get to choose which 12 hours you work. This is very true! I would advise being sure that you really love what you do, because you will be doing a lot of it, and you will most likely be working much harder than you did for your regular paycheck.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
I hope to do some higher-end, one-of-a-kind pieces and finally start doing some wholesale. I hope to keep my customers happy and returning to my shop and to keep creating whatever ideas pop into my head.

Thanks to Sue for sharing her story. If you have questions for Sue come by the VIrtual Labs on Wednesday, December 2 at 3 p.m. ET. You can see some of Sue's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: Damselle

2009-11-23T16:00:00-05:00

Melanie, the jewelry designer and business maven behind Damselle, was able to start her jewelry business and become her own boss after working as a store manager for The Discovery Channel. Melanie admits her sales took a little longer to take off than she originally imagined and walks us through the steps she took once she realized promoting her shop was just as important as having a great product. She stands by the fact that happy customers are her best viral marketing strategy, as well as marketing her personal story as a brand. Stay tuned as Melanie candidly discusses the personal and social sacrifices she's had to make in order to make Damselle a reality.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
I have always made things with my hands. From a young age I went to art schools, most recently the School of the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. I also came from a very creative family, the sort of family in which trips to the fabric store and the book store last hours and can be deadly to your bank account. We made alligators out of old carpet padding. We watercolored the cat. We took the clothing out of our dresser drawers and stored books in them instead. We lived a pretty out-of-the-box handmade life and were pretty fearless about it.

The story of how I started making jewelry and how it became a business is, like a lot of things that have happened in my life, a meandering and unexpected path. I was doing volunteer work helping to care for tigers that had been purchased on the black market and then abandoned by their owners. It was a very special time in my life and I really felt close to those animals, but raising funds to keep them fed while we waited for them to go to their new animal sanctuary homes was difficult. We decided to hold a charity auction, and I needed something to contribute, so I tried my hand at making jewelry.

Tell us about your previous working situation.
It has always been my goal to find a way to live a more creative life and do things on my own terms, but after school I got caught up in the daily grind with the pressure of paying my bills and lost focus. I was working for The Discovery Channel Store as a store manager. I had been there for four years and was recently promoted; it was a lot of work, and a lot of hours, but I felt like things were really coming together.

However, within a few months everything came tumbling down and I was streamlined out of a job. During that summer as I was closing down my Discovery Channel Store and asking myself a lot of questions about what I wanted for myself in the future, a few important things happened. I spent some quality time with my old college friends in Boston, the movers and the shakers, with whom I'd dreamed about my future. I started thinking hard about what really mattered to me. After years of working overtime for someone else, I realized that I needed to take more risks in my life to do what I love.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
I have always wanted to quit my "day job," even before I had one. I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to do it, and for a long while I thought I was going to open a tea business, but the high overhead and the idea of being stuck in one place all the time weren't ideal. I had hopes that my Etsy experiment would pan out in an exciting way, but to be honest, I was a bit of a slow learner when I first opened shop. It took me over a month to get my first sale, and almost a second month to get another. I opened Damselle in October, but didn't realize I would need to put real effort into it to become successful until February. I began to understand that promoting Damselle and getting myself out there was just as important as having a great product. Slowly, my business began to grow. Now I think that running a tea business would have been crazy, and my little online jewelry shop is the perfect solution to being a business owner in this economy.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
Honestly, I am not necessarily the best role model when it comes to preparing to quit your day job. I did speak to an accountant about tax issues, and I did take a part-time job while I eased into running a successful business. However, I don't have any children and if things get rocky I can just take up a part-time job for a while. Most of my preparation involved learning to sleep through the night without a steady paycheck and building confidence in my abilities.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?
I've had more business generated from free, word-of-mouth promotion by my customers than I could ever pay for. I've also been fortunate to have blog posts written about my work on several popular wedding sites by happy customers. This has brought me so much business, and I've had lots of referrals from friends and family of my customers. I don't think there is any secret recipe for marketing success. We all have to figure out what works best for our own business style and target customer base. Take calculated risks and try new things. Always look for new places to expose people to your product. Be fresh and consistent.

One thing that I have found to be very successful in my own marketing is to think of myself, in a way, as a brand. I am often selling myself as much as I am selling my jewelry. Because of that, I try to let my personality shine through in my correspondence with customers. One great idea I had was to make little printable artist bios, which I use to personally thank my customers and to introduce myself. One goes in each package I ship out. These are also great because, if the item is a gift, the recipient gets to discover more about my story and hopefully connect with me and my jewelry, as I am selling a handmade product. I think it's wonderful that Etsy customers care so much about the special uniqueness of the handmade items they buy, and the people behind the craftsmanship.

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
I have learned that, while I love the exposure of being blogged about, unless a blog has a track record of generating a lot of traffic to my target customer base, it isn't a good investment for me to send items for blog reviews. I can usually get more traffic for my money by simply buying advertising, and I think being blogged about by my happy customers is a lot more effective.

Walk us through your typical workday.

I get up every morning around 7:30 a.m. and make tea and breakfast for myself. Then I sit in front of my computer and check my emails while I have breakfast and try to wake up. I make a list of what I need to do for the day on a week-long sheet.
Then I work out (more often than not) and pack my orders, if I haven't done so already.
Then I shower, but usually still wear jammy pants or sweatpants if I'm staying in all day.
I spend the middle part of my day making and photographing jewelry, in between tea and cat snuggling breaks, while the light is good.
If I need to run to the post office or do any other errands, I also like to do this while most people are still at work.
I also periodically check my emails, relist, and update my social networking sites, to which I am addicted. (In my defense, I do get a good amount of traffic in my shop from those sites.)
In the evening, depending on how busy I am, I usually do a mix of promoting, answering emails, researching supplies, and having free time. If I have a lot to get done, however, I can work into the night.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
My favorite thing about not having a day job is not having my values dictated to me by someone else. I love having direct personal accountability for my successes (and failures). I am living my life on my terms, and I have never been so free. It's great to be able to take the time I need with my family and friends. If that time happens to be at 2 p.m. on a Wednesday, it's not a problem for me to walk away from my work and come back to it later in the evening. I love being able to be creative, and I love hearing the stories from my customers about how my jewelry goes on to be part of their lives.

I do miss having a steady paycheck. Let's face it, becoming self-employed is not for the faint of heart. You need to really love what you do, because there are many sacrifices. I have had to cut a lot of things from my budget to make it work, like buying new clothes and eating out. Right now, I have a roommate.

I also miss the human interaction. It's harder to meet people when you work from home, and I have to be careful or I can become a hermit. Social skills: Use them or lose them! I recently joined my local Street Team, Handmade Dayton, and I'm so excited to get to know all of them.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
I think the most difficult part of running my business is dealing with change: learning to sleep through the night when you don't know what's coming, being able to push yourself out of your comfort zone to see what you are capable of, learning to recognize and act on changes when they do happen. How am I going to adapt my business strategy to be relevant in the current situation? I have already seen my business go through a major evolution from the novice designs I made for the auction, to a brief stint traveling at crafts shows, making the decision to focus on Etsy as my primary venue, developing the bridal line, handling wedding season and the holidays in different ways. I know Damselle will continue to evolve and I hope that I can keep up.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
Wow, there is so much advice I would have given myself. I wish I had had the courage to quit my day job sooner. I wish I had understood that I would only get as much as I put into my Etsy shop. I wish I had ignored the woman at the craft show who told me my jewelry was too gaudy for brides. However, hindsight is 20/20, and I think I've done okay.

My advice for other people quitting their day job would be to make sure your passion for what you are doing can carry you through the rough spots. Keep diligent and detailed accounting, even if it isn't your thing...you need to know where you stand financially. Don't be afraid to keep learning and trying new things. Celebrate your victories, no matter how small. And use a kitchen timer to keep yourself on task (especially in the Forums).

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
My goals for my shop are to continue to grow my business into a stable and successful career for myself in which I am able to live my life deliberately and with integrity, and to spread the word to the world about the benefits of supporting artists and craftsmen by buying handmade. When you buy handmade, you are directly supporting real people who have put a lot of attention and skill into their product, as well as making a choice that is less harmful for our environment and helping to grow our local economies.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
As I'm writing this interview, I've been going through the blog posts I wrote as I went through the process of starting my business, and coincidentally, today is the two year anniversary of quitting my day job. I am not afraid to admit that the road is not what I expected it to be. It is both harder and more amazing than I anticipated. My life has never been richer and I have never felt more excitement and anticipation for the future.

Thanks to Melanie for sharing her story. If you have questions for Melanie come by the Virtual Labs on Wednesday November 25th at 3 p.m. ET. You can see some of Melanie's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: monkeysalwayslook

2009-11-16T15:30:00-05:00

Allison of monkeysalwayslook and papervictory was able to leave her previous position in television production after devising a year-long plan to sell her products on Etsy. While her seemingly flawless scheme didn't work out as well as she had hoped, she found ways to make it work and is now supporting her workload full time through her Etsy shops. Allison stands by the notion that well-styled photos that tell a story are always great marketing and promotional tools. Keep reading (or, ahem, laughing) along with Allison to learn more about her personal journey.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
I have always been artistic and come from a very supportive family who fly their freak flags high and proud. I've had jobs that were artistic in nature, but not to the extent I have now, where I have complete creative control. Creating my own products was just a natural progression, especially when I found it very difficult to work for others.

Tell us about your previous working situation.
Right out of college I worked in television production: following celebrities around, telling them how good they looked and how much I loved their new movie/album/television show/crossover act/perfume/tiny rat dog. After a number of years of premieres/award shows/press junkets and late nights, I was more than a little over it. I found myself in a “you can’t fire me, I quit” situation, so I used this newly acquired “free time” and went to art school to study graphic design. I worked as a designer for a number of years, which eventually led me to where I am now.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
That was absolutely the goal. I was planning on quitting my job in about a year and was working toward that every day. It happened a little sooner than I planned (about 10 months sooner) when I found myself in another “you can’t fire me, I quit" situation with my last job. It was absolutely the best thing that ever happened to me.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
The boring stuff: I got a business license and a Monkeys Always Look bank account and credit card. I put as much money in that bank account as I possibly could and I spent every penny of it. I also did some fun stuff: I trapped my husband into marrying me so I could be covered under his health insurance.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?
I think the number one thing is to have a great product and be passionate about it since the product can promote itself. I was very fortunate that my husband’s dowry included an amazing camera. I think that a good picture is always a great marketing and promotional tool, and there isn’t a replacement for well-styled photos that tell a story and create a mood.

I have been featured on a few blogs and in magazines, which has been an amazing boost to my little shop. I really enjoy running giveaways on my blog and asking for people to comment with suggestions for new candle scents or garden marker inscriptions. I find this to be both a great marketing tool and just a lot of fun. I mean, really, who doesn’t love free stuff?!

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
Well, there was that time I got out of the car at a famous club with no underwear on...

Walk us through your typical workday.

I roll out of bed around 1 p.m. (Not really, but I wish.) In the mornings, the three giant dogs and I walk my husband to work. It takes about an hour and it gives me time to think about world domination and what needs to get done for the day.
If I have orders to pack up I do that when I get home.
Then the rest of the day is filled with chatting with customers (hi everyone!!!), huffing paint, playing with mud, squishing silverware, digging in the dirt, melting wax, and treasure hunting.
I usually stop when my husband gets home from work around 6 p.m. and we talk about the day while I prepare a five course gourmet meal...or heat up a can of soup.
Then after dinner I usually try to get a little more work done, since there is always something to do. I also use the quiet evening time for new product ideas, or "research and development," as my husband calls it. For every item you see in my shop, there are probably a dozen that didn’t work, that I didn't like or are just plain U-G-L-Y. Sadly, not every genius idea is really sellable or appealing.
Oh, and somewhere in the day there is hopefully a trip to the yoga studio or a run.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
Even though there is the illusion that you have the days free to play bingo and go to the water park, that is usually not the case. However, there are days when I get to take the dogs to the beach or meet my unpaid intern (a.k.a. husband) for lunch. Those are great, and I will always catch myself thinking about how great it is to be self-employed. I never take it for granted, as it really does allow the freedom you would never get working for THE MAN. (Well, that is if you consider "freedom" to be synthetic leather and fake fur-lined handcuffs that keep you tethered to the computer and packing tape.)

I just heard a quote the other day that if you "do something you love, you will never work a day in your life." That is so true. I love every minute of it and am so grateful to be able to do what I do, so thank you, everyone! I miss NOTHING! (Well, I miss the water cooler; I do love cold water.)

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
The days can be long. There are times when I'd rather be sipping cocktails at the end of the dock on my private island, but instead I am ordering shipping labels or filling out silly Q&As about myself. On these days I try to keep it interesting by punctuating the day with a Flickr or blog post of my dogs sleeping or my cat hiding in ANOTHER box. Since there is no way to predict my month-to-month income, there are some lean months, and that can be hard, especially when a new T-shirt/pound of candy/water toy for the dogs insists that I buy it.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
I wouldn’t have spent so much money buying stuff I really didn’t need. The plan was to go full time after a year of developing products (which we know didn’t happen that way). However, the first number of months being full time was spent on research and development and making up for the lost income of leaving my job. I had very little money coming in and LOTS going out. If you plan to go full time, make sure you have a product that is something that people want/need. “Make it and they will come” doesn’t necessary work in all cases, and if you were able to look though all my expired listings there is proof enough of that! (What? I can’t interest you in an infant ferret shopping cart liner? Seemed like a good idea at the time.)

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?

Expand my line of goods offered and increase my wholesale accounts.
Make more Etsy friends and learn more about business.
Make my payments on-time to the mafia (ah, I mean the sanitation department).

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
If working for yourself is your dream, GO FOR IT. What are you waiting for? It's worth every minute and I have never been happier. While I can’t justify buying a two hundred dollar pair of jeans anymore (since I rarely leave the house), I think I pull off a pair of pajama pants with class and style. I’m a member of the Etsy Full-Time Crafters Team. It is made up of some amazing people who all have one thing in common: we love to gossip and we all make our living from our sales on Etsy. They are such a great system of support and I really do suggest that you get yourself on an active Etsy Street Team.

Thanks to Allison for sharing her story. You can see some of Allison's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Etsy Finds: The A-Team

2009-11-13T11:34:00-05:00

Etsy Teams are groups of organized Etsy members who network, share skills, and promote their shops and Etsy together. A Team forms around a shared location, crafting medium, or other interest. Etsy's 450+ Teams make us not just a marketplace of individuals, but an interconnected and diverse artistic community. Shop owners within each of the Teams below have come together to host special events and occasions this holiday season. Learn more about each Team and their special promotions in the Finds below.

Natural Kids Etsy Team

Independent and emerging artists from around the world have joined forces at the natural kids store this holiday season to connect with socially and environmentally-conscious consumers seeking natural toys and gear for children. These artisans want to make it easy to find great natural, handmade, fair trade and sustainable goods for kids.

Meadows miniature farmstyle bag

By downinthemeadow, $22.

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Wooden Toy Tool Box

By WoodToyShop, $60.

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Knit Pumpkin Cotton Hat

By bostonbeanies, $20.

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Custom Pocketbaby

By germandolls, $9.50.

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Etsy Metal Team

Etsy's Metal Team will be offering a 10% holiday discount in their shops this weekend. To find out more about Etsy Metal and their special holiday promotions, check out their Team profile and find a list of participating shops available on their Team blog.

Oxidized Raintree Curly Hoops

By lenastudio, $225.

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Silver Swan Brooch Necklace

By LunasaDesigns, $110.

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Atom Ring - silver

By blindspotjewellery, $100.

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CUSTOM Banner Ring

By laurelhill, $84.

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Etsy's Cleveland Handmade Team

ECHT is hosting the Cleveland Handmade Market on November 22 in an effort to spread the word about the talent in Northeast Ohio and Etsy. Learn more about these Team members and this special handmade market on their Team page.

Eco Friendly Fingerless Gloves

By LazyTcrochet, $22.

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Copper Pressed Leaf Earrings

By LaPetiteFleur, $30.

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Message Pillow- PLAID

By daydreamdesigns77, $10.

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Louet drop spindle kit

By Knitgrrl, $37.

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Etsy Greetings Team

EGT is hosting a special holiday paper goods event this weekend from November 13 through November 15 in which artists from the Etsy Greetings Team will be featuring holiday and winter themed greeting cards on the Etsy Greetings blog.

Colorful Letterpress HELLO Card

By HuldraPress, $4.

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Scandinavian Reindeer - Set of 6

By papermenagerie, $12.

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HOLIDAY SEXY (Set of 8)

By vspacestudio, $14.

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Modern Retriever Dogs (Set of 6)

By turnarounddesign, $12.

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Etsy Lab Rats Team

Join the Lab Rats Team for a holiday trunk show in Etsy's Virtual Labs on Monday, November 23, where Team members will show off some of their handcrafted goods for sale. There will be special offers and discounts available for all shoppers attending the holiday trunk show.

Copper/Silver/Gold Pleated Sling

By BabyEtte, $59.98.

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Sock monkey Scaripet

By funkisockmunki, $32.

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Mustard Chandelier Jacket

By elizabethnormand, $37.

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Olivine Oval Studs

By spookychandelier, $21.50.

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Full-Time Etsy Crafters Team

FTEC Team members will be participating in a special holiday pop-up store highlighting local and independent designers in Alameda, CA. Learn more about the event and Team on the Full-Time Etsy Crafters Blog and find the details of the Modern Mouse gift boutique here.

Sunset Park - Original Map Painting

By rachelaustin, $160.

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8x10 Custom Cut Paper Silhouette

By papercutsbyjoe, $40.

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Celtic Knot Shawl Pin

By nicholasandfelice, $18.

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Shadow Mineral Makeup Collection

By pinkquartzminerals, $35.

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Soap Artisan Friends of Etsy

This weekend Etsy's SAFE Team is featuring a holiday gift guide and Team sale; find all of the promotional details on their Team page and the SAFE Team blog.

Shampoo and Conditioner Bars

By inalather, $16.50.

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3 Handmade Cold Process Soaps

By innerearthsoaps, $18.

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Rosemary Lime olive oil soap

By urbaneden, $5.

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Apple Spice Olive Oil Soap

By AuntNancysSoap, $5.50.

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Etsy's Team Treasury

This weekend November 13 through November 15, shop with TEAMT and save 10% to 20% on fabulous holiday gifts. Simply search for TEAMT and start saving.

Briefcase in Russet Brown

By jennyndesign, $226.

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Pumpkin Puree-Hand Knit Scarf

By schemata, $50.

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Felt Food Yule Log or Buche De Noel

By BeckyM, $20.

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Birdy Rattle

By Mamachee, $25.

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Etsy Project Embrace Team

EPE aims to raise money for cancer research, raise awareness, and give support to those touched by this disease. In an effort to gain awareness, a percentage of profits from all items tagged "teamepe" will go to the American Cancer Society. Learn more about EPE and their mission on their Team page.

Beadwoven Necklace

By BeadworksbyKerri, $45.

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brussel sprouts soup bowls

From 5gardenias, $52.

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Vintage 1980s Blazer

From sisterstreasure, $78.

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Ribbon of Hope Copper Necklace

By Luster, $42.

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Looking for more Etsy Finds? Try these links:

Gift Guides | Guest Curators | Trends | Gift Ideas

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Quit Your Day Job: bodhicitta

2009-11-09T17:00:00-05:00

Zeke of bodhicitta was able to successfully cut back on the hours at his previous glass fabricating day job until he was able to give full notice and venture into a "right livelihood," running his own environmentally-friendly business selling recycled post consumer wine bottles. Zeke notes Etsy enabled him to make this leap and advises reading the business articles on The Storque. Keep reading to find out why Zeke says every Etsy seller should learn the basics of SEO and why he thinks he just may need to invest in a trust time-clock.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
I have always liked to make things and always disliked having a corporate job. With this dichotomy, it kind of became a necessity that I learn to make things I could sell. This included a long litany of artistic attempts mostly centered around my fascination with glass. I learned flame working around the turn of the century and when I moved to North Carolina I met some wonderful scientific glassblowers who became great mentors to me. As I got older, I became less focused on making money and more focused on what the Buddhists call "Right Livelihood," which is earning a living without doing harm to people or the environment. Making recycled glasses from wine bottles fit perfectly with my intentions.

Tell us about your previous working situation.
The last couple of years I was lucky enough to work for Ellenburg & Shaffer Glass Art Studio in Greensboro, NC as a fabricator. I constructed large stained glass windows and domes for mostly residential homes. I also assisted one of the owners, a warmed glass artist, in creating his incredible fused glass paintings, bowls, and mirrors. This was a great job that allowed me to be creative, add to my range of glass skills, and work with some really good people.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
Yes and no. I was creating things in my spare time and selling them in the gallery I worked at when my friend Katie suggested I try Etsy. I felt really good about being able to reclaim bottles that might be destined for the landfill and make them into useful things again and wanted to turn that into a business if I could. Etsy allowed me to do that. It took about a year of learning the ins and outs of Etsy and developing this idea before I started to believe that I could turn Rewined Recycled Glassware into a successful business.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
I spent over a year preparing to go full time. I have made a lot of bad mistakes in my life and I work hard to make sure I don't repeat them. One mistake was not being honest with myself. Another was "laser dreaming," just dreaming too big without the skills or knowledge to actually accomplish the dream. So I went slow, building a good foundation, to make sure I was ready to deliver the promise I make to my customers, which is making a quality, handmade, earth-friendly product, shipped in recycled materials, delivered in a timely manner, and with outstanding customer service. A simple idea, but like many things, it's all about actually doing it.

One of my mentors, Mr. Kennedy, taught me to keep my overhead low. So when I had to acquire expensive new equipment, I waited until I could pay for it instead of going into debt. I built some new outbuildings at my house to house my shop and my second bedroom became the shipping room, the second bathroom is the recycled box room, and my office is in my bedroom. I wanted to be as environmentally friendly as possible, so I took the time to develop relationships with local restaurants and bars so I can use only post-consumer bottles. I collect used boxes from local businesses to ship my goods, and pack my orders in yesterday's New York Times (all the news that's fit to ship!). Once I was confident that I had a good, honest product, I worked nights and weekends improving my shop little by little. Once my monthly sales were consistently at a level I could live on, I started to cut back my hours at my day job and devote more time to production. Finally, I gave two months' (yes, months) notice at work, just to make sure they had a replacement and I was ready. On August 16th (in honor of my son's birthday) I went full time with bodhicitta selling Rewined Recycled Glassware.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?

I read Storque articles and did the things they said. Seriously, that is the best advice I can offer. I am smart enough to know what I don't know. Other people have more experience, so I listen to them and take their advice. The Etsy people want you to succeed and give really awesome advice to help get you to where you want to be.
There were some things I had no clue what I was doing like SEO, Google Analytics, and doing a Google Base data feed. But I found a tutorial and just did it. I also helped organize the NCTriad Etsy Team, which is a great networking and friend-making tool. Other Etsy sellers like WitchHazelHandmades, ecoeveryday, and thispapership, to name just a few, have been a great source of help and inspiration.
My best tip is to learn about SEO. 50% of my traffic comes from search engines. I picked some key words and made sure they are in my tags, titles, picture descriptions, etc. I get so excited to see my shop on the first page of a Google search for "recycled glasses."

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
Call me an optimist, but I don't think I have ever had a complete loser. Even when I spent lots of money to be in a blog and it didn't materialize into instant sales, I still believe people saw it and perhaps through some six degrees of separation, it ended up being beneficial.

Walk us through your typical workday.

First of all, I have sort of a disconnect between how I would like my day to go and how it actually goes.
Ideally, I spring out of bed singing Mr. Rogers, "It's such a good feeling, to know you're alive, it's such a happy feeling..." (You know you wanna sing it — go ahead.) "I think I'll make a snappy new day." In reality, I crawl out of bed at 6:30 and go to the Green Bean Coffee shop where I get the bagels, drink coffee, and talk with my friends.
Ideally, when back at home I check my email, write down orders, answer Convos, list new items and make a list of what needs to be done. In reality, I sometimes end up watching The Daily Show and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on Hulu. But then I get back to work because it's time to pack and ship orders.
After dropping off the day's shipments at UPS, I end up running errands like collecting bottles and boxes or taking care of all the details to organize our Etsy Team's monthly craft fair — the First Friday Indie Market, or taking care of some sort of problem that has come up. I also manage to do some housework. But at some point I need to get back in the shop to get some glasses made.
So it's out to the backyard studio to "pop tops and fire polish rims." Depending on how the day goes this can end at 5 p.m. or as late as 10 p.m.
After I am done in the shop, I load the day's work in the kiln and fire. Then I spend some more time checking emails and orders.
At some point I have to convince myself to stop working and go snuggle with my girlfriend Amanda, who is beautiful and helps me every day. For reals. <—There's your shout out, hon! Happy now? ;)

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?

I enjoy being able to use my time and talents to help others. I like being able to work on unique projects for people in my community, like organizing the First Friday indie Market, or donating glasses to local charities, or making custom pendant lamps for a local environmentally-conscious hotel, or having the time to volunteer for Sustainable Greensboro, a local environmental organization.

I do miss the security of a steady paycheck and not having to be responsible for every single aspect of a business. When you have your own business, it is 24 hours a day. There is always a long list of things that need to be done.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
For me it is discipline and time management. Rewined Recycled Glassware has become very popular and it takes a lot of energy and focus to keep up with the demand for recycled glasses. If I don't feel like working one day or get distracted by kittens with mittens, I can fall behind and cause myself all sorts of stress. I am seriously thinking of getting myself a time clock.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
Concerning Etsy, I would tell myself to get organized early! I have a pretty good system down but there are aspects that could be better. As I get larger and do more volume, those problems get bigger as well. Personal advice to myself would be: "Be grateful for all that you have; take the time to enjoy it!"

My advice if you are just starting out on Etsy is to be patient and work hard. It takes time and lots of effort. Keep coming up with unique items. Always give great customer service. Have fun! Take the time to be environmentally friendly. It makes a difference!

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
I have a back log of awesome recycled product ideas I would like to get made! I want to get better at taking pictures and take new ones for my shop. I also want to continue to have 100% positive feedback — I love making a good product and making people happy with their purchase.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
It took some hard life lessons for me to learn that we are all interconnected. What you do today, right now, matters the most. You are creating and influencing the world around you at every moment so take a deep breathe, smile and shine light into your sphere of influence. It's how we can all make the world a better place.

Have another question for Zeke?

Chat with him live in Etsy's Virtual Labs on Thursday, November 12th at 2 p.m. Eastern.

Thanks to Zeke for sharing his story. You can see some of Zeke's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: tigerlillyshop

2009-11-02T16:40:00-05:00

Allison of tigerlillyshop claims that running her own business closely resembles the life cycle of the perennial tiger lily. Her background skills in working for other professional artists combined with a little bit of risk-taking have lent Allison the necessary tools with which to pursue her own full-time creative business. Her husband has recently been able to quit his own day job in order to help Allison run the business and make their Etsy shop a venture that now supports their family. Allison says she knew they would have to work really hard to make this all happen, but she couldn’t see it any other way, even though this means the occasional "saying no to fun." Keep reading to find out some of Allison's best marketing tips including testing out new lines of work and the benefits of joining an Etsy Team.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
I am a fine artist with a sculpture background. It was natural for me to gravitate to jobs where I used my hands. I worked for a few professional artists and self-employed people early on. I even apprenticed with a furniture upholsterer after my undergraduate studies. It never seemed out of reach to do it on my own.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
My daughter was six months old when I found Etsy. Looking to sell online, I had been researching consignment and wholesale. I was really desperate to pay my end of the bills since I wasn’t going back to the software/textile production job I had before having my baby. My painter husband’s income couldn’t cover everything, and we relied on my income. Although I had my upholstery shop and working studio set up, there was no way I could work the long hours I was accustomed to. I found Etsy and signed up immediately, and that is the beginning of the wild growth of my tigerlillyshop.

Little did I know, my Etsy shop would take on the characteristics of that old time perennial. Tiger lilies are known to be invasive wild plants. If left unchecked, they grow out of control, just as my shop has done! And it’s a great thing because last year my husband left his mural painting job to make this our sole venture. My sister Maria helps me too; even though she is far away in New Orleans, she has been there for me when I need her. All we can do is try to keep up with it together!

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
I never took a business class or learned about marketing myself as an artist. This was all built out of necessity and intuition. My Shrinky Dink rings with original drawings were my first real success here. I am so thankful that I had that original pack around while I was trying to figure out what to sell. I started my shop with those rings. From there I branched out over time to include vintage component jewelry, the button jewelry line, one of a kind metalwork, and electroforming. All of these lines are informed by my personal material sense and skills as an artist. I make what I want to and luckily, people seem to like what I make. My education at MICA and having my MFA from Edinboro University of PA informs this, I am sure.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?
When I began, I hung out in the Chat Rooms and the Forums; it was about building a community for me at that point. Since then, I have used online networking sites like Flickr with great results, I started my blog, then ventured into Facebook, and I even tweet a tiny bit. But my absolute greatest marketing weapon has been with my BEST girls. The motivation and professionalism in the Baltimore Etsy Street Team has been a powerhouse of promotion. We have done a ton of online promoting with each other and all contribute to our Team blog (which just won an award!). The sheer talent of these ladies is probably enough for them to succeed, but we have capitalized on group networking at shows with Team business cards both locally and regionally. We all volunteer, using our talents in different ways to promote our group. This hard work has paid off with some major printed press in Baltimore Magazine last holiday season.

We have some rockstar sellers on BEST like blockpartypress, TheBrokenPlate, elisasherejewelry, greenstarstudio, just to name a few of the now sixty members. It doesn’t hurt that we have a diverse group with backgrounds ranging from marketing, web development, wholesale gallery experience, teaching, photography, and more. We all work hard at it, especially our Team leader, jenmenkhaus.

I did the Baltimore American Craft Council trade show this year, applying as an AltCraft Artist. This program is an opportunity for artists and indie designers to gain national exposure at a well-established show. As a result of showing there, I got a ton of press on TV, in print, and online. I was proud to be there with my fellow BEST teammate sweetpepita, who showed in the same section! I was not aware of how powerful the marketing behind these major trade shows are. Artists get really good promotion out of these types of venues.

Because of my ACC experience, I took a chance on applying for the Etsy Pavilion at the NYC OOAK Show in December — and got accepted! I am really looking forward to seeing what happens in this show’s premiere year in New York City. I had a peek at the marketing package this show has lined up and it is going to be advertised everywhere.

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
I paid a lot of money once to be part of an open studio tour event — total bomb. I got to drink all the beer we bought for our no-show visitors, though!

Walk us through your typical workday.

I get my daughter breakfast and watch PBS with her. Coffee and check in online.
Then studio time most of the day. By studio time, I mean anything from ripping down the latest upholstery job, sewing, pattern-making, doing metalwork, electroforming, making buttons, taking/editing photos, listing online, networking online, assembling orders, shipping and the boring data entry part of the business.
My husband and I take turns throughout the week taking care of preschool days, parenting our daughter, and alternating studio hours.

Working from home and being full-time parents is a really tough thing to balance. We try to keep to our weekly schedule. It runs smoothly most of the time since we live where we work and have a large studio to spread out in. My daughter has her own corner of the studio here, where I try to keep her busy if she wants to be around during production time. She is now 4, so if she is not painting or creating something, she is most likely riding her scooter underfoot or “playing ponies” all day.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
I love not having a boss. I hate having someone tell me what to do, and I have too much ambition, too many ideas and I work too hard to give my energy to anyone other than my own family. I knew we would have to work really hard to make this all happen, but I couldn’t see it any other way. I know my husband feels the same way about leaving his job. We do miss the social element of a “job” but we have made up for that by making more of an effort to visit with friends.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
First, being disciplined enough to deal with the boring paperwork end — yuck. But at least my husband and I are working on this system together. When you are in business for yourself, the work doesn’t ever really go away, something is always up next. The next hardest thing is having to say no to fun occasionally. There are times when my husband and daughter are out doing fun stuff while I buckle down in the studio. Or maybe we are at a craft show somewhere, and we all miss a great party or something. We do have to say no to fun sometimes, unfortunately. But we do get to spend a lot of time together, and this is great.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself?
To myself, I would say, “You need to get more organized, crazy lady. Really. You should start on that NOW.” To someone else, I would advise, "It is SO worth it, go for it! Research and be smart about your decisions. If you are motivated in your talent, you can do anything you want to do. In this great nation we live in, the sky is the limit.” I would really say that to any of you out there, I truly believe it!

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
I will be picking up more wholesale accounts for my different lines of jewelry. I also hope to offer more upholstered and soft home goods in my shop this year. Stay tuned!

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
The growth of this business has not been linear. I have had to learn many things along the way. Attending workshops and the support from my BEST girls have helped me to fill in the blanks as needed. Yes, this is all a lot of work, but I have been able to achieve a manageable balance of art-making and motherhood. I am still learning and anticipate great things on the horizon. How wild will this tigerlillyshop grow? Come visit me at the Etsy Pavilion at the NYC OOAK Show in December! I can’t wait! Long live Etsy!

Have another question for Allison?

Chat with her live in Etsy's Virtual Labs on Thursday Nov. 5th at 4 p.m. Eastern.

Thanks to Allison for sharing her story. You can see some of Allison's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: goodgirlsstudio

2009-10-26T16:00:00-05:00

Johanna of goodgirlsstudio brings her longstanding background in the fashion and culinary fields to the forefront with her unique designs. She began making her pieces from the broken bits of jewelry and leftover fabric in the shop where she worked. After spending many years in retail, Johanna was able to turn a negative (the shop where she worked being liquidated) into a positive life change that allowed her to fulfill a dream of running her own Etsy business. Johanna admits becoming her own boss has been a challenging learning curve as she is now her own accountant, photographer, writer, marketer, outside sales rep and creative designer, all while raising her son. Johanna's favorite part about being her own boss is the time it has allowed her to spend one on one with her son and she reiterates the importance of following one's heart.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
Other than a few jobs in the culinary field, the only jobs I’ve ever held have been in the fashion industry. I was always able to up-sell my clients by showing them how to accessorize and give the outfit a whole new look just by changing something as simple as a necklace. I started making jewelry from bits of broken pieces of jewelry and fabric from the shop I managed and luckily there was a bead shop right across the street! Customers and coworkers started commenting on my creations and my hobby slowly began making me money. It just seemed a natural flow of events to begin to design my own accessory line.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
I’d dreamed about quitting my day job ever since I had my son. Retail had become a grind but once I began selling pieces to my coworkers and friends it seemed like a viable form of income. When the company I was working for liquidated, I used my severance and unemployment checks to float until Good Girls Studio could bring in enough money to support us. So in a serendipitous fashion, my bad luck was the catalyst to making my dream a reality.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
I’d like to say that I budgeted, planned, saved and figured it all out ahead of time…but I didn’t. I incorporated my business and opened up shop all the while thinking I would keep looking for a “real” job, because there was no way I could make ends meet by working for myself. I didn’t really have the faith that I could make this happen. Managing your own business is a completely different animal than running someone else’s! How was I supposed to become an accountant, photographer, writer, marketer, outside sales rep and creative designer, all while raising my son on my own?! There was a huge learning curve but thankfully I had friends and family who all offered such a wealth of knowledge and emotional support!

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?

I try and blog several times a week and I post on relevant blogs as well, which has made me both friends and customers!
Utilizing Facebook and Twitter has done more for me than anything else. I post on both of those regularly.
Customer service also plays a big role in marketing. My customers constantly send me more customers! They are my biggest cheerleaders (aside from my mom, of course).
I also try and send 25% off coupons with every order and that has generated more repeat business.
My number one marketing tip: Make what you love and wear it with pride! Don’t be afraid to talk about yourself; be passionate about it!

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
Having a giveaway on my blog, or on someone else’s, has never generated any sales, to my knowledge. It’s nice exposure but I’ve never found it to be profitable to give away something I could have sold.

Walk us through your typical workday.

I get up at 7 every morning and get my son ready for school. I’m back home by 8 and have my quiet time. That is the only constant in my day! My favorite flow of my work week involves making jewelry in the beginning of the week, followed by taking and editing pictures and then uploading the new goodies to my shops.
I’m most creative in the morning, so that’s when I try and make jewelry. Some designs take weeks to finish as I gather and pile up little "collections" of vintage baubles and work them together. Others "speak" to me right away and I’m done within an hour or so.
If I’m really not feeling creative I’ll go to one of the local antique malls. Loading up on treasures and touching pieces of the past clears my head. Hopefully I remember to stop and have lunch — if not…watch out!
I schedule my meetings with shop owners before I pick up my son from school around 2:30, then try to finish up whatever I’m working on by 4. From there it’s usually time to take my son to the park, do homework and make dinner.
I try and blog and plan out my next day after he goes to bed.
Each work week is as different as each day. Lately I’ve been involved in several local fashion shows and photo shoots, so there’s been the added running around, meeting with clothing designers, planning out hairstyles and makeup and the general craziness of putting together a show!

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
Being able to spend quality time with my son! It is very important to me to be able to pick him up from school and volunteer in his classroom, which was such an impossibility when I worked retail hours. I love having the flexibility to run out to help a friend or just grab a cup of coffee with my mom. Not working nights, weekends and holidays is amazing!

I do miss the one-on-one interaction with customers since most of my sales are wholesale orders and Internet purchases. Trunk shows and participating in local markets give me the opportunity to meet my local customers. It’s great when I meet someone in person and they recognize my jewelry because they’ve bought pieces at a local shop!

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
Being a one woman show! I’m such a great delegator and there is no one to delegate to! Seriously though, it’s hard to find time to do it all and I have a hard time asking for help. Luckily I have friends that will work for free jewelry! I’m also terrible about visiting new shops and marketing myself to them. I really need to get some new wholesale accountants and I get so nervous even thinking about it that I don’t make it out of the house! I’ve gotten much better at this and have found that wearing my jewelry is usually a big conversation starter. Once they ask me about it, I ask if they are the owner and take it from there.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
Believe in yourself! If you’re not excited about what you are doing no one else will be either; it really does show in everything you do. Also, follow your heart! I really feel that God gave me this talent and this is what I was made to do. Sometimes I forget this and start floundering, questioning myself and getting discouraged with my business. I start looking for a “real job,” you know, the one with health insurance and benefits. I never find one and am always reminded that I already have a real job, one I love and while it doesn’t have insurance benefits, it does have one great benefit: I can’t be fired! The emotional benefits of being home for my son and being creative all day far outweigh any negative ones!

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?

I’d like to get my jewelry into fashion magazines.
Opening up new wholesale accounts is a constant goal for my business.
Seeing a movie star on the red carpet being interviewed and saying, “This is a Good Girls Studio necklace,” — now that would be amazing!

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Be true to yourself! There will always be other people who don’t want to see you succeed; it is a sad fact of life. If you believe in yourself and use your God-given talent, there is no end to what you can accomplish!

Thanks to Johanna for sharing her story. You can see some of Johanna's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: littlealouette

2009-10-19T16:45:00-05:00

Joe and Amy of littlealouette are successfully supporting their family selling their simple natural wooden toys on Etsy. With backgrounds in carpentry, furniture making, education, and politics, this duo melded their collective skills into a business they never dreamed would take them this far. They both admit being their own boss is the toughest work they have known, but find balance in taking time out from work each day to spend quality time together with their children. Keep reading to find out why Joe misses his daily lunch outings at bistros and pubs and why they both claim a British accent and wicked grin have been one of their best marketing tools to date.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
Joe is a master craftsman who apprenticed in the North of England where he grew up. He became a self-employed bespoke furniture maker. When he moved to the states he worked in carpentry. I worked in education and politics after university, but always found myself spending time on artistic projects and volunteering in local art charities or working with local arts councils. Joe made me furniture and I would create gifts for family and friends. I would write poetry about Joe’s hands and what they could make. I still do. Joe began making simple toys for our first child and the rest is history.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
Not really. We thought it would be extra money for our family; we were in the middle of a very hard financial time as we juggled two mortgages while trying to sell an investment property in a very still market here in Ohio. We knew that our family and friends loved what we were making for our kids and for others so we thought we would make some money, but never did we realize that we would make a whole new life.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
Always adapting and growing, it has been an organic process and a juggling act with two small boys and a passionate marriage. While it's been quite fluid, we have learned that sometimes you just have to roll with it. It requires loads of paperwork and time, so planning ahead is important. We stepped down our spending and live with frugality and perseverance. Lastly, asking for advice and help was and is so important!

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business?
I am a blogger and this has helped me a lot with meeting others and spreading the word. We have a Twitter account (@littlealouette) and a cool Tumblr blog for Little Alouette with daily parenting tips and inspiration (we are always looking for guest parents)! We have a Facebook page and I have a big mouth! Joe is not a big Internet individual. He has a smart phone and sometimes uses Facebook, but he relies on me to work the magic on the Internet. He carries a stack of business cards, his British accent, and a wicked grin. We get a lot of sales from him. I like to work with other bloggers for giveaways from time to time and there are a lot of really great blogs and sites you can advertise on to find your audience. Etsy has been incredibly helpful with the light it has shined on us. The whole world is in love with Etsy and it is amazing to be a part of this family of artists.

What have you found to be unsuccessful promotion?
We came up with an idea of keys and key sets that we named after a great customer's daughter. The keys were a big hit! You know how babies and kids love to play with and chew on your keys? Well, we also thought that kids love other everyday items like remote controls — so we made a remote control rattle and no one bought one. We may try again in the future for some everyday life items. You have to try things!

What's your best marketing tip?

Believe in yourself.
Know that you are amazing and groovy and smashing!
Be able to talk about your business freely and with anyone.
Changing up photos and keeping the shop full works well for us!
We like to offer our customers free shipping and codes and deals.
I think Twitter is excellent for this type of promotion, but just try and remember that Twitter is a give and take and it is a great place to interact and get to know your customers — not just a place to hawk your wares.

Walk us through your typical workday.
Most days are different — some days in the indie life are diamonds and some are not. Yesterday was like this:

6:30 a.m.: Blaise, our two-year-old screamed, "Mama! Mama!" for about ten minutes until we brought him into our bed. We woke up Finn, our five-year-old, and had breakfast and the first of several pots of coffee together. We walked Finn to half-day kindergarten and then we all went off to the gym for an hour. We played with Blaise after a good stress-relieving workout until time to collect Finn from school.
We had lunch as a family and then Daddy went to the workshop. The kiddos had naps and I worked on Little Alouette.
I talked to people all over the world, mailed samples, answered emails and Convos, and worked on new packaging.
I made a cake while doing this all. I love working from home!
The kids got up and I took off the Wood Queen crown and became Mom again. I rolled to the playground and then to the post office and then hosted a play date at our house. I used my BlackBerry to relist some items and chat with customers. I taught my children about Jackson Pollock. I sketched a new toy while the kids went down the slide.
One thing that is constant is that when Joe comes home from work in the evening, we are diligent about putting the work away. The kids get us all. They get the attention and energy and everything. When they go to bed we must work more and it takes a lot of effort, but we must if we want to keep this balance. We do not have TV. This is a big help!

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
My family has eaten most meals together in the last two years. This is amazing. When we both worked outside the home it was rare that I got home before 7 p.m. We ate in shifts and smashed quality time into 1.5 hours. I missed some milestones of my oldest son. I rushed. My husband drove far too fast in his truck. We raced through life. Now we are slower. More deliberate. This is important. The way it feels to just go to the park on a Wednesday at 2 p.m. with my whole family. The freedom to schedule out a day that works for you is exhilarating. The way it feels to know that we are instilling hard work values and an entrepreneurial spirit into our children. We are showing them that even in the middle of your life, you can change gears and do something that makes you feel good. You can follow dreams big or small. Telling strangers about Little Alouette feels stellar!

I miss tons of people and the energy all around me. I worked with so many people in my old career. I miss adult interaction. I often find myself discussing new ideas and wholesale accounts with my five-year-old. He looks at me funny. Joe says he misses lunching out at bistros and pubs. I make him eat healthy lunches at home now. We miss our old insurance. But nothing can take away the reality of being with each other so much. It is gorgeous.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
Heavy shoulders. The paperwork and responsibility that come with this lifestyle are quite hefty. Organization is a sick and dirty word for me. We are learning to keep receipts and may even graduate to a file system this winter! We never stop working. The fatigue is tough at times. No one tells you to stop. You may not sleep properly.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
Listen to advice and take it! My pal took me out for drinks last fall and told me my business was going to take off and I should get myself in order. I remember laughing about it then, but it has taken off. Be ready for what you want because you may well get it! Find good business folks like cool insurance agents, lawyers, and smart fellow artist mentors. Surround yourself with goodness. Stay in the light. Be kind and open. When times get tricky, keep focused and believe. Be happy and optimistic and acknowledge that you are lucky to be making art and living off of it in these bleak times.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?

Work on loads of new ideas and toys.
Grow the business.
Perhaps gain an employee.
Keep babies happy throughout the world.
Meet more cool Etsy folk in real life.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Thank you so much to Etsy and our customers. We are so blessed and we thank you! We love you! Smooches. Each product is made by hand and usually all the wood is surrounded by cups of tea, laughing children, and disco music so each product will come to you infused with love and bliss!

Thanks to Amy and Joe for sharing their story. Have your own questions to ask? Come on by and chat with them Wednesday, October 21 at 5 p.m. ET in Etsy's Virtual Labs.

You can see some of their beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: laralewis

2009-10-12T16:30:00-05:00

Lara of laralewis has been able to successfully quit her day job in the teaching field and move her family closer to her hometown as a result of her Etsy success. Lara swears by a daily list of goals and was able to make quitting her day job a reality by planning ahead and making life changes that contributed toward her dream. Today Laura provides some of the most practical, useful and detailed tips for running a successful business that I've ever come across in the Quit Your Day Job series; you're in for a treat!

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
I have such busy hands that I am always making or creating something. It wasn’t until just recently that I thought I could actually make a business out of it!

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
No, not at first, but I have dreamed for a long time of moving back to my parents’ hometown to be closer to my family. With teaching jobs becoming scarce and the economy being what it is, I didn’t think it was possible to be able to afford to quit my job and relocate. However, that was about three months before we actually did! Once we made the decision, things happened pretty fast.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
Yes! Here are the nitty-gritty details; I hope I didn’t forget anything!

My fiancé, Jesse, and I reevaluated our monthly budget and started to utilize Quicken to manage our finances. This made a huge difference when we realized where our money was going, and we stopped doing things like eating out and all those other little extra things that add up.
After we looked at our budget, I figured out how much I would need to make if I was actually going to quit my day job. Then I added in the expenses needed for us to move and cut out the money we’d be saving from me working at home instead of driving to work every day. This gave us a goal to work towards.
I buckled down and worked extra hard in order to pay off debt that I owed. This is really important, because there will always be slow periods. You don't want those extra bills hanging over your head.
I met with an accountant to make sure there wouldn’t be any nasty surprises at tax time. He also helped me keep track of expenses that I didn’t realize were tax deductible!
While I still had my steady income, I stocked up as much as possible on supplies.
Right before our move, we traded in both of our cars for one smaller and more economical vehicle. I called our car insurance company and lowered our rate based on our only having one car, and it being driven so much less.
We still clip coupons like maniacs and plan meals in advance. You’d be surprised how much money the Sunday paper coupons save.
We’re much thriftier shoppers. If we can fix something rather than buy another, we do, and if we need something, we always hit up places like Salvation Army before going to the retail stores.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?
Most importantly I feel it’s crucial to stay visible, and these are the three main ways you can do this:

Take great pictures of your products and you will inevitably be featured in Treasuries, homepage collections and The Storque. Also, fans will blog, Tweet, and Facebook about you like crazy. I use an “old” digital camera and I don’t own a tripod, so I can tell you with certainty that you don't need anything fancy to do this. Here are some tips I have learned that have helped me:

Photograph in natural light and turn off the flash.
Find the sunniest location in your home to set up your shots.
Only shoot in filtered sunlight, because otherwise the shadows are too harsh. If you need to, stretch a piece of tracing paper over your window where the sun streams in.
Take a piece of cardboard and wrap it in aluminum foil. Use it to reflect light onto your subject.
Don't go too crazy with your backgrounds, but definitely choose something that tells the story of what you are trying to sell. When in doubt, go neutral.
Set your camera on macro and after your camera focuses, pull back just a smidge before you take the picture. Take several shots and use various angles.
Set up your pictures knowing that you might want to crop them to a perfect square to look best in your thumbnails. Pick your best one as your "money shot!"

Frequently Add New Items/Renew

I have found that customers will regularly “check in” on your shop to see what you’ve been up to. Keep your store fresh, and your customers interested, by regularly adding new items.
Facebook Connect is a great new feature! I also Tweet and blog about items I am excited about and explain a little more about the impetus behind them.
Renew items that might be in a category that is broad and/or trendy. I know this is highly debatable, but I don't think there is a perfect time of day to list or renew items. Just try to be consistent.

Provide Excellent Customer Service

Customers who are happy with their purchases will tell their friends and family, blog about you, include you in their Treasuries, etc.
Treat customers how you would want to be treated. It’s the golden rule! Provide quick responses to their queries, ship as quickly as possible, use beautiful packaging, and include a little thank you note. Make each and every one of them feel special, because they truly are!

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
I honestly feel that if something brings in just one new customer or brings a little more attention to my store, it was a successful promotion. However, what works for some, might not work for you...so do what you feel most comfortable with!

Walk us through your typical workday.

I’m up before the birds to say goodbye to Jesse as he heads off for work and to get our teenage daughter ready for school. After they leave, I sit down with a cup of coffee and check for messages, print receipts, and make a daily goals list. If I don’t make lists, nothing will get done because I am so easily distracted.
Usually the mornings are spent creating new items and listing them in my shop, while jotting down lists of supplies I need to reorder. I email back and forth with my mom a lot because she also works from home.
Around lunchtime I practically attack the poor mailman when he arrives to see if I have received any new supplies. Then I continue to make and list new items. Because I can multitask like a pro, I am also doing laundry, answering emails, blogging, Tweeting, sketching new designs, and squeezing in food and drink somewhere in there.
By mid-afternoon, I start packaging any sold items to go out in the late afternoon mail run. I also start thinking about dinner because when my daughter comes home, she is like a hungry Velociraptor and there had better be food ready.
Jesse prints out my shipping labels, puts them in their envelopes, and delivers them to the post office. He’s the best! Then we all sit down to dinner, go over homework, talk about our day, and they patiently listen to me blah, blah, blah about my business.
After that, Jesse goes to work on his college classes, and my daughter and I spend time being silly together. If it’s not too late, we will take long walks on the trails surrounding our home, and being the nerd that I am, I love taking pictures of the various trees and wildflowers we see.
After that, I’m back in the studio stocking up on inventory, ordering supplies, working on new designs, answering emails, etc. until around 11 p.m. when Jesse drags me back out and tells me it’s time for bed!

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
What do I enjoy most? Where do I start?! Being “forced” to simplify, we have actually found that our lives are greatly enriched. Now that I am working from home, and not driving 100 miles a day to get to work, I can spend more time with my family. Now that we've moved closer to my grandparents, I love that I can be there when they need me. Also, fellow teachers will appreciate that I now don’t have to wait until planning or lunch to go to the bathroom! I do miss my friends with whom I was lucky enough to work and I truly miss my students. I am so proud to have once been part of the teaching profession and have the greatest respect for those who make it their life work.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
You can’t walk away from it! I think about what I can do to improve constantly, and I’m a really tough boss. Also, with working from home, it’s hard to not get distracted by things like the dishes in the sink and other housework to be done. It can be really scary, too, knowing that I am the only one responsible for my success. Yikes!

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?

Take a class with your local Small Business Development Center early on. It’s free and they provide excellent advice.
Get organized right from the start with an excellent filing system and create a spreadsheet to track sales and taxes.
Plan ahead by organizing a studio and shipping area that can handle the workload of a bigger business. If you’re not there now, you will be eventually, and you will save yourself the trouble of having to rearrange by starting big!
Google your business name from time to time and see what comes up! Use Google Analytics to see how traffic is being directed to your page, and upload shop content to Google Base. Buy a domain name for your shop even if you don’t plan on using it yet; along the same lines, establish an account with the major social networking sites, so someone else doesn’t grab your name first.
Try not to compare yourself to others, it will just make you feel bad and prevent you from developing your own style. Most importantly: Don’t give up!

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
I have been working on some new illustrations, and I hope to open another shop soon to offer paper goods and prints of my artwork. (*Cross fingers*)

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
My most heartfelt thanks to Etsy, my customers, my family, and friends who have all been so supportive. Without all of you, I wouldn’t even be in this position to share this story, and I only hope I can pay it forward to help someone else!

Thanks to Lara for sharing her story. Have your own questions to ask? Come on by and chat with her Wednesday, October 14 at 5 p.m. ET in Etsy's Virtual Labs.

You can see some of Lara's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: leatherprince

2009-10-05T17:00:00-05:00

Beon and Candy of leatherprince met online and dated long distance from Singapore and Taiwan before Candy moved to Singapore and the pair married. They have backgrounds in shoe repair and lab work and for a short while Candy helped out repairing shoes with Beon. It wasn't long before they came up with the idea to take the leather stitching skills Beon acquired, pair them with Candy's love for illustration, and develop the business idea for leatherprince. They both feel strongly that they would not be able to make a living selling their leather accessories in Singapore if it weren't for Etsy's global reach, and they plan to keep growing their business in the future.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
I used to be a cobbler in Singapore working for my father and Candy was a lab assistant in Taiwan before we got married in June 2007, which ended a long distance relationship of three years. We met each other on the Internet, fell in love and got married, and now we run an Internet business together — amazing! Candy moved to Singapore and helped in our cobbler stall but we soon found the shoe repair work to be unsatisfying, as we both wanted to draw cartoons instead. At that time, I was learning leathercraft from our friend Cody. An idea flashed in my head that we would be able to utilize our own illustrated designs with colorful leather and this is how we started leatherprince!

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
We just thought that we could earn some extra income with our craft, but things became more successful each day. To be frank, we had extra pressure when we started in April of 2008, because our circle of friends and environment are predominantly Chinese-speaking and we decided to sell on an English-speaking site. A big thank you goes to our friend, Ling, who introduced us to Etsy and has helped us a lot along the way to overcome the language barrier and any problems we have faced. After 9 months of handling our shop, we sat down one day to discuss if we wanted to work on leatherprince full time as more than just a hobby.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
We didn’t really plan too much ahead. We don’t allow ourselves to think about failing on Etsy, we try to stay positive even when sales are slow; we take that time to focus more on our designs and always make new things to keep our shop fresh. There’s a Chinese word that means "fate," which we strongly believe in; we can never know what will happen next but we choose to enjoy what we are doing right now and live happily.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?
We will list a few new items or renew items 5 to 6 times a day or more in different time zones, this method works well for us. We have a blog, Flickr, and Facebook page for our social networking. We enjoy making custom orders, requesting that the buyer name the item for us and write a little story on why they wanted the design — this way, we can have record of why the design was created, particularly if we decide to sell more of the design in our shop. We find this is meaningful to us, using our craft to fulfill someone's needs, and hope we can handle every request. We believe our best marketing is by word of mouth from our customers, family and friends.

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
We think that every kind of promotion is good, we can never predict when someone will discover our products, so we just do as much promotion as possible.

Walk us through your typical workday.

Candy wakes up at 6:30 a.m. to take our dog for a walk. She makes breakfast at 8:45 a.m. and I usually wake up at 9 a.m. We turn on the computer and have breakfast together before checking any emails or Convos from the previous evening.
9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.: I answer all of our Convos and emails and work in our studio if there are any orders to fill. I'll also work to build up our inventory or work on new designs.
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.: We have lunch and I take our dog for a walk, watch the news and get some rest.
2:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.: After some rest we go back to the studio to continue working. Candy packs orders if there are any left, then I go to the post office.
7:30 p.m. – 11 p.m.: Dinner and family time with our dog, Mao Bao, and our two cats, MoMo and Machi. We stitch our keychains while we watch TV.
11 p.m. – 2 a.m.: I surf the Internet, check up on our shop, and play Bejeweled Blitz for a while on Facebook if I have the time (that’s the only game I LOVE to play). Candy will go to bed around midnight and I usually go to bed after 2 a.m.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
We really enjoy being a team, being our own bosses, and having a break anytime we want. We are glad to have each other to share the workload and we brainstorm ways to improve our shop all the time. Sometimes we work alone and it's so lonely! What I miss about my day job is my boss, my dad. He taught me shoe repair skills, as well as most of the hand-stitching methods we use on our items. Thank you, Dad!

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
If we could go back in time, we would do the same thing: start small, work hard, and focus on our designs to make them our own. This is the same advice we would share with others.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
We hope our business will get better and better in the coming year! We have opened a shop with Candy's twin sister, Yen. She will be helping with our designs (and her own in felt) over at feltprince. We hope she can join us full time soon.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
We are very grateful to have Etsy to sell our products. If it weren’t for Etsy, we don’t think we could do our leathercraft full time. Thank you very much, Etsy! And thank you to all of our customers! I would also like to thank all of my family in Singapore for their full support and understanding. Thank you!

Thanks to Beon and Candy for sharing their story.

You can see some of their beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: AkumuInk

2009-09-28T14:00:00-05:00

Dora and Joey of Akumulnk began their journey toward creative independence after a fruitful shopping spree. After much research and planning, they've been able to quit their day jobs to run their own t-shirt business. With a background in 3D animation, illustration and working for a children's publishing company, Joey enjoys the ability to utilize his skills while being his own boss. Dora applies the business skills she's currently learning in her degree program to the busy Akumulnk shop. Keep reading to find out why they claim blogging and excellent customer service are their best marketing tips, why music is an essential part of the work day, and how the Quit Your Day Job series played a part in their decision to pursue their dreams.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
Dora: We came up with the idea of making our own t-shirt designs instantaneously, really. It happened on a day when we had just completed a major shopping spree. Without thinking, I asked Joey, "How about we start a t-shirt company of our own? You can draw the designs and I can take care of the business." I think it took two weeks for the idea to sink in and for us to take it seriously. Before jumping into purchasing the equipment and supplies, we did research on screen printing for two whole months, since neither of us had previous experience. It took us another several months to better our techniques before we finally launched our online store in February 2008 and opened our Etsy shop in March 2008.

Joey: I have always been drawing — since I was very young. I went to college to study illustration in Montreal and then went off to to study 3D animation in Toronto. I spent the last four years working as a 3D illustrator for a children's publishing company in Montreal. Being an artist is a huge part of who I am and how I make a living, so it was an obvious choice to start printing on t-shirts with Dora.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
Dora: I'm still in college while working on Akumu Ink full time. It is tough, but when Joey quit his job two months ago I knew that Akumu Ink was heading somewhere and that it was possible for the company to get bigger and for us to be successful. Once I get my degree, I will work my future job around Akumu Ink.

Joey: When we first started, I really hoped we could just sell one shirt. I had dreams of leaving my day job and working for myself, but I had no idea that we could actually do it for real. It was only this last year that we saw the possibility of making this work as a full-time job. Even when I quit my actual job, my boss offered that I continue working 2-3 days a week and I highly considered it. It's so scary to leave a steady paycheck and to rely 100% on yourself to make your income.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
Joey: We had been running the company for about a year and a half before I could even consider leaving my job. It just got to a point where an hour of printing online orders every other night become 4-6 hours of work every night, aside from my 40 hours a week at work. We also sell at 3-day conventions, so it came to a point where I didn't have enough vacation and sick days to accommodate those events.

Before committing to quitting I had asked for an extra personal week off, which was dispersed throughout the summer, to be able to attend all the shows we were hoping to attend. I could have continued working and watch our company fail because of the lack of attention, or I could jump in and do something about it. It felt great to be able to give our company and our customers the attention they needed.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?
Dora: We found that blogging about ourselves and our company has been a way we can keep our followers interested. Maintaining great customer service will always keep your customers coming back.

Joey: Having a good product and good communication with our customers is essential. Having our Etsy shop mentioned on blogs also helped.

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
Dora and Joey: We have been lucky in making good decisions so far. We may have made small mistakes here and there, but we haven't really done anything we couldn't retract from. Any promotion is a good promotion, even if we lose a bit of money. Since we're focusing on creating a company that will last, any promotion to get another fan, customer, or client is important. Don't be afraid to try new things, as long as they're logical and fit your company's market.

Walk us through your typical workday.
Dora: I wake up in the morning to check sales and relist Etsy items that sold. I go to school in the afternoons, but luckily there's wifi on campus so I can respond to customer and other business related emails during class lectures. When I get back from school I sew labels for the t-shirts that Joey printed that day and put "blood" (red paint) on our hang tags. Then I prepare envelopes with stamps and mark the addresses. We usually work well into the night getting things together.

Joey: Monday through Thursday I wake up around 9-10 a.m. to have breakfast. Then I look through my Etsy Conversations, emails, Facebook comments and Twitter updates. Then I drop Dora off at the train station. I screen print for a few hours a day (when there is a show coming up or if there are orders). It is very important for me to have music playing throughout the day; it's just one of those things you can do as your own boss that I felt was lacking when I worked for others. Either there was no music or there was lame Top 40 radio...

So back to describing my day: I prepare orders that need to go to the post office. Usually around 5 p.m. I pick up Dora at the train station and head over to the post office. It's great to beat the post office rush hour. We usually arrive minutes before the line starts. We know all of the post office clerks by name. We're always joking around with them. Then we come home and walk our dog, Tiny, and we talk about our days. Then we have dinner and it's back to work or we relax and watch a movie, depending on what needs to get done.

Fridays to Sundays we fly or drive to conventions locally or across North America. We spend all weekend selling shirts we've spent all week producing. This year we'll be attending a total of eleven shows, and next year we're looking at attending up to twenty shows, which would mean almost every second weekend we'll be at a show. Doing conventions can be very draining. I don't think this is a life for everyone.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
Joey: I love that I don't have to sleep in my car during my lunch breaks because I'm so exhausted from working all night. I'm happy I don't have to have a coffee every morning to get me going and a Red Bull when I get home to keep me going. I love that when I have an idea I can stop working and go to my computer and work out my ideas. It's great to be able to wake up at 2 a.m. (if I'm not tired) and work on things without worrying that I'll be too tired for work the next day. Of course I miss the friendships I had at my old job — that, along with the paycheck, was the main reason it was so hard to leave it.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
Dora: I find that bookkeeping is the hardest task to do, but it is necessary for tax reports every month.

Joey: Finding time to get things done. We're always coming up with new ideas, but we're only two people. Sometimes you can't even do everything on your checklist because there aren't enough hours in a day to get through them. The hardest part is that you always hope you're doing your best to give every part of your business the attention it deserves. If you seem away too long from the public they might think you've disappeared even though you're working hard in other areas of your business. It's important to always keep up to date.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
Dora: I would encourage myself to not doubt our products and to keep trying new venues where we can expose and sell our products. I would advise everyone else to not give up on your work.

Joey: This isn't for everyone. A lot of people need to go to a job in the morning and come home at 5 p.m. My best advice is to start small and grow from there. Be patient while doing the best you can.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
Dora: We hope to increase the number of our Etsy sales by ten fold (*crosses fingers*).

Joey: We also plan to offer new designs and remove older ones, as well as adding new and different styles of items — all handmade, of course.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Dora and Joey: Running your own business is hard work. It takes a lot of sacrifice; we have put off get-togethers with friends and family time and time again. If waking up ready to work on your own ideas and products excites you and going to bed exhausted from working all day is something you look forward to, then work toward your goals. I would look forward to reading the Quit Your Day Job series every time it came out, and it was the main inspiration to work toward my goals. If you love what you do and work hard, you'll get there. It's a really great feeling to create things and have people around the world buy them and say they love what you do.

If you want to know more about us, feel free to follow our blog and become our fan on Facebook. Thanks for reading.

Thanks to Dora and Joey for sharing their story.

You can see some of Joey and Dora's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: julipbags

2009-09-21T16:26:00-05:00

Amby, the self proclaimed Type A personality behind JulipBags, has been able to successfully quit her day job in the mental health field to focus all of her energy on her bag business, which is now bringing home the bacon. After finding herself at a point where she could either dial back on her Etsy business or quit her day job in order to fuel its budding growth, she made the decision to become her own boss. Keep reading to find out why Amby takes being her own boss seriously, how she filed for a utility patent and why buying a BlackBerry has been one of her best business moves to date.

Come on by and chat with her Wednesday, September 23 at 4 p.m. ET in Etsy's Virtual Labs.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
I’ve been making things for fun and gifts for as long as I can remember, but my first creative business was when I started my own wedding photography business seven years ago while also working a full-time day job. I loved the work, but eventually it was too exhausting to work full time during the week and then shoot a wedding all day Saturday and sometimes Sunday too. I couldn’t do both, and at that time, the day job took precedence.

I started Julip Bags just over two years ago when I made a Roman shade for our living room window and remembered how much I LOVED to sew, then discovering how many gorgeous fabrics are out there now! I love bags and purses and already had quite the knitting bag collection, so it was a logical next step. I found out about Etsy from all the reviews on Lime & Violet’s podcast, checked it out, and discovered what a wonderful platform it was for an online crafty business.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
Honestly, not at first. My husband JP is a chef, and I was working 9-5 in the mental health field. We don’t have kids, so it started more as a way to keep busy since we had such opposite schedules, and to provide a little extra spending money. I was genuinely shocked when I sold my first bag just a couple of days after opening up my shop. I was also very attached to the security of a steady paycheck...the idea of not being able to pay the bills is a sure-fire way to send me into a full-on freak out.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
I didn’t really do anything that I hadn’t been doing all along. I had a DBA (Doing Business As) and sales tax license from the start, and I do my own bookkeeping with Quickbooks. I’ve treated Julip Bags like a business from the beginning, even if it was a part-time one. When I did start having “Wow, I would love to do JUST THIS full time!” thoughts, I bought a BlackBerry, and it’s absolutely the best business investment I’ve ever made, right on up there with my laser printer! With an online business in a global economy, people want responsiveness from a seller or else they’ll go elsewhere. With my BlackBerry, I’m immediately notified of all new sales, Convos, and emails. If I’m not at home, I can respond from my BlackBerry so I often have people comment on how quickly I respond to inquiries. I also have my own dedicated working area; for a while I had my workspace in our kitchen, but then I took over our larger guest room so now I have physical boundaries to contain the chaos.

I actually quit my day job at the dumbest possible moment from a logical standpoint. We live in Metro Detroit, my husband had been unemployed for several months and had just taken a new job with a significant pay cut. My day job was bringing in the majority of our income AND our health insurance AND was fairly secure in a very insecure economy. I had come to the point where I could either do Julip Bags full time or back off it, because I had reached my limit juggling both at once. At that time, I’d invested so much in bringing Julip Bags to where it was, I couldn’t imagine scaling back. So I took a deep breath, gave notice to my boss, bought a bottle of champagne and went home to give JP the final word. He was incredibly supportive although I know he probably questioned my sanity more than once, and my family and friends are the greatest support system anyone could ask for. There is no way I would be where I am without their unwavering cheerleading and support, and I will never be able to thank them enough!

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?
I have to be completely honest, I owe so much to the knitting community, it’s very interconnected and online-savvy. You can make or break a business on word of mouth alone, between knitting groups, blogs, podcasts, online forums, and now Ravelry. It’s an incredibly supportive worldwide group that supports and nurtures, one that other mediums don’t necessarily have.

My most effective promotion, marketing, and advertising has been through Ravelry, hands-down. The only paid advertising I do is through Ravelry, I have a fan group there, and it’s an incredible gateway for real-time feedback, suggestions from my customers, questions, etc. I also have a Facebook fan page since Ravelry can only be accessed by members at this time.

My main advice to others is to be confident in yourself; when people ask what I do for a living, I don’t dither about “Oh, I have my own business,” I confidently tell them that I’m a bag designer and then go on to explain from there. I always carry an example of my work, have business cards and don’t hesitate to hand them out, as do my friends and family. Being shy about tooting your own horn will not make sales, you have to be willing to do the legwork to get your name out there. I would also suggest that you try to diversify and stay keenly aware of customers’ needs while staying true to your vision for your business…in my knitting bag shop I have dog poop bags! Designer bags for poop! But they’re one of my customers’ favorites!

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
I’m on Twitter now, but I don’t think I have enough interesting things to post to really garner a following. I’d just rather read other people’s Tweets. I also used to give donations for contests, giveaways and doorprizes for anyone who approached me, but I’ve learned to review these requests with a critical eye and ask myself if it will actually benefit my business. Sometimes they’re totally worth it, sometimes I know it would be smarter to list that bag for sale in the shop than to give it away.

Walk us through your typical workday.

I normally wake up around 8 a.m.; I do my blog-surfing, emailing, and other quiet stuff before JP wakes up. While he takes our two Jack Russells for a walk and gets ready for work, I’ll start packing up any orders that came in overnight.
After he leaves for work around 12:30, I head down to the post office, come back home, put Pandora on the computer and really buckle down to work. I try to make bags a day ahead of listing, so first I’ll take photographs outside in my light tent and list items.
Then I’ll start making new bags, and that keeps me busy for the rest of the afternoon. Our Russells wake up and start demanding playtime around 5 p.m., so I’ll stop for dinner and try to either take them for a walk or play ball in the backyard.
After that I usually pop a movie into my laptop and finish up the bags for the day. I wish I could say that I drop work when JP gets home between 9:30-11, but oftentimes I’m still working while he relaxes after his day.
When I first started doing Julip Bags as my full-time job, I planned to take off Mondays and Tuesdays with JP, but that has definitely not happened. I don’t have any set days off now, but if I’m genuinely in need of a break, I don’t feel bad about catching up on business necessities and then kicking back to knit or going out for sushi and martinis with friends. Letting go of my Type A personality guilt for taking time off has been hard, but I know I need it to be productive and creative.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
Aside from being my own boss (and who doesn’t dream of that?!?), I like that the buck stops with me. I call myself the Owner, Chief Creative Officer, and Chief Grunt because ultimately the success or failure of my business is up to me. Not my supervisor, not my lazy coworker, ME. So many people have told me that I need to hire help, but I would never be able to truly relax without being completely in control of every aspect of my business and knowing that it’s all up to my standards. And yes, I’m a control freak, but I’m okay with that.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
The main thing is the lack of a guaranteed paycheck and health insurance. We just found out that it will cost too much to add me to JP’s insurance through his job, so I’ll be paying to self-insure. It’s tough, but it’s doable as long as you have a written budget and stick to it. Additionally, it’s ALL up to you, even if you’re exhausted or sick or dealing with crises in your personal life, you still have to make your product, market it, provide customer service, etc. if you want to continue to sell. Not having someone to lean on for nitty-gritty help is the flipside to being your own boss!

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
I would have stockpiled a lot more money! Although, in retrospect, if I’d waited until I genuinely felt that I could take the plunge, I never would have done it! My advice is to always treat it like a business, even when facing that reality is big or scary or uncomfortable. Just a couple of months after quitting my day job, I found myself in the position of hiring an intellectual property attorney and filing for a utility patent. Talk about WHOA! My friends and family pay full price when they buy a bag. I don’t answer the home phone, do laundry, or wear my pajamas while I’m working. This IS my full-time job now, and I treat it as such.

Don’t be afraid to form collaborations with other Etsy artisans! I have a blog with two friends called The Boss Knits about the ups and downs of indiepreneurship. Also, get out of the house…working from home can be very isolating and lonely, so be sure to recognize when you need to get out of the grind and be around real people! It will re-energize you and give you that deep breath of fresh air that you need!

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
I really want to start doing craft shows regularly, I’ve already taken a step in that direction for the holiday season. Other than that, I’d just love to keep coming up with new designs and providing the best customer service I possibly can! I’m blessed with a very loyal customer base, and I want to make sure I live up to their expectations!

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Always take your business seriously, because if YOU don’t, no one else will. But at the same time, don’t forget that YOU are the living breathing heartbeat of your business and take care of yourself accordingly! And finally, don’t lose sight of why you quit your day job in the first place…it’s so unbelievably rewarding that I can’t even imagine going back to the corporate grind!

Thanks to Amby for sharing her story. Have your own questions to ask? Come on by and chat with her Wednesday, September 23 at 5 p.m. ET in Etsy's Virtual Labs.

You can see some of Amby's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: DolorisPetunia

2009-09-14T16:36:00-05:00

Courtney of DolorisPetunia has a unique version of the quit your day job story. You see, Courtney was able to successfully quit her day job in the corporate design world to sell her artistic jewelry pieces on the streets of New York before she ever heard of Etsy. After gaining a small following in the city, she and her boyfriend decided to move to Los Angeles. However, Courtney found it difficult to survive in the LA scene like she had in New York and almost gave up. If not for a chance encounter with Etsy, she might not be telling this story today. Courtney's success on Etsy has allowed her to make more contacts and accounts than she ever had before and opened up doors that might not have been possible without the success of her online presence. Keep reading to find out how Courtney uses Etsy to support herself and get a glimpse into some of her best tips for marketing effectively on Etsy.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?

Although I have been making things my entire life, I will have officially been in business for about a year this coming winter. I started making accessories for myself when I was unable to find in stores what was in my mind. When my friends saw what I was making, they started asking me to make things for them too. That then turned into their friends making requests and then their friends' friends. Finally, with the help of a good friend, I decided to quit my job and go stand out on the streets in New York City's Soho and West Village neighborhoods with a card table full of handmade accessories and a warm winter coat. I would create my items Monday through Thursday each week and sell all day on the streets Friday through Sunday. In the spring of 2009 I officially created Doloris Petunia LLC, which I named after my 8-year-old Maltese, Lolita.

After a few months, I was starting to develop a small NYC following, but my boyfriend and I decided to move to Los Angeles. After being in NYC for 13 years, I had no idea how to market myself in LA. I was just about to give up and go back into the corporate design world, but I found Etsy.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?

Etsy saved my design life and turned my hobbies into a career. I can't say that my relative success is the typical quit your day job story, because I looked at it more as a sink or swim situation. My goal was not to get a corporate job in LA. Beyond that, the economy had taken a major downturn and I didn't know the first thing about how to go about creating job opportunities for myself in LA. I then began researching online marketplaces, and I turned exclusively to Etsy to help me create a market for my brand. Within a few weeks, I had the site and the nuances more or less figured out and began to be able to support myself solely based on the sales and contacts I was making through Etsy. I have never used any sort of PR, nor do I have any connections, yet through Etsy and my own passion for design, I have been connected to a few major retail stores, hundreds of brides, and thousands of wonderful prospective clients, who like myself had a vision of what they wanted to buy, yet were unable to find it elsewhere.

I was surprised by several things about Etsy: first, how quickly Etsy worked. I was also pleasantly surprised how quickly I was able to establish a base for myself within Etsy. Etsy allowed me to be able to consistently get out as much as I was putting into my online shop and my budding design studio, Doloris Petunia.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time, feel free to give us the nitty gritty business details?

No, I leapt before I looked. This could have been quite a sad story if not for Etsy.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?

I think what really helped me at first was buying Showcases as often as I could afford. This is a great way to get your products seen. You can be selling the best and neatest things on the web, but if they are not seen they will not sell.

I also think you need to update your shop as often as you can, thus getting your items in the "just listed" categories so buyers remain interested in your shop. It also goes without saying that you need to have the best possible photos of your items. I have found the key to getting selected for the Treasury, which is a great way to make the homepage, is to have beautiful and interesting photographs. I am not at the point where I can hire a professional photographer and/or model. Instead, I use my own digital camera, find the spot in my house with the best lighting, have the help of a good and very beautiful friend (who used to model and now accepts lunch as a form of payment), and try to create the best shots I can. At each photo shoot, I learn what works and what doesn't. One day I hope I will be able to leave all that stuff up to the professionals, but I am learning so much about my products and how best to feature them by being the stylist, photographer, make up artist, and designer all at the same time.

I also think it is important to really look around Etsy and support other artists and designers. I "heart" sellers who I think are doing a great job and will write sellers whose Treasuries I think are great. Why not be on the radar of people who are doing great work? Especially in the Treasury department!

Overall, I think the real key to Etsy is getting seen by as many people as possible and using the many free ways to do so. The easiest way to do this is to take time and really browse the site. Take the time to see who is doing what and interact with those sellers when their work has moved you. Nothing is better than receiving a note from someone saying that they admire what you do.

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?

I can't say I love Twitter. Maybe I just don't understand it yet.

I have really been pleased with how Etsy now links to Facebook. Beyond Etsy, I have found Facebook to be one of the best free selling tools out there. I tend to feature my full collection and past collections on Facebook (add Doloris Petunia as a friend or become a fan!). This is an easy way for friends to share you as a designer with their friends. I will advertise my Etsy success in my Facebook status and use it to let my friends and clients know when I am having trunk shows or being featured elsewhere.

Walk us through your typical workday.

I wake up and answer email requests and do all administrative stuff.
Then I either go out and shop for supplies or I start working on orders. I try to create something that I am inspired by once a day, meaning beyond filling orders.
I make sure to take some design time and experiment with a new idea each day. I use this sort of as my design recess, giving my mind a bit of a break from the pressure of making things for other people. Nine times out of ten this new creation ends up being listed in my shop, but I like to give myself the opportunity each day to remember what it is I love about what I do, which is creatively making something I would want and can't seem to find elsewhere.
I usually go to the post office at the end of the day and then come home and finish a few more orders before or after dinner.
I tend to work 7 days a week, but need to take creative breaks every 10 days or so, when I make sure not to go in my office at all. This break gives my head, eyes, and hands time to rest. I find that I do not work well when I am not excited about what I am doing, and whenever I get overwhelmed I know that a few days away from my company will be all I need to get passionate about creating again.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?

I love the "no degrees of separation" contact with my clients, meaning that I know my clients are buying something I have lovingly made with my hands for their wedding day, or a big party, or just to go to the movies. I love knowing that I am listening directly to what they want, working with them closely, and helping them have something that makes them feel more beautiful. It is an especially huge honor for me to work with brides. Helping women to create the perfect look for THEIR day is something I take very seriously.

I also love being able to make my own schedule and working in a way and on a timetable that is best for my constitution, not someone else's.

What I miss is the safety in a "day job." It can be scary to know that I have created something where if I stopped doing all that I do, it would cease to exist. I guess it is the same with anything in life, in that whatever you "put in" is what you hopefully "get out." Not having a day job makes this feel even more true and it can be scary. I think it is the difference between playing on a team and being an individual athlete, and occasionally I wish that I had someone to pass the ball to.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?

Having only two hands. I am actually in the process of looking for an intern.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?

What advice would I have given myself? Trust myself sooner. Do what I have done sooner. It's hard to believe anyone would want to buy something you have made in half the time. I wish that I would have listened to others and trusted in my ability. Without the organization of Etsy I don't think I would have had the discipline, ability to develop a reputation, or the financial means to do so.

What would I say to others? Well, oddly enough, I get emails a lot on Facebook and Etsy asking for advice about how I got started doing what I do and if they to should just trust their gut and take the leap. I guess as cliche as it is, I would say that life is too short to not do what you love. Doloris Petunia is as much of a full-time job as I have ever had; in fact, it is even more so. It is what I eat, breathe and sleep. It is my obsession and it is fun. That is what I want my life to be about: creating beautiful things that others, including myself, can enjoy. This never feels like a job: instead it is my life.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?

I would love to have 10,000 hearts.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Here is a blog that just did a nice little posting on my company and my inspirations. One thing I make sure to do every day is Google my company's name (you can also set Google up to email you updates automatically). This is a great way to see who is saying what about you. It is amazing how many blogs are out there that could be writing about your work and you don't even know it. I love to contact the blogs and thank them for their support. I will also usually offer 10% off orders to their readers if they mention their blog when ordering from my Etsy page.

Thank you for your time in reading this. Please add Doloris Petunia as a Facebook friend to see my full collection, my designs that were worn on the red carpet of the Emmys, as well as the skating dress I recently designed for Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan. You can also add Doloris Petunia on Twitter — and maybe show me that it is a great promotional tool after all!

Thanks to Courtney for sharing her story. Have your own questions to ask? Come on by and chat with her Wednesday, September 16 at 5 p.m. ET in Etsy's Virtual Labs.

You can see some of Courtney's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: littlesaplingtoys

2009-09-08T16:50:00-05:00

Nick and Kimber, the mother and father team behind littlesaplingtoys, have managed to quit both their regular day jobs and support themselves, along with their two children, due to their business success on Etsy. They've been selling their wooden toys on Etsy for just under two years. With previous careers in historical preservation and insurance companies, both Nick and Kimber took their time planning and saving for their transition into a full-time small business. Read on to hear their answers to our Quit Your Day Job questions — they talk about the steps they took to plan out their venture and which marketing tips have worked best for their business along the way.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
Nick: It began as an innocent obsession with Lego bricks. I loved building anything my imagination came up with. As I got older, things evolved with me. It wasn’t until I worked at a woodworking store that I really came to see the beauty of wood. I love every piece of wood: the way the grain flows, the color, the way that it transforms when it’s finished. My first woodworking project was a 2’ x 2’ butcher block for our second anniversary. I never get sick of looking at and refinishing it.

Kimber: For me, true creative delight is in my mind. I love ideas, brainstorming, scribbling, discussing and sketching with a batch of stove-top popcorn. As a child, I collaborated with my lil’ brother to design a computer game that my dad agreed to program. I wrote a song with a friend consisting of the lyrics “Oh Baby” and dreamed about the day it would hit the radio. I started a business from my Trapper Keeper observing my peers on the playground and then selling the information I collected. I made Clarissa Explains It All inspired jewelry and sold it at my mom’s craft show tables. I collected flowers and berries to crush on a cement barrier to make perfume. I wrote for my high school and junior college paper, selling my personal humiliation for laughs. I’ve taken on baking, sewing, gardening, woodworking, and countless other endeavors because I love a good idea.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
We were living above a chocolate shop in Old Town Eureka, CA while Nick worked for Crestmark Architectural Millwork and studied Historical Preservation and Restoration. I decided to go to school after Rex was born instead of returning to the insurance office where I previously worked. Everything changed when we received an invitation to caretake a house with a shop for two years. During that time we each attended school, started Little Sapling Toys, had a second baby and finally moved to a different state. Everything happened so fast that it’s hard to remember just what we expected. Our goal was for Little Sapling Toys to be successful, but we didn’t expect Etsy to be the sole reason for making it so.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
The most important things we did:

Economize — We projected our income and started to live on that amount. This helped us to save a bit of money for the initial jump. Our budget is limited and we assess wants and needs thoroughly.
Trial — On days off from school and the office, we worked full-time schedules to test our capabilities. It’s important to know your production potential. This helped us to see if our plans would be sustainable and to streamline processes.
Education — We took all of the free classes at the local Small Business Development Center and were then eligible to use their free one-on-one counseling services. We traded with other Etsy sellers to form relationships and gain mentors. Most of our schooling has been through trial, error and success.
Legalize — We got all of the licenses, permits, identifications and insurance that we needed, and then again when we relocated. It can all be a big pain, but necessary and helpful.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?
Nick: My goal is to get Little Sapling Toys to as many people as possible because they really speak for themselves.

Kimber: Sales usually increase when we list new designs. I relist often, try different photos and let Etsy do most of the dirty work. I keep multiple quantities in the listings so that when we are featured on Etsy it is visible longer. We occasionally offer free shipping on our lighter items and had great fortune when we were featured in Etsy’s Weekend Deals. We’ve just started a new blog, which is still in its experimental phase. On Twitter (@sparetimeflies) and our Facebook fan page, I share daily tips for play, parenting, and child development.

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
Nick: Christmas ornaments. They took a lot of time and we only sold one of each (to Kimber’s mom — thanks, Lori!). It seemed like such a good idea, miniature Little Sapling Toys for baby’s first Christmas, who wouldn’t want that?

Kimber: We don’t get many direct sales from sponsoring blog reviews, giveaways and fundraisers, but I still agree to do them once in a while. At first, we peddled our toys directly to shops in person and left a lot of samples. We wasted a lot of time and money. With Etsy, we can just wait for them to contact us.

Walk us through your typical workday.

Nick: Our days are hardly typical, but they usually have some similar elements: Snuggle and playtime with family, shop time, audiobooks, putting the kids down for naps, eating, USPS (by bike when we’re on schedule), and lots and lots of sawdust.
Kimber: We wake and immediately begin to juggle eating oatmeal, answering convos, emails, children’s bodily functions, the shop list, Facebook, Twitter, personal hygiene and the like. If we’re not too swamped and the weather is agreeable, we’ll take a family bike ride along the greenbelt. Rex and Daphne time until lunch. Eat together and naps for the little ‘uns. Convos, shipping labels, packaging, photos, emails, phone calls, bookkeeping and designing toys until Rex, the ball of energy, zooms back into action. Juggle work, Rex, Daphne, dinner, the inevitable phone call and household tasks. Dinner together, play together, kids in bed, Nick back to the shop and work until exhaustion takes me. Sunday we rest.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
Nick: Even though I work 10+ hours a day, I love that it’s flexible. I love that my commute is 34 steps from the front door to the garage/shop. Mostly, I love all the time I spend with my family. The last few day jobs I had were great though, a woodworking store and then as a cabinetmaker. I miss those co-workers and am grateful for what I learned there.

Kimber: I love to design new toys! I wish they could be manufactured right out of my brain. I’m addicted to the pride of a job well done. We love books but have little time for reading, so we’re nearly always listening to audiobooks. There is absolutely nothing I miss about an office, but I would prefer to spend every moment completely focused on Rex and Daphne.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
Nick: I have a hard time always being innovative, keeping myself out of a rut, and from falling back on the same old things. All the menial everyday tasks also wear me down.

Kimber: A dissatisfied customer! With all the energy that we put into everything we do, it is just miserable to find out someone was disappointed.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
Start bookkeeping with your first dollar. Listen to input. Always get delivery confirmation. Accept help from friends and family. Hire help when needed. Carefully price products, especially if you plan to wholesale. Step back from day-to-day tasks to look at the big picture. Organize while things are manageable. Go to your local Small Business Development Center.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
Our goals include our own website, new developmental toys, a more efficient shipping system and to have a small inventory. We’re also opening an interesting little shop at cabbageandpopcorn!

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Nick: Thank you to my parents for your support and frequent purchases. Thank you to all our customers, I love to hear about your children playing with our toys and see pictures of your babies drooling on our teethers.

Kimber: A big hug to our past and future customers! A high five to every friend and family member who has helped this year. Thumbs up to bloggers for spreading the word. I’ll give a few more thanks by way of links:
Our logo and subsequent branding: 622press, Elle was there at the very beginning: latestendeavor, our first Etsy mentor: thosegreathousewomen, and most of all my dad, who does beautiful woodwork with our block scraps: dapperscrapper.

Thanks to Nick and Kimber for sharing their story. Have your own questions to ask? Come on by and chat with them Wednesday, September 9 at 5 p.m. ET in Etsy's Virtual Labs.

You can see some of Nick and Kimber's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: Spiderbite

2009-08-31T16:30:00-05:00

Sarah Jane, the creative mind and savvy businesswoman behind Spiderbite, was just 8 months out of earning her degree from art school and working at the Subway fast food chain when she decided to make selling on Etsy her full-time business venture. She's truly been able to start from the ground up with a fresh idea and feels the flexible hours outweigh the isolation she often experiences in running a one-woman operation. Keep reading to find out why she recommends email lists and branding a business as the best marketing one can do for their shop and why some months she's willing to live on PB&J sandwiches and Ramen noodles.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
I went to the Rhode Island School of Design for illustration and while there I took a class on developing products. For our mid-semester assignment we had to develop a product and sell it at the student sale. That’s when I came up with the Nightmare Snatcher journals. At the sale I sold out and thought it was great. So I added the books to my illustration portfolio site and a teacher of mine showed them to his friend who owned a gift shop. Next thing I knew I was wholesaling to several stores. I think I just got a bit lucky and knew some of the right people.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
When I started on Etsy I definitely knew that my goal was not to work at a fast food joint the rest of my life, but I didn’t really anticipate being able to do it so soon. I was really disappointed to graduate from art school and spend my days working at Subway. But I was really only out of college 8 months before I was working for myself. It was the greatest feeling in the world to finally stop working at sandwich shops and shoe stores and be my own boss.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
For the most part I just jumped into it. Since I was so soon out of college, I didn’t have a family to care for, a mortgage to pay, or too many bills, so it was kind of easy. I picked up a couple of bigger wholesale clients and was selling consistently on Etsy to the point that I didn’t need to work another job. When I figured out that I was making enough to pay my rent, what few bills I had, and my student loans, I decided to go for it.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?
The most effective marketing I have done by far is having an email mailing list. It’s a good non-intrusive way of keeping in contact with former customers as well as people who are just interested in your work. You can let them know about new products, sales, and special offers. I often include coupons and first dibs on certain products for those on my mailing list, which is a good incentive to keep people signed up. The key is to never add anyone to your mailing list without his or her permission and to not send out too many emails. I send about one or two a month.

My best marketing tip is to brand your company and your product. Keeping a consistent and cohesive look to all your packaging, logos, and products helps to solidify your image and company in people’s minds. That way every time they see a package, a new product, or your logo, they are immediately reminded of your company and of where to get more great items.

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
People always seem to recommend Twitter, Myspace, Flickr and a myriad of other free online venues to advertise your wares, but I’ve personally never found them to be that beneficial. For the amount of work you have to put in to get it to work for you, it seems like it would be more cost effective to pay for advertising. I’d rather pay for ad space and use my time to refine my craft and make more products to sell.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
I enjoy the flexibility of the hours the most. I’m pretty much a night owl and being able to start my day around 2-3 p.m. is ideal. I’ve worked night jobs before, but then I ended up missing everything else that my friends and family were doing because I was always working while they were off. Being able to make my own hours, I can work late at night one day and if I decide to go out the next night, I can just get my work done earlier in the day. I miss having co-workers to pal around with and complain about work to. This is probably the reason I’ve spent so much time in the Etsy Forums. I’ve gone whole days without seeing a single person, so it can get lonely working all by yourself.

Walk us through your typical workday.

Typically I get up between 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. (I said I was a night owl!) and jump on Etsy. It can be really addictive to check. So I try to limit it to 3 times a day, but I usually end up checking about 6 times a day…
If I have orders, I go through and pick them out and package them up.
Next, I start making monsters. Typically I’ll pick one main job for the day depending on what I’m running out of, whether it's cutting fur, putting together the monster faces, or adding pages to the books.
If it’s a Tuesday or a Friday, I take a trip to the post office to drop off my orders.
Finally, I just work on into the night until it’s time for bed.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
The hardest part is probably cash flow. It’s a Catch-22 when you don’t have a part-time job or a financial backer to fund your business. You need to spend money to make money, but you need to make the money in order to have money to spend. So, it can get a little tight some months. When that happens I usually eat PB&J and Ramen noodles for a month.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
I would have started on Etsy sooner. When I signed up, I didn’t actually open up shop for about 6 months. As soon as I did, I was outselling my personal website ten-fold and had more stores contact me about wholesaling.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
I'd like to finally reach my 1000th sale, which I’m hoping isn’t too far off. I would also like to make some new lower priced items, and some larger sized books for Spiderbite. I would likewise like to get my second shop, WeirdlingWorks, which I run with my dad, filled up and going.

Thanks to Sarah Jane for sharing her story. Have your own questions to ask? Come on by and chat with her Thursday, September 3 at 5 p.m. ET in Etsy's Virtual Labs.

You can see some of Sarah Jane's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: happyfamily

2009-08-24T14:48:00-05:00

Lori and Starbuck, the mom and pop behind happyfamily, decided to take the plunge into selling on Etsy full time after a school of dolphins made quite a fuss one day on the beach while the couple was talking about Etsy. With much success, Lori and Starbuck have been able to successfully band together to quit their previous day jobs in graphic design and engineering in order to support themselves and their two children through their Etsy sales. They both agree being their own boss, spending the day together with their children, and having the freedom to take each day one at a time were worth the jump; however, they advise others who are considering the same decision to be mindful that organization and helping hands are key.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
Before we were happyfamily, Lori was slinging pixels as a graphic designer in London while Starbuck worked as an engineer in Paris. We soon returned to the U.S., got hitched in Vegas, and suddenly found ourselves really, really bored at work. After taking a community screen printing class, we learned that we could make really cool designs come to life on fabric. We spent many hours designing and printing every scrap of fabric we could get our hands on.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
No, we didn't know it was possible. Actually, we think a group of dolphins knew before we did! We were at the beach, talking about Etsy with a friend. Suddenly a school of dolphins started jumping around on the horizon. Our wise friend told us that dolphins are a sign of big changes ahead. In that moment we decided selling our tees online would be our "big change." Sounds kooky but it's true!

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
Not really. We've owned a retail store in New Orleans for five years and spent many 18-hour days making t-shirts. This taught us how to keep up with customer demand. We are both firm believers that you just can't prepare for everything in life. We tend to follow our gut instinct in most things we do and somehow everything always works out.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?

Twitter has been great (@happyfamilyshop, if you would like to be our friend!).
Blogs are fantastic exposure as well. All of those mentions add up and you can build your business one happy customer at a time.
We also have lots of word of mouth business, especially from people seeing our birthday shirts at birthday parties and wanting one for their child's birthday.
Etsy itself gives us a 24-hour worldwide audience that has taken us in a whole new direction.

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
We haven't found much to be unsuccessful. You never know who might see what and when. All promotion is good promotion!

Walk us through your typical workday.

As the sun comes up, our alarm clock (a.k.a Owen, our 3-year-old) runs in our room and jumps on the bed. Once his 15-month-old brother Evan hears us, our day officially begins! Breakfast is usually waffles or French toast as we check convos and respond to emails.
Then it's a walk to the playground, building train stations, or maybe just chasing each other in circles around the house. Our boys are perfectly content doing any of these activities 7 days a week.
Next comes work for one of us. The actual work can be filling orders, cleaning shop, ordering inventory, making phone calls or just about anything that needs to be done.
We have a quick lunch (cheese plate al fresco on the patio is a favorite!), then get the boys ready for an afternoon siesta.
Naptime brings several hours of uninterrupted work time for both of us. It's usually spent printing tees and packaging.
After naps we visit the local farmers' market for dinner supplies.
At dinner we all talk about our day. Afterward there's usually one last adventure before bath time, book time, and bedtime.
After tucking in Evan with his glow worm and Owen with his frogs, it is back to work for the rest of this happyfamily. We work, work, and work some more and finally call it a night around 1 or 2 a.m. Our days and nights are very, very long — but very fun too — and we wouldn't want it any other way.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
Being able to make our own hours and hang out with each other and our kids all day is wonderful. We also appreciate that the sky is the limit for what we can do with our business. We miss employer sponsored health insurance! Private insurance isn't for the faint at heart and it's something you should plan for before you quit your day job.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
Parenting and working at the same time is a tough combination. We are a true mom and pop shop.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
Organization is very important. You need proper accounting and good records of everything you sell. Advice for someone else — if anyone offers to help, take it. At first we tried to do everything ourselves but learned quickly that a little help can go a long way in making more time for your business.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
We are working on redoing our business website and starting a blog. We want to pay it forward (and backward) by featuring others who make and sell their own products, as well as keep better track of our own lives for our kids to look back on one day.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
"Be the change you want to see in the world." — Ghandi

Thanks to Lori and Starbuck for sharing their story. Have your own questions to ask? Come on by and chat with them on Wednesday, August 26 at 7 p.m. ET in Etsy's Virtual Labs.

You can see some of happyfamily's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: onegarnetgirl

2009-08-17T16:45:00-05:00

Madelynn, a.k.a. onegarnetgirl, started out selling on Etsy with dreams of the possibility of making one sale per month in addition to her regular day job. Madelynn's sales began to pick up soon after setting up her shop. The demand for her products came very quickly, and Madelynn began to realize her jewelry making business just might be a bigger opportunity than she originally thought. Over time, Madelynn transitioned into fewer and fewer hours at her regular day job as she began taking in enough money from her Etsy sales to pay the household bills. She's now successfully quit her job and runs her jewelry business full time; keep reading to find out her 10 tips for someone who might be thinking of doing the same.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
My drive to create changed into a bonafide big-girl business when I started selling here. Like so many of us, I had been quilting, knitting and making jewelry for my friends and family. I hadn't tried to pursue selling work until about two years ago.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
Yessir! But it's the road less traveled, and I had no idea how to make it happen. I remember sitting on the kitchen counter one night and telling my husband that I may even be able to sell one piece a month! *Sigh* After about 2 months I began to consider, fleetingly, the possibilities of what my business could become. I was able to slowly cut back on working overnights during the first year.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
After a few months of selling, I realized I could start paying household bills with my Etsy income. I could justify cutting back my hours at work, so I got rid of my cell phone, my YMCA membership and started running outdoors instead, and looked for other ways to get rid of expenses. Get rid of your anchors so you can move forward — otherwise the stress of paying creditors will outweigh the joy of running your own ship.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?

Locally, I made up business cards and put them on every corkboard in town. I did home jewelry parties, advertised in three states on Craigslist. I advertised in the mini ads in our local paper. I bought from Etsy sellers and could tell anyone where to get the awesome candles (AuntieDis), kids wooden toys (WoodToyShop), and hand-painted portraits of my kids (christydekoning).
Online, I read TONS of the advice and information available in the Forums. I am part of the Jewelry on Etsy Team (JETTEAM), and we do tons of promotion for each other on and offline. I also give a 10% off coupon to returning buyers every once in a while. Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Craigslist, Trunkt — I've done all of those. I have advertised on websites dedicated to jewelry and blogs, too.

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
The Promotions section in the Forums has been great for Team promotions because there are many hands keeping a thread alive. I haven't had as much luck doing a solo promotion in the Promotions forum.

Walk us through your typical workday.

I respond to convos first thing in the morning, around 6:30.
After a few cups of coffee and getting the kids off to preschool, I make a list of what I need to create for the day. I also have a running list of inventory and supplies to see if I need anything immediately. I renew something.
Around 8:30 I start work and blast Motown on Pandora radio (it's free!). In the morning it's all Motown. I work, order supplies, answer convos, relist a second item around lunchtime. I solder, form, saw, file, polish, set stones, and clean, dry, package, write out mailing labels, stamp, write some thank yous and drive/walk/ride my bike to the post office by 5:30 p.m.
My kids get home around 5 p.m. with my husband and they have dinner and then play for a little bit.
On busy days I may be back out in the studio until 10 p.m., on a good day I am done at 5 and spend the rest of the night with my WONDERFUL (read: patient and understanding) husband and kids.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
Who doesn't want to set their own schedule? Not having to primp in the morning is really nice, and I get to spend more time with my kids. Gabriel (three years old) and and Violet (one and a half years old) are home with me three weekdays, so I feel lucky to have that time with them to do fun things and go berry picking when we feel like it. I don't have to drive my car to work, I don't have to spend time commuting, and I get to be in my nest and get dinner started at 3 p.m. if need be. That said...I miss leaving my house. I'm not so housebound that we need to worry about territorial barking if people walk by, but... the simple act of leaving the stress of kids/cleaning/yard work behind is nice. At work, I never had to walk by a pile of clothes that needed to be folded. Some days are easier to strike a balance between work/home than others. This is probably my biggest struggle as a mother/businesswoman.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
To succeed, you really have to be everything and everyone. Designer, craftsman, salesman, office manager, shipping department, accounts payable, receivable, marketing and advertising, you name it.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?

Don't become too inventory heavy. Make sure to have your capital available and not tied up in materials (I opened a supply shop for my purchasing indiscretions).
BUDGET. Time, money.
RENEW! Even if you relist an item a day for a month you are talking about $6.00 a month and heightened visibility.
Only make what you would buy.
Don't cut corners and use the best materials.
Clean shop. Every three months, go through and get rid of what isn't selling. If you don't want to continue making something, don't. Get rid of it.
Evaluate your pricing, make sure you can pay yourself + taxes + household bills. Don't undersell your work.
Keep on learning: take classes, try new techniques, and have fun!
Connect with other sellers. Send them a convo. Ask questions. Make friends. Align yourself with good people!
Exercise. It reduces stress.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
I would like to continue to make jewelry that I love, working on new designs and meeting new people. I look forward to growing my brand, developing new styles. Professional pictures would be great.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Cheese alert:
Just a big thank you to the buyers and sellers who have helped me develop my business to this point. Thank you to the JETTEAM's support and friendship, and to my dear friend and jooray guru Metalicious, as well as Lori, Nicole, Tiffany, and the brilliant artists who fill the pages here. And thank you to ETSY for the opportunity of a lifetime.

Have your own questions to ask? Come on by and chat with her Monday, August 24th at 5 p.m. ET in Etsy's Virtual Labs.

You can see some of Madelynn's gorgeous jewelry in the Related Items below. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: crackeddesigns

2009-08-10T15:00:00-05:00

After graduating with a degree from art school, Tara a.k.a. crackeddesigns worked several day jobs that she never found truly fulfilling. After designing her own save-the-date invitations for her wedding, Tara discovered her true passion for the world of paper goods and her dream for Cracked Designs was born. She now successfully runs her paper goods business full time and enjoys brainstorming new ideas for products. Tara has found being her own boss adds definition to her life and claims she's the toughest boss she's ever had, often not knowing when to quit.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
I've always loved making things and being creative. I went to art school in Chicago and Milwaukee to further my education and love for the arts, but after I graduated I still wasn't sure what I really wanted to do. It wasn't until I made my own save-the-date wedding invitations that I knew I was completely in love with paper and design. I've always been obsessed with greeting cards and stationery, so it seemed really natural to find my calling in the paper world.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
I always dreamed that some day I would be my own boss, but it always seemed so far away — just a really nice fantasy! I had a lot of different jobs before I started Cracked Designs full time, and I was really frustrated because none of them were very satisfying. I actually designed some of my first cards while working at Starbucks! I would come home from that job with tons of little pieces of paper filled with sketches and doodles.

My husband was the one who initially told me I should just focus on Cracked Designs and to do what makes me happy. I was still a little unsure (and nervous), but once the orders started coming in more steadily and more often, I started realizing that my days of daydreaming were over!

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
I designed a lot of cards and invitations for family and friends and they really helped me to get my name out there. I spent a lot of time researching what kind of paper products were successful and unsuccessful. I worked non-stop on tweaking my line of cards to find my own unique style and make them the best I could. Since there are so many amazing paper designers out there, I really wanted to differentiate myself and put out a product that was unique and something I was proud of. It was really important for me to know what kind of competition I was going to be up against, and I think my obsessive research nature really helped me design products that are hip, but also totally unique. I also have an amazing husband who helped me figure out the legal stuff. We kind of dealt with all of that, like taxes and such as we went along. I would recommend getting all your legal responsibilities figured out before you start, it's just easier!

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?
I'm constantly promoting Cracked Designs; it's become such a natural thing. The most effective method is word of mouth! I have a lot of amazing friends and customers that spread my name around, and it's the best promotion you can get!

I also think blogs have been a great way to promote my business. I worked hard at getting my name out there to the authors of some of my favorite blogs, who then wrote awesome articles about Cracked Designs. I also just started advertising on some sites and blogs, and so far it's been working really well. I would say that it's best to research the kinds of people who visit a website before you pay to advertise, just to make sure your products fit in with the overall style/feel.

I also spend a lot of time working on my logo and marketing material design, like my business cards and postcards. So many people will see your business card and logo before they see your actual product, so I think it's so important to have those pieces really reflect your work well and draw people in.

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
I really haven't found any unsuccessful promotions; some things work better than others, but overall I would say that you should always try to get your name out there and you shouldn't expect to have people just find you.

Walk us through your typical workday.

Wake up around 8 a.m. and have coffee. Let my two huge dogs outside.
Start working in the studio. I mostly start by answering any emails and looking at what I have to accomplish that day. I am an obsessive list maker!
Work on orders, design, doodle, work on orders some more, listen to Pandora.
Eat lunch, usually in a hurry and answer more emails.
Play hide and seek with my dogs; they are excellent seekers.
Work on more orders and daydream about the next new product.
Make a trip to the post office, if necessary.
Around 4:30, my husband comes home from work and we talk about the day and brainstorm some totally rad ideas. This consists mostly of us making each other laugh and me wildly writing down and doodling crazy ideas.
My husband deals with the dogs while I continue to work in the studio.
Depending on how busy I am that day/week, I reluctantly pry myself away from the studio around 5:30 p.m.
My husband and I continue to talk about more awesome card ideas.
The rest of the night consists of me researching, doodling and answering more emails.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
I love being my own boss and being able to do exactly what I want. Working from home and being surrounded by things that inspire me is the best! I think what I miss sometimes about my day job is being able to walk away at the end of the day. When you get frustrated with your work at your day job, you can just step away and go home after it all. You and your job are two separate things — you get distance.

However, with my own business it's mine and no one else's. I can't truly walk away when I get worn out; Cracked Designs is always in the back of my mind and I'm constantly working. It's what defines me: I am Cracked Designs. It is definitely a labor of love, but I would not have it any other way. It's so awesome to be able to do something you love and seeing your vision come to life day after day. I love being able to know that I was able to build a business out of nothing, and continue to watch it grow — it's incredibly rewarding!

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
Oh man, there are a lot of hard things about running your own business. I think one hard thing for me to do is knowing when to quit. I'm always busy and could easily work all day without taking a break. I try hard to give myself a day off every once in a while. It's hard because in the back of my mind I'm thinking about what I should be doing and what needs to get done next. I've found that being my own boss is awesome, but also really demanding. I truly am the hardest boss I've ever worked for!

Another hard thing is not getting down on yourself or your products. Etsy is just a huge pool of amazing-ness, and I find it hard to not compare yourself to others. I think it's good to see what others are doing, especially in your field, but don't start comparing your products to others and especially don't change your products to try to fit in with the latest trend. It's really hard sometimes to see amazing paper products and think, "Crap, I wish I would have thought of that." You just have to know that people love your stuff, too! You got here for a reason — you make awesome things!

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
Start small and don't give up! When I first started Cracked Designs, I wanted to do it all! I had so many big ideas that I wanted to get out there right away. It just wasn't realistic looking back on it now. It look me a long time to tweak my line of cards into what they are today. It takes time to design and make a really good product.

It's also hard not to give up when things aren't going as well as you'd like them to. My business started slow at first and there were so many times when I wanted to give up. I remember going to Art vs. Craft in Milwaukee when I first started out and seeing all of the amazing card designers there, and I got really down on myself and I kept thinking that my stuff wasn't nearly as good. I also got a lot of hard rejections from stores and craft fairs in the beginning — which just added to my disappointment.

If it weren't for my husband who was constantly supporting me, I don't think I would be here today. It's so important to have a good support system! He would always tell me that my stuff was just as good and not to compare myself to other designers. You have to really believe in your product and work through the hard stuff — hard work and dedication pay off in the end. So I would say to someone starting out that nothing comes easy and to be patient with the process of building your business. Make a product that you're proud of and don't give up!

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
I would really love to get to 1,000 sales this year! I also am working on a lot of cool new products that I would love to release in the coming year, including new journals and invitation sets. It's important for me to keep making creative designs and have a lot of variety in my shop, and I think the new products I'm working on will do just that. I would also love my wedding invitation designs to get some more exposure and promote them more in the wedding world.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Just want to say thanks to everyone out there who has supported Cracked Designs on Etsy! I sometimes can't believe that I get to do what I love every single day, and it's because of our customers that I get to do just that!

Thanks to Tara for sharing her story. Have your own questions to ask? Come on by and chat with her Wednesday, August 12 at 7 p.m. ET in Etsy's Virtual Labs.

You can see some of Tara's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: ProlifiqueJewelry

2009-08-03T14:00:00-05:00

Rhonda runs two successful shops on Etsy: her jewelry shop, ProlifiqueJewelry, and her supply shop, Prolifique. Through ups and downs in both her home and work life, Rhonda has successfully created businesses on Etsy that allow her to support herself and two children entirely. This accounting major turned financial coordinator turned artist and business woman isn't slowing down anytime soon. Keep reading to find out some of her best Etsy marketing tips and why she stresses investing in a good cordless phone with a headset in order to make it through the day.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
I have always needed something to do with my hands. When I was younger, I did cross stitch, painting, or some other kind of craft, because I'm not good at sitting still doing nothing. I have always had some type of project going on. Doing something more than just as a hobby started when I dropped out of college. I was a theater major, and that was HARD work. I wasn't very good at "kissing up" to the right people, so it was very difficult for me and I quit. Not a good solution, but I was young and what did I know? So, I needed something to do and I chose floral design school as my alternative to traditional schooling. I loved it! And I was relatively good at it, too. Only problem was… couldn't really make much money at it! I worked in several shops over the next few years, and then went back to college to get my bachelor's degree in accounting. Can you say BORING? Nothing creative about it!

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
I started on Etsy about 2 years ago. It was originally just to sell some older designs that weren't selling on my website. I was running under a different name at the time (Stunning Details), and I was doing okay with my own site. Then everything started going wrong. My personal life wasn't going well. I was very unhappy, and my business was suffering in the process. I almost lost it completely… well, I actually did give up on Stunning Details. It just wasn't working for me anymore, and I had exhausted all of my money and energy trying to save it. I finally realized it just wasn't worth it anymore. I had met another designer online (Heather Gill a.k.a cherrycreek), and she was doing PMC. I was really interested to learn, so she flew from Arizona to Florida to teach me in March of 2007. We had a BLAST, and I learned everything that I could from her. I knew I had found something to get excited about again. I also knew I would need money to fund this new obsession.

Prolifique was started after a brainstorming session with my dear friend Heather, while she was in Florida getting me addicted to PMC. It started out slowly, but the business started growing very well. We had a ton of jewelry ideas that we were collaborating on as well, and that necessitated the start of ProlifiqueJewelry a few months later. It was difficult at times since she lives in Arizona and I am in Florida, but we made it work. (Well, until her other Etsy shop became so popular!) Then she was feeling torn between her first love (cherrycreek) and what we had created together.

About that same time another friend of mine, Jennifer a.k.a. jennifercasadygems, was getting very tired of the handcrafted jewelry components she was making since it was taking too much of her time away from designing jewelry. I jokingly told her I would take that business off her hands, and she took me seriously! She stopped making them, sent me all of her pics and info, and I added them to the inventory I already had on Prolifique. Then business was REALLY moving! Heather was just too busy to keep doing the Prolifique site with me, and something had to give. Instead of just splitting it up between the two of us, she GAVE it all to me! What great friends I have! The timing was great too, because I was recently divorced and desperately trying to support my children without having to work outside the home. I had become accustomed to being here with them, and it was hard enough for them to adjust after the divorce. I didn't want to have to work long hours for someone else, either.

Since the fall of 2008, when all of this took place, I have been happily running Prolifique and Prolifique Jewelry on my own, raising my two wonderful children, and supporting the three of us with the income I make from those two shops. I don't think I could ask for anything more than that!

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
I really didn't have any time to prepare in advance. I originally "quit" my day job back in 2000, ten days after my son was born. I was working for a major company in the area as a financial coordinator. It wasn't a job I loved, but it was a steady paycheck, and I was making use of my very expensive college degree. But I had to take my new baby boy back to the hospital with a very scary case of jaundice when he was just a few days old. In the middle of all this, I was told by my boss to immediately return to work or forfeit my job. I'm sure you can just imagine what I told her to do with that job!

Then I was lost… new mother, NO JOB! So, I had to do something and I fell back on what I knew: floral design. I started researching online venues to sell silk wedding flowers. I invested the few hundred dollars I had into some flowers and supplies and got busy. I got to be very popular quickly and began working a lot. Only problem was, I was almost GIVING them away to sell them. I wasn’t making much money and I was working a ton.

Finally someone asked me if I could make matching hair accessories for the flowers. That got me thinking in a whole new direction. I bought some books, hit the library, and started researching wedding hair accessories and jewelry. That is when the addiction to beads/wire/findings/etc. started.

The transition to making jewelry and hair accessories happened very quickly, and I was lucky enough to get some of my pieces into a few major bridal magazines. I did that for a few years, and then it morphed again into doing traditional everyday jewelry, and then into what I'm doing now. I wouldn't change the path I took for anything, because I feel I am the person/artist/mother I am today because of all of it. I try to learn from everything I do, and sometimes that lesson is to NEVER do that thing again.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?

Promoting my business on Etsy hasn't been difficult for me at all.

I try to renew items regularly to keep myself near the top of the searches in my categories.
I also try to keep updating my Facebook and Twitter accounts whenever I'm listing new items, having a sale, etc.
My best promotional tool is definitely word of mouth from my current customers. When I get repeat business, or I get an order from someone new who was referred by someone else, that just makes my day. That means I am doing what I set out to do.
I also highly recommend joining a street team. I recently was lucky enough to become a member of the Etsy Supply Street Team (Team ESST) and I am very happy about that and thankful that they asked me to join.
I may be selling items that are similar to others out there, but I want to make sure I do it with style. I want my customers to see that I pay attention to the details, that I am very meticulous about my work, and that I love what I do. When that happens, it shows… and that is the best advertising you can have!

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
Oh, I am the QUEEN of unsuccessful promotions! When I first started my own website, I was contacted by a celebrity gifting company, and I was SO excited. Someone wanted to promote my jewelry by giving it to celebrities? WOW! OF COURSE!

Now, I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that I didn’t have the time of my life during the two years that I pursued that avenue. I did have FUN! I met so many wonderful celebrities — I got to watch Hugh Jackman rehearse on stage at Radio City Music Hall while I was sitting in the front row! I shook hands with Darth Vader, Doogie Howser, Niles Crane… but I was GIVING THINGS AWAY! Yes, I did get a few very nice pics in magazines with celebs wearing my jewelry (Marcia Cross, Lacey Chabert), but those things don't bring you business. So, don't give your things away. I still do some celebrity promotional work, but I am very selective about what I do, and it always has a great cause behind it as well.

Walk us through your typical workday.
I don't think I really have a typical workday; it is always different and that is one of the things I love. There are some constants though.

I MUST chat with my mother, my BF, and my BFF every day, usually multiple times a day. I work while I chat, so that's good.
It's summer now, but the beginning of a normal day is usually getting the kids out of bed, dressed, fed, and off to school. Then my day starts when I get back home.
I normally start out my day talking to my mother. She is my rock, the person who will always tell me how it is, even when I don't want to hear it. She is awesome! While I'm chatting with her, I'm going through a pile of orders and condensing them into one list of things to do. It makes it easier that way, so if I have four orders for the same things, I do them all at once.
Then I coil and cut the rings, roll out PMC jewelry to dry, and then hit the bench in the garage to get HOT! And at this time of the year, it is HOT! Turning on a 1,650 degree kiln in one corner of the room, and having a flaming torch in my hand at the same time — yes, it's HOT. And I live in Florida! But I love it, so I'm not complaining.
Once I get everything fused and soldered, I normally take a break from the heat and work on the computer: answering convos, renewing items, sometimes a game or two on Facebook, and updating Twitter. Then it is off to sand the PMC, put it in the kiln, and begin my long afternoon of hammering, shaping, and oxidizing.
I normally ship items out about 2-3 times per week, so if I have packages ready to ship, after I pick the kids up from school we hit the post office.
Then it's dinnertime, bath time, and game time with the kids. After they go to bed, I normally work for another few hours before falling into bed out of sheer exhaustion.
Oh yeah, and a couple of days a week, I try to make time for my very understanding boyfriend and other friends, too. Thankfully, I have a great support system and people who love me. I couldn't do what I do without them.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
This is an EASY question; I LOVE being able to be home with my kids. Period. End of discussion. That is by far the easiest question to answer. I don't know how these mothers do it… work full time for someone else, travel to and from work, worry about kids while they are gone. Wow, that just sounds so difficult to me, and I am impressed with women who do that so well. Thankfully, I have managed to find a way to do what I love and to do it at home where my children are.

As for missing anything — the most obvious thing is daily interaction with other adults in the same line of work. But I don’t have to worry about that… thanks to the good friends I have made over the years in the jewelry business. There are a few who I talk to on a regular basis, and I wouldn't be who or where I am without them. One major suggestion to anyone else doing this: invest in a good cordless phone with a headset or a Bluetooth, so you can work and talk at the same time. It is the main thing that keeps me sane!

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
The hardest part is probably working ALL the time. Even when I'm not working, I'm thinking about working, worrying about what needs to be done, thinking about new designs, etc. It can be all-consuming at times! And I have a very hard time turning everything "off" at night… stopping work, turning off the computer, turning off my brain (still haven't figured out how to do that one…). So, as a result, I don’t sleep much, but thankfully I don't need as much sleep as I used to.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
The biggest advice I would give myself looking back would be to be true to myself and to believe in myself. I started out trying to please the "masses"… trying to be on the cutting edge, keeping up with trends, etc. Not that I don't do that now, but I don't let it change who I am. If I love something, I will make it. If not, I won't. I think it shows through in your work if you don't really love what you're doing.

My advice for others is keep a great support system around you of others in the business, and get rid of any negativity so it doesn't bring you down. When you become successful at anything in life, there are going to be people who are jealous, or are trying to do the same thing but it hasn't happened for them yet. All of that negative energy can sap the life right out of an artist. Just remember to stay true to who you are and keep your head up high. Do what you love, do it well, and the rest will fall into place. The true friends you have will see you through anything… good and bad.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
Oh my… I don't even want to answer this one, because this is a real problem for me.

I need to get ORGANIZED! I am so organized in my head, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at my studio or my bench! I sometimes spend an hour looking for something that isn’t where it's supposed to be. Then I get frustrated, I get behind, and then I have to work longer. I am doing much better, but I have a long way to go!
I also want to find a better way to keep my records. You would think with an MBA in accounting I would know how to do that. Technically, I do… but I guess I am like the plumber with the leaky faucet. I did it for others for such a long time, now I'm terrible about doing it for myself.
I also have so many great new things I want to learn to expand my skills. Having a kiln enables me to do enamel work, and I really want to try that. And I really want to do lost wax casting, too. I thought I couldn't do it, because I'm not one that can look at a block of wax and carve something beautiful out of it. I'm more of the type that can take all the separate pieces and put them together to make a whole. Now I know I can do that with wax too… so I'm excited to give it a try!

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
I don't know where I would be without the Internet! I am in love with my computer, new technology, everything about it. And without my two Etsy shops, I couldn't do what I do. I am honored to be a part of this huge conglomerate of fantastic artists, and I'm just excited to see what tomorrow brings. I can definitely see my work evolving and going on different tangents, but I can NEVER see myself doing anything else but what I'm doing right now. I work 14 to 16 hours a day, six days a week — but it's not really WORK. It's what I love, it's my life, it's what I do, and it's what makes me the wonderfully happy person that I have become in the past year. In turn, I am now a much better mother, friend, artist, and just a better person in general. I know it sounds corny, but for me it's true!

Good luck to anyone who wants to try this for themselves. I always thought my work ethic wasn't good enough to do anything on my own. But I learned that I was never lacking in the ability to work… I was only lacking in the inspiration to do it. Once you find that inspiration, it's no longer work!

Thanks to Rhonda for sharing her story. Have your own questions to ask? Come on by and chat with her Wednesday, August 5 at 7 p.m. ET in Etsy's Virtual Labs.

You can see some of Rhonda's beautiful work in the Related Items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: KristinFriesen

2009-07-27T15:18:00-05:00

Kristin, the jewelry designer and emerging business woman behind KristinFriesen, was able to quit her jobs working in cafes and nannying due to the growing success of her jewelry shop. She now juggles motherhood, jewelry making, and being her own boss — something Etsy has allowed her to do for almost two years. Keep reading to find out why Kristin has never paid for advertising and how she is learning more about being a business woman with each day that goes by — without ever setting foot in a business class.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
I've been making things for fun since, well, forever… but I didn’t start making jewelry to sell until about three years ago. When I was almost 20, I got pregnant with my son. My husband Justin had a friend whose girlfriend was also pregnant and due around the same time as me. The guys got us together, and we became fast friends. She had dabbled in jewelry prior to that and convinced me that we should start making jewelry together since we would have nothing better to do after the babies were born (yeah, right). So we formed a little business together and did some markets and home parties. Over time our job situations changed, and we could no longer find the time to do jewelry together (though we are still great friends), so I turned to Etsy.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
Absolutely! I’ve always hated following directions and doing as I’m told. I much prefer making up my own rules and dancing to my own beat. (Some call it stubborn, I call it independent) Since I never went to college, I honestly never thought I would ever be able to “be my own boss.” When I joined Etsy, my initial goal was to sell the jewelry I had left over from my previous endeavor, but it was definitely in the back of my mind to take it to the top. I joined right before the holidays and ended up doing better than I expected, so my dreams and aspirations quickly grew. At the time I was nannying and doing Etsy on the side, but after the holidays I somehow managed to convince my husband that I was making enough money to do Etsy full time (still not really sure how I managed that). Reluctantly, he agreed, and I quit my nanny job.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
Not really; I’m more of a “do now, think later” kind of person. Not always the smartest approach, that’s just how I am. I did really wish I had a big chunk of money as start-up capital, but we just didn’t have that, so I did what I could. For the first several months, I wasn't able to keep any of my profit because everything I made had to be reinvested. Looking back, it would have been wise to prepare in other ways: take a business class, learn more about selling online, or at least read a book about starting my own business. It has been a lot of trial and error, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?
I've tried just about everything. When I first started, I didn't know ANYTHING about promoting or marketing myself on the Internet, so I tried everything I came across. I scoured The Storque, reading every success and tips article, spent hours in the Forums soaking up knowledge, and bookmarked about a million links. I’ve tried online social networking, Flickr, blogging, other handmade marketplaces, submitting myself for features and much more.

Ultimately, the things that have stuck are Twitter, blogging, Flickr, and now Facebook. I sponsor giveaways now and regularly submit myself to blogs. Another thing I’ve done recently is become friends with other Etsy sellers. Since using Twitter I have made so many friends (whom I love!) and they are very supportive of me and my shop and always help to spread the word, as I do with their shops. Never underestimate the power of word of mouth!

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
With all the things I’ve tried, there are too many unsuccessful methods to list. The biggest thing I learned was not to spread myself too thin. Originally, I figured the best thing I could do was to have presence in as many different places as I could find. I discovered very quickly that it takes a lot of work to maintain all those sites, and if I can't maintain them, they're useless and a complete waste of time. That was when I narrowed it down to the ones that seemed to be working (listed above) and ditched the rest. I’ve also never paid for ad space anywhere. I feel like there are so many free ways to promote yourself if you just look hard enough, why spend money on it?

Walk us through your typical workday.
Every day is a little different. I’m not much of a “routine” person, so I really don’t stick to a schedule (with the exception of Jack’s naptime).

We usually wake up sometime between 7 and 9. I’ll get Jack changed and fed, get my husband out the door for work, then sit down with my coffee.
Between breakfast and naptime anything can happen. Some days I’m really busy, and I’ll let Jack watch a show or play with his trains while I answer emails. Other days we run errands or go on little excursions to the beach, library, zoo, or park.
Around noon we have lunch. Afterward we’ll read stories and have some quiet playtime before his nap.
Around 1:30 is when Jack takes his nap. This is when the real work begins. While he sleeps I will pack up orders, take photos, make jewelry, etc. The time always flies by, and I never seem to finish everything I had hoped to.
Jack usually takes fairly late naps so by the time he wakes up it's time to start getting ready for dinner. He plays while I cook or clean up the house before Justin gets home from work. As soon as Justin gets home we sit down and eat dinner together.
After dinner the three of us will spend time together before Jack goes to bed. We play trains, read books, and watch movies. Sometimes I sneak away to my office and work some more while Justin and Jack have some “father-son time."
Jack goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:30. As soon as he goes to bed Justin and I will clean up the dinner mess and sit down to watch our shows. We are really into Rescue Me, The Daily Show, The Big Bang Theory, and recently we've gotten into Cake Boss. We watch some TV together for a few hours, and I will sneak off every so often to blog, order materials, or make jewelry.

Every Tuesday Jack spends the day with my wonderful father-in-law so I can have a day off. Without my Tuesdays I couldn't ever maintain sanity and do all that I do. Having this day free allows me to catch up on work, clean the house, and have some time to myself.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
There’s no way I could pick just one thing I enjoy most. I get to make my own schedule, spend time with my family, put my creativity to good use, not to mention I don’t have to work for anybody but myself! I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss the social aspect of working a day job, but the pros outweigh the cons a million to one. Before I got pregnant I worked in a café, and my job was nothing special. Now I’m doing something I am truly proud of, and I love every day that I do it.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
Trying to manage my business with a two-year-old is hectic at best. It definitely has its ups and downs, and it’s the ups that keep me going when I’m down. I’ve seen my hard work pay off, so when the going gets tough, I’m that much more driven to succeed.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
Advice for myself? THINK BEFORE YOU ACT. One of my biggest regrets is opening up shop under a generic username instead of taking the time to think of my business name before I started selling. I came up with my business name later and now they don’t match. Not the end of the world, but it bugs me… I wish my username were “sweeterthanme” since that’s the name of my business. [Click here for a post on this topic.]

Advice for someone else? Never give up! I know it’s a little cliché, but it must be said. I hear people complaining that they have no idea why their shop isn’t doing well. The list of things you can do to improve is endless, and until you’ve tried them all you can’t say that you have no idea why you’re not selling. Do everything you possibly can and never give up. Quitters never win and winners never quit.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
At the moment, my goal is to reach 2,000 sales by my second Etsy-versary on October 27. I just reached my goal of 1,000 by my birthday (May 15). It seems a little out of reach at the moment, but so did my last goal, and I achieved that one and then some. All I want right now is to continue to grow my business and be more and more successful than the year before. I'm very proud of everything I've accomplished so far and am trying not to be too hard on myself if I don't reach exact goals.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
To anyone who's ever purchased my jewelry, complimented my work, left a comment on my blog, chatted with me on Twitter, or sent me a friendly conversation: THANK YOU! You are the reason I get out of bed every morning, and you keep me going. I absolutely adore my customers and followers and appreciate every one of you! I truly love what I do, but without someone to share it with it wouldn't be nearly as fun. I have the most amazing friends and family. They have encouraged me and been proud of me since day one (not to mention they LOVED all the jewelry I've created over the years). Thank you for the honest and helpful feedback and for always pushing me to achieve my goals.

Also, I am so grateful to have discovered Etsy, it has opened so many doors for me and completely changed my life. There's no way I could have quit my day job to pursue my artistic ventures this quickly without Etsy. Thank you everyone for all that you do, it means the world to me!

Thanks to Kristin for sharing her story. Have your own questions to ask? Come on by and chat with her Tuesday, July 28 at 5 p.m. ET in Etsy's Virtual Labs.

You can see some of Kristin's beautiful work in the related items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: jstephens13

2009-07-20T16:00:00-05:00

Jen, a.k.a. Jstephens13, quit her pharmacy day job in order to be able to stay at home with her new baby. It wasn't until her husband quit his day job in order to go to nursing school that she began supporting the family through her Etsy shop. She claims to be the toughest boss she's had to date and finds it hard to take a break, even while on vacation. Jen remains humble, advises not to set unrealistic goals, and swears her best marketing tool is a quality product.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
It all started with the Bedazzler... remember that? Making jeans look super hot and hand-me-down jean jackets look even cooler. I was never the proud owner of a Bedazzler, but I think that made it all the more fascinating. From there, my mother and I dabbled in every craft form, from hair bows to puff paint. We were always creating! In college I started to sew seriously. I knew I would marry my husband the night I wore a hideous handmade-from-an-old-sweatshirt-one-sleeved top and he still wanted to dance with me.

The FIRST class I ever ditched was my junior year in college when I had to bind off a knitting project. My adviser was so worried (I had literally never missed a class) that he called my dorm room. Instead of being creeped out by the call I was happy to announce my new sweater and he was happy that I was alive.
Crafting isn't just a hobby for me, it defines me. When identifying an era in my life, I always think in terms of what the current craft was.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
The deed had already been done. Two weeks after the birth of my son, I gave notice to the job "that I could never leave" and started to redefine myself as a mom instead of a career woman. What I didn't know however was that my husband would soon leave his job to go back to school for nursing. I joked that when you asked me to interview for this column, it was ONLY because there was no column named "you and your husband quit your day jobs and one of you goes back to school full time." I imagine that would be a mouthful for an article title, and we are probably the only family crazy enough to try and make it work.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
After years of gifting handmade, and people harping on me to start a store or a design company of my own, I was peer-pressured by my aunt to give Etsy a try. So, I would say to prepare, I fulfilled my own selfish need to create art and to give it to unsuspecting victims. That was great practice for actually starting my own shop. I also spent about $20 at the Salvation Army to outfit myself with a Singer sewing machine and a lifetime of vintage thread.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?
I am REALLY old fashioned! The best form of marketing is having a great quality product! I have always believed that what's on the inside COUNTS THE MOST (in life and in sewing)... so my bags often have really beautiful liners and every detail is given attention! I did start a blog and personal web page and that seems to get plenty of action. I used the template provided through Weebly, I get the "free" business cards from VistaPrint, I purchased a LOVELY avatar and banner from Etsy shop ThompsonDesigns, and I buy all my wonderful labels from Etsy shop RememberWynn.

Walk us through your typical workday.
A typical day does not exist in my house. Every day does include the following however:

6 diapers
4 baby meals
2 dog meals
6 adult meals (when squeezed in)
3 walks around the neighborhood
1 sweep clean through the house
2 sewing sessions (if Axel naps)
3 runs of the Elmo in Grouchland movie
7 calls to my mother (for moral support)
LOADS of new ideas that I have to write down before I forget
DANCING with my boys EVERY NIGHT before bed
LAUGHING till we fall asleep
And a glass of wine when needed...

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
My co-workers consist of Jahred (my husband) and Nana (my grandma). Not many people call their grandma a colleague. I am SOOO lucky to have a family that is with me on this hoop dream! Nana gives me constant ideas, constructive criticism and is a wiz with the Pellon interfacing!

My relationship with Jahred has always been project oriented and this keeps us on our toes and keeps us from worrying about the little things in life. Art is a positive force in our house and we are so happy to be raising our son in a family where we are home a lot and also get in TONS of experiential learning!

I really miss the pharmacy I worked for and our patients. Although people comment on a beautiful bag, or high quality stitching, it just isn't the same as knowing you are taking excellent care of some one's sweetheart. I learned a lot from the people of the community. The creativity I use now is fabulous, but my day job was much more intellectual. However, I have filled the void with reading, blogging and journaling. I also have more time to develop my clothesline techniques (darn bird poop) and playing in the dirt with Axel.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
I am the toughest boss I have ever had, hands down. It's hard to just take a break. Most weekends the sewing machine comes with me out of town and this once computer-illiterate girl is now connected all the time.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
I would tell myself to do it all again. I am so glad I allowed myself to let go of the career side of my life and start living the intrinsic art part of my life. Being a starving artist isn't that bad! I'm not recommending people just go quitting their day job on a whim, but if the situation presents itself, just be open to the opportunity.

There are lots of concerns about being self-insured, paying your own taxes and stuff like that, but there are plenty of people you may already know who can help you with those things. I have learned, and I would advise others, to stop micro-managing your life and just breathe. It feels good to worry less and dream more.
Don't set unrealistic goals, know what you are good at and stay true to yourself. Handmade comes from the heart and it is created to fill a need. Be proud of yourself!
Don't spend a lot of money getting yourself off the ground. Start small...just like in 2nd grade math when you couldn't use a calculator. You don't need the big guns right away... start with the basics, you might fall in love with them and find higher-end technology is overrated.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
I never expect to get rich quick, or "be discovered." I just want to keep sewing on my $20 Salvation Army sewing machine and connect over fabric talk with Nana. One of the first typewriter key bracelets I made had the word "grateful." I hope to live up to the definition of grateful. Jahred has 15 months of school left and then you can all expect a HUGE sale in my Etsy shop.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
I really need to thank my family, and I have to say that if they would have bought me that Bedazzler years ago, I don't think I would be where I am today. The "chase" of the art is always the best. Thanks for not always giving in, but making me reach further.

Thanks to Jen for sharing her story. Have your own questions to ask? Come on by and chat with her Wednesday, July 22 at 3 p.m. ET in Etsy's Virtual Labs.

You can see some of Jen's beautiful work in the related items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: enhabiten

2009-07-13T15:00:00-05:00

Since childhood Liane, a.k.a. enhabiten, has been peddling her wares and exploring her creative side. Now that she's graduated from selling "junque" on the street corner to beautifully handcrafted housewares online, she's found her place in the world of Etsy. After working years in the service industry, Liane is happy to find her consistent income now coming from her Etsy sales and the ability to work in her pajamas until 11 a.m. if she wishes. Some of her best promotional tips are gaining free blog recognition and spending time in Etsy's Treasury. Keep reading to find out what makes this Gemini tick.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
I have been making things since I was little. One of my best friends growing up, Fay, was also crafty. We made all kinds of crafts and sometimes tried to sell them. We liked to have sales when we were little, say 6-10 years old. I recall one where we sold crafts we’d made, as well as all sorts of collected stuff from around the house, including dust-covered goodies from the cellar (the beginnings of my love for both vintage and handmade). We made a big sign which said “Junque Sale." I swear we spelled it that way. Like we were admitting to selling crap, but we spelled it in a sort of fancy French way and that made up for it some.

So we’re on the street corner, just a couple of industrious 9-year-olds, holding up our sign and yelling at all the cars passing by, “Junque sale, junque sale…come and get your junque.” When along came a smart-aleck kid in a beat-up Ford Pinto or something (this was the '70s) and he rolls down his window (manually, again '70s) and yells, “WHO WANTS JUNQUE??” Well buddy, turns out lots of people want junque, so there. I continued to love making things throughout school (black corduroy knickers in 7th grade being a particularly memorable project) and ended up with a college degree in studio art.

Two side notes: If you want to hear the rest of the Fay stories which involve such topics as streaking, cod liver oil and the chief of police, just send me a convo. I also want to share that my family proudly drove an orange AMC Gremlin back in the day.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
I was so excited when I heard about Etsy in the fall of 2007 from my friend Erica. She opened her shop around the same time as me but had been an Etsy customer for a bit beforehand. I knew immediately it was a crazy good opportunity, but I really didn’t have a plan or goal at all. I’m an artist and a Gemini. I do stuff first, think second. But really, I did quit my day job — which was as a full-time coffee shop girl — because of an illness in my family. I started the Etsy shop while I was home being a full-time caretaker to a sick child. Life’s a rollercoaster. One utterly crappy thing happens and then a pretty good kismet thing happens. I give up working to understand…I just try to roll with it.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
I guess I do like to understand things before I get into them, even if I don’t have a clear plan. I read every bit of information on Etsy for sellers. For me this was important. Understanding what can be found on Etsy and also how the site works and how I could make it work for me was key. I registered my shop name with the state, got my tax ID and opened a business checking account. I recall that the Storque articles featuring seller success stories were really inspiring. Although I did not plot out my own success I do remember thinking, if they could do it, why not me?

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?
I think being featured in Treasuries really helped my shop get off the ground. I made lots of Treasuries myself and doing that helped with name recognition among other Treasury makers and folks viewing the Treasuries. I also think becoming familiar to the design-oriented bloggers out there has been helpful. Being featured on popular blogs brings me traffic from outside of Etsy. Although Flickr is not a promotional tool per se, I know I get traffic from there as well.

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
The only thing I can say here is that free blog features help me more than paid advertising. I spent some time in the past on the Etsy Forums but I don’t think that makes a difference in my business. I go there just to procrastinate, honestly. I don’t have a lot of procrastination time at the moment.

Walk us through your typical workday.

5ish a.m.: Wake up, make coffee, check Etsy. I also have a Flickr account which I like, so I check Flickr and see what my contacts have posted overnight. Living in a small town, I have found that the internet has filled a void in terms of connecting with people with the same interests. I love the long distance friends I’ve made through Etsy, Flickr and blogs. I scroll through the Etsy vintage category while I drink my coffee. I actually do this several times a day, a little OCD, and I check a couple other Etsians' Favorites (you know who you are). I can’t buy everything I favorite, but I feel like it’s an activity which is creatively satisfying and it helps improve my eye/aesthetic.
7ish a.m.: I get to work in my studio, usually still in the sweatpants and t-shirt I wore to bed. I’m trying to break myself out of this habit, but once I finish my computer routine I feel anxious to get going. It is a little icky, however, when a friend drops by at 11 a.m. and I’m still in pajamas and haven’t brushed my teeth. Anyway, from 7-noon I work on orders and make some new things to list. My 11-year-old is home schooled and he wakes up late and works with me in the studio on his own stuff. He’s currently studying Italian online and he’s making a big hand drawn map of the world. He’s really interested in geography. I have a big studio in our old house. It’s still a work in progress but I L-O-V-E it. It’s got a vintage wood stove and big windows and even a sink in it.
Noon: Get cleaned up and get dressed, eat lunch, do dishes, clean up around the house. I sometimes weed in the garden and play with the dog in the backyard to spend time outside.
2-6 p.m.: Work in the studio some more.
6-8 p.m.: Make and eat dinner and spend time with the family.
8 p.m.: Either mess around on the computer checking Flickr, blogs, Etsy or work more in the studio.
9 or 10 p.m.: Bedtime.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
Well, I have never been good at having a conventional full-time job. I have three kids ages 19, 17 and 11, and my focus for the past nineteen years has been raising them. (I got pregnant my senior year of college. And although I don’t recommend it, I also don’t regret it.) All along I’ve worked part-time in various jobs, such as child and elder care and working at a health food store and in a coffee shop. (Really, I’ve done more kinds of part-time work than it makes sense to list here.) Service-oriented jobs suit me more than the cubicle/office work. I also spent some time doing art gallery work, including corporate art.

The idea of having a profession like that was somewhat appealing in theory, but the reality left me bored and uninspired. I think my ideal job would be this: maintain my Etsy business while working on my painting (art is my background) while also working on some styling/design work and/or writing a book!

I had my astrological chart done several years ago and I was told I would be remembered for my writing and not my art. So I’m waiting for that to happen. I love to read good fiction, especially historical. I also love to look at interior design picture books. I can study the pictures in depth over and over. It’s a little weird, but it makes me happy. I didn’t answer the question, did I? The answer is I don’t miss anything, except perhaps the customers at the coffee shop. And free doughnuts.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
The business part of it. If you saw the sky-high pile of papers I need to sort through…for shame! But I’m going to work on that. No really, I swear! This is something I need to overcome because at this point I do feel like I need to run that part well in order to succeed.

I have noticed that there are these sort of steps or even periods where things plateau and you have to have a plan and know where you want to go next in order to go there. I need to get organized and clear about what I want to do and what my ultimate goal is. I like to go into the studio and la la la…just do whatever my whims tell me to do. But I see definite areas where I can improve my shop appearance and products and I have to focus and get those things done. It might be nice to have someone else be in charge of this aspect of the business, but have I mentioned that I’m also a little bit controlling? So that might pose a problem.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
I believe that the most critical thing for people making a craft is to realize that you have to have something special people want. Photos, a business plan, and marketing skills are all important, but without that special something, it won’t fly. I spend a lot of time on Etsy and working in my studio. When I don’t, it shows. And, don’t underestimate the power of just showing up and putting in the time to improve what you make. My things have changed and been refined lots over the past year.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
Well, in the next couple months I plan to create a more consistent look for my photos. I also want to focus in on a few different categories of products. I’m really loving vintage fabric, particularly barkcloth, and especially in combination with patterned wool on the back. And I want to expand my pillows made with these fabrics, but make them more consistent in terms of look and size. I also want to expand the line of embroidered word pillows and maintain the cross pillows, but I have some tweaking I want to do to that “line." At the same time, I want to keep experimenting. I’m working on some reupholstery projects and also clothing made with vintage fabric. It’s a juggling act. Did I already say I’m a Gemini?

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
I adore Etsy. B.E. (before Etsy) I felt a little lost in the wilderness of life and I wondered, “Where do I fit in?” Like that scene in Zoolander where Derek is talking to his really really good-looking reflection in the street puddle and he asks himself, “Who am I?” But seriously, Etsy has allowed me to make money while being my creative self. It allows me a really flexible schedule and I feel like I get out of it what I put in. It’s incredibly easy to use and there is next to no financial risk. So thank you, Etsy. For reals. If you were a really really good looking boy, I’d totally smooch you. Or even a half-way decent looking boy driving an orange AMC Gremlin. Just brush your teeth first.

Thanks to Liane for sharing her story. Have a your own questions to ask? Come on by and chat with her Wednesday, July 15th at 7pm ET in Etsy's Virtual Labs.

You can see some of Liane's beautiful housewares in the related items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: dazeychic

2009-07-06T15:00:00-05:00

Shelli has been successfully supporting herself through her Etsy business, dazeychic, after diving in head first. She runs a tight ship and puts in long hours, all the while caring for her son, Brayden. Shelli is just now learning how to balance and manage her time to keep from working 24/7, claims one of her best Etsy strategies is relisting all of the items in her shop daily, and wishes she had paid a tad more attention in math rather than doodling during class. Keep reading to get a peek into the life of Shelli and the story behind dazeychic.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
My lovely mom, neysasart, passed on her creative gene to me (thanks, Mom!) and encouraged me to explore every avenue in which I showed an interest. As silly as it sounds, I always loved to doodle and it often got me into trouble during school. I would make classmates cards with funny people on them, and I would write my teachers notes in the margins using bubble letters. I hated math and I LOVED art class. It was the only thing that ever felt just right.

I owe my humble digital illustration beginnings to the invention of blogs and Valentine's Day. My boyfriend at the time, who is now my partner-in-crime and Etsy-guru husband, surprised me one Valentine's Day with a little software program called Paint Shop Pro. Nothing fancy. I dove in that night and never looked back. I took a few online tutorial classes to teach me the basics and started posting my creations on my blog. I started getting requests for custom work almost instantly. It was amazing. It was the first time I was doing what I loved... but it certainly was not full-time.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
Absolutely not. The very idea seemed dreamy and very very far away! At that time I still believed I was going to be a famous author like Carrie Bradshaw.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
I should probably say "yes" here... but I'm creative and not at all logical. I had the basics, but anything beyond that? Nothing. I learn best by jumping in and "doing" so that's exactly what I did. Finances and taxes have been the hardest so far...which is ironic. I guess I should have paid attention in math!

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?
Blog, a lot. Blog about yourself. Your life. Your goals. Your fears. Everything. People want to know you, not just read about your new work. Connecting with your fan base is the best promotion there is! I honestly get this question quite frequently in Convos. I always tell people the same thing. Put out a great product, something you are proud of and would buy yourself. A happy client/customer/shopper will ALWAYS tell someone else. Always. That's free promotion that you can feel crazy-good about. And a freebie in the package — with your shop's address — is always a plus!

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
I may be in the minority here, but I truly believe that there is no such thing as unsuccessful promotion! Anytime you put your name out there is brave and rewarding. Someone, somewhere will look at your work. Just yesterday I Googled a business name I saw on the bulletin board in my local coffee shop. You just never know... so do it all! What have you got to lose? Well, now that I said that... don't go crazy. Be true to your business and stay within your means. Obviously larger magazines are ridiculously expensive and most of us cannot afford that unless pairing with Etsy and their fantastic Cooperative Advertising Program! Do not break the bank to promote yourself because there are never any guarantees. Unfortunately.

Walk us through your typical workday.

7 a.m. - 8 a.m.: I wake up to the sound of my little man (2.5 year-old Brayden) singing "Money money must be funny in a rich man's world!" from the Mamma Mia soundtrack. He sings it as loud as he can which is pretty much the best alarm clock ever.

8:45 a.m.: I get Brayden a bowl of cereal and set him up in front of Nick Jr. to watch junk TV for an hour so I can get things done. However, anyone with a child over 2 knows that they do not do what you want... so he usually follows me into the studio to play with his cars while I check email and answer urgent messages. I begin to print orders and address shipping labels. I do this all by hand because it feels more personal to write address labels rather than printing them.

9:30 a.m.: I have my daily conference call with my best friend (my mom)... who lives a mile away. We talk about anything and everything. She keeps me sane.

I relist everything in my Etsy shop periodically throughout the day. One of my smartest investments was getting the internet on my mobile phone which allows me to relist or answer emails from anywhere.

10:30 a.m.: Brayden and I get dressed. Or rather, I get him dressed and I *try* to get dressed while he is under my feet showing me the big engine on his Hot Wheel car. He is often found shooting cars off of Mommy and Daddy's big bed right about now. I, thank goodness, get ten minutes to brush my teeth, flat iron my hair, apply a bit of makeup and find some flip flops.

11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.: This is officially Brayden & Mommy time. The business hat comes off and I focus on him. We take little trips to the store to do errands. We go to the library and play with the train set in the far back corner that no one else knows about. We giggle about silly things and make up songs. We build forts and meet Grandma for lunch. We go to the park or go for a walk. Every day is different. Every day I realize more and more how lucky I am to have quit working a day job and how it is making a direct impact on who my son is going to be. It's just such a gift.

1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.: This is when I jump into high gear. Brayden is usually taking a nap or my incredible family (whom I could not live without) takes him off my hands for a bit. I finish printing, I sign and number each print, I bag them in pristine plastic sleeves, I stuff envelopes with promo goodies and rush to get to the post office before it closes.

4:45 p.m.: After chatting with the adorable ladies at the post office (who know me by heart and know the entire drill without question), Brayden and I usually stop at Starbucks for a pick-me-up. I need my Vanilla Latte and he needs his Blackberry Scone.

5:30 p.m.: My AMAZING husband comes home from his day job and plays with Brayden. I always joke with him and say "The title of Mom ends at 6 p.m." and it's true. Ben feeds him and gets Brayden into bed by 7:30 p.m. while I work on new things in the studio and print more orders.

7 p.m. - 10 p.m.: Ben and I watch TV and eat dinner together. It's the only time during the day I sit down with him and I LOVE it. I'm a huge movie-and-popcorn kinda girl so it's no surprise that this is what I do to relax and unwind.

10 p.m. - 1 a.m.: It's back up to the studio to work. I work best at night when it's quiet and peaceful. I get the most done during these hours. I order supplies and sketch new designs... this is my favorite time of day.

1 a.m.: Bedtime. I read for a bit and fall asleep dreaming of a vacation in Mexico or Paris!

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
What I enjoy most is not having a boss! Not that I ever had particularly difficult or nasty bosses in the past... it's just such a freeing moment when you look around you and go WOW! I HAVE NO ONE TO ANSWER TO! You do things the way you want... when you want. There is nothing better than that. Although, I have to admit answering email in your pajamas is equally lovely! I am like every other work-at-home. I miss people. Interacting with coworkers, the chatting and constant friends. It's the toughest part! If I didn't have Facebook and email, I would be miserable... it's my connection to the outside world.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
The hardest part is turning it off. I'm always thinking about it. I'm always worried about something. It just doesn't go away. There is not a time-clock telling me to go home so I tend to work 24/7 even if I'm not in front of the computer or over a canvas. It's a constant job owning your own business; I was not prepared for that at all. I'm getting better at it, though!

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
My advice for others is to not put pressure on yourself or your Etsy shop. Don't put expectations so high that you can't reach. Do it because you cannot imagine doing anything else. As for advice I would have given myself? "Pay attention in math class, Shelli! Believe it or not you really are going to use it someday!"

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
I sincerely want to continue to make people smile! I really cannot ask for much more. A little secret? I am working on wall decals that are large scale prints which I hope to have available soon. Very cute!

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
To anyone who has purchased something from me, THANK YOU. I don't think you know how much you each mean to me. I sometimes wish I could find you all and give you a giant hug! And it's not just me really, I mean, when you purchase something on Etsy you are honoring and supporting a real person. A REAL PERSON. Not a big giant money hungry company. That's just amazing and oh-so-refreshing!

To Etsy, you own my whole heart for what you have done for me. And for those of you behind the scenes keeping this place tip-top and running smooth... I'd kiss you if I could.

Thanks to Shelli for sharing her story. You can see some of her product line in the related items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: NewDuds

2009-06-29T16:31:00-05:00

Torrey and Tessa met in college, inspired each other's creativity, and are now successfully running two Etsy shops, NewDuds and hannapt. Both Torrey and Tessa had regular day jobs out of college and pursued their mutual creative outlets in order to cultivate their own businesses together. They started out small, set consistent achievable goals along the way, and with their last busy Etsy holiday season, Torrey and Tessa were able to move their operation into a separate studio and call it quits with their regular careers. The two of them are now happily co-creating with their dog and cat by their side and are planning their handmade wedding coming this fall.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
Torrey: Ever since I was little I've made things. I come from a family of builders; growing up, there was always a new tree house in the making. I have been drawing for as long as I could remember. I’ve always been a hands on, visual person.

Tessa: Torrey and I had a similar childhood. My parents were both teachers and stressed the importance of creativity. We always had a craft room and a wood shop at home. In college I painted but wasn’t fully happy with it. I met Torrey at college and he really helped keep my creativity going. However, after college I stopped being hands on and creative, and it really put me in a funk. I worked retail and it took a toll on my attitude. I knew I needed to do something else. I heard about Etsy through our friend Erin, a.k.a. elmbellishments, and I loved the site instantly. When we got a new kitten, it tapped into my long dormant love of sewing and I started making him cat toys. That led to opening our first shop on Etsy, hannapt. The catnip eyeballs were a bigger hit than we could have ever imagined, and the hope of being our own business bloomed from there. Then I finally knew it was the direction I wanted to take my life.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
Torrey: Absolutely. Etsy was a great outlet for us to get started and test the water for our products. I have always wanted to be self-employed and Etsy was the first step in proving to myself that it was possible while doing what I love…creating.

Tessa: At first I thought of it as a little extra income. I was barely making enough working retail to scrape by. However, I found myself staying up late and not being able to get Etsy off the brain. Soon I was daydreaming about being a Featured Seller and reading articles and trying to make our Etsy shops into something viable. Once we opened newduds in the winter of '08 I knew quitting my job was nearing.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
Torrey: Yes, we worked out of our apartment for the first year and a half. I worked for a corporate screen-printer full time during those years. I made sure to really learn the process and equipment needed for screen-printing. I did lots and lots of research before buying any of my equipment or supplies. I got some amazing deals by purchasing refurbished equipment. We also figured out our favorite apparel wholesalers with whom to work.

Tessa: We got all our legal ducks in a row; as art majors, starting a small business was something we knew very little about. However, we have some great friends that pointed us in the right direction and some awesome Etsy blog articles and forums that helped out a ton! I spent about a year re-learning to sew, scrounging thrift stores for fabric, perfecting the catnip eyeballs, taking in as much supplies from friends and family as I could. The success of the holiday sales got us looking into workshop space in the area. Screen-printing the way we wanted to just wasn’t going to fit in our two-bedroom apartment. We got a small loan from a friend to purchase the needed printing equipment and to open our workshop. Finally in January of 2009 I gave my two weeks' notice (I had been just part-time since the summer). Then just about a month ago Torrey left his job fully. We listened to a lot of people telling us to wait a few years and save more before we jumped in. But for us this was the best time. We have very few commitments, no mortgage, no kids, and very few payments. There might not be another time in our lives when we could put 100% into something as we can now.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?
Torrey: Word of mouth, friends and family are the most fantastic (and free) means of marketing. Passing out business cards, and hanging posters is effective and fun!

Tessa: Promoting Etsy has been fun. Etsy is still a very foreign word to many here in Vermont. Explaining ourselves and what we do still gets quite a few confused looks. I find the best way is to just show people the Etsy site. We do some guerrilla marketing like leaving our business cards in bathrooms, posting flyers at local colleges, leaving the Etsy site up at libraries and college computers. The catnip eyeballs get on blogs weekly and that has been awesome. Just having unique products really helps.

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
We haven’t had too many unsuccessful promotions. We don’t spend money on advertising if we can help it so I haven’t had any financial regrets. I don’t know if anyone actually finds us through our guerrilla advertising, but it sure is fun running around shoving business cards in bathroom stalls.

Walk us through your typical workday.
Torrey: Wake up before 8:00 (just about every day). I find that I feel more productive and fresh in the morning and tend to get more work done. I like to eat a good breakfast and have a cup of coffee. I bike three miles to work, which is not only energizing but a great time for me to be alone and think about my day, and what I want to get done. Get to the shop, check emails, check orders, and browse a few things on Etsy. Then from here on out it varies greatly depending on what I have to print for that day. I draw, paint, print, build or clean. My days are usually pretty different from each other, which keeps things refreshing. There is always something to do around here. At some point one of us will go to the post office and drop off the orders from the night before, and grab lunch.

Tessa: I’m a bit of a later riser, and usually I run in the mornings also. This past winter I was training for the Boston Marathon so running was a main focus of my morning. It’s good that our schedules are a bit different. It gives us each alone time to focus and then some good hours together working. I try to sew up something new each day. I spend a day or so each week making cat toys. I don’t make a ton at once because I think nothing beats fresh catnip! We go to a local farmers market Thursday afternoons. We are also going to SOWA in Boston on some Sundays this summer with our friend Jesse, a.k.a. jessedanger. We spend a good chunk of our day with customer relations. We do local custom printing as well as Etsy so there is always an email or convo to get back to. We don’t have cable TV and that has been a great way for us to be creative instead. We love being at our shop and our dog joins us every day. It’s such a welcome and truly treasured part of our lives now.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
Torrey: The best part is the freedom to create as I feel. I remember being at work printing some job, and daydreaming about what I could be doing instead. Now if I get an idea I have the freedom to drop what I’m doing and lay out my ideas. Honestly there isn’t much that I miss about my day job other than the people with whom I worked.

Tessa: Oh my, I love so much. I love being able to say I’m a small business owner, I love working with my hands all day, I love bringing my dog to work, I love taking breaks for walks or just to sit outside, I love writing off business expenses, impromptu dance parties, and print shop parties! Sometimes I miss the structure of a day job, having someone tell you what to do. Sometimes I miss my coworkers also, but now I have more time to hang out with my friends and family. I really missed that when I was working retail.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
Torrey: Dealing with the trends of customers, being self-disciplined, and not having as structured of a life. Ultimately it’s a good thing, but it's hard not knowing exactly what you have to do each and every day.

Tessa: Right now the hardest thing for me is learning to call it a day. I love having a hand in every part of the business but sometimes that can get overwhelming. I’m learning to make obtainable lists for each day. Set small goals and learn from our mistakes. It’s so different than anything I ever imagined myself doing. But that’s also what makes it awesome!

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
Torrey: To be patient. As soon as I graduated college I wanted to hop right into having my own shop. Now that I have lived through the last two years I understand that gaining that experience was crucial to my ability to finally quit. If being self-employed is truly what you want to do, then it will happen. You just need to work hard and be patient.

Tessa: As far as advice for someone else I would say if you believe in your products and you really love making them, then go for it. I have found that if something isn’t selling, taking new photos and updating the description is better than lowering the price or putting it on sale. Even with the catnip eyeballs we just started stating bluntly that you get TWO in every order. Sometimes people don’t read the whole description. We had a sale boost after we put that at the top of the description. We recently changed our New Duds shop to have easy to find size categories. This made it easier for customers to find the size they are looking for without reading each listing fully. Sometimes the most simple, easy-to-do changes make the biggest difference.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
Torrey: Have a good holiday season, promote, and get a following of fans that really enjoy what we make. I love having a customer come back because they loved what they bought so much!

Tessa: I really want to experiment more. Push the limits of screen-printing. There is so much more you can do with a bucket of ink and a screen than I ever thought. I want to make more cohesive lines of products based on a single print. I really want the cat toys to hit 1,000 sales! That will be an awesome day! We are getting married in the fall, so a handmade wedding is a huge goal. We found our caterer by making T-shirts for his business, and we are trading printed apparel for bar service.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Torrey: Sometimes being self-employed can be scary. If things aren’t going as you had hoped, don’t get depressed; use that time to fuel your creative side. Make something new, try something else, and just don’t let it get you down.

Tessa: Quitting our day job was right for us; this is the career that makes us happy. Even if your Etsy shop is no more than a hobby, enjoy it fully. As far as my generation is considered, I am shocked at how many people don’t have any "making things" skills. I am very thankful to my parents for letting me be creative and giving me the tools growing up to make things. I really lost a lot of it in college and thought I had to get a job that was already mapped out by someone else. You never know until you try. I am so happy, and I know I will look back with no regrets. Thanks Etsy!

Thanks to Torrey and Tessa for sharing their stories. Have your own questions to ask? Come on by and chat with them Wednesday, July 1, 2009 at 7 p.m. in Etsy's Virtual Labs.

You can see some of their product lines in the related items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: elizandaxel

2009-06-22T16:30:00-05:00

Eliza has been running her Etsy shop, elizandaxel, for just under a year and has already seen enough success to call it her full-time gig. She's been designing, making, and embellishing clothing since she was a wee ice skater. Since then she earned her BFA in Fashion Design and worked in the New York City fashion industry for a host of designers. It wasn't until she was let go from her previous corporate setting that Eliza set the goal to make a go of it on her own. She's hit a few bumps along the road, but she has some incredible advice from her own learning experience for those of you thinking about taking the plunge.

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
My mother was always making clothing for my sisters and I, but I didn’t become interested in fashion or sewing until I began designing and beading my own figure skating dresses. I had skated throughout elementary school and began competing a few years later, but dresses were expensive so I learned to do all the beading myself. (I’m convinced this is where my love for hand work and embellishing originates.)

After skating I went on to study and graduate with a BFA in Fashion Design from Stephens College. I completed several internships in NYC, one with designer Elie Tahari and another with the New York City Ballet Costume Shop. It was a year later at my then current job that I began noticing the huge amounts of usable fabric ending up in landfills. At that job we tossed several thousand pounds of textiles out each year. I wanted to develop a way to turn that waste into lovely and usable objects to wear, and so Eliza + Axel was born. Currently I use reclaimed fabrics as the trims (textured flowers, appliquéd circles, etc…) on my tees and dresses, but eventually I would like my garments to be made completely of reclaimed fabrics.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
Absolutely. I started work as an Assistant Designer with a large, southern-based retailer after school, but I discovered very quickly that corporate life wasn't something I wanted to pursue. I started researching other options and found Etsy. Eliza + Axel came into creation about a year later, and not even a week after I posted my first tees I was laid off, along with 600 others from my company. The transition from full-time corporate life to working for myself was both exciting and incredibly stressful, but in the end the lay-off was truly a blessing in disguise: I am so much happier now!

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
I wasn’t at all prepared when the first orders started pouring in. Before I was laid off I had registered my company name and got a tax ID number, but that was it. A few things happened that I hadn’t anticipated, and as a result I’m now scrambling to figure out all of the tax and additional licenses/registrations I need. I do not recommend doing it this way; it’s a huge headache and results in a lot of additional fees and possible fines.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?
Not a single day goes by that I don't do something to promote Eliza + Axel. I am constantly passing out cards and networking in person and via blogs, forums and social networking sites. Also, I always keep an eye on the Treasury and renew my postings a few minutes before it goes below 333; that way all of my listings are towards the top of searches and there’s a higher chance I’ll have items featured in Treasuries and on the front page.

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
Paid advertising rarely works for me.

Walk us through your typical workday.

Wake up around 8; walk and feed my puppy, Axel.
I check my shop and relist anything that sold the night before. If I haven’t had any orders I renew a few of my bestsellers.
Print up shipping labels and pack/ship all tees to go out that day.
Begin cutting petals; once I have enough I sew them together in separate strands per color.
Lunchtime! I take a 30 minute break to eat and walk Axel.
The afternoon is spent pinning and hand sewing petals to the tees.
Yoga at 5:30, followed by a quick dinner and more sewing.
I usually crawl into bed around 12 or 1 a.m. after more sewing and petal making.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
I love that I can do whatever I want, dress however I want and work as much or as little as I want. It’s a great life! The only thing I really miss is the social aspect of a normal "day job." Even though socializing was frowned upon at my previous job, it was nice knowing I at least had the opportunity to do so on a day-to-day basis; I miss that a lot.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
Time management and the long hours. There are some days I only get 4-5 hours of sleep and it’s hard not having true weekends anymore. But it’s completely worth it; I wouldn’t have it any other way.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?

Plan everything in advance. Start small and always, always write down what you want/need to accomplish each day, week, month and year.
Start small. I’ve always intended on expanding Eliza + Axel to include dresses, sweaters, accessories, etc… but I started with tees because they were affordable and accessible to the everyday person. In addition, they were also less expensive to produce and required less labor, keeping the costs down and making them available to a larger audience. Starting small allowed me to gradually grow as I could afford it and it left me debt and stress free.
Find an appropriate niche. Do your homework! When doing my initial research I only found two Etsy shops specializing in embellished tees and each had great sales, so it seemed like a sure bet. If there had been more than ten shops I would have reconsidered my plan. Thriving in a category that already has a lot of sellers is completely possible, but you need to work at establishing a unique identity for your shop and giving your customer a reason to buy from you and not someone else.
Create what you love (but remember: what you love may not sell). A fantastic product WILL sell, regardless of whether you love it or not; my least favorite tee is one of my bestsellers. Regardless of how well you know your customers, you never know how they’ll react to a new style, so try everything. If it doesn’t sell you can always unlist it and try something else. Once you’ve found what works for you, run with it. Create additional styles and products based on that bestseller. For example, I took my Flora Tee and created a tank, babydoll and dress based on the same concept.
The customer is always right. Be good to your customers. Really, really good. Assuming that your product is fantastic, treating your customers extra well, with respect, appreciation, honesty, and generosity, will make them happy to come back to your shop over and over again.
People are going to knock you off. Since fashion is clothing and legally considered a “useful article,” it is not eligible for copyright protection. If you have a bestseller you can count on it being knocked off at some point, so don’t let it bother you.

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
Still sewing and loving it. I would love to expand Eliza + Axel to include clothing, accessories and home objects, but it will always be a small/local company. I am looking forward to my first holiday season, and I am already hard at work creating additional stock of my current styles and designing my new fall collection. I’ll be including a brand new line of reclaimed cashmere and fur tops and dresses for fall, as well as embellished shoes and hats.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Without Etsy I don't know where or what I'd be doing right now, but I know it wouldn't be nearly as wonderful/fulfilling as creating and selling my garments to fantastic customers around the world. Today I am lucky enough to be able to do what I love and make a good living at it; I never thought that was possible until I found Etsy. Thank you so much for everything you do, my fellow Etsians and I truly appreciate it.

Thanks to Eliza for sharing her story. Have your own questions to ask? Come on by and chat with her Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 7 p.m. in Etsy's Virtual Labs.

You can see some of her fashion work in the related items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.

Quit Your Day Job: diffractionfiber

2009-06-15T13:45:00-05:00

Beth of DiffractionFiber has had the creative bug and an entrepreneurial spirit since day one. After getting locked into an administrative assistant job that wasn't serving her creative passion or degree in theater, Beth drew up a plan with clear steps laid out in order to quit her day job and become her own boss. Keep reading to find out where she gets her best business advice and why she thinks she can work a much longer day now that there's no alarm clock to wake her up!

How did you originally get into the business of making things?
Well, funnily enough, I’ve always tried to be in the “business of making things.” I grew up with wonderfully supportive parents — a mom who crafts and a dad who has always run his own businesses. I suppose it was inevitable for me to want to combine the two.

When I was tiny, probably around five, my mom would go to craft shows to sell her wares. She'd set me up with a tiny little table of my own, and I’d sell these itty bitty wreaths with tiny bears glued to them. Then when I was in elementary school, being the entrepreneur I am, I approached a consignment shop and worked out an arrangement to rent (free of charge, mind you) a shelf in the shop in exchange for handing out flyers around town. I made all sorts of choker necklaces and little origami-like creations. I think I sold two things in the couple of months I had a shelf there. I was a precocious little thing!

More recently my artwork became a means to escape my day job as an administrative assistant for a bank. Instead I could do something I loved that fulfilled me creatively and that I was passionate about. I have a degree in theater, which I realized wasn’t for me soon after entering the professional world (far too many conflicting personalities and far too little control over your end product).

So there I was, stuck in this day job, all the while thinking there has to be something better out there for me. I rekindled my love of knitting initially as a creative outlet, which in turn led me to return to photography and then to sewing.

When you first started selling on Etsy, did you have dreams or goals of eventually quitting your day job?
Absolutely! From day one. I was originally planning on selling knitwear, but realized I’d never be able to produce a product fast enough for it to be a sustainable business. I soon opened my first shop, Diffraction, which combined my original photography into jewelry. Diffraction was a great first step, but even with a unique jewelry line you are still competing against so many talented designers in a flooded market. DiffractionFiber was created as a sister site, almost as a diversion. I really had no idea it would take off as it has. I found myself sewing pieces and didn’t want to drown in pillows around our home, so I listed them in the second shop to keep Diffraction true to its original intent and brand.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time?
I am an expert list maker (sure, I usually lose most of my lists, but I am an expert at making them!), and I can be practical to a fault. So first off, I figured out how much money I’d have to make each month to eventually match what I was making at my day job. It gave me something tangible to attain: not just to increase sales, but by how much. I was able to plan how much of my business I thought would be revenue from Etsy, from craft shows and from wholesale. I decided when my revenue was equal to that of my day job for three months I’d put in my two weeks notice and make my long-held dream of entrepreneurship a reality.

I found independent health insurance, which is incredibly important to me. I squared away my business with all the proper licensing with the state and IRS. And I set up all the wholesale accounts I’d need for buying my supplies in bulk. I read up on marketing, on creating a business plan, and I talked to SCORE counselors (which is an invaluable resource for business professionals). I’m addicted to the Modish Biz Tips blog. I also watch the TED conferences, which provide practical, thought-provoking marketing advice and inspiration. I find that the more I read and learn, the more confident I am about my business, about talking about it in a professional way, and on making it a success. But like I said, I’m infinitely practical at times.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business? What's your best marketing tip?
By far my greatest success has stemmed from creating a unique product, first and foremost. If you don’t have that, no amount of marketing will make you a success. If you can’t point to a reason for someone to buy your product over all the others out there, you are lost in a sea of competition. I’m not saying you need to reinvent the wheel, but there needs to be some component of your product, of you, of your packaging or service, that they can’t get elsewhere.

That said, with my unique widget in hand, I started approaching blogs. And not just “Hey, check out my shop," but an authentic correspondence about one product or series. I wrote personal emails to one blogger at a time, no copy and pasting! I certainly owe bloggers for my success!

What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
Ironically enough, my own blog! Maybe more as an outlet than anything at this point. Also, Project Wonderful hasn’t been very effective for me, and that 10 cents here and there adds up. I try to think about what works on me as a consumer, what are the ads or promotions that get me to buy or to even perk up my ears at a product...and side bar advertising isn’t it. My suggestion is to turn the table and think about how you buy.

Walk us through your typical workday.

I typically wake up around 8 a.m.: no alarm clock for this girl!
I check my email first thing in the morning, answer any convos and check for sales.
I spend a bit of time in the forums, reading blogs and contacting blogs while eating breakfast.
Typically I’ll get started on sewing mid-morning.
I try to carve out a portion of the day for working on a new product or idea that’s been floating around my head.
After lunch I have the best light in my living room to photograph anything I want to list that day.
And really, it’s just a lot of sewing and cutting throughout the day.
My wonderful husband comes home around 6 p.m. I love to cook, so I make dinner for the two of us.
In the evenings, I package up any orders that are to go out the next day and schedule the pick up through USPS.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job? Is there anything you miss?
Working on my own schedule! It is amazing how much more energy I have during the day not having to wake up to an alarm clock! At my day job I had very little work to do throughout the day, and yet by the end of it I’d be exhausted. Now, I work 12 hours a day and yeah, I’m tired, but I feel good! I feel a sense of accomplishment. (Not to mention the very odd personalities and grumpy people I worked with.) I certainly don’t miss that! Just the human interaction is missed. I find myself babbling as soon as my husband gets home from work about who knows what.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
The hardest part for me is keeping things in perspective: knowing that’s it's okay that I didn’t make a sale today, because for the month I’m on track for my goals. I tend to get sales in rushes, and it’s in those lag times that self-doubt can creep in.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? What advice would you give someone else?
Just to know from the beginning that it really is possible! And sure, it’s going to be hard, but it’s also going to be rewarding. For anyone considering it, I’d say go for it! Be smart about it, especially in this economy, but it really is achievable if you have a plan and set goals for yourself. There is a wealth of information on the internet, so use it!

What goals do you wish to accomplish in the coming year for your Etsy business?
I’d like to expand my wholesale accounts, and, of course, create all of the ideas I have buzzing around in my brain! Many more pillows, personal accessories and some wearable creations will soon be appearing! I’m already looking towards my very first holiday season with DiffractionFiber, which I’m sure will be a whirlwind!

Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Just a big ol’ kiss on the lips to Etsy. There is no way I could be where I am without it. Etsy is such a unique platform for creating your own success! So thank you thank you thank you!

Thanks to Beth for sharing her story. Have your own questions to ask? Come on by and chat with Beth tomorrow (Wednesday, June 17, 2009) at 7 p.m. ET in Etsy's Virtual Labs.

You can see some of her fiber work in the related items. Check out previous Quit Your Day Job posts here.