A story of Foi's tiny shop
I'm going to start straight... I didn't know what made me having my own online shop on Etsy myself. I don't know how I would get this far either. When I created my shop, it was 2019. I was just a full-time student in the wild and played FFXIV most of the time than studying. I needed to make money to pay bills somehow. I looked at my Noctis from FFXV keychain connected to my USB which I bought from an online seller since 2017. I started to think of designing one. I never expected anything. I just wanted to make more money from the saving money I had in only hundreds of dollars in my bank and from my knowledge of being an art student. I then began my small business.
I was super nervous and felt overwhelmed when I tried to understand how to sell here. I never knew how to pack and send mail/package to anyone. I never even sent a letter to anyone. So, I started doing research such as video tutorials from other shop owners and from Etsy community. Selling, marketing, packaging, financing, taxing, all by my own as a college student that didn't even know about business. A HUGE thank you to Elisa (@Elisa_Swann aka PlumsandFairies!) for teaching me and giving me a lot of tips how to survive here. Those educated me a lot and gave me enough confidence to sell my keychains. They got sold out within 2 weeks! ;___; I got panicked while was packing orders and studying and living alone in the wild Colorado (my home-state is Ohio). I was super grateful that people were interested in buying those keychains so much, and I will never forget the moment that I finally succeeded a single thing by my own creation with a lot of support from lovely people in FFXIV community!
Most of my customers are from FFXIV community in Twitter or X (thank you all for your wholesome support!). Their support n' love drove me to continue making and selling merchandise items that I designed myself, then I got to work with manufacturers from many countries for 4 years and onward to make my designs come true n' real as I wish, and people would love to have them!
Having a business is quite challenging especially tax and finance, but It's been super fun for me. Packing orders for customers make me happy everytime. I hope you guys enjoy my goodies, and please looking forward to what will arrive in my shop...
