Hi there! Welcome to our fifth and final article in this Marketing Magic series on effective ways to use and interpret your Etsy shop stats. I hope you’ve found this helpful thus far! Here are the links to the previous articles for a recap:
In Test #3, we discussed analyzing the various sources that generate traffic to your Etsy shop. On a similar note, today we’ll discuss traffic sources from within Etsy.com that lead viewers to your shop. So we’re not talking about people doing a Google search, we’re talking about people that are either already browsing Etsy.com or already somewhere in your Etsy shop.
#4. Review Your Traffic Sources FROM ETSY
The Thought Process
Once a viewer finds your shop or listing, however they found it, you want to keep them there (by “there” I mean within your shop) as long as possible. Think about if you owned a brick & mortar shop. Customers would come in and browse, see an item they like, possibly add it to their cart, move on and see another item they liked, and keep browsing on and on. Your internet shop is different. They might land on a listing page from a Google or Etsy search and never see the rest of your shop other than that one listing. It’s up to you to help them browse.
The longer a viewer spends browsing your listings, the likelier you will be to make a sale, or at least get some items favorited. There are several things you can do to keep a viewer browsing within your shop, and you can use your Etsy shop stats to monitor your progress.
The Testing Procedure
Once again, filter to a weekly or monthly view of your stats. Check out the other box below your graph, titled “traffic sources on Etsy”. This is basically giving you a drilldown of the “etsy.com” number listed under the “traffic sources” box to the left. Examine where your inner-Etsy views are coming from. Possible traffic sources from within Etsy can include the following:
Your Shop – when a viewer clicks on a listing from the home page of your shop
Your Listings – when a viewer clicks on a link (to another listing, to your shop home page, to a category section, etc.) from a link within another one of your listings
Search – a viewer searches for something from the Etsy.com home page
Search within your shop – a viewer searches for something from the search bar on your Etsy shop page
Other possible traffic sources include the Etsy home page (score!), treasuries, favorites, convos, Etsy’s browse sections, teams, or another shop’s listing.
Questions to Ask Yourself Now
Where is most of my inner-Etsy traffic coming from?
Do I have a substantial amount of views coming from within my shop, like from listings and shop sections?
Are there steps I can take to increase the links and connectivity within my shop to increase a viewer’s browse time?
Are there steps I can take to increase my page ranking in Etsy search results?
Have treasuries and my participation in Etsy teams or forums been a good way to drive traffic to my shop?
What can I do to increase my chances of being featured in treasuries and on the Etsy front page?
Lessons Learned
Unless you were featured on the front page, you want most of your traffic to be coming from Your Shop and Your Listings. Yes, search traffic from Etsy.com is great, that means your tags are doing their job. However, lots of views from your shop, listings, and section pages means that people are sticking around after they found you via search or whatever other method. It means they like your shop!
To boost these views, make sure your listings have helpful links included in them. You can link to other relevant listings or categories. Here are some examples of effective listing linking:
“If you like this style of ____ check out my other _____ here.”
“Check out my entire line of _______s or my shop section of _____ here.”
“If you’d like this _____ but in another color/size, see my _______ here.”
“Back to our shop here _______”
“Check out the _______ that matches this listing.”
another example from my turquoise rose studs listing – see all the links to other places in my shop that I have sloppily circled
The idea is to think like your target customer and provide them little links and breadcrumbs to other parts of your shop that will make their lives easier and increase your chances of making a sale. The good news is that these days, Etsy does a pretty good job of adding a lot of links for you already. On each listing page, they will automatically add links to other listings in that same section, a link to convo you, and a link to your about page.
Don’t forget to monitor your progress after you’ve tweaked your listing links and any other keyword or tagging work. Check your traffic stats on at least a monthly basis to see if your views from Etsy searches or inner-shop browsing has paid off!
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We hope you’ve enjoyed our series on how to analyze and interpret your Etsy shop stats! We’ve discussed just some of the many processes you can perform to effectively utilize and analyze your Etsy Shop Stats. After running through these tests, remember to continue checking your stats to see if your efforts have improved your traffic. Our goal is to get more people to your shop and increase your sales. Happy selling!
Hi guys. It’s me here today! After I converted this blog over to WordPress from Blogger back in 2012, I gave it a much more refined and defined feel and revamped it as a place where other creative entrepreneurs could access business resources, download free printables, and learn about relevant topics to improve their business skills.
I’ve really enjoyed growing this site, writing about all these fun business topics, and learning as I go along. The journey has been great thus far! But I’ve gone through a lot of changes in my own journey as a creative entrepreneur and in my personal life as well. I’ve gone from working as a full-time CPA to a work/stay-at-home mom of an 8-month-old baby girl.
I’ve never really enjoyed writing too much about my personal life or myself, it just doesn’t come very naturally to me, but it’s been challenging and a bit confusing for me to have this website, a pretty public forum, and NOT share any pieces of my life other than only the tiny corner of the me that is Lazy Owl Boutique. Thus, I’ve decided to add a new periodic series of posts, which for now I’m calling Work/Life Balance, that will serve as a more personal outlet for me.
If you’re like me, you probably follow a handful of really awesome lifestyle blogs, and if you have kids, maybe even some mom blogs too. I know you don’t come to our site here to learn about makeup, cupcake baking, or parenting,… you come for the business resources and tips (I hope)! My goal is not to turn this into a lifestyle blog or spend days chronicling my baby girl’s motor skill development. However, I do think (and hope) that it’ll be refreshing and interesting to add a personal touch to my site, and that you can relate to the challenges of running an at-home office and business alongside a household and a family. Even if you aren’t a parent or working from home, I think we can all relate to the constant hustle and juggling of trying to make it as a creative entrepreneur.
My hope is that this new article series will reconcile my innate need to include a more personal side to this site (which before everything else, is really simply a blog!) with the helpful educational tidbits you’ve already come to expect from Lazy Owl. A lot of my favorite blogs in the handmade business realm are written by ladies that do a wonderful job of giving their readers a peek into their home/personal lives as well. I think this is what makes them relatable, interesting, and successful. I find that I trust their business advice and experience more since I feel like I know them a bit better as a well-rounded person, and not just an entrepreneur or a faceless blogger.
I hope you agree, and I’m really looking forward to this new venture! If you find the new article series boring or pointless, I also don’t mind if you skip them and just read all the free business goodies 🙂
We’re now moving on to test #3, reviewing the sources that lead traffic to your Etsy shop.
#3. Review Your Traffic Sources
The Thought Process
How are viewers and potential customers finding you? Are they searching for a keyword or phrase on Etsy or Google that eventually brings them to you? Are they clicking on a pin on Pinterest, or were they reading a blog article about your product? There are so many ways customers can find you; it’s essential to monitor how viewers are and are not finding your products. This is especially true if you are participating in any sort of marketing campaign, like using a Facebook business page, participating in a giveaway, or pinning your items. You want to know if you are using your time effectively or wasting energy.
The Testing Procedure
Let’s take some time to check the traffic sources listed on our Etsy shop stats page to see how viewers are finding you. Once again, filter to a monthly or weekly view and check out the “traffic sources” box just below the graph. This box lists all the places that your views are coming from.
“Etsy.com” means traffic that came from “within” Etsy, via search or other internal Etsy links. Note that these views are further broken down in the box to the right, “Traffic Sources on Etsy”.
Direct traffic generally means someone who typed in your Etsy shop URL, clicked on a bookmark, or clicked on a link in an email or on their phone.
This box will include third party search engines (like Google or Yahoo), Pinterest, Facebook, blog URLS, and other social media sites as sources as well if they are applicable. You also might see traffic from Google Product Listing Ads that Etsy has placed on your shop’s behalf.
Questions to Ask Yourself Now
While looking at your list of traffic sources, think about the following questions:
Did I perform any marketing or promoting efforts this month to generate traffic to my shop? Do I see an increase in views from a previous month due to this?
How much traffic do I see resulting from my social media sites (like from Facebook, Pinterest, your tweets, etc.)?
What social media outlet seems to be working the best for me this month and bringing in the most traffic?
Do I have any traffic coming from an unexpected source, like a blog or site I didn’t know about? You’ll want to be sure to check these sources out, if anything, to say thank you!
How much direct traffic do I have? This is potentially from people with your business card or who have heard about you via word of mouth.
Did I buy any online advertising space this month? If so, how much traffic am I seeing from this?
What social media sites or other sources seem to be missing from my list this month?
This analysis helps you determine whether your marketing and promotion efforts are effective. It can also help you decide where to allocate your precious time. For example, is Pinterest bringing in twice as much traffic as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram? then spend more time pinning.
This test is also helpful if you compare your results and traffic sources to past time periods. If you’ve ramped up your Facebook marketing efforts or started a new blog, you can see whether traffic from those sites are increasing over time.
This process can also be particularly educational if done following a specific marketing effort on your part. For instance…
Did you just do a craft show and hand out lots of business cards? Monitor to see if handing out all those cards helped increase your direct traffic.
Are you selling on a group deals site or participating in a giveaway on a blog? Monitor to see if you’re getting traffic from that source to make your participation worthwhile.
Did you just write a blog article about your product or brand, or start a new blog recently? Keep an eye on your traffic to see if your new work is affecting traffic.
This analysis will tell you what’s working, and you can obviously capitalize on that. But don’t forget to look for what sources are missing from your list. Are you tweeting all the time and not seeing any incoming traffic from Twitter? Then you may need to reallocate your time or adjust your Twitter marketing plan to be more effective. Did you pay for ad space or participate in a giveaway and see hardly any incoming traffic from that? Now you’re armed with more info before participating in something similar next time.
How are your traffic numbers for Etsy.com and Google/Yahoo/Bing searches? Monitor these stats over time to see if you’re doing well with SEO/keyword tagging or if it’s time to adjust and boost your page rankings.
The general idea behind this test is two-fold: 1) You are learning how to use your time wisely. Spend your marketing time on the venues that are driving the most of your traffic. 2) You want people to find your shop and products from a healthy mix of searches and links around the interwebs. You need lots of both types of traffic to be truly successful. We recommend a site like IFTTT.com to set up automated processes on your social media outlets to help increase traffic from these sources.
Check back soon for our fourth test with your Etsy shop stats. We hope you’re enjoying this series! What questions do you have about reading and analyzing your Etsy shop stats?
Our latest series of Marketing Magic articles discusses how to analyze your Etsy Shop Stats to help increase your views and boost sales. Read the intro to the series here to get started. Test #1, reviewing your keywords, was discussed here last week.
This week, we’re discussing another easy analysis you can perform while looking at your Etsy shop stats.
#2. Separate Your Super Star Listings from the Duds
The Thought Process
Your shop’s listings are your selling points. Whether you have a ton or only a few listings, you’ve probably noticed over time that some listings seem to be getting a lot of views and favorites, while others are barely seen. The discrepancy could be caused by many things; maybe you’re selling a mixture of more popular (and thus more viewed) and less popular (and less viewed) items. That makes sense and probably applies to you to some degree. However, it could also be due to some other factors.
The Testing Procedure
Again, I suggest looking at your stats in chunks of at least 1 month’s time (like “last month”’s view for example) for this analysis. After filtering your dates to this view, scroll down to your “pages viewed” area. check out your top 2 or 3 viewed items (that are not pages or categories), we’ll call these your superstar listings…along with your least viewed 2 or 3 items (you will have to click to the very last page), or your duds.
You can click on the listing’s link in your stats and get individual stats for just that item, but it’s also helpful to look at the actual listing so you can view the keyword tags, title, and description you used.
Open the listing pages and the individual stat pages for your superstar listings and your duds, and get ready to do some thorough examination.
Questions to Ask Yourself
What do your superstar items have in common? Try to think of every possibility, especially beyond the obvious ones (like they’re all Halloween-related and it’s October). Here are some starters:
Do they all have great photographs on pristine white backgrounds?
Do they all use the same keywords or tags?
Were they all renewed that month?
Did they all get traffic from a similar source, like treasuries, Twitter, or a recent ad campaign?
Did they get more views from within your shop or from keyword searches (this tells you if someone spotted it whilst already in your shop or came directly to it after searching on Etsy)?
This was my superstar listing last month. Great clean and clear photo, good tag and title usage, and being featured in a handful of treasuries helped make this listing popular.
Now for those dud listings. What’s wrong with these guys? More questions to ponder regarding your least viewed items:
Is it my pictures? Could I use better, more appealing photographs?
Should I refine or retool my listing title and keyword tags to make it more searchable and SEO-friendly? Maybe your product is awesome, but people just aren’t finding it.
Should I refine the item’s description to make it more appealing to my viewer? Does my description answer the most common questions a buyer might have? This might not really affect your views (since someone would click on the item before even seeing the description), but it can’t hurt!
Could it be a problem with the item’s price? Does it seem too cheap or too expensive at first glance?
Does this item not fit in with the rest of my shop’s inventory?
Is this a seasonal item that I should think about not renewing until the right time of year?
Lessons Learned
Note what you learned from this exercise. Are certain keywords or tags really popular right now? Maybe you could apply these to more of your listings. Do listings with a certain look or feel seem to be doing better? If you figure out some secret ingredient that seems to be boosting your superstar listings, try to incorporate it throughout the rest of your shop. Or maybe you need to be making more items that are similar to your superstars!
Take time also to analyze what sources are bringing the views in for your superstars. Are they being found from keyword searches, from links within your Etsy shop, or from a social media blast? Take note of what you’ve been doing that’s working and what’s missing.
There are also probably some steps you can take to improve your dud listings’ chances of being found and seen. At the very least, you have little to lose by sprucing up their tags, titles, or photos to breathe a little new life into them. However, if you notice some of the same listings showing up in the dud section each time you perform this test, you might consider not renewing them next time to save yourself a few cents.
Periodically monitoring your superstar and dud listings for patterns is just another way of using your Etsy shop stats to boost your views and sales. Come back soon for test #3, and don’t forget to read back on test #1, reviewing your keywords, if you missed it last week. Also, check out our step-by-step guide on how to easily download your Etsy sales spreadsheet!
Yay yay yay! We are so excited to announce that Lazy Owl Boutique is featured on the awesome mompreneur website Kate & Linny this week.
For the next few days, we’re offering a special deal (25% off) on our trendy dahlia titanium studs in a variety of bold spring colors. These flowers are on titanium posts, 100% nickel- and lead-free and perfect for sensitive ears.
Our dahlia studs are a great addition to your springtime wardrobe and work great for everyday wear. At $2.50 for shipping and no extra charge for additional pairs, you can even order a few for filling those Easter baskets or as Mother’s Day gifts! As always, all Lazy Owl items arrive in be-ribboned jewelry boxes, ready for immediate gifting.
See our deal here, and grab a pair or two at this limited time special price!
turquoise & dark pink titanium studs by lazy owl boutique
We encourage you to check out Kate & Linny and support the other featured mompreneurs. Every item featured is either made by, developed by, or sold by moms!
Yay! We are proud to say that Lazy Owl Boutique has hit 500 sales on Etsy this week! To celebrate our amazing fans and all the fun we’ve had in the past few years, we’re hosting a special giveaway!
The prize will be two of our most popular items – our cream owl studs and our navy anchor studs (a retail value of $26). Both pairs of earrings are on titanium posts so they are perfect for even the most sensitive ears! Keep both pairs for yourself or give one to your BFF 🙂 If you’re curious about the full details of these earrings, check out the listings for the anchor earrings and for the owl studs.
You have one week to enter! Winner will be contacted within 2 days of the contest end-date for mailing address, and of course the prizes will ship for free! Good luck and please share…and most importantly, THANK YOU for supporting handmade!
Happy Holidays! Whew! I apologize for my radio silence for the majority of this year. I promise 2014 will be back on track around here!
I think I had a pretty good excuse for my distraction. You see, in 2013, we had a little baby owlette! Being pregnant and having a newborn kept me pretty busy!
baby girl hazel
Now, I know this isn’t meant to be a lifestyle blog, so I will keep my gripes about being preggo and gushing about our new little hazelnut to a minimum. I’m now running Lazy Owl Boutique (the business and the blog) as a full-time stay-at-home-mom of a 3-month old (that was a lot of hyphens).
Business aside, 2013 was a great year for Lazy Owl, and I hope it was a record year for your creative business as well. I’ve revisited my blog posts from the end of last year, Planning for Positivity and a Year in Reflection. The lessons from these articles can easily be re-applied to this year. First, let’s review what we’ve accomplished in 2013!
Positive notes for me and my creative venture in 2013:
Continued to generate new content for this blog over the first quarter of the year, gaining new followers and ever-increasing stats (even without updates, the hits keep coming! make a website yall!)
Maintained steady sales orders and revenue over on Etsy
Became a vendor at a new local shop in Houston for handcrafted goods, The Tinderbox
Sold for the first time at Pop Shop Houston, a handmade holiday market, and it was AMAZING!
Got a new camera, learned to (sort of) use it, and upped my listing photography skills
Continued to re-do my branding and imagery (I updated my banner, Facebook look, and business cards so far), and learned how to use Photoshop to do so on my own
Experimented with some new product line ideas, and figured out what did and did not work (like I am never going to be good at calligraphy haha)
That was the good stuff. Considering all that happened for me personally in 2013 (mostly baby stuff), I’m glad I was able to accomplish anything business-wise. I will admit that my sales did not increase nearly as much as I had hoped for this year, but the limiting factor in that equation was myself. I just did not have the time or energy to put as much effort into Lazy Owl as I had planned, and without constant effort, you’re not going to get the bigger payoff. However, I think that’s what’s so great about being a creative entrepreneur…you’re in charge of your destiny. The business is here when you need it, and if you need to step back for a while to focus on other things, you have the flexibility to do so.
I’m re-posting the same free printable I posted last year, but with a few new tweaks to really get you thinking about what you accomplished this year and ramp up your planning for the next. I added the “Personal” section, along with a capstone question – What did you learn this year about your business and yourself as an entrepreneur? If you had to sum up 2013 as one big lesson to lend toward your success next year, what would you say? For me, I’d say that in 2013 I learned that Lazy Owl can only be as successful as I’m willing to make it. I can only make so much money and generate a certain level of success by letting it (and myself) coast along. It really is important for me to do a little something to benefit my business everyday if I truly want to reach the goals I have in the near future.
Here’s the downloadable printable in all its glory. Click to download and dig deep into what you’ve accomplished this year. Even if you’re just starting out, it’s important to give yourself a pat on the back for what you’ve gotten done thus far!
SIDE NOTE! I just have to use this venue as my free plug for shopping Lazy Owl for the holidays. There’s still a few days left to order some fun handcrafted jewelry in time for Christmas! If you use code OWLBLOG you can get $5 off any order $15 or more!
I was inspired by this post to reflect on the year 2012 and what I’ve accomplished. I agree that it’s all too easy to think back on the year and focus on all the things left undone, all those goals I didn’t reach or things I didn’t achieve. Sure, we can always do better, but that’s what planning for 2013 is for right? Let’s take some time to focus on all the things we did achieve this year.
Surpassed my goal of having more than 100 Etsy sales in 2012, I actually had 240+ sales this year (and it ain’t over yet!)
Became a part of a local store in Houston, Roundtable Goods, and networked with lots of amazing local artists
Revamped my new website and began writing a little bit more regularly
Participated in several shows, including my first wedding show
Finally put up a few of my “backburner” or “dream” products up for sale in the shop, like a yarn wreath and mixed media necklaces
Quit my day job and switched to a new part-time teaching job to have more time to spend on my own business!
It’s important to boost yourself up with positive thinking every now and then (or all the time really, haha). Take some time to reflect on the year and all the great things you accomplished. Feel free to use the printable worksheet below.
Because I feel really strongly about doing everything you can to live out your dreams and have your dream job happen for you! At the end of the day, after all the excuses, the only thing holding you back is you.
Last year I read an amazing, life-changing book called The Art of Nonconformity. If you’re contemplating making a life change, job change, or just have this gut-deep feeling that sticking out your 9-5 day job for the next 30 years is not going to work for you, I highly, highly recommend this book. Really, I recommend this book to anyone and everyone.
I can already tell this is going to be a long and wandering blog post. I stayed up late last night catching up on an old friend’s blog; she has some very emotionally raw, vulnerable entries. While that’s not necessarily the style or purpose of my blog, I think a little opening up by myself has been called for. Why should you want to listen to what I have to say when you know so very little about me or what kind of person I am? So now I’ve been inspired to have a little bit of “share time”.
I went to college for six years. School has always been something I’ve been really good at for some reason. I think I’m good at memorizing, so that helps. I’m a rule-follower and I rarely missed a class for those six years. I started out as an Electronic Media major; my dream was to be a film editor some day. I loved filming my friends just goofing off, then creating fun musical montages from the footage. That was my thing. I interned as a copy editor for a tool and gas company, I took journalism, advertising, and PR classes, and I went to the UK for a semester and studied film. It was all very nice and easy until about 2.5 years into the program I realized it would be very, very difficult for me to ever find a job utilizing my Electronic Media degree. I never quit at it (by the time I decided to change I only had a handful of classes left to fulfill the degree’s requirements), but I decided to go into something much more practical, accounting.
This is why I am often talking about how I am such a weird mix of left brain and right brain. My logical, practical, numbers-crunching side is always at war with my creative, dreamy side. Looking back, I can see that my adult life thus far has been a continuous struggle between being practical and making “sensible” decisions and taking leaps and jumps and trying to express my creativity. It’s a constant tug-of-war!
I made straight A’s throughout all my accounting classes, even the grad-level ones. The summer after I got my Masters, I sat for the CPA exam and passed all four parts on my first attempt. I interned for two summers at a prestigious public accounting firm, and started there full time soon after I got married in 2009. I set myself up on the road for long-term corporate success. I’m not trying to toot my own horn or anything, I’m just establishing that I invested a lot of energy into creating this “corporate” life for myself…and that I thought this was the path I “should” be on.
I had already heard how awful and soul-crushing public accounting was supposed to be, but I told myself I was ready for it. This was where the cream of the crop was supposed to end up. This was where the lucky top-of-the-class students with their freshly printed CPA licenses are supposed to go and soak up learning and knowledge and make a name for themselves. I dutifully wore my heels and my ironed skirts and blouses to work everyday for exactly one year and six months before I admitted defeat.
I wanted to quit within six months of being in the workplace. I worked in an environment where people regularly went into the bathroom to cry. There was a lot of yelling, phones being hung up, late hours, long hours, weekend hours…the saying “sh** rolls downhill” was repeated a lot. The goal was to get to the top of said hill. But it was just not a good place to be. I knew that, but I also thought that I was really lucky to be there, right? I felt guilty for not feeling grateful for the “privilege” of working there. I wanted to leave, but I doubted myself for a long time…what was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I just stick it out like everybody else? Was this just what being an adult meant? Was this just how working full-time was? Were all jobs like this? Doing something you didn’t really like everyday to make ends meet?
I finally gathered up the courage to quit. Happiness is a choice, and if I didn’t choose it for myself, then who would? I took a job in corporate accounting. My new job was such a breath of fresh air. The people were nice! There was smiling in the workplace! I only worked 40 hours a week. I began to develop hobbies. I had time to explore my long-dormant creative side. I started Lazy Owl Boutique. I trained for a half marathon. I became an active member of my local community. Life was better, but after a few months I still had that nagging feeling in the back of my head that this was not what I was meant to “do” for the long term. I had so many ideas and outlets I wanted to explore and delve into as a new entrepreneur. I just didn’t have the time or motivation. Reporting to my cubical for 8 hours a day and staring at spreadsheets began to seem like a waste of my time when I had so much else on my list. I sat in front of a computer all day, but at the end of the week, I couldn’t really explain to you what I’d done, what I’d accomplished or created, or how I’d contributed any good to the world.
Quitting my corporate job was more difficult than quitting my first horrible job in public accounting. I knew I had a well-paying, stable job in a great environment. Was I totally crazy for wanting to leave that all behind? I spent 6 years in school and had a CPA license. Wouldn’t I just be flushing all that hard work down the drain if I quit to pursue a JEWELRY business? How do I tell my family that I’m quitting to sell things online and write a blog? What would people say? Again, isn’t this what adults were supposed to do? Sacrifice free time and work hard to rise up the corporate ranks? Live for the weekends? Why were my priorities so seemingly screwed up?
Well, as you may have guessed, I did it. I quit my day job and took the plunge into the scary, mysterious world of working for myself. I struggle everyday with making this work, and getting this baby off the ground, but I haven’t looked back for a second. And I’m loving it. I make my own schedule, I am my own boss. I have the flexibility to work when, where, and how I want to. At the end of the day if I fail, I have no one but myself to blame. I KNOW what I accomplish and create each and every day. I can create things with my own hands and put them out into the world and feel like I am contributing. I work with purpose and feeling instead of in zombie cubical mode.
I will admit… I am still working on growing confidence in myself and my abilities. When people ask what I’m doing with all my free time, I sheepishly attempt to explain that I’m working on providing bookkeeping and other business materials for creative small business owners. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
I honestly do not know yet if I made the right decision to quit a stable job and pursue this dream of being an entrepreneur. But I will tell you something, if I don’t try, then I will never know. So now’s my time to give it all I’ve got. We owe ourselves that, don’t you think?
Coming full circle now, this is why I brought up The Art of Nonconformity. Perhaps as a creative entrepreneur, you can relate to my story. Maybe you’ve been there in the past or maybe you are there right now. Why are so many of us afraid to take the plunge? What is holding you back? Money? Guilt? Self-doubt? Fear of being different? Fear of what other people will say? All of the above?
inspirational quote – free printable
It’s easy for us to buy into the concept that “good” or “smart” people work hard for thirty years at an okay job, play hard on the weekends, and save up for retirement. This is just how life is supposed to be, right? That is what you’re supposed to do. Well you know what, this is YOUR life. At the end of your time here, are you going to say, “Gee, I’m really proud of all those awesome spreadsheets I made for my manager?” or are you going to say, “I wish I had spent more time doing the things that made me feel alive, I wish I had spent more time with my friends and family, I wish I had done something that really contributed to my community and made the world a better, happier place”?
Maybe you are saying, Janet, that’s nice and happy-feeling and all, but it’s really not practical. I have to have a steady income to support myself and my family. And maybe you are right, you’ve got to do what’s right for you and your own. But don’t sell yourself short. You don’t know what you are capable of until you try. And if you never get rid of your safety net, you might never really work as hard to make your creative business work for you as you would otherwise.
One thing that really helped encourage me to take the plunge was asking myself the question, “What’s the worst that could happen?”. I quit my steady job, I try to make my business work, and I fail. I lose money. I make an ass out of myself. Everyone tells me “I told you so”. You know what? If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. I will go back to full-time work as an accountant. At least I will be able to say I tried. Is it really the end of existence as you know it if you quit your job? If you fail? We convince ourselves that we can’t handle these changes and we become paralyzed with fear. But really take some time to think it all the way through. If you quit your job and later fail at making your own gig work, what would happen to you? Would you have to live in a cardboard box by a dumpster? I doubt it.
Staying in a job you aren’t 100% passionate about isn’t being fair to yourself…it’s taking the easy way out. It’s hard to break away from the world, to go against the grain, to pour your blood, sweat, and tears into making your job and your life something completely authentic and completely your own. The people that stay in their “okay” jobs are really the ones who are taking the easy path, the path to mediocrity. Is that what you want for yourself?
I have seen too many people sit and sit and sit in jobs they hate, or even jobs that are just mediocre. You will eventually become numb…you will spend your mediocre days doing mediocre, soul-numbing work until you don’t even realize that you aren’t truly LIVING, you’re just coasting. Life’s too short for that. And more importantly YOU are worth more than that. No one is going to swoop in and make your life fabulous for you, you have to do it yourself. So stop doubting yourself, stop wondering if you are crazy, and just give yourself a chance. Give yourself a chance to follow your dreams and make your business work. What’s the worst that can happen? More importantly, what’s the BEST that can happen?
I will step off my soapbox now. It is just important to me for anyone out there doubting yourself to know that you should TRY. You are worth it! Happiness is worth it!
Remember that post about planning out our goals for 2013? Well, we need to get some specific, measurable goals laid out. Just like with the creative business plan, I like to start thinking about things from a big picture point of view, then slowly zoom in to the nitty gritty details.
Before I come up with my specific 2013 goals, I’m going to brainstorm what my ideal work day looks like. Then I can work backwards to see what exactly I need to accomplish with my business to be able to have that “ideal work day” every work day! Make sense?
8:30 – 9:30 – Wake up, have morning coffee and (healthy) breakfast whilst reading daily blogroll, taking notes on any business ideas or inspiration that interests me. Commenting on my favorite blogs and doing some social networking!
9:30 – 11:00 – Fill and package outstanding Etsy orders. Respond to customer emails and questions. Work on updating inventory and sales records. Evaluate supply and inventory levels. Re-order supplies if necessary. Do other Etsy admin tasks as needed.
11:00 – 1:30 – Run to post office, run other errands. Take the dogs for a walk. Have lunch. Take a break or go to the gym (hey, I said ideal day right).
1:30 – 4:00 – Work on website & blog. Draft and post new article(s). Brainstorm new topics and series ideas. Social media marketing and networking.
4:00 – 5:30 – Photograph new Etsy listings, list online.
5:30 – 9:00 – Break time! Do household chores, eat dinner, spend time with husband, etc.
9:00 – 10:30 – Crafting time! Work on new jewelry items or whatever else I’m crafting up.
Bedtime at midnight.
Ok, so it was actually quite weird for me to write all that out on an hour-by-hour basis. It made me feel like there’s so much time in a day, but in reality I am always scrambling to fit all these things in. I don’t know if that schedule is actually livable for me, but my goal is that during my ideal day I would love to be able to squeeze in:
Time to research what’s going on in the blogosphere, on Etsy, and with other Etsy businesses (this is my biggest problem, I find content I want to delve into, open it in a new Firefox tab, but then end up with 60 open tabs that I never seem to have time to go back and truly read)
Write for the blog
Generate meaningful content for my website, market and connect with other businesses and potential customers, promote Lazy Owl to my target audience
Create new products, photograph and list them
Take time for myself and for my family – be outside, exercise, be healthy, have some fun!
Run errands and do household chores without falling behind
Support local businesses and connect with my local community
Realistically, I can probably not do all of these things in one day. But now I know what I would like to do with my time, and what is most important to me. That is half the battle. I can make goals to get closer to be able to have this ideal day now!
Hi there! Welcome to our fifth and final article in this Marketing Magic series on effective ways to use and interpret your Etsy shop stats. I hope you’ve found this helpful thus far! Here are the links to the previous articles for a recap:
