So I have joined the SAHM club. (Stay at home mom) Which caused the people around me to say: "Oh how nice, will you be working more on your little Etsy thingie"?
Leaving the patronizing tone aside for now, I thought "yes I probably will have more time to work on my little Etsy thingie" So I went out to my studio, put on my business hat, and took a look around.
~Oy Vey! Not good!~
I have a terrible business model/plan/structure. Whatever you want to call it, it is not good!
1. Materials: I obsessively buy beads and materials like a crazy hoarder. I have bits and pieces squirreled away in jars and tins with no idea how much they cost.
2. Hours Spent: My work takes forever! I never keep track of hours spent on a piece. I know my Butterfly Wall Hanging took me 3 months, but I have no idea how many hours it took me. So how do I price things to make up for my time spent?
3. Inventory: Because it takes me forever to make each piece, how on earth am I going to keep a steady flow of inventory. I see many people suggesting re-listing new items constantly will help with sales....not gonna happen unless I work 24-7!
OK...business hat what do I do?
*start selling off my excess beads, start a supply shop, catalog and keep track of all supply spending, no more fun shopping sprees.
NO MORE HOARDING!
*keep a log of my hours spent on each piece, like a time clock... like a JOB!
*find more time in my packed day... wake up early, go to bed late, stop eating and showering.
Now I am getting stressed, How the heck am I going to make this work? With so many successful Etsy stories...how do they do it? Again.. Oy Vey!
Then I remembered a quote from the chick-flick of all chick-flicks: Hope Floats (feel free to make fun of the fact that I have this memorized)
"You find something you love and you twist it and torture it and try to make money at it. And at the end, you can't find a trace of what you started out loving."
Sweet relief! What on Earth am I doing to myself??
Reality check...This may have to remain just a hobby for me, it may never be a booming business, and that is OK. So my friends and family will continue to refer to it as my "little Etsy thingie". So what! Comparing myself to the many successful Etsy shops out there is totally unrealistic. The nature of my product will not make me a rich woman anytime soon. This is such a diverse community, what works for one person may not work for me. The creativity and talent that flows through this place is staggering! I can see why there are so many success stories, but not everything is possible... even with hard work. To those of you who can make money doing what you love...my hat is off to you! To those of you who are stressed out, worrying about quitting, and disappointed by slow sales, don't forget what you started out loving.
