fighting Etsy exhaustion part II - vintage matchmakers

I am fairly certain that most vintage sellers on Etsy either 1. started their shop as an excuse to flea market or

2. their love of flea marketing had become an obsession and it was Etsy or the hoarders tv show

(and since you need one of those hairy facial moles to get on the tv show and most people are not willing to get one of those things surgically implanted to become dysfunctionally famous - Etsy it was)

This is not about how to sell more vintage on Etsy, but some vintage peeps did offer up a couple selling suggestions that could help avoid the exhaustion trap:

1. be selective about what you sell - just because it's vintage doesn't mean anyone wants to buy it

2. sell from your heart - offering up things that you love to people who will love them, too, is what you are really doing here - you are not a seller of vintage - you are a matchmaker - the Fiddler on the Roof kind not that scary chick on the tv show! (wth)

Now this 'be selective' thing may go against the 'one man's trash is another man's treasure' typical flea thinking, but your shop is not a flea market, you are a vintage boutique - on Etsy (and the internet in general) it is always a good idea to specialize and find your niche.

If you are selective and sell from your heart it will be easier for you to :

1. become an authority on what you sell
2. develop a following and
3. keep the passion alive for what you are doing

These translate into

1. less time spent doing research and less time shopping (wait is that really a plus?) because you will know what you are looking for and what things are worth and what you can resell and make money on
2. less time spent listing (you can offer items to specific customers through a service like Mailchimp at a discounted price prior to listing - one vintage seller told me that she sells 25% of her finds by offering them up at a discount to her mailing list prior to listing on Etsy)
3. the world doesn't need more people who sell stuff, the world though does need more people who love what they are doing

Some other great tips from vintage sellers to work smarter and not harder included:

1. Detailed descriptions and lots of pics = less convos from customers with questions and less problems later

(think measurements and not sizes and if you ship outside of the U.S. remember to include centimeter measurements, too)

2. Pack up your items after photographing them - don't seal the package in case you need to check something for someone, but having it all ready to ship and being certain of your shipping charges saves time and money - one seller puts a photo from the listing on the outside of her boxes

(I once bought something from a vintage seller who lamented to me how much she would miss it because she was using it as a bookend on her radiator - now I know my purchase had a life before me, but it gave me a weird feeling to think of my precious whosee whatsee being used between the time the pics were taken and the time of my purchase, so as a customer boxed and ready to ship sounds good to me)

3. Lower prices after 30 days - to keep your shop fresh and your cash flow in the red - just make sure to keep a list of what you paid for each item handy and know your selling fees so you will always know your bottom line pricing

4. Decide how much time you will devote to your vintage boutique and schedule your tasks - most successful sellers have a timetable they stick with - you get to decide what works best for you, this is your business after all - evaluate how this is all fitting in with the rest of your life regularly!

Vintage matchmakers have to research, shop, photograph, measure, describe, pack, ship plus do all the marketing and relationship building.

This is all alot of work and you need to love what you are doing or you will not be doing it for long.

Now that love can wane a bit here and there as all business love is known to do - sometimes just a little step back from what we are doing can allow us to see the big picture that we are often too close to our work to see - sometimes you have to just keep backing up until everything is in focus.

(a life lesson from my Canon instruction book - next week we'll take a look at my Kenmore dishwasher manual!)

Monday - Large Batch Makers Tips to Avoid Large Batch Exhaustion

1. shop - bellalulu
2. shop - tippleandsnack
3. shop - everyeskimo
4. shop - 5gardenias
5. shop - bold pigeon

does etsy "success" = exhaustion? the nasty little by-product of selling what you make online ...

Maybe it's the cold weather
(although it hasn't been all that cold here),

the shortened days
(although they're getting longer)

or my own natural inclination to work until collapse

(in a 24/7 selling environment that doesn't really allow for collapse this is not a good model - unless of course you are prepared to really collapse, like into a great big old mahogany box with a velvet liner)

but an awful lot of Etsy sellers are using a 10 letter "e" word to describe their state of mind lately.

And it ain't "exhilerated" (which is 11 letters actually).

I have said it before and I will say it again - this is all a great deal of work

(and before you think I am a big whiner - although hello ... this is not news folks, I did devote 427 42 Wednesdays of my life to the art of whining or maybe that was wining - I need the corks remember, but whining is reactive and I am determined to be proactive here - how do we fix this?!)

No matter how we sell our makings online we have to - market ourselves, create relationships, take amazing pictures, basically make ourselves stand out among the thousands/millions/gazillions

(where the hell are all these people coming from anyway)

of other makers creating amazing makings and doing the same things we are.

(if you have been doing this for awhile just hearing me say it out loud can make you tired and cranky and reaching for your Snugli and I should add that if you do read my posts out loud I am from New Jersey and should be read with a Carmella Soprano 'foget-about-it' inflection)

There are 5 ways to make money on Etsy:

(maybe more I appear to be out of fingers)

1. Vintage - If you sell vintage items you do not have to do the making part, but you do have to do the finding part and the research of pricing part and the take amazing pictures part and you need to figure out the correct shipping charge and get yourself the proper packaging for your oddly shaped whosee whatsee and oh yes, since your items are one of a kind there is no renew button for you my dear ... sorry.

2. Large Batches - If you do your makings in large batches you will likely work really hard for a certain period of time making your fabulousness and then work less during the shipping phase of your process, but you will likely have to have a very good handle on inventory and supplies and what will sell

(I recommend a magic 8-ball for this or some market research I have found them to be equally inaccurate)

or you will be sitting on alot of excess inventory and miss out on sales when you run out of stock.

3. One at a time - if you do your makings in small batches or one at a time, well, you will just be making your makings all the time and the busier you get the more you will need to get a handle on time management and pricing or ... well, I think your head could explode actually ... this is my makings model and I have been known to discover little pieces of brain matter all over my studio, luckily, being the creative professional I am, my brain matter is always in pantone's latest colors, so at least it's pretty brain matter - my apologies if you are reading this while eating lunch, but yes, art is messy, folks ...

4. Make something once and sell it again and again - paint a picture - sell prints, take a photo - sell copies, design a dress - hire someone else to sew it. This is kind of my dream maker business model (sigh)- the make something once and sell it over and over again model - but will not work for everyone. I do think there are ways to incorporate some of this into any of the models though.

Of course, there is also supply selling on Etsy (5) which involves mostly buying things in large batches and selling them in smaller batches for a profit. The pitfall being that you could end up doing an awful lot of work for not an awful lot of money. You really need to know your profit margins and what your competition (you will undoubtedly have alot) is doing.

Anyhoo, I have been talking to some successful shops who sell in these various models for some great tips and tricks to avoid the dreaded "e" word. I will be posting them over the next two weeks - so check back starting on Friday for Vintage and (hopefully) Large Batch Makers.

* carry me by redbishop
* squirrel salt and pepper shakers by kella
* tshirt by xenotees
* map necklace by sherry truitt
* wish illustration by pale preoccupation

choosy with choices - cut, concretize, categorize and condition

I have been listening to a TED talk while eating lunch lately and really loved this one and thought I'd share it - my favorite line to take away may be "choices should mean something to the chooser and not the choice maker" - the studies shown also make it a good listen for makers ...

2012 Affirmation # 5 - if you can't be a good example ... at least be a warning.

"learn to dance or the angels won't know what to do with you" ... saint augustine

I have been around the block a time or two.

(not in a bad way if you know what I mean and not in any way that involves running shoes and a water bottle - in fact if you see me running these days, it is pretty much guaranteed there is a large dog behind me or a small dog in front of me, but one way or the other it is pretty certain that a dog is involved somehow)

I have worked jobs with very long, stressful hours with alot of responsibility and headaches. I have had businesses that went places and some that went no place and all the work and craziness that was involved with all of that. But I was always able to separate my job title or business adventure from myself.

I was never really in it all the way.

And now I am.

In it all the way.

In a what you see is what you get, this gets so personal we know each other's underwear colors

(and styles - why do so many of us wear boyshorts?)

kind of way that is so terribly amazing and terribly rewarding and terribly exhausting.

So, I affirm we all give ourselves a break in 2012, take a little bit better care of ourselves (some of us alot better care of ourselves), dance a little more, work a little less and if we can't be a good example of what to do at least we can be a good example of what not to do

(this has always worked very well for me actually)

and maybe coax a few other makers to join us ....

* dance print by wallfry

** what I have learned this week about schizophrenia - alot - way too much to write about, but a very important thing is that schizophrenia often involves anosognosia which is a long scary word (doesn't it just look like a word you don't want to get to know, like the word chocolate, that one has always been trouble for me, too) for a person's inability to recognize or understand the nature of his illness, like with alzheimer's disease - it's not about denial - so interventions don't work, normal reasoning doesn't work and this little twist called "lack of insight" is like having the Himalayas between David and wellness.

the girl next door or you make a better door than you do a window or ... any song by Jim Morrison

I read that people with white doors (front doors) are most likely to have a tidy house, abhor mesess and like a clean and clinical, modern decor whereas people with green doors tend toward the exact opposite aesthetic and even have a tendency to be hoarders.

(yes, I have a green front door but I only hoard the really important stuff like magazines from the year everyone in my family was born - yes, I mean everyone, unused 35mm film - you never know - used Mallomar boxes - I find they reseal very nicely, make handy little containers and seeing them makes me happy during the summer months when the cookies are gone from the grocery store shelves - it's the little things, folks)

I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor? ... Mother Teresa

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door ... Ralph Waldo Emerson

When one door is closed, don't you know, another is open ... Bob Marley

Ten men waiting for me at the door?
Send one of them home, I'm tired ... Mae West

* for some reason the homegrown chaos has me obsessing over doors this week - the top picture is a door from an old hotel in Cape May that I snatched up to divide off my dining room (which is more of a dining nook actually) - the picture above is an old door, painted with an old bicycle shop logo that I have attached to an old white dresser (you might notice a few mistakes with the bicycle drawing - ack!)

xo =^..^=

putting the chiweagle controversy to bed once and for all ...

Sooo ... anyhoo ... Olive has been anxious

(ie pacing the studio and pawing at the mouse)

for me to make this announcement - her DNA results are in!

You may remember that back in the day a certain unnamed, nontrusting family member accused Olive of fabricating her heritage when this photo
<----- appeared in a google image search. This is not Olive. This is Dottie.

Dottie is a Chiweagle (chihuahah/beagle) and since Olive has always claimed to be a Boggle (boston terrier/beagle) but looks more like Dottie than Olive's Boggle buddy Ruby - we were all left wondering ...

(plus she is always googling Paris Hilton when I forget to power down my laptop)

Not that we have any problem with chihuahahs or particular fondness for boston terriers - since our pre-Olive days were filled with labrador retrievers - but we just don't like to be played for fools here. I mean we, of course, would love her no matter what, but the number of bacon slices, playdates and woofpurr toys in her future has been hanging in the balance while we have been waiting on the results ...

Anyhoo, the official lab-certified results are in and Olive is (drumroll please) 45% Beagle, 45% Boston Terrier ... and 10% Australian Shephard.

So, Olive has been totally vindicated

(obviously, we have forgiven her for not mentioning her rascally Australian Shephard great grandpa since we all have one of those in our family trees and he most likely gave her that wild eyed look we love and Aussie accent)

and for everyone who has supported Olive during this controversial time- she wants me to tell you that your hot naked man fruit basket is in the mail!

boggle buddies 4ever (ruby and olive)

2012 Affirmations # 4 - there are no mistakes

I once had an art teacher say, "allow chaos, knowing that order will eventually emerge".

Trust our instincts.

Release perfectionism and criticism; surrender to the process.

Follow the energy and keep adding to the energy.

Fearlessness is probably at the foundation of everything amazing that has ever been born - it doesn't mean recklessness and is maybe the opposite of recklessness. We learn to take responsibility for our choices. We learn our craft and practice it. We choose to be courageous and to open our hearts to life itself.

"the painting rises from the brush strokes as the poem rises from the words - the meaning comes later" ... joan miro

Affirming that there are no mistakes allows us to take risks that perfectionism would never allow. It allows something larger to express through us. We flow with the fierce urge to create, to make, to work with what is and allow it to express what could be.

The idea of "working with what is" and "allowing" are major themes in my life right now both professionally and personally - although I don't keep the two all that separate these days and trying to would probably create a Sybil-like alter ego

(maybe one named Dog who would figure this all out for me or maybe hubs would just have one more pooch to walk and Olive a little competition to kill her plushies quickly by ripping out their squeakers)

*jim morrison quote print above from sacred and profane

David came to our house from rehab this weekend. I have been watching hubs (a man predisposed by nature to say the wrong thing for the right reasons) struggle to say the right thing. Sometimes there are no right things. As I write this he has taken David to work with him for the day ... just holding in our hearts the words "the painting arises from the brushstrokes" and allowing ...

xo =^..^=