Lessons

Lesson Info

Are You Ready to Graduate from Etsy?

Welcome everybody so we are starting off with beyond, etc and what I want to dio is ask you guys some questions so I'm a star with our studio audience but let's talk about how you know if you're ready is it time to graduate from etc? So I'm going to use a couple of metaphors in this class and forgive me because I'm going to mix metaphors a little bit, but right now what I want you guys to think about is you are in a relationship with your business, right? You've got this relationship and it's time to commit we're going to take the next step, so I know we've got to mix in our studio audience how many of you are still on at sea is your primary selling vehicle all right? So the majority of our class is still on at luckily, I've got a few people who've already kind of made that step so they could be our are helpful sherpas as we move along. But so what I want to think about is moving beyond see as the next step in your relationship with your business, you guys air moving in together you're...

you're shacking up with your business, it's it's time to kind of do that, so I want to talk about why we want to think about that so I have a few questions for our studio audience first off how many of you are tired of waiting around for sale so just happen on etsy yeah e kind of film at me I feel like there's this we'll call it a myth right this if I build it they will come I set up my product that's he's going bring floods of people to my door and never quite happens that way right? So you have been frustrated by recent changes to nazis policy yes, we have a couple people there too so they've done a lot of changes in the last few years you know they're always trying tio improve the marketplace in a way that makes sense to them but it might not make sense for you and your business this is another big one that I think happens to a lot of people do you feel like you've priced yourself out of the etc marketplace so how many of you have done your pricing exercises know where you should be and it feels really high compared what other people are selling for an ad yeah yeah so that's another reason think about this are you struggling to stand out in a sea of so much stuff it feels like you're drowning I don't remember the exact numbers but the amount of products that are listed on etsy every year is just insane do you wish you had more control who's a control freak? You can admit it it's fine I am too, so you wish you had more control over the way your shop looked the way, and not only will your shop looks, but the way that you can retain and communicate with your customers here is something that I'm going to emphasize throughout this class. The customers that buy from you on etc are not your customers, they are at ces customers, and so if we do nothing else in this class, I want you to have your own space where you are in control of your customers. It's probably going to be a small group at first that's okay, having your own space and having that control gives you the power to connect with them over and over over again, and bill that audience in a way that etc doesn't allow you to dio so I want to be really clear here at sea has done fantastic things for the hamid community. It was where I started selling online it's, where so many people started selling online, and without it I wouldn't have probably any of my business is they've done great things for raising the awareness for getting people out there, thinking about starting their handmade businesses, they've done really great things, we love them, and even though we're talking about theon, etc, we still love etc. But they do also have their challenges as we just talked about you don't have control over the way you can communicate with your customers in fact they're not even your customers as he can close your shop down for any reason. So if that's where you're depending on for your revenue, that could become a huge problem and then of course they're constantly changing what can and can't be sold you don't have control over your branding there's just a lot of challenges as you're just trying to sell a few products it's great it's a it's a great place to start but if you're really serious about committing to your business, it's time to think about moving beyond and that's what we're gonna do in this class so what does that mean exactly to go beyond etc? First of all, we're not looking for the next hot platform I see this all the time I'm part of this fantastic facebook group that's developed out of my creative life classes and everybody's always looking for the next hot thing that someone just posted tell me about amazon handmade tell me about this place tell me about that place we're not looking for the next hot platform because every single platform is going to have that same problem they control the customers, not you and in fact moving beyond etc doesn't mean that you have to shut down your etc shop my auntie shop is still out there sometimes I remember to put product and it sometimes I even make sales always kind of surprises me, but it's still there, right? So moving beyond at sea doesn't even mean that you have to shut your shop down. What it means is claiming your own website, where you have one hundred percent control over your business and your brand, and where you can connect with sell teo and retain your customers in the ways that work best for you. And you might not be someone who's selling a lot online. You may have decided that your goal is wholesale. You guys know me, you made me see myself, your products to retailers class I'm a big advocate of wholesale. Having your own space will help with that, too. It gives you a level of professionalism in your wholesale business that just having an etsy shop does not communicate. So regardless of your goals, moving beyond, etc and moving to your own branded website is going to make a difference. It's going to show people that you're serious and committed and that you're taking the next step in your business. So I like to think of it is selling on etsy is like renting an apartment, right? It's their rules, it's their game, they convict you any time, if you want now we're gonna build a house right? We're going we're going to move on okay? So I want to talk about who this class is for so anyone who is already selling on etc and is ready to take the next step this is for you artist designer maker product person definitely going to stick around if you're not selling on etc but you have a product you have your art, you have your craft and you know you should be selling it online or you want to be selling it online this is still applicable to you so you know if you haven't been selling online and you're just ready to finally start your own storefront this is what you want to dio so you know if you're looking to build your retail business this is perfect we wanna have our own space where we can control our customers but as I mentioned it's also great if you're trying to build your wholesale business because it communicates a level of commitment to your buyers so I want to address the elephant in the room how many of you and I think we probably have have some of this in our online audience have thought I can't afford to move off of etc until my teashop starts making enough money, right? I see and that's right? So a couple people think that it's this sort of belief that like I need to get bigger before I can move, but waiting until you make enough money is like waiting to build the foundation of your house until you've about got the roof up. It doesn't work like that. Your online presence is the strong foundation that your business needs, and if you're going to put the time and energy into growing your business, you want to send people to your own space. I think that's part of the sort of vicious cycle of etc is that you in your work to get people there, you lose customers, they drop out, you can never find them again. So you're putting in all of this work and you're not getting the sales that you need because their customers are falling through the cracks left and right. So in making that leap to your new site to your new space that's, when you can start to build that momentum, I'm just gonna share quote from one of my favorite people, amy poehler. So great people do things before they're ready. They do things before they know they can do it, and if you will get people who are successful in their business and I'm going to tell you this is literally my figure to success, I just do things the end of the day, it is that simple. I may not be ready, I may not have a clue what I'm doing, but I just do it and the same was true for me for moving off of etc so this is I think I pulled these were like the first things that I ever sold in my shop way long time ago I started in two thousand seven and just for the record I said at my shop in february of two thousand seven and I didn't make a single sale until I think it was july of that year, so people are like, I have been on etc for a week and I haven't sold anything six months many six months took that long, and so when I moved off of that c I really wasn't actually generating very much sales on etc I built my business majority through wholesale was really focused on that. That was how I grew quickly, but I realized that I wanted to grow my online sales. Now I did not jump to this. This is my current online store don't panic. I actually couldn't even find an image of what it looked like before it was it was probably pretty bad, but the point is I did it, and in the seven eight intervening years it's evolved to look like this, so I want you to make that leap before you're ready and I want you to declare your commitment to your business, right? We're going to, like, put the engagement ring on. We're going toe swap keys, whatever it is I told you guys, I'm going to mix metaphors all day long, but here's the other really important thing, I don't want you to get too bogged down in the decision making process because nothing is permanent. I have had my own space, I've had my own remain for a long time now. I've switched web providers, I've switched online selling platforms, I've changed my theme a million times, nothing is permanent don't wait for it to be perfect because it'll never get done. And so that's, what we're going to do in this class is we're not gonna launch your perfect sight, but we're gonna launch your site and then you get to tweak, you got to change, you get two perfect, but the point is that we're going to get you over that hump, so we're going to register your domain. We're going to choose a platform, we're going take a template that works for you. We're going to strategically choose products that you're going to move into your store. I'm gonna show you guys a little kind of strategy to build some buzz how people have a mailing list. But are never quite sure what email the people on their list. Yes, so we're going to solve that problem in this class, and we're going to do that by moving products over in a strategic way. We're going talk about some ways to send traffic to your site, and we're going to talk about your timeline to transition from ft and what that looks like, should you keep your shop open? Shouldn't you keep your shop open for how long? What do you do with products that you aren't so excited about? We're going to talk about all of that here is well.