A New Year, a New Way of Doing Things

Since I opened my Etsy shop 3 years ago, I've been selling my work in a very careful way. Only posting pics of pieces I had made and that were ready to ship. After another crazed holiday season of trying to fill my shop, do craft shows, and supply Trinket; I am where I often am in January - out of jewelry. In the past, I've slowly rebuilt my inventory over the winter months and worked on big projects, pieces and problems and let my shop go. That really isn't good business, to build up so much momentum and then just let it go, let my shop barely run with a handful of pieces in it.

So, I simply re-filled my shop, activated all of my inactive pieces and renewed many sold pieces and now people can order from me and I can make their order in 1-2 weeks. I thought about doing this last year but I was scared of the pressure this may cause, I don't like pressure. I want Etsy to work for me, not me to work for my Etsy shop. But rather than shooting in the dark and making lots of jewelry that people might buy once I finally list the pieces, I can make what people definitely want.I wasn't sure if people would be apprehensive to purchase pieces that they'd have to wait for, but after talking to folks in the Forums and in real life, the consensus is that "people will wait for good stuff". I have little patience and I recently ordered a hat and a planner from two different Etsy shops that I had to wait 3 weeks for and...it was totally worth it. I like knowing these things were made for ME and waiting for them actually made me that much more excited to get them. It seems a lot of sellers on Etsy work this way. I've already had some sales which is so rare for January and because my shop is full, I've been featured in Treasuries and maintaining my web presence. If the sales get too overwhelming (not a bad problem to have) I can always increase my 'making' time or decrease the amount of pieces in my shop. I am in control!

Why didn't I do this earlier?