Latest / The Modern Etsy Seller Podcast / EP 23. The 4 Decisions That Helped Me Build A Six Figure Etsy Shop (As a Full-Time Working Mom)

Transcript

EP 23. The 4 Decisions That Helped Me Build A Six Figure Etsy Shop (As a Full-Time Working Mom) · The Modern Etsy Seller Podcast

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hey there and welcome to the Modern Etsy Seller, the podcast where busy women build, grow, and profit on Etsy.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Melissa Carroll, a full-time teacher, a busy mom, and an Etsy seller who's built two successful Etsy shops in the small moments of everyday life.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Here you'll find simple strategies, real behind-the-scenes insight, and the clarity you need to stop second guessing and start moving forward one intentional step at a time.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get to it.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Hey there, welcome back.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Today I'm sharing four decisions I made when I started my Etsy print on demand shop that helped me build it to what it is today.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: One of two successful Etsy shops that earns me money every single day while I work full-time and raise a family.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: A little background in case you're new here.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: I just wrapped up my 20th year as a public school teacher.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm currently teaching in the middle school, but I spent my first 11 years teaching elementary.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm a mom.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: My daughters were 11 and 13 when I opened my first Etsy shop in October of 2023.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: They're now 14 and 16.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: My 16-year-old actually just got her driver's license about a week and a half ago, which is absolutely terrifying.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you've already survived this stage of parenting, please send me your best advice because this is hard.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, my point is this: I can't spend all day working on Etsy.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't when I started that first shop, and I couldn't when I opened the second shop in August of 2024, and I still can't today.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're listening to this podcast, there's a good chance that you can't either.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: That means the decisions you make early on matter.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: When you only have a few hours each week to work on your shop, you can't afford to waste that.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Looking back, there are four decisions I made when I opened that second shop, the one that was strictly or is strictly print on demand, that made building that business so much easier.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the best part is every single one of them is a decision that you can make too.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive into decision number one.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: The first decision I made was to stay focused on one giftable product.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Staying focused on any one thing for a stretch of time doesn't come naturally to me.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've always got a new idea in my head and I get bored easily.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: So those two things together make it very hard for me to stick with one thing for an extended period of time.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Fortunately, I do know this about myself at this point.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I can recognize when I start to veer and put things in place to help stay on track.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I started my first Etsy shop, I did not have focus.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was trying tons of different things, hopping from idea to idea.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: I still have quite a large number of digital products in Canva that I never finished.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then in that shop, after five months, I jumped into print on demand and started selling t-shirts and then sweatshirts.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: My shop was all over the place, and so was I.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: While I learned a lot during that process, it also meant my time and energy were spread all over the place.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're building a business in small amounts of time that you have available, that's not what you want.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: I've since cleaned up that shop by removing all of the print-on-demand products and focusing on one main digital product niche.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: And when I started the second shop, I made the decision to pick one product and stick with it for six months.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: It actually ended up being 10 months, but early on, that's what I was telling myself.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: I also wanted that product to be giftable.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: At the time, Etsy was investing heavily in its gift mode feature.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: They were running commercials and talking about gifting constantly and making it very clear that they wanted Etsy to be the place people came when they needed a gift.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted a product that could be a gift.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: At that point, I didn't know the true value of this decision that I was making.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: I just thought I was making it easier to stay focused.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like I was putting on blinders and just paying attention to that one product while I did my research and as I created the individual products.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it did help me stay focused.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: But by sticking with just one product, I was also making it so much easier and faster to grow.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: I spent a lot of time getting those first few products listed as I found mock-ups, made informational listing images, built Canva templates, created my listing descriptions, plus a bunch of other things.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: But then once that was done, it was done.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: All I had to do after that was create a design, grab all those reusable pieces, and get the listing up.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: When you're building around one product, you can do that because so many of the pieces are reusable.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Every new listing became easier to create than the one before it because I wasn't starting over each time.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: I started this shop just as the new school year was starting.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I was back in full-time working mom mode at that point.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: So anything that could save me time was valuable.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: But saving time wasn't the only benefit.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing that happened was that I got really good at this product.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: I got to know the product and the customer.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: I became an expert on my product.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: I learned what questions people asked before they purchased.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: I learned what designs resonated and what ones didn't, what gift occasions people were shopping for, what parts of my listing might have been confusing, and what information buyers actually cared about.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And every one of those lessons made the next listing better.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is a decision that I am so glad I made and one that I encourage all Etsy sellers to consider.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Choose one giftable product and go all in with it before you add anything else.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: At the time it felt a little restrictive, but looking back, it was one of the best decisions I made.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: The second decision was about the designs themselves.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: I went with simple text-based designs.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Graphics optional, but completely unnecessary.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to focus on the message, what the words said, and what they made the buyer feel.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: I now call this message first design, and it simply means focusing on the message that you put on the product first and letting everything else, the graphics, the colors, the fonts, the personalization options, everything else support it.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: When I was selling print-on-demand t-shirts in my first shop, I realized two things.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: First, I was not a great designer.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not saying I was terrible, I can make a design look okay, but when I compared my work to people who are truly talented graphic designers and illustrators, I knew that wasn't where my strength was.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: And while maybe I could have improved over time, I didn't really want to.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that's because the second thing I realized was that simple text was selling.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about shirts with one or two words and a basic font generating hundreds and hundreds of sales.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that was a huge light bulb moment for me that I applied to the t-shirts I was creating.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: My best-selling t-shirt was actually an acronym.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to say it here because it's a bit inappropriate, but it was 12 letters and I arranged them in a simple square pattern, four letters on top, four in the middle, four on the bottom.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's it, nothing else, just the text, and it sold a bunch.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Once I realized that text-based designs were selling, it changed the way I thought about creating products.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: I stopped worrying about the design and what it should look like and started focusing on what it said.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like when you're selling gifts, you're not really selling the product.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: You're selling a reaction.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: You want someone to see it and immediately think, oh my gosh, that's so Lisa, or my husband's going to think this is hilarious, or this is perfect for my sister.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's what message first design is all about.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: The message comes first, everything else supports it.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: To this day, probably 95% of the products in my shop are simple, text-based, message first designs.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if I were starting over tomorrow, I would make that same decision again.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: The third decision I made was to offer personalization and customization whenever it made sense.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I know you're busy and extra time is hard to come by.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: So this might not seem like the right decision.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: It might feel like additional work or one more thing to learn if you're just getting started, but it really doesn't have to be.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let me back up real quick though and quickly explain the difference between personalization and customization as I see it, because the terms are often used interchangeably.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Personalization is adding information that's specific to the buyer, such as a name, date, age, or location.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Customization is allowing the buyer to make a choice, such as selecting fonts, color, size, or design options.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let me go back to what I was saying before about how offering personalization and customization doesn't have to take up a lot of time.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Once I got into a rhythm of creating personalized products, adding personalization only added a couple minutes to the process of finalizing and submitting an order.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're first starting out, orders usually come in very slowly.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: They're coming in slowly enough that you have time to learn and practice.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: And there are some really great third-party tools that make personalization even easier.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of manually creating every personalized design from scratch, buyers enter their information directly into Etsy, and then the design is automatically generated for you by the third-party tool.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: In many cases, all you have to do is review it and submit the order, and it'll go right to your provider.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: What I discovered was that a few extra minutes on my end often created a lot more value in the eyes of the buyer.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Allowing for personalization can set you apart from your competition and often gives buyers one more reason to choose your product over someone else's.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: A pickleball themed mug is nice, right?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: But if they're able to add their team name, it feels a little more special.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: A prayer journal is nice, but if they can add their name and a favorite scripture, it feels more special.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Those small additions can transform a product from something that feels generic into something that feels like it was made specifically for the recipient.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're selling gifts, that is a powerful thing.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: People are often willing to pay more for products that feel personal because they're not just buying an item anymore.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: They're buying something that feels thoughtful, unique, and create it specifically for the person they're giving it to.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Looking back, offering personalization and customization was one of the easiest ways I found to increase the perceived value of my products without dramatically increasing my workload.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, the fourth and final decision that I want to talk about, it isn't a strategy, it was a mindset.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: I decided from the beginning that I wasn't going to stop.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that other people were making money on Etsy with print on demand, and I genuinely believed there was no reason why I couldn't do the same.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: It was kind of a simple, stubborn mindset of if they can do it, I can do it.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: But of course, it's easier said than done, and there were a lot of moments where I doubted myself and my choice to open a print-on-demand shop.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: There were plenty of times where I wondered if I was wasting my time and moments where I thought maybe I should be doing something else entirely.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: I remember going down a rabbit hole one time over the course of a couple of days, just looking into reviewing products for Amazon and thinking maybe that was the business I should be building instead.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: But eventually I would stop myself and I would come back to the same conclusion.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing this.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that maybe I need to pivot or learn new skills and that maybe it would take longer than I wanted it to, but I was going to make it work.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: I know that this decision did more for my business than almost anything else on this list.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it's taught me something that I'm trying to carry into this podcast and into my coaching business too.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes things just take longer than you want them to.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: I've said this before on the podcast, but I'll say it again because I really do believe it.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Most people don't fail because Etsy doesn't work.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Most people fail because they stop before giving it enough of a chance.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want that to be you.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: By deciding at the start that I wasn't going to stop, I was able to push through when I wanted to give up.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is a decision I want all busy women to make.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Decide that you're going to give yourself enough time to find out what's possible.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so there you have it.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Four decisions that helped me build a successful print-on-demand shop while working full-time and raising a family.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: They're certainly not the only decisions I made along the way, but there are four that I made early on that had a significant impact on my business, and I think other sellers can learn from them and apply them to their own Etsy shops.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: One giftable product at a time, message first designs, offering personalization and customization, and choosing not to stop.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: None of those decisions alone will change your business overnight, but stacked together and repeated over time, they can help you build a shop that generates consistent and meaningful income.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for joining me today, and I will see you in the next episode.