The Landlocked Sailor

I recently dropped from full time to working only two hours per day at my day job, and have since been pursuing my Etsy shop full time. You wouldn’t think so to look at it, but I am. Most of my work so far has been “behind the scenes,” and during this starting-up phase, I’ve read a lot of Etsy’s “Quit You Day Job” series. Maybe even all of them. Reading interview after interview after interview, I noticed certain recurring themes.

1. The most common “If I had it to do over I would…” moment? Time and again, it’s “I wish I would’ve done this sooner.” Quit my day job sooner, pursued my creative side sooner, taken my Etsy business seriously sooner.

2. The next most common piece of advice is “View your business as a business.” Take it seriously. Be professional. Get up, get dressed, and go to work. Even if that work is at your kitchen table.

3. The most successful promotion tools (apart from excellent customer service and word of mouth): Twitter, Flickr, and blogging about what you do. Sometimes it seems as if you’re only Tweeting to fellow Etsy sellers, but the potential audience of Twitter is not to be underestimated. Tweet about your new listings. Tweet questions, like “What do you think of my new shop banner?” (include a link, of course). Tweet links to your latest blog post. See something you love on Etsy or elsewhere? Tweet about it. Retweet others, be interesting, and others will retweet you, too!

More on blogging & Flickr in a future article.

4. Last but not least: Everyone seems to get up at 8 a.m. Well ok not everyone, but it is very common in the description of an average workday. I don’ take this as a piece of advice, so much, but rather as an indicator that successful Etsy sellers follow their own natural rhythms. This fosters creativity and maximizes productivity.
Whadd’ya think?
What would you add to this list?
Please comment.

We are all familiar with the old adage: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Why not? Because if something happens to that basket, you are out of luck.

So you’ve spent all this time constructing your online store, working on building a brand, perhaps even Facebooking and Tweeting about it, and your customers are starting to trickle in. You’ve made a few sales. Maybe you’ve made more than a few. If so, congratulations!

But now you’re noticing all kinds of venues very similar to the one you already use, and you’re wondering: Should I switch? The answer, unless you are VERY unhappy with your current site, is: NO. You should DIVERSIFY. This means Yes, by all means sign up and put some of your eggs in that basket, too. No two websites have exactly the same audience. You will undoubtedly reach more potential customers by having more than one online store, and here’s the best part: It’s not complicated.

If you were to design and maintain three or four completely different websites all on your own from the ground up, you wouldn’t have time to produce any inventory. But the online venues that are so popular today take care of all of that for you. If you are, for example, a hand-crafter or artisan selling on Etsy, there are many elements of your shop (announcement, maybe shop banner, etc.) that you could quickly and easily migrate to another venue, such as ArtFire or Zibbet. And once you have all of these stores up and running, it’s not going to take you that much longer to check in and maintain three of them than it was taking to maintain just the one. But, you may have tripled your audience and potential sales!

A word of caution: Listing the same item in all three shops is NOT recommended, unless you actually have three of the item. It would be really, really terrible customer service to tell a potential buyer: “Sorry, but you’re too late– I just sold out of this item in my other online store.”

So, your next step? If you’re a Handmade seller, check out this great Zibbet deal: The basic seller’s account lets you list up to 25 items at a time, and there are ZERO listing fees and ZERO selling fees! The really awesome Premium account is going for $7 for a limited time, and it includes unlimited listings, links to your blog, Twitter, and Facebook pages, the ability to display your favorite feedback at the top of your shop page, and more. (There’s even a free trial of the Premium Account with Coupon Code FREETRIAL.) It’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of in a storefront.

Are you ready to diversify?

Have you had success selling in more than one venue at a time? I’d love to hear about it- comment below!

I’ve mentioned before that I really love the many meanings of nautical signal flags. Once you catch on, some combinations that were probably meant to be randomly decorative become really funny. For example, the combination Mike-Golf-Victor, or “MGV,” means “Patient has foreign body in the nose.” If your initials are MGV, it might be helpful to know that before using nautical flags as your monogram.

The idea for this R+J bag, though, simply came from the idea that Romeo+Juliet would make a cute combination. The red side is the “Romeo,” flag, which can be interpreted as simply the letter R, or if at sea, “Preparing to Replenish.” The blue and white “Juliet” flag, or letter J, means “I am on fire and have dangerous cargo; keep clear.” Looks like Juliet is running away from Romeo!

I thought I’d better look up the meanings of R & J together, and this is what I found: According to the International Code of Signals, R+J means “You should keep your engines ready,” whereas J+R means “I expect to refloat,” that is, after having run aground. So, nothing too embarrassing if you happen to carry this handbag in the presence of a medical officer who happens to be well-versed in the International Code.

As a practical matter, there are SO MANY combinations of signals that mean so many things, especially the very specific medical emergency code; it is unlikely that anyone has actually memorized the entire thing. Unlikely, but not impossible!

If you’d like to order your own custom bag, contact me through my Etsy shop: http://www.thelandlockedsailor.etsy.com or the big red Etsy button at the bottom of this page.

Whadd’ya think?

I really love the many meanings of nautical flags. One of my favorite combinations is Romeo + Juliet.

One version of the meaning of Romeo, or the “R” flag (the red one pictured here) is “The way is off my vessel. You may feel your way past me.” Juliet’s response? “Fire on board. Keep your distance.”

This combination of Romeo + Juliet is made from up-cycled sweaters, and will soon be a handbag.

Whadd’ya think?

I’ve been working as a preschool teacher for the past year, and I love it so much that I decided to back to school and get some credentials. So lately, my job description has been “full time student.” My major is Early Childhood Education. I’ve been able to explore different aspects of the field, and I’ve learned more than I thought possible in just a year’s time.

Then, a few months ago, I had the opportunity to work full time as a co-teacher for three months. I learned even more during that time, and I consider myself very fortunate to have been given the opportunity. However, one of the most important things that I learned from that experience is that I do not want to be a full time preschool teacher. My interests are in anti-bias education, teacher training, and family-teacher partnerships. Still, I’ve known for years, perhaps decades, that a 40-hour workweek on someone else’s schedule is just not for me.

All of this brings up the question: What am I still doing in school? I already have the education and experience to become a CDA (Child Development Associate), which is more than enough for me, and I am running a little Etsy shop that I am very excited about. If I am going to pursue my “own thing” in earnest, forcing myself to wade through these classes with no goal in sight is just a complete waste of my time.

I realize that the Etsy thing might be a long shot, and there is, of course, a chance that it won’t amount to much. But either way, a degree in Early Childhood Education is simply not pointing me in the way of my dreams.

So there you have it. Bye-bye, College!