My Etsy History Part 2

The banner shop took off and I felt like my other shops were now being somewhat neglected. Thank goodness for the forums! I found that this was not unusual at all when you had multiple shops and there was a lot of info on how others juggle it all.

In the banner shop I sold a lot of premade banners but at this point with so much competition I had to offer more custom work and people also wanted matching business cards, blog templates etc. I was not trained in graphic design, I played with images and editing programs because it was fun.

I now have 3 shops and a very demanding “day job” that totally sucks the life out of me.

That is something that had been building. As my day job became more demanding, my creative edge became duller. I stopped creating everything except banners as I still got some joy from doing that. I wasn't listing many new items in the other 2 shops as I didn't seem to have the time (or desire) to do the photo shoots, editing and descriptions. Not to mention I was on dial up.

Etsy was changing during this time as well. New owners and management, new search etc. Now there was a new learning curve for tagging and SEO. Previously all we did to stay on top was renew. Now I had to research and play around with tags, titles and descriptions to find what worked. I had no extra time in my day for this.

I remembered being so happy with 3 shops that were so diverse and realized it was just that, a memory.

In fairness, I had moved to a new place not long before opening my first shop and the man I’d been with for 27 years told me he wanted a divorce not long after we had moved. All alone, a day job that was killing me, 3 acres in a remote location (14 miles to town), 3 dogs, 5 horses, a cat and some chickens… It took half a day on Saturday just to mow the property. I was drowning. I put the CJ shop and the boho shop in vacation mode, stopped doing custom work in the banner shop except for return customers and tried to figure out what I really wanted to do going forward. My mojo was gone and without it I didn’t even know who I was.

Part 3 tomorrow~

My Etsy History Part 1

I opened my first Etsy shop, Cowgirl Junk in the summer of 2006.

I’ll be honest, I was mad about changes going on at Ebay where I had been selling for 10 years. I thought, don’t keep all your eggs in one basket girl! Cowgirl Junk was mostly vintage items with a little handmade jewelry. Being a DIY kinda gal I made my own banner for that shop. I had a lot of compliments on it and people asking me how I made it, could I make one for them etc. I gifted some and took a few special orders. It just kept growing! I began listing some and as I felt so many people didn’t have a nice banner or the skills to make one I listed PIF banners and just asked that the person purchasing Pay It Forward to someone else, in some way.

One day I looked at my shop and didn’t like how fragmented it looked. Vintage, banners and my handmade, it was a mess. So I opened a second shop, Bohemian Flea Market! I sent my banners and handmade items there and listed some destash that I felt didn’t work in the CJ shop.

The banners were taking off! 
I enjoyed the creativity of it and not having to go to the post office was a plus as well. Soon the Boho shop was a mess and another new shop was born, Banners Avatars.

I digress for a moment, how awesome is that name? I no longer make banners but how many people who do would love to buy that shop & name from me? We should be able to sell shops we no longer want I think. Of course there would have to be some disclosure, maybe mark the existing feedback with “former owner” or something…

To be continued in part 2 tomorrow.

                         

The above is what happens when you make banners!