Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Top Shop: Waste of Money

You are a crafter. You have a shop on etsy where you sell your handmade creations. You sell a few items a week/month, enough to pay for your supplies and listing fees with maybe a little something extra.

Does this description fit you to a tee? Then it is time for you to make a decision: 
are you a crafter or an entrepreneur?

Hand Stenciled Shirt by Verbing
This is how I answered that question for myself:

  • Do you seek out anything and everything that might help you learn to make your shop a success?
  • Do you subscribe to newsletters of blogs featuring articles on making your shop work?
  • Do you check your shop stats often to see what new ideas have worked for you?
  • Do you imagine yourself working full time on your shop?
If you said yes to these questions, you may have the right stuff. Sometimes it takes a little more then you can find online for free to make it as a crafting entrepreneur. You can find that online for prices ranging from $4 to $1000, depending on how much help you think you need.

If you are not putting this effort in already, chances are these programs are a waste of money for you. Enjoy your moderate success. You may stumble upon sales without effort, and you will definitely enjoy making your products, but you will not have wasted your time and money on these serious programs. 

Still interested? I will be sure to highlight some of my favorite programs over the next few weeks.

3 comments:

  1. That is good advice and something I need to ask myself...

    What kind of success am I willing to try and get???

    ReplyDelete
  2. I didnt want to come off too negative, but i think somebody has to talk sense to people.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great point! There are so many free or inexpensive ways to market yourself so why waste money? ~Val

    ReplyDelete

ShareThis