Why Do I Procrastinate Now?

I hate being late for anything. When I'm given a project, I generally start it right away and finish long before I need to. The exception to my virtually flawless on time record occurs when I'm faced with too many projects at once. They don't have to be big projects with the same deadline, just one too many will do me in. I simply can't decide where to start and as my husband would say, I BSOD.

So here I am with one day left to finish my entry for the Spring Beading Challenge and what am I doing? I'm stalling. It's almost as if I've already decided that I'm going to fail. I have Mother's day gifts to make, an article for Belle Armoire Jewelry to write and I really should make something new to list in my shop, none of those things are due tomorrow, but I've spent far more time on them than on this bloody beaded necklace.

I'm going to get on it now, I swear. Maybe I'll even finish it on time. The funny thing is, as soon as I finish these project, I'll probably have weeks of free time. Flood or famine...damn, I'm stalling again.

Business Hours

Shopping handmade has spoiled me...rotten. I'm afraid I have begun to expect many things that I have no right to expect from sellers. I know that I'm dealing with a real person and as a result, I expect a one on one shopping experience. Not so outlandish you say, but consider this, I want said one on one experience as if I am in fact not only their sole customer, but the only thing they need to deal with until my order is complete. I expect immediate responses to all questions. I expect a free gift or at the very least some great promotional item included with my order. I assume the order will be shipped out immediately after I pay and will arrive with speed inconsistent with the current USPS system.

All this is absolutely ridiculous and I know that. Why have I begun to think like this? Simple, too many sellers are actually accommodating some or all of these requests. Most of them are new sellers, trying their hardest to attract and keep new buyers. Please, I beg of you, stop it! Oh, I get it, you want to offer the best possible customer service. That's fine, but you want to know a secret. The best customer service is a quality, accurately described product, shipped when you state it will ship, that arrives in good condition. Questions answered in a timely manner, not two minutes after you asked and perhaps a nice thank you note in the package. When you do too much more than that, you will undermine your ability to keep it up. Trust me, I know.

When I first started selling, I included a tatted bookmark with every order. The bookmark actually took longer to make in most cases that the actual order. I stopped when I started getting more than one order a week. I was scared that without the free gift, people would stop buying, but it didn't happen. I used the time I wasted on making free gifts to create new, more complex designs. Now I write a thank you note, pack my pieces carefully, notify the buyer that I'm shipping and my customers get just what they were expecting. I'm not saying you should add a little something to the package occasionally, but don't get carried away.

I am a stay at home mom, so I can answer a email or convo almost immediately most days of the week. If an order is not custom, I can have it packed and ready to ship by the next pick up. I have to remind myself that I don't have to keep that up. I do have other things that need to be done. Kids need food, dishes shouldn't really spill out of the sink like that, the cats will revolt if I don't get them some fresh water. Occasionally, I should leave the house.

My solution, business hours. Just because I can be available 12-14 hours a days, certainly doesn't mean I should be available that often. I'm even thinking that I should post hours on my profile page, so people don't think I'm ignoring them on Sunday when we visit the in-laws. Then, and this is the tricky part, I should follow those hours. We accept business hours from brick and mortar businesses, why shouldn't we accept them from online sellers. Remember that you are are probably not the only customer they are helping and they might actually have a life outside their business.

People, take back your lives and let others have theirs back too! I know running a business is hard work and can be long hours, but don't let this instant internet world make you too available or too demanding. Don't let your need for customers overwhelm your common sense and offer more free stuff than you can actually afford. Treat your customers well, but not like royalty, that's all most people expect, that's all you should expect.

The Way Back Machine

KungFuCowgirl & VerukaDollsLand

My very first etsy purchase in May of 2006 was a Totoro plush from KungFuCowgirl, it was her second sale. Since that point she's managed to racik up well over 2000 sales and I just hit 250, so clearly she's doing something right. Now I know some of you may point out the copyright infringement issue with this plush, but all I knew was my daughter loved the movie and I couldn't find a plush anywhere. It's a little worse for the wear, but is still doing quite nicely. It stacks up well next to the commercial plushes I have since been able to buy. I don't know if she would remember me at all, but I'll never forget my first.

That August I returned to etsy for more plushes. This time, I was looking for something off, something different and I found it at VerukaDollsLand. She hand sews the most adorable little creatures and I feel in love with many of them. I managed to set up a trade with her for one of the knit teddy bears I used to make. Even though it's obvious that this was a handmade piece it's sturdy, well made and the handmadeness of it is actually a very attractive quality. This little wubbie is still sitting in my daughters room and I have since bought a second one for my youger daughter in a pretty purple. These are the kinds of one of a kind pieces that I think they will have fond memories of forever.


I can absolutely see how these sellers have done so well over that last two years. They both make quality products that actually do stand the test of time.

Where Do We Go From Here?

First off, does anyone else have the song from the Buffy musical stuck in their head right now? No...alright, moving on then. Yesterday, I managed to reach my goal of 250 sales in exactly 2 years. I spent way too much time in the forums to do it and I'm fairly certain they were pity sales, but I'll take them. Maybe ten minutes after reaching what should have been a wonderful milestone, I found myself in a familiar funk. The melancholy that is, "what now?".

We've all been there after a big event or milestone, a birthday, wedding, vacation. Anything that seems to consume your every waking moment looking forward to or planning produces this sensation. As soon as the event is over you experience the emotional equivalent of the crash after a sugar high. Even though I have several small projects that need doing, I have like zero motivation this morning, because I have no event to look forward to. My next milestone sales are very far away, I just past 1000 hearts, so it'll be awhile before I get a big number there either. It's a month before the next big family birthday and I've got no other events on the horizon.

Why do we seem hardwired to need the high of an event, why can't we live in the present? I know what I'm suppose to do, plan for tomorrow and live for today. Like most sage advice it's easier said than done. I mean, I know that these so called milestone sales are just arbitrary numbers, they don't have any real meaning. 100 is not any more momentous than say 112, yet we make such a fuss over round numbers. The logical thing to do would be to celebrate each and every sale with the same amount of joy or to celebrate significant increases over previous sales regardless of their number. We're not gonna do that though, we love round numbers and will continue to look forward to them regardless of logic.

I'll tell you what I think I'm gonna do though. I'm going to make myself some creative goals to look forward to. First, some I might achieve like coming up with a new tatted scarf design or actually completing a piece today. Then, some ridiculous ones that I can look forward to for years, like getting a celebrity to wear my pieces in public or make tatting the next big crafting craze. That ought to keep me looking forward well into my golden years, right?

Why Am I Not Famous Yet?

What am I doing wrong? Why isn't this selling? Why am I not a millionaire yet? Okay, I haven't actually seen that last question yet, but the others are asked seemingly every hour at Etsy. I assume the same thoughts swirl around at DeWanda, ebay, icraft and all the other handmade marketplaces online. We, as a culture, have been infected with the, 'if you build it they will come' mentality. This, I'm afraid to tell you is a fallacy, a lie, complete untruthiness.

Let's explore why it might be that no one is buying your goods. Without even looking at your shop, the first thing that pops out to me is your product. It actually might not be worth buying. Harsh, you say, but perhaps it's the truth. Are you making jewelry in the same style as a hundred other people with the same beads? Are you knitting dish clothes with the pattern off the back of the yarn label? Are you making candles or soap from a kit you found at the craft store? I could go on, but you get the point. If you are doing these or dozens of other simple and unoriginal things, you have your answer. Unless you do these things with amazing skill and flair, they are not worth buying for most people. Don't take other sellers word for it in the forums either, they are not likely to tell you the truth. They are simply too nice and too supportive. Most of them honestly want everyone to succeed even when they know not everyone can.

If you've past that first test, then you're ready for the analogy portion of my diatribe. Imagine if you will, a mall with 10,000 jewelry stores. I really shouldn't have to go on, it should be clear where this is headed, but for arguments sake, I shall continue. If you were to walk into that mall,with no preconceived agenda you are probably only going visit the first few stores you see. So that's 9995 unseen stores. Maybe you're an organized shopper so you check out the directory. You're looking for stores that stand out in some way, a great name, a description that includes exactly what you're looking for, or something familiar and you're still only going to visit a few stores.

Here's the lesson in all this. If you want to be one of the first stores they see, you need to list or re list often enough to see seen easily. You don't need to go crazy, just once a day could help a lot. If you can't do that, then you need to catch the organized shopper. To do that, you need to use all your tags wisely so you come up in all relevant searches. Ah, tags, the illusive grail of shopping. You know that they are the key and yet you can't seem to use them right. I have a tip, pretend you're a shopper and searching for something that you sell. What words do you actually use in a search? I've looked for formal jewelery, casual jewelery, beautiful, elegant, simple, unique, soft, bright, dark, etc. Are you using those kinds of words to describe your pieces. This is how you can use all your tags without resorting to tag abuse, which doesn't help your cause at all.

I hear a lot of people responding to these "why" questions with the horrible phrase, "You just need to wait for the right buyer". This akin to telling the needle in the haystack, "you just need to wait for the guy with the magnet." What you need to do is make that needle so cool and easy to find that people don't even have to try to look for it. There are plenty of buyers out there for everyone making a quality product, but most of them are not looking for an expedition. They want stuff to fall in their laps, so make sure you're throwing it out there where they can find it!