Selling in Small Batches

My brand kind of began by accident when I was bored while recovering from knee surgery. I started making tote bags from recycled coffee bean bags that I was getting for free from our local coffee roaster. Before I knew it, I had so many totes that I decided to sign up for a local craft show just to see how they would sell, and for a quiet one-day outdoor show, they sold pretty well. We didn’t have a fancy setup, just a table and my totes!

However, I did have several bags leftover, so I decided to open up an Etsy shop in October 2009. It was pretty simple to set up because Etsy was much easier to work with back then than it is today. Sales were coming in here and there and I made more totes to add to my little shop. Then I thought; I should make burlap stockings for Christmas, and you know what? They were selling too. I would make one of something, sell it, and then take orders to make more. This was not a plan. I had not spent months thinking about and planning on starting this business. It was just for fun and a way to make a little extra cash.

That same year I had a customer who purchased one of my stockings ask if I could make her a matching tree skirt. I’d never made a tree skirt but thought, “it can’t be that hard.” So I said yes and went out and bought a large roll of craft paper to make a pattern. From there I started making tree skirts and they were selling as well. In my first 3 months on Etsy, I generated $750 in sales. Not too bad for a side hustle.

Over the next few years, I continued to make my totes, adding in the burlap stockings and tree skirts for the holidays, but I had this desire for more. I loved creating and selling my products felt contagious! The more I sold the more I wanted to make. I was dabbling in a ton of things like burlap pillows, table runners, fabric birds, handmade purses, faux fur owls and repurposed furniture. I was a little bit all over the place, but I was figuring out my place and learning who my customer was and what she wanted to see from me. I was also learning who I wanted to be. I didn’t realize it then, but I was, in fact, building a brand and creating a legit small business. 

It was never my intention to build a business because this was just a hobby: a little side gig to make some extra cash for Christmas and maybe a nice vacation. I would get asked when I was going to leave my job and work for myself and my reply was always the same; I would simply say that I’m not and that this is just a hobby. I was so wrong! 

Running a Business MY Way

When I first started I was taking orders left and right. I would make items, list them for sale and take the orders one at a time. I would accept custom orders as well. I mean a sale is a sale, right? But once you are no longer enjoying the process, things begin to change. I had this one customer who was very nice but very specific. Too specific. I was losing myself and my creative process in her demands and I was not enjoying this part of my job. I also had another customer who was sending me photos of other people’s work on Etsy and asking me to recreate the items. That was when I first said no. I could not copy someone else’s creations. The first no was both the hardest and the easiest. It was hard to turn down the sale, but easy because I knew that this was not right, nor was it something I wanted to do. When I told her that she could get it from the original maker, she explained that she liked my work and trusted my quality. While I can appreciate that, I simply was not willing to do it. 

After my first no, I started saying no more often. Custom orders were honestly my least favorite. It interrupted my process, especially if it was something different from the things I usually created. Once I started tracking my time on customs I realized that most custom orders took me at least two times as long to create. The worst part is that I wasn’t charging any more money for them either, so I was essentially losing money in the process. 

Eventually, I got to the point where I stopped taking custom orders altogether. I had become so busy I simply could not afford to take on something that distracted me from my process of making the things I was now known for and really loved doing!   

Next, I had a desire to stop taking orders altogether. I wanted to make what I wanted, list it in my shop, sell it and then make more. I was watching others on Instagram do this week after week and I knew that was the direction I needed to take my business. It just made sense. While I enjoyed making, I didn’t always enjoy making 50 of the same item. Then there was always the constant pressure to keep up and get the orders made in a timely manner, but in the meantime, I was thinking of new ideas and other things I wanted to be working on instead. 

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