Hello there, readers who have stumbled upon my blog. You might be here for one or two reasons. You’ve either randomly clicked onto this link and are jamming the back button on your browser or you are thinking of starting up on Etsy and Googled about how to do this. Well I’m here to tell you what not to do, which I did, so you hopefully won’t have the same setbacks!

Start your business on impulse

So yeah basically this is the story of how I’m not doing so well in the biz division. I had it all planned; think the puns, make the puns, sell the puns. I’m sorry I haven’t given much context to what my business is have I? My bad. So, a few months back I opened up my very own Etsy shop and being known as a ‘punny’ person by my peers I thought ‘hmm I should sell my puns’. So, I did it all; came up with ideas, researched profusely into cheap yet affordable t-shirt printing and then told the social media peeps, ‘Hey I made pun shirts, buy them!’ Great start! Right? It gets better.

If your product is seasonal, make sure to launch it in the RIGHT SEASON

If you haven’t guessed it yet, I’ll help you do the math. T-shirt + October = 0 SALES. So, I didn’t really think it through as I had started planning in SUMMER months but it didn’t occur to me until last minute that the main t-shirt season finished by the time I launched my shop.

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So I pretty much missed the deadline, hence, can proudly say managed to sell NO shirts.

Pay attention to your Social Media

I know it’s no excuse but I’m not the most social media savvy person out there. My selfie game is so weak! Not even Instagram filters can save me. I didn’t really hype up much about my oncoming biz, in fact I just left my followers with, ‘Hey I’m opening an Etsy shop, hint… it’s to do with puns.’ Wow Jay! What were you thinking being so secretive? Who the heck were you hiding it from? Did you seriously think someone will consider your post game to be original/smart and steal it? After that I waited a whole week before I started posting pics on social media and although it was delayed it did drive traffic to my Etsy. I do regret not doing it sooner but hey, live and learn.

DON’T GIVE UP after a few hurdles and always explore

 

Just because I haven’t received any sales at all the whole month my shop’s been open, I’m not planning to close it up and have a pity party, table for one.

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I may have lost round one but I’m no quitter, especially so early in the game. I’m learning as I go along; figuring out what I’m doing good, what I’m doing bad and what I can do better. I don’t know what the future holds, maybe I’ll have a rethink and try something new. I’m pretty good at paper crafting, I might give that a bash, who knows.

The whole purpose of this blog is for any people out there thinking of starting their own business. Try and avoid what I have mentioned above. If you do make mistakes though, live them and learn from them!

You can do it I believe in you stranger!