I mentioned a few weeks ago I hit two big milestones – 300 active listings and my store’s 1-year anniversary. No, I did not expect something to miraculously change, appear, or what. Yeah, while I hit a big set of milestones, I just went back to work, honoring the process that has allowed me to get to this stage.
Pain in store
But I won’t deny that my ‘getting back to work’ was sapped a bit of enthusiasm. At the time, I was not sure why, but over the weeks I started to think part of it was that, well, life intervenes and outside the store, my life is quite ‘much’ (tho nothing bad, just lots of travel, family things to contend with, and some other usual things in my life).
Thinking of my store, tho, I started to wonder about all the ups and downs. For example, I did mention how there are all these YouTubers who tell you their recipe, only for you to find out that they have some special skill that they don’t realize most people _don’t_ have – say, design (which is big for what I do), or wicked skill with Facebook ads. Heck, I even watched one video today where the guy spells out a great store niche and then says – you figure out what the designs should be.
Yes, pasta carbonara has pasta, pancetta, eggs, Romano cheese, and seasoning. But the ingredients are not the recipe or the skillset needed to make it taste good.
Oddly, tho, none of these videos I see about Etsy stores really talk about older stores or stores that have something working but could do better. The videos really only talk about setting up the store, the first 100 listings, hot niches, and so forth.
Stages of grief
So I started to realize I was juggling a few words in my head to describe my journey to now and into the future. These words made me think of the stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. I wonder if the stages of Etsy stores are:
- Delight – of setting up the store, hopes for the future
- Doubt – of no sales, low sales, nothing really happening
- Determination – of improving the listings, doubling down on SEO and video, doing all the things folks say need to be done to improve the store
- Disappointment* – of nothing really happening after a long time, the promise not matching the reality
Before I get to the fifth stage, I want to point out that the first four very much reflect my journey. At the start, I had high hopes (delight), but I was finding my way and didn’t see anything happening at first (doubt). Then, I quickly iterated on my process, found my voice and style, and keyed in on what was resonating (determination).
But as I hit my big milestones I was starting to feel burnt out. Already in the past few months I have reduced my speed of making new listings. And while I trust my own creativity to keep me going, I am feeling like I am heading to or already in disappointment: What the frak am I doing? Does anyone like what I do (well, I do have sales and favorites)? What can I do to grow my store? How can I get more traffic? Why am I not seeing a rush?
Death or Durability
Which brings us to the 5th stage. And I see it as this: you can either give up and die (Death) or you can outlast everyone and keep going (Durability). And I don’t mean stop and just keep the store open for all eternity. I mean sticking to the process, working at new designs, curating the rest of the listings.
I keep seeing folks mentioning that 80% or so of Etsy stores close in the first year (alas, I can’t find a proper source). And the same folks say also that those stores that make it to 3-5 years have a thousand or more listings – Etsy rewards longevity and sales velocity.
So when I held myself to hitting 100, 200, 300 listings, I knew I would have to keep going. Tho I am exhausted at 300, and 400 active listings looks a long way off (at current pace, maybe end of this year?), let alone 1000 (4 more years?).
But I have sales, faves, reviews. And my conversion rate over the whole history of the store is decent.
So I will continue.
I will be Durability.
As the BEP say:
But the race is not for the swift
But for who can endure it
And Tippa Irie and the Black Eyed Peas
Will be there
‘Til infinity, ’til infinity, ’til infinity, ’til infinity, ’til infinity, ’til infinity
What about you?
Do you have an Etsy store? How has the journey been for you?
*I had originally put “Despair” for the fourth stage, but after sleeping on it, felt it was too much. Another alternative was “Detachment”, sorta acceptance of what is going on, but that felt too passive and glassy-eyed.
Image from Clark Street Mercantile
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