Hello! my brand new reader. Hope it`s not too lonely out there.
Here is my story:
One day, while in the grips of my Fabric Addiction, strolling the aisles of Jo-Ann`s Fabrics as if neither TIME nor MONEY had any meaning to me, I ran into an acquaintance who told me about this magical land of ETSY. ( shooting stars, bells ringing, warm glow..) So not long after that (we`re talking PROCRASTINATER`S time here, so...) I actually photographed some of my Handmade, original designs and listed them on ETSY. I also had to write a winning, charming description of these items, which happened to be Fleece Hats. You know, something to make a baby sit up in his stroller and cry,
"MOM! I`ve GOT TO HAVE THAT!"
Something that would cause his mother to stop in her Nike tracks and reach up to her bare head and scream,
"I NEED A HEAD WARMER! NOW!"
Well, that takes time. I also had to price these items. Well, that is SO tricky. I mean, really, what is time worth? (labor).Are we talking about the literal cutting out of the fabric and sewing it up? Or are we also including the time spent to find, buy, wash and press the fabric? The time spent thinking up brilliant designs and turning them into patterns? I buy a lot of probably never-to-be-found-again Fabric Remnants. Do I charge what the Fabric ORIGINALLY cost, on the off chance that someone might order a different size or color? Do I count the time it takes to design and make a label that conveys the TRUE ESSENCE of my product and put it on the item? Am I supposed to make a profit? Do I use my Wholesale price or my Retail price? THEN I had to come up with not only Shipping Prices, but shipping prices to different countries! AND my own Shipping Policies. Not to mention the Paper,boxes,packing labels, Fed-Ex accounts and making friends with the Post-person. I tell you, it was overbleepingwhelming.
Fortunately everyone involved with ETSY is some kind of angel-saint. They have MANY helpful Lists and Posts and people. Still, I just plopped those items onto my site and sat. La-de-da. Dum-de-dum. Dumb is right! There are something like 170,000 sellers or products or whatever, in countries all over the world on ETSY. If you don`t do anything to get noticed-YOU WON`T!
I`ll have to stop for today (much like Scheherezade) and continue my story anon. I`m getting parched.
Until next time, "Love the one you`re with."
