Can you build a profitable Etsy shop for free?
Hey hey hey and welcome to yet another episode of the Simplify Your Sales podcast
And today we’re diving into things mythbusters style! Yep, consider this your weekly dose of mythbusters because we are busting the lid off the time vs. money conundrum today and this idea floating around the interwebs about building a business for “free.”
Maybe you’ve heard people say “Oh, I built my business on free tips and tricks!” on the Etsy forums before? Or maybe you’ve just spent a lot of time googling “free tips and tricks” and because there’s SO much “FREE” information out there at your fingertips that it seems totally possible to do, right?!
That as long as you are willing to hustle SUPER hard, spend MONTHS researching your butt off, and test and tweak every single detail of your shop, you can become wildly profitable with $0 investment, because #hardwork and #googlesavestheday.
CAN I JUST BE THE FIRST TO SAY IT? THAT IS FLAT-OUT RIDICULOUS.
Now, I’m not saying the hustle mentality is ridiculous– seriously– I admire the HECK out of all you hustlers out there– I KNOW it’s not easy building a shop and balancing work/kiddos/homeschool/just LIFE in general. There are so many multitasking QUEENS out there and I admire the heck out of you!
So no, it’s not the “hustle mentality” that’s ridiculous– it’s the teensy, tiny detail that everyone seems to forget when talking about how they built their businesses “for free.”
Searching for answers and strategy on Google (or the Etsy forums, which is a SCARY place to search for answers) is NOT actually “free.”
(wait…what?!?!)
Now, I will fully acknowledge that it may not cost you MONEY to use Google as your business mentor…
But it IS costing you something else.
It’s costing you TIME.
And if you’re really being honest with yourself, that’s a currency that you may not have a lot of right now– especially if you’re working that 9-5 or going to school full-time or have kiddos at home.
Now, initially, investing the TIME into your business *may* save you money. I mean, Google’s not billing you, right?!
And it’s definitely the “safety net” option for a lot of us (myself included when I started!) because let’s face it: there’s this worry that if we invest real-deal MONEY into our business– actual CASH– we *might* not actually get it back.
And when you’ve worked your buns off for that profit, it’s dang HARD to throw it back into your business for something that only “might” pay off.
Over the years (and I’ve been at this “selling online” thing for over 9 years now!), I’ve come to realize just how backwards that way of thinking is.
It’s time to stop looking at business investments as “risky” and instead look at them as the most straightforward way to GROW your business.
MY HISTORY IN INVESTING IN MY BIZ.
Now, if you’ve followed along with me at all, you know that one of my first “business” investments was a $500 60-minute business coaching call back in 2013. I share this all the time with my Mastermind Your Marketing students because it was a BIG DEAL for me back then and it marks the point in my business where I shifted gears and started seeing results.
But at that point, this call was the SCARIEST thing I had done in my business. Hands down. Like, I was physically pit-in-your-stomach ill the minute I sent over the $250 non-refundable deposit.
Now, before this initial investment, I had boot-strapped my way through my first online shop– picking up as many free “tips” and “tricks” as I could along the way and spending a ton of time (see– there it pops up again– this elusive TIME currency!) in that “two steps forward, one step back” phase.
Because I had NO clue what I was doing and was relying on a bunch of free articles from around the web to fashion a makeshift “strategy,” it was definitely NOT smooth sailing.
I like to think of it as my “smeared mascara” business phase 😉
And yes, it was technically “free” in terms of money.
But it was costing me my TIME. my PROFIT. my SANITY.
So in September 2013, I booked that business call and made a non-refundable $250.
(and then, like I said, proceeded to almost lose my lunch because $250!!!!!).
THAT BUSINESS CALL CHANGED EVERYTHING FOR ME.
And no, I’m not just talking about the crystal clarity I got from actually being handed a STRATEGY and not just a bunch of random tips and tricks….
…I’m talking about the fact that instead of wasting 100+ hours (ps- that’s, like, MONTHS in stay-at-home-mom standard time when you’re doing the naptime hustle) like I did last time trying to hodge-podge together a makeshift “plan” on my own (that revolved around nearly 100% SEO if you’re wondering) ….
…I had one CUSTOMIZED and COMPLETED in just 60 minutes with an actual e-commerce marketing strategist.
Now, that’s not to say that it didn’t take time to implement said plan.
I still had to do the work. Yes, it was laid out for me, but I still had to IMPLEMENT it.
But because I had already created and outlined my entire marketing system plan on that $500 phone call, I was able to jump into that IMPLEMENTATION phase right away.
(you know– the part of the strategy where you actually make money. Aka, NOT the “research + development” phase that we all get so comfortable in but earns us $0 😉
[Also- if you’re wondering about the actual timeline because #detailsareawesome: I didn’t even have an Etsy shop opened yet when I scheduled this call (I had closed down my original shop, Highbury Place, in July, scheduled this call for September, and opened my new shop, Little Highbury, in late Nov/early Dec). Proof that it’s NEVER too early to invest in your biz ;)]
And ONE month– just 30 days– after implementing this marketing system that I had built out the framework for on that phone call, my new Etsy shop earned $1,252.40 in revenue.
Compare that to the ZERO dollars I had earned in Month one of my original Etsy shop where I had tried to figure it out on my own, and wasted MONTHS researching and testing and tweaking a random strategy.
It was a complete night and day difference.
Now, up front, it seems glaringly obvious which one cost me more money:
The $500 marketing call, right?!
Actually, no.
Because when you look at the cold, hard data, both of those options cost me something:
Shop #1: I invested $0 and earned $0, which resulted in…(wait for it)…. $0.
Shop #2: I invested $500 and earned $1252.40, which resulted in +$752.40 just in month one!
See where I’m going with this?!
Shop #1 cost me in TIME. I spent MONTHS researching the heck out of my SEO strategy and having nightmares about keywords. And that was BEFORE I even implemented them. Now, were those keywords “free” to implement in terms of money? Yes. But they still cost me–in lost revenue.
How? Because there were shops in the same niche as me who were busy making sales and filling orders while I was too busy researching and re-researching keywords behind-the-scenes to have the time to ACTIVELY do something with my shop that would actually result in sales.
Now shop #2 cost me in MONEY. I spent $500 and 60 minutes with a business coach. Day one of opening my shop, I was in the negative by -$500, let’s not sugarcoat it. But by day 30, I had made a gross profit of $752.40 (which actually netted around $675.00– I had a high markup on my product 😉
So the bottom line?
Investing that $500 actually made me more money. As counter-intuitive as it seems, investing MONEY in your business is the fastest way to grow your revenue.
I NEED YOU TO UNDERSTAND THIS: NOTHING IN BUSINESS IS FREE.
YOU’RE EITHER GOING TO HAVE TO INVEST TIME OR MONEY IN GROWING YOUR ETSY SHOP.
For me, I’ve usually found money to be the better investment overall. Yes, there are definitely things I still Google to quickly figure out, but for other things (i.e. adding custom CSS to my site, designing promo graphics, or creating landing pages), spending the $1,000 to my graphic designer is MORE THAN WORTH THE COST of trying to figure it out on my own and losing valuable hours in my day that *could* be spent on strategies that actually make me money.
So it begs the question: “Where do you recommend I invest money in my business first, Morgan?”
Great question! And there’s honestly no “one-size-fits-all” answer for everyone, because everyone is at different stages in their Etsy shop experience.
So let’s take a look at where YOU might want to be investing in your business, depending on where you are in your shop journey:
FOR THE “I’M-JUST-GETTING-STARTED-AND-WHAT-IN-THE-HECK-AM-I-DOING?!” ETSY SELLER:
Right now, your main focus should be on FIGURING OUT YOUR MARKETING.
Your goal is to make a profit. But if you have NO idea what you’re doing with your marketing, it’s going to be a hard sell to make that happen, (pun intended?!). Whether you like it or not, as a just-getting-started-Etsy-seller, you ARE the marketing expert of your shop (yes, you right-brain creative person!). So treat yourself like one!
Whether you decide to spend months down the rabbit hole piecing together your own strategy, or joining us in my signature done-for-you marketing automation system program, Mastermind Your Marketing, when you’re in this phase, you NEED to get your marketing figured out STAT– before you invest in that fancy-schmany logo designer or throw tons of money on ads. Understanding your marketing is the FIRST step to a profitable Etsy shop— it shouldn’t be something you “figure out later.”
OKAY, NEXT UP: FOR THE “ALRIGHT-MY-MARKETING-IS-STARTING-TO-WORK-AND-I’M-DOING-OKAY-FOR-MYSELF” ETSY SELLER:
It’s time to introduce some additional AUTOMATING YOUR BUSINESS.
Now if you joined us back in Mastermind Your Marketing, you’ve already got a system implemented that is almost entirely automated. So your marketing? It’s already automated #heckyes 🙂 (and if you haven’t automated your marketing, what are you waiting for– take a look at Mastermind Your Marketing which I’ll link to in the show notes so you can see EXACTLY how we can help you get to that point!)
Your automation should, at a minimum, include scheduling your social media strategy, automating your sales funnel sequences, importing canned responses for your customer service inquiries.
Basically anything that CAN be duplicated and repeated to save you time should be done– because things are on their way to CRAZY-AWESOME BUSY anytime now– so let’s get ahead of the curve 🙂
AND FINALLY, FOR THE “I’VE-GOT-THE-MARKETING-DOWN-BUT-I-CAN’T-KEEP-UP-WITH-ORDERS” ETSY SELLER:
Right now, your main focus should be on HIRING YOUR TEAM.
Up to this point, you’ve worked IN your business. When you get to this (insanely awesome) stage, it’s time to start working ON your business. You step away from being the workhorse and step into becoming the VISIONARY of your brand.
And that means letting things go…to someone else, that is 😉
It should come as no surprise that things take off QUICKLY with a marketing system in place like I teach inside Mastermind Your Marketing (seriously– I hit my first five-figure month [$11K] just 10 months after opening my shop and implementing one!), and you’re going to feel those growing pains something fierce when they hit– so let’s tackle them head-on!
Now is the time where you look at hiring out contract workers and streamlining your systems.
Hire your first VA to manage your bookkeeping and order your supplies.
Contract out with a few local people (or even an order fulfillment center!) to help fulfill your orders.
Hire a marketing VA on retainer so you don’t have to handle the post or email scheduling yourself.
You DON’T have to hire actual real-deal employees– contracting is just fine for now– but you DO need to get some help or you’re going to burnout in about 1 ½ weeks (not that I’m speaking from experience…)
You need HELP in this stage– so don’t be afraid to take that leap and bring some support on board.
Your family (and your sanity) will thank me later 😉
So investing in your business– it’s up to you to determine which currency you’re more willing to spend.
Remember: NOTHING IN BUSINESS IS FREE. You’re ALWAYS spending something– either TIME or MONEY (and when it all boils down to it, one of those is non-renewable)
It’s up to you which makes the most sense for your business and what is going to bring you the results that you want.
And with that food for thought, we’re wrapping up another episode of this podcast. Did that just fly by or what?! I’m obviously REALLY passionate about this topic 😉
And if you’re looking for MORE valuable business insights into building a profitable shop, make sure you subscribe to the Simplify Your Sales podcast over on iTunes where I share a new episode every single week. And if you’ve found ANY sort of value in this episode, I would head over heels LOVE IT if you left a review over on iTunes so that this free resource can get in front of as many eyes as possible.
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll see you next week, same time, same place, teaching you how to build a business that supports your lifestyle…and not the other way around!