So I've finally taken the plunge and decided to open an Etsy shop. I've always wanted to own a business of some kind and figured that Etsy would be the best place to start with that. Over the past couple of months I have collected a good amount of vintage clothing but that's just about it. I still have a lot of things to figure out when it comes to selling vintage and I've found that youtube, google and pinterest are the most information filled places if you're extremely serious and dedicated to doing anything involving vintage.
Slowly but surely I have been gathering information on little details that will make my shop successful. Now even though I said that the internet has helped me greatly, there are still many things I don't have a great sense in doing and another little gem has been filling in the gaps.
This book is amazing and I've been going highlighter crazy on every page. Now it's great for the basic start up and with packaging, pricing, understanding the policies and basically the business-y side of etsy but I feel like you still need to get a great word of mouth going on. For example, if you're anything like me then you just can;t grasp everything you need to understand without a little visual entertainment and thats where every other social media outlet kicks in for me.
Abby of Haute Mess Vintage has a really great video about an etsy start up thats clear, honest, and to the point and it's always a plus getting information from someone is actually has a shop.
The greatest advice I've been getting from all kinds of sellers online is BE PATIENT. It could take a month to a year to get any type of sale but while that time is passing by, I have to be active with the Etsy community and also create a great amount of traffic into my shop. That basically means being very involved in social media like I was a couple of years back before a great little disease call Social Anxiety became a huge part of my life (I'll post a little about that later on). So while I'm getting a couple of more vintage items together, taking great, clear pictures of them and writing some very detailed descriptions on the pieces, I'll be attempting to open a youtube channel, a shop facebook, and putting up more selfie/fashion pictures on this blog(oh, and being more involved in my shop's instagram).
Plus I'll be chronicling every little step because I'm a huge believer of helping anyone out there looking to start anything and feeling as lost, discouraged and not so confident as I did when I first got the idea of doing this. We're a community of people that when together can accomplish a lot of things and being an entrepreneur just might be my generations greatest success, especially with this crappy economy and ridiculous cost of ANY college. So here goes nothing and hopefully I can be one of those great success stories.
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