Sometimes it’s the little things…

…that provide a whole lot of joy. In this case it is the feeling of accomplishment. I have finally opened my Etsy shop! [insert me doing a happy dance here] Secondly, thanks to lovely family and friends (who move quickly – thanks guys!), I have made my first two sales.  At this time there is only jewellery, but needle felted items will be added soon.

Look – it’s my site!!

One of the mental barriers I’ve faced (real or imagined) while setting up shop was the issue of mailing items out. Canada Post has a great section on their website regarding sizes/weights/pricing, but it thoroughly overwhelmed me.  Based on an Etsy recommendation I went to the post office with a mock-up of what I would be sending out. The woman who assisted me was incredible. She walked me through a variety of different sending scenarios, and helped me come up with a plan. I’m still not 100% confident – I’d put myself more at 32%, but it’s better than it was.

Today I sent off my first package. The woman at Canada Post decided it was letter mail (she needs to be there every time I send something!) which equals MUCH cheaper shipping costs. During the test run it was a bit of a judgment call as to whether the package was letter mail or not, so I tried to minimize packaging as much as possible, while still keeping it attractive. I have now learned how easy it is to refund excess shipping fees to the purchaser, and I’m feeling great. [insert another happy dance here]

There’s still a lot to learn and do – I found some flaws in the packaging (items always look different when I pack them only in my mind), so I want to figure that out and then prep so packages are easy to assemble.  I’d also like to keep improving my Etsy site with more images in the “About” section and strengthening some of the descriptions.  I have to tell you though, I feel such an incredible lifting of the spirit to have finally gotten motivated enough to take the chance and press the “go live” button, ready or not. I can spend far too long inside my head trying to sort out the best way to do things, but in this case I think it was better to just do them and iron out details as needed.

Thank you to everybody who has been so encouraging and supportive and not nearly as nagging as you could have been – I appreciate you all!