Imagine this: You wake up tomorrow morning. Get some coffee. Log in to your laptop. Sales have been hopping in your online shop! More than a usual good sales day. Woot! A few more sales come in. Your email inbox is filling up with enquiries. Can your item can be made bigger, smaller, more blue, in sets of four, yada yada yada.
Your wildest dreams have come true. Your shop has been featured on a popular website. (I write from experience, see Photojojo’s 20 Photographers Whose Work You Can Actually Afford.)
This is the break you’ve been wishing for. But are you ready? The time to get ready for your big break is before it happens!
Get ready for your dreams to come true. Now.
1. Pick a number. How many of your widgets would you like to be ready to sell in a week? Planning for a “large” number of sales without a number in mind just doesn’t work so well, in my opinion. How many widgets do you need to have ready to sell? How many mailing boxes do you need? Pick a number.
I’ll tell you how I pulled a number out of my hat. Your mileage may vary. For me, as a photographer on etsy, I looked at the Etsy Featured Sellers who were photographers and counted the number of prints they sold in the few days they were featured. It wasn’t an exact count, more of a guideline. In the end, I came up with 100. I always want to have the supplies on hand and systems in place to be ready to get 100 orders out the door within a week.
2. Inventory your supplies. Make a list of consumables that are depleted with each sale. For photographic prints, the list might be: paper, ink, postcards that I include as freebies with each order, cello sleeves, packaging supplies, mailing boxes, bubble wrap, tubes, printer labels. Then take inventory and note how long it takes to get more.
This is where that number you picked in #1 comes in handy. Now decide how many/much of each thing you want to have on hand and when to re-order. Bubble wrap I can buy locally; USPS priority mail boxes take a week or two to arrive after I order them online. Since it may take a while to get mailing boxes, when I’m down to 150 boxes, I order more.
3. Capture the opportunity to build your email list. Folks are curious about your shop when the feature is fresh in their minds– don’t let them forget you! Email list sign-ups are the acorns for your big oaks later. Make it easy for shop visitors to sign up; encourage folks to sign up to your email list with a link in your shop announcement. Put a link to sign up in your email signature.
If you don’t already have an email list started, sign up for one now! Some email marketing services: Mailchimp, Bravenet, Aweber
(Update: Check out How to Market Your Etsy Shop with Mailchimp)
4. Anticipate your buyers’ questions. You know the questions you get in emails from buyers. Maybe the questions are answered on your website or in your shop, but you still get the same enquiries. Be ready to quickly respond. Have answers typed up and ready to copy, paste and customize.
This is a start on getting ready for getting your socks blown off. More tips will be on the way. How are you getting ready for the spotlight?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post, you made me dream! :) Wish my number was real one day.
Fantastic, motivational post Tricia!