Wow! In just under a year I've had 679 sales and I'm blown away!! I never would have predicted I would be able to sell that much jewelry. When I started I had been laid off from my job and wanted to find a way to supplement the unemployment I was receiving. Talking to my sister one day, I said I might start making jewelry again and she suggested I look for ways to make personalized jewelry. My quest began, and has never stopped for that matter, to find supplies and resources to do just that. I had suppliers that I had used years ago when I made jewelry before and many of them were helpful. I found new suppliers that helped me along my journey. I posted my first items on Etsy on March 25th, 2009 and my sister purchased 3 items. She has been such a great supporter!! The first photographs of my work were horrible, but people still made purchases! Gotta love people who have faith!! Soon I was learning how to photograph my items better and how to handle production and shipping and marketing and everything else that goes with it!!
I'm still learning how to make this little business of mine a success. I thank God each day for allowing me to create a career for myself when my old career no longer needed me. It has been a wild year full of wonderful customers and great helpers. I am thankful for the women that have shown up in my path that have offered to work with me. They all jumped in with both feet and learned my way of doing things and made life easier. Even when I decided to move in November, at the height of the Holiday Season, an angel showed up and wanted to work for me. Thank goodness she did!!
The week before Christmas I was ready to shut it all down and crawl under the covers and come out when the coast was clear again, but no one would let me. At one point I had my 70 year old Mother, the amazing man in my life, the cleaning lady, and my assistant Tanya all doing some part of getting orders out. They were encouraging me, running errands, writing Thank You cards, packaging orders, printing shipping labels, sanding pieces, answering the door as supplies arrived and unpacking and putting supplies away, feeding me, cleaning up after me, making sure I had clean clothes to wear, and making sure I took a break now and then. Basically, holding me up. We shipped about 1000 pieces of jewelry between November 1st and January 1st and it was no easy task.
I tried and tried to stay positive, but many days I was a bundle of nerves and tears as I tried to get through the massive amounts of Etsy Convo's and emails and even people calling me on the phone. It would stop my ability to work, because I had to answer everyone. It would slow me down and all I could think was "If I am not working then product is not going out", I was not easy to be around no doubt, but they all stuck in there and got me through it. Thank God for them!!
As I reach the 1 year mark, my work will be changing and hopefully improving. I am adding some new fonts to the mix, a lower case hand written font and an upper case script font. I will be adding some new equipment to my studio to help me finish pieces to a higher quality. I will be learning some new techniques that will make it possible to do things in metal smithing I have never done before. Stay tuned and keep an eye on
StephieMc Designs on Etsy. I'm always adding new items.
Thanks so much for your support!! I appreciate all of you and hope you will be around to witness the ongoing evolution!! :)
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