Hello Edmontonians! Any tips for a total newbie?

[Gatobob]

Hello everyone, My name is Jo!

I've recently quit my job coding websites. I'm a good coder, but what I really want to do with my life is sell my clay sculpted jewellery and hopefully custom items and figurines. I don't expect to make much money right away, but I'm still scared about making such a drastic change in my life.

I'm feeling rather overwhelmed!

I was hoping maybe some fellow locals like yourselves could tell me about your experiences and help answer some of my burning questions.

The main thing I'm nervous about is shipping. I have boxes and bubble mailers for my jewellery, but what do I do if I make a sale? Do you guys use Canada Post? Do you drive your parcel to the post office or cover it with lots of stamps and drop it in a post box? How much have you typically paid to ship your items? Do you use some kind of insurance?

Also, what sort of events would be good to check out in real life here around Edmonton for a craft seller? Do you know of any?

Anyway, thank you guys for having this group and sorry for asking your ears off!

[Former_Member]

Hi Jo,
I don't have a lot of sales to fall back on, but I do ship lots to the States where my family is. For smaller packages, I take items to our local postal outlet and send from there. For bigger items, I take items to UPS for shipping. This is mainly based on what works best for my mom on the receiving end. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

[Former_Member]

Hi Jo!

wow congrats on making the jump to working for yourself- I must confess, I still havent convinced myself that Im steady enough to do that just yet, and I admire all who are.

As far as shipping is concerned, lay out your policy in your shop policies and follow it, you can even put a blurb in each listing to be sure. In my case, on my listings the cheapest general shipping option is listed- this is also the slowest and uninsured. I remind my clients of this when I shoot them a brief message confirming and thanking them for thier order, its at this point that I have thier address and I can check to get more accurate quotes that include insureance and maybe a speedier shipping time, I give them several price options (ie regualr parcel, express post, next day priority), I am also careful to advise them that I am not responcible for thier order once it leaves my studio and if they dont want to spring for faster shipping or insureance thats fine, but its thier risk not mine. Then should anything happen, its a doccumented conversation where they refused the insureance not I.

As far as cost, I have found that purchasing my shipping labels through paypal is FAR cheaper than going to the post office and farting around in a mile long line up to do the same thing. This way I just package it up, stick the shipping label I printed on there and drop it with the local post office, I ship several boxes a week and this is the simplest way I have found so far. (I have also come to dislike FedEx and UPS, while im still not a huge advocate for canada post, they are reliable).

I hope this helps, please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have other questions!!

Cheers,

Nikki