Hi Everyone,
I am writing because I wanted to get some feedback, input, or see if anyone else has ever been in my boat before.
I've had KimArt open since 2009, when I was a freshman at Rutgers. Since then, I have never closed my shop, but I definitely took long mental hiatuses from KimArt because of my hectic work and school schedule. For the past year or so while I was finishing up grad school I literally made NOTHING new and merely just logged on to relist some items here and there.
Now that I am finally done with undergrad & graduate school I am finally able to focus on my health, my "real" job, planning my wedding!!!, and of course, KimArt.
For the first time in YEARS I can finally say I am super proud of all of the new items I have to be listed soon! I realized that my mish-mosh of items I was selling in my shop really wasn't working for me. Just because I can make it, doesn't mean I should sell it in my shop! I think it confused people and just didn't give KimArt a unified look from a business perspective.
I have chosen to focus ONLY on bridal head wear & accessories (of course you don't HAVE to be getting married to wear hair crowns!) and phase out all of the extra (jewelry, most of the embroidery, etc). Of course a downside of this is that I now have all these supplies to make all of these items that i won't be selling anymore.. oh welll...
Anywho, fast forward to today, I I have 5 new items listed (there are 30 or so more coming) and I vowed this time to do it "right" - I got special boxes for these new items, actually USED a photographer for product photos (one downfall was that I never actually had shots of models wearing my hair pins before) and have ordered all new business cards to match with these new photos. I am still waiting on the proofs for the rest, and I hope to have everything else listed next week.
My biggest problem is gaining back momentum - this seems so incredibly daunting right now. My fears are that I will have invested in more supplies for something else that won't work out. Some of the problems I am having are getting people engaged - I have a KimArt facebook page & twitter account of course. However I'm finding that I can't get people to engage with my posts. I have some close friends (and my fiance of course) that always "like" my posts - but I want to reach out to other people! I even paid for an ad today and that barely did anything.
I really try to engage with other sellers I follow on twitter. When they post something of theirs, I will always tell them if I like it, RT when necessary (i know you have to have a good balance unless you want to lose followers!) and I just don't always talk about my business, which can sometimes be a bore on social media. I don't feel I am getting any of the "etsy love" reciprocated at ALL - does this mean I need to branch out even MORE? I started following other sellers, wedding websites, etc on twitter to get more people in my relevant circle but I'm just not getting the support I wish I gave other people. Does anyone else ever feel like this? Do you ever feel like you're always uplifting other sellers and they don't ever RT you are just tell you, hey I think that's pretty? I know it sounds petty, but it really does get depressing when you post something you are REALLY proud of and literally no one says anything about it............
Having the same issue on facebook. a lot of my followers are facebook friends, I can't seem to get any "real" support there either. Sometimes I feel that the only people that care are my family!! This stinks! :(
Does anyone else have any similar stories to share? I know the wedding/bridal industry is tough to break into on Etsy but I think I really have a shot at it...
Any stories, suggestions, hugs are welcome lol! I am kind of sad over here....
Goodnight everyone, tomorrow is Friday!
