Official Success Celebration Thread!

[#1]

This team is dedicated to sharing business advice in a supportive environment. From the day you first set up your shop to the day you think about quitting your day job, there's so much to learn. Luckily, one of the best things about selling on Etsy is the support and encouragement from other sellers.

Whether you’re brand new to selling on Etsy or you can count the years on both of your hands, you probably have some milestones that you’d like to celebrate with all of us. Post your milestone in this thread. Every month, we'll highlight some of our favorite posts, so join the celebrations!

Please also introduce yourself in your post if you’re new to the Etsy Success Team—describe what you sell and how long your shop has been open.

Here are some examples of milestones (but remember that all personal milestones big or small are worthy of celebrating!):

• You made your 1st sale / 1st international sale / 1st custom order
• You reached (x) # of sales
• You added (x) # of listings in your shop
• You have (x) # of views / favorites / admirers
• You received positive feedback from a buyer
• Your shop was featured in the press or in social media
• You recently opened your shop
• You’re celebrating your Etsyversary

[Former_Member]

However small it may be...I feel blessed to have made it through my first holiday season with all of the hair I began with :) I am so grateful to Etsy and each of you for this team. Everyone needs to share success :)

~kelly

[Former_Member]

Pamela at thelavenderpear... while I am no expert, I felt the same way. I thought...wooooohoooo I am open and now the sales will roll in and I can quit my day job. I have since realized (and luckily for me I didn't jump the gun) it DOES take time. But it is good time. While your goal should be to make sales, I have learned sooooo much while waiting on sales. Read everything you can here on Etsy. There is so much helpful information and sweet people to help. Also, research other shop owners. Look at the quality of the photos that stand out to you. Sooooo much good stuff while you are waiting!! Good luck

[Former_Member]

My 1st year I sold 4 items on Etsy. I had lost hope. I had all this jewelry made and on November 30th I posted maybe 30 items. Next day I had a sale. WOW! Posted more items and am waiting for my next sale. Looking forward to being busy going to the post office before Christmas.

[philosophiacreations]

Only 6 sales to go to reach my end of year goal! So excited!

[Former_Member]

3 sold in one month from my new store, hope more to go : )

[Former_Member]

I reached my 100th sale this week!

[AJBcreations]

My original goal for this year was to hit 200 sales. I surpassed it and thought I would shoot for 250, but wasn't very serious about it. I did it though! Hooray! :)

[Former_Member]

I really had not prepared for Christmas at all this year and had even briefly closed the shop as I didn't feel I was able to meet even simple orders for a week or so there. I love working on things for Well-Lettered, but as a university student, my exams and studies have to come first. So when I reopened the shop after finals week to let a a family friend place a large order, I didn't really anticipate anything more. However, it just happened that we did really well and I got work on my favourite things: custom orders. It is just very reassuring to have a solid month of business to help carry us all through the slightly less profitable months ahead. Presumably they are great months to work on new products!

[Nafsika]

Hello everybody! It's so nice reading all these stories!
I am so happy! This holiday season has been amazingly busy for me! I reached 500 sales and within two weeks I am reaching 550!
The past two years have been trully a ride. I thought of giving up on my shop since I opened it in 2008 and wasn't making many sales. But in 2011 I gave it a serious last effort! And it worked!
My goal for next year is try to organize my time better...having a full time job and a successful etsy shop is no pic-nic!

[Former_Member]

Hello all! I have been on etsy for a short time, but have received so much positive feedback and I already have 5 sales for the year!

I have to say I am very blessed and so thrilled to be amongst so many caring creative minds here on etsy. I wouldn't change anything, and I wish the rest of the etsy shops continued growth and success in 2014.

My goal for 2014 is to introduce new items and to do more custom hand painted caps for people. It really feels good when a customer is satisfied with the end results.

One Love!

[Former_Member]

As 2013 comes to a close I'm so happy and grateful to share my work with more people. I got my first 100 sales and was asked by the Etsy Canada folks to participate in Etsy STRUT. As a result - yesterday my bread bags were featured on a popular Toronto television show in a gift guide.

THANK YOU to this lovely community and to all the wonderful makers I have met and been inspired by!

Wishing you all a wonderful new year filled with creative joy,
Christine

[VintageSonaBeam]

I have managed to sell 3 items so far. Vintage stuff seems to get found a lot easier. I have sold one of my cards to America though! Glad to find your supportive team. Happy Christmas to all. Sharon

[Sewmuchfunstuff]

I am 4 orders away from my year end goal!

[Former_Member]

We're celebrating having passed the 30 items goal

[WilliamsGiftshop]

Congratulations on reaching your small and bigger milestones, everyone!

[Former_Member]

After practically not working on my shop for six months, I started once more yesterday and already had over 30 views and my items favorited 14 times! Success to see that people are seeing my hard work!

Elise Hopfner
Crooked Corks

Specifically, I was updating descriptions, tags, and titles of wine racks. This is the one that got the most attention after the update (I am so happy):
https://www.etsy.com/listing/91982879/free-floating-full-of-flavor-redox-wine?ref=shop_home_feat

[TNineDesign]

Never thought I would do it (well I guess I was just hoping so much in the beginning) but I hit 500 sales!! It's been a good year :)

[BerkshireCollections]

A thank you to all of you who are a part of Etsy. I have learned a great many things since joining some of these groups. Before this, I had no comprehension of SEO, favoriting, following or just plain visiting many of these shops and seeing the extreme amount of talent, literally in the world. I joined just a few months ago in August, thinking I only had to create a well made product and it would magically sell. While I do believe quality and creativity are key in any walk of life, I also have moved into the year 2013 and realized that the internet requires much more to have your creativity and quality noticed. I thank everyone of you for enhancing my life with your own creativity and your knowledge you have so willingly passed along. Happy Holidays and a Happy and creative New Year.

[Former_Member]

We are so close to our first 100 sales (94) and 45 of them were from December alone! We're celebrating an awesome Christmas season (especially for our first year)!
Hope you guys had lots of success over the holidays too and can now go spend some time with your families!

[MickeeMariee]

I have made 3 sales since I opened in October, which isn't much, but I feel it's a pretty good start!
Since joining a few groups my "views" and "liked" have multiplied like crazy! I love the support these groups give.
I'm excited to see what 2014 has in store for me :)

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MickeeMariee/sold?ref=shopinfo_sales_leftnav

[Former_Member]

I had my first sale! :)

[Former_Member]

I got 4 sales this month :-)

[Lithology]

18 sales since I opened Thanksgiving weekend. My goal was 1. WooHoo!
Happy dance ~~~^^~^^~~~

[WilliamsGiftshop]

Love how you set a very realistic goal, Dawn.
Yay for your 18 sales!

Congrats for everybody else too!

[MadeByMari]

My goal this year was to become part of these Etsy Forums to learn more, and to list items in the Promotion Forums to get more views - and therefore more sales. It worked! I think I do know more about marketing my listings and my sales show it. After 5 years on Etsy I was thrilled to hit 500 sales this year. Not only that, I am at 594 -- couldn't quite squeeze out 600 before I had to Vacation Close my shop for medical reasons now til April. These forums are great. You guys are great.

Every one of us deserves a pat on the back. Whether it's our 1st or 10th or 100th sale, we should be proud that WE DID IT!!! Happy New Year.