I Need ADVICE!

[MagnoliaManorDecor]

I have been making more than a full time income (and working more than full time) the past 4-6 months and feel like I am so screwed! I am having a hard time keeping up and my husband spends his entire day off, half his evenings, and part of Saturdays helping me. His mom comes over to help too a few nights a week and on Saturdays.

I am at home with a 7 month old and work as much as I possibly can during the day but I feel like I can barely keep up. I surely couldn't do it without help from my husband and mother in law. I am SCARED for when people start shopping for Christmas - I mean, a good scared, but scared nonetheless!

So, how do you do it? How IN THE WORLD do you keep up with orders and still get stuff out to customers in a reasonable amount of time? Do you hire help? Are your spouses/significant others working at home with you? If so, where's some good insurance I can get and how long did you wait for a steady stream of income and sales before they quit their job too?

I have thought about putting my shop on vacation to catch up sometimes, but that's lost income.. Help me! I'm so lost.

[Former_Member]

Hi! I looked at your shop (very cute, BTW!) and I know you have been giving lots of advice in that other thread in the Etsy Success forum. Just wanted to add that maybe reviewing your policies of making custom items? You can deactivate them for a while and stop doing custom work and just do your regular work. I do custom pieces also and while they are always (well, almost always) very fun to make, they can take up a lot of time and energy! Just something to think about..

[Former_Member]

i would increase your turnaround time to give yourself breathing room before you have a breakdown. It is ok to turn away business when there is just too much to handle...and tell the potential buyers why..and ask if they are willing to wait for the items and for how long.
If you try to do too much, your quality will suffer and you may fall behind...which will piss off the buyers who paid you for your service. Give Great Quality, and dont worry about the quantity.
OR, raise your prices, which (hopefully) will slow down the sales to a more manageable pace...

[ThoughtfulRoseSupply]

Raise prices! Sales might slow a little, but if you're making more per sale, your overall profits will (hopefully) stay the same, and you'll have a little more breathing room.

[Former_Member]

Luxeloft, first of all take a deep breath.

Have you done an evaluation of your pricing and your profit margins recently? That's the first thing I would do. Sit down and figure out how long it takes to make each item and what the profit margin is.

Then you can evaluate your pricing and see if you are actually paying yourself a living wage. Based on that you may find that you need to raise your prices accordingly.


One other thing that you may want to consider is to have some items 'ready to ship' in your most common colours.

The third thing is to push out your delivery dates for custom orders to relieve the pressure.

Do you have a set schedule that you work on? I've found that has really helped as well.

I don't put my shop on vacation but I do stop taking custom orders at the end of October each year for Christmas delivery because I simply don't want the stress.

[AuthoredAdornments]

I was just having this same exact problem. I was literally working 12 hour days everyday.

So! I decided to just jump in the pool and raise my prices. I was pretty terrified, but I just couldn't physically do it anymore.

And guess what?! My sales haven't plummeted :) In fact, I'm still selling the same amount, which isn't good for my sleep patterns, but--hey--at least I'm making a nicer hunk of money.

Worse comes to worst, you're basically given a break if you choose to raise your prices. If you can't sell anything at all (which I highly doubt!) with higher prices, just make sure to take advantage of the slow time and put your feet up for a second. If this is the case, you can *always* lower them again. There's no rule saying that once you've risen them, you can't bring them back down.

Or--more likely--your sales will stay the same and everyone will continue to work their butts off, but at least you'll be making a much prettier penny.

Either way, I hope for a very happy medium for you!! Good luck!

[Former_Member]

Great advice from everyone, and congrats to you for getting so many orders!

[dorsetclothing]

I would definitely look at raising your prices for at least your custom work. Custom work takes so much more time than we often realise, and I think you should allow for the extra time it makes to make a proof for these customers.

I would suggest closing custom orders at least for a couple of weeks to get caught up, and perhaps use some of that time (if you have any!) to make some ready made items of your best sellers so you have some things ready to ship for the holidays.

[ThoughtfulRoseSupply]

So...what did you decide, luxeloft? Did you end up raising prices? :)