Why My Small Business FAILED
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- čas přidán 9. 06. 2024
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I have an Etsy shop that honestly... hasn't been doing well these days. But I also have to keep it real to myself and remember that YOU CAN'T DO EVERYTHING as an artist. There's a lot of successful small businesses here on CZcams, and while I may be considered a "small business" in some ways, I definitely did not succeed that much in the online shop world hahaha.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Intro
00:35 - Why Did I Start Etsy Shop?
02:06 - What I Used to Create My Etsy Shop
02:44 - Bookbolt Mention
04:18 - When My Shop Started Declining
05:31 - When My Shop Failed
10:22 - How You Can Help Me :)
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being an artist is so damn humbling
too true 🙌🏼
That’s why people are transitioning more to digital on demand products! They are more scalable and you don’t have to worry about physical inventory lol
So true! Yeah I'm thinking about leaning more into digital content that could be educational too!
The artist struggle of wanting to do your own thing creatively but also having to make a consumable product and surviving in this economy
What I’ve learned so far being a fulltime artist for 2.5yrs is that THERE’S multiple ways to earn BUT not all will work the same for everyone. Some do great with physical products/commissions/commercial work/artfluencer/digital products/license, etc.
It’s a different recipe/combination for each artist which is also understandable because it can be TOO MUCH when you try to manage different things at the same time by yourself! Gotta be honest with yourself and go for your STRENGTHS! 💪
Yeah I totally agree! Every artist will have a different concoction of what makes up their income :)
Most businesses fail within 5 years. Of the businesses that succeed, they are the success stories. Only a handful of them become large-scale highly profitable companies. And most people have to work for the companies or the State.
it just kinda feels like you’d hope people would keep buying your product at the same rate they were at the beginning and didn’t really plan on keeping your own business alive with creative innovation. comes off as a side hustle versus being a ‘small business’
I make 3-5k a month selling sticker sheets alone. I'm going to start including note pads and washi tape. Baby steps
ur an inspiration! i love stationery and thats all I want to sell.
Dang that’s amazing! I hope to get to that level one day.
@@roseaphile thank you! do it, just draw cute stuff and share it!!
@@artbyinky you absolutely can, just have fun with it!!
@@modoodles I am trying! Sticker sheets take me the longest to make cuz my dang cricut likes to act up when I make them lol.
"you cant do everything" is so important. Learning that truth myself.
This came at a scarily accurate time haha. I recently started up an Etsy shop and while I have had a few sales here and there, I really struggle to stay on top of the marketing & shop updates, and I feel I'm kinda deluding myself into thinking things will pay off in the long run. I don't want to give up yet as it hasn't even been open for a year, and I do have a lot of new product ideas that I'm really excited about so I'll keep on trying to give it a solid go. At least for a little while longer!
I know there's so much more I could do to get my name out there (stay on top of reel/tiktok trends, start a YT channel, etc) but the thought of managing everything on top of the shop, artist alleys, social media and looking for illustration work really stresses me out :( We'll see how things go!
I love MewTripled because of how transparent she is. You always seem to be answering the questions I have in the back of my mind!
This makes me feel validated about having diverse intentory tbh. I think you had success, but relied on this one thing to keep your business afloat, which isn’t a bad thing, but it doesn’t seem to be a long term solution.
I’m also glad I never put the complete effort into IG like others did. I wasn’t going to spend hours researching tags when I’d rather make art. I used to love IG but I rarely use it anymore!
Another topic I’d like to mention about merch, if you’re going to do it, do it at home and start small first or get with other artists online and do group orders! I recently learned about this and am in two discord groups where artists run orders we can buy things from manufacturers, but as one massive order to save on shipping and MOQ. This way you can do smaller amounts and still get pins, washi, etc. I also use POD for my journals and that’s another great way to test what designs will sell too. POD eats a lot of profit, but I’m planning to get the designs that sell the best as physical items soon.
Something else I want to do is to get into cons and markets, but that’s tough right now as everyone’s also trying too!
how did you find those group order servers? they seem like a good idea, especially since those MOQs can be intimidating 😥
good luck getting into cons and stuff!!
@@4tarobyteso you have to apply to them to get in, but there is the artists alley network and margalita pizza go.
For AAN, applications open the beginning of each month and new members get accepted in. You need to have some type of portfolio or store front though.
A lot of people are boycotting Etsy.. that also might not be helping at all! Etsy got really difficult for me to support afte the wave of Ai artists and also how expensive it is to buy something as an international fan... it overall sucks
You clearly gained a lot of knowledge about that side of the art biz, and knowledge is priceless. Everything has a shelf life, but I’m so glad you grabbed the opportunity while it was there!
I wouldn't call that failing. You just lost interest in it and focused on other things
Long ago I realized that it's easier to go from rag to riches, than from riches to rags. You got so used to having bigger sales that now when you're getting a lot less, yet more than most of us are getting, it's troubling for you.. but you should still count your blessings. People claim my art is beautiful yet I haven't sold a single item in an entire year.. I wish I can have 5 sales a week, that would be amazing.
Thank you for writing this!
@@MissShembre 🥰
Honestly, running a business takes work, dedication, etc. so I admire your hard work. I see you as a successful artist with everything else you have been working on.
Honestly this video might be exactly what I need to keep in the back of my mind for the future. Cureently my online sales aren't good at all but my reach keeps increasing, I have a billion ideas for other options but i'm trying to stick with the shop stuff for now!
Aww wishing you the best!! But that's still great you're not giving up! :D
I started my Etsy with just digital products and I didn't make it big with that at all like some people say they do or you will. I made sales, but nothing crazy no matter how much marketing I did. Digital products are also very niched, esp the ones I make/offer. I'm switching gears to physical products and print on demand, while moving all my digital products to my personal website. My personal website already brings in money & brand deals, and I have similar freebies to what I sold on Etsy that get hits all the time & grew my email newsletter with. I also work with websites for a living, so I can create and list website templates & themes to sell on it, as well as any other services. For a long time, I would just list my services on external sites, but I got burnt out from constantly creating websites for people that were websites I didn't want to make or feel inspired to. Idk how the whole template/theme sale will go at all, but I don't have to deal with fees at least and I am actually pretty inspired with some ideas I came up with. I know themes do sell on Etsy, but like I said I was getting sale here and there with digital products already and the fees on Etsy are insane. But I definitely want to take a stab at revamping my Etsy with only physical products, it's under a different name than my username, and a different style of art than what I currently share online which also excites me because I had imposter syndrome for the longest. Thankfully, I have 2 different IG accounts for each, so I can market both at the same time without the confusion, but but I'll list both websites on each place and name them appropriately. Ones digital goodies only the other, well you get my long ended message lol. A lot of people don't realize not everything is going to workout for everyone with a cut and paste plan. It's not cookie cutting out here. It's always going to be different.
Walt Disney’s first animation business failed in Kansas. In fact Disney would not hire any CEOs unless they had previously known personal failure. Use this experience. Keep going.
Thanks Michelle for the video! Felt a lot of the things you said,,, !!!! Being an artist + having to do all the promo + shipping / stocking and just doing everything is.... tough
Funny timing. I just brought two books from you on esty. I hope you keep dropping more comics in the future. 0:28 yup that’s me lol
Thank you for being transparent & sharing book bolt!
This was super helpful, thank you for sharing!! It's so true that artists can not do EVERYTHING and it is not sustainable
This is the most natural advertising for book bolt.
It's a recession.
Its really hard to sell on Etsy now, so many people and so many people underselling their stuff :/
Well that and ai/reselling garbage too.
yeah that too sadly :/
Keep it up, things will turn around 👍
I've been following you for years and I had no idea you had an Etsy.... I am a fraud.
haha dw about it, like I said, it was hard to promote it every single time when I had 5 other things to promote as well x'D
Love your videos!! And great advice!!
thank you for your honesty, its a fascinating video ☺☺
🥺 You didnt fail you did wonderful. I see this as a huge success for you in a hard time for artist.
thank you for sharing your experience
Your products are so cute. I've never heard your comic but I'll check it out now
Thank youu for doing this vid.
I have worked for years on a new comic project and it's been really hard, also because I have a second full time job. I tried and did everything that was required.
After all I received very bad reviews and my book had very low rate. Someone said my book is a total crap and wast of time. So I stopped my business and discountinued my comic.
If I can get some positive from this experience, I think I've learned a lot from mistakes, and that you need courage to put yourself out there because people can be incredibly mean.
The last important lesson I've learnt is that I would never say mean and nasty comments or reviews to another person, despite some mistakes they may have done, you never know what they are going through and if they are at the beginning of their career. It's good to leave criticism and advices but people don't realise what they do when they leave insults from the safety of a keyboard. There is a real person behind the other end of the business.
Thank you so much for showing your “failures.” As an artist, designer, youtuber and streamer, believe me, I’ve had more than my fair share. It’s nice to see even big creators have failures, or things they wish had gone better. Especially with AI, it can be really discouraging. Thank you for reminding us all it’s okay to not be perfect. ❤
Ive been following your content for a while. I really looked up to you in regards of getting in the animation industry and selling my art! So this video is helping me a lot while I'm going through a mini identity crisis with my art not doing so well... along with AI taking over. I'm glad that I'm not alone
Excellent video- great lessons in becoming a small business-unfortunately, the more people involved in selling your products (publishers, pin makers, distributors) the less money you make -
I still have your bad bish pin! It’s my favorite 😊
Oh wow you worked on Oni!
I’d like to buy things but the shipping cost is almost 20$ for me…
Yeah, definitely figuring out what works for you as an artist goes a long way. It is nice that we are in a time where there are a lot of options, but also that you pretty much have to have more than one way of earning income as well (at least for most I tend to think.)
Side question for you though, but I'm curious how difficult it was transitioning your storyboard skills to comic/graphic novel making? I know there would be some things from storyboarding that would be really useful when designing comics but I know some things you have to approach differently too. So I'm curious about how that learning curve was, especially when making Meesh: The Bad Demon and even your new 80s comic project. Did you have to look at graphic novel making books or ask some comic creator friends for input? Sorry this is long!
Yes totally! I think that there are so many great options now, but choosing to stick to what you are best at is the part most of us struggle with when we think we can do everything!
In the meantime, transitioning to comics wasn't that hard because prior to attending school for animation to narrow down on storyboarding, I doodled and did a lot of comics for fun, inspired by manga and other comics I read. I would just try to reference the panel templates / arrangements other artists did. After storyboarding, there is just a lot of things you learn about keeping the flow of a visual story smooth which I continued to apply to my comics. So basically, a mixture of looking at comics that I like to use as reference, and applying some storyboarding tips along with it.
It's sad but true 😭👍
And thank you for the answer! Part of the reason I asked is because I'm trying to learn how to make comics and I overthink so much when it comes to how a person should think when approaching page design and pacing and all the technical fun stuff lol. So it's really insightful and appreciated to hear the perspective of someone who has that storyboarding background and how you go about your comic work. So again, thank you and much appreciated!! 😁👍
My Etsy shop and kinda sorta my Spoonflower are also in the pooper right now. My Etsy was never to the same level as yours, but it was enough to comfortably live my already frugal lifestyle. I did great in 2020-the first half of 2021 because I had a few already popular medical designs. When IG changed their algorithm, that was the nail in the coffin. I also turned to painting and have prioritized that over digital art, and that didn't help since I only sell paintings in person and have been lazy about adding mini prints to my shop. The economy I feel like has tanked everyone. At least for me, business is down 80%. I have one stream of income that hasn't been as effected, but it's also the most time consuming and has the most negative impact on my physical and emotional health (art commissions.) I started doing everything else so I didn't have to rely on commissions as much, but here we are!
I just think T-Shirt, stickers are just boring......because too much people are doing these......
Maybe it is because the art (or lack-thereof) is boring.
Lots of self-proclaimed small business and e-commerce gurus online have been heavily promoting that "anyone" can make, from a side-hustle on Etsy, Amazon, RedBubble, etc. or some other Marketplace platform, plenty of money and then some. (Apparently, Without ANY artistic talent or any clue or passion for being creative).
They demonstrate in their videos, how to make use of what I call, "canned art", from places like Canva and a few others, and how to recombine bits and pieces, plus some text, in order to create a t-shirt, or some other product,
There is nothing wrong with using those design helper platforms if you have no skills as an artist or graphic designer, and you need it for personal use (or maybe for a project at work), but you can't expect to make a fortune selling Print-On-Demand products using those tools either.
When you look on Etsy or some other sales platforms, you can spot those designs right away because they are what I would call "uninspired".
Not bad, but not something I'd spend money on, and when mostly "everyone" is using the SAME SOURCES FOR ALL THEIR ART AND GRAPHIC DESIGN, you guessed it.
It all starts to look the same!
I saw that happening a few years ago, after watching a few videos by a popular side-hustle guru or two, that suggested (and showed how-to), make coloring books and student activity books, to sell on Amazon as no-content and low-content books through their platform.
And the end result showed up on Amazon, (and continues to), as cookie-cutter coloring and activity books re-using the same bits and pieces of art and graphics from mostly free sources.
So many non-artists jumped on the bandwagon, looking to make a quick buck with the hack of using canned art, that it really de-valued the whole coloring book and journal concepts, except for some small companies and artist's that had been creating their own ORIGINAL ART content already.
And they were the ones who did really well, making huge amounts of sales, BECAUSE their art was well-done AND original.
Stickers are great though because people collect them and theyre affordable for people who buy them
I get one sale a month 😂😅
hey bish you have a wealth of knowledge , you're not just a artist , you're a personality. network with the other artists and start a podcast & do collabs.
Jesus, this was informative!
im so glad!
Selling original art is really hard. Im on the path of doing my own zine and advesting my characters etc and i hope i can soneday sell things with them etc, but as you said too, its not something ppl actively search, truly a challenge!
Economy is also kicking my ass as a board artist
Ive heard most of a persons sales happen in the begining.
This video was really eye opening! I learned a lot.
glad sharing my experience helped!
@@mewTripled It did! I was just wondering since I’m a new subscriber, can you make a video of how you wrote your experience in a fictional way? In your comics. Because I’m interested in making comics, just with different topics.
Poor mew mew 😢
not about comparision, but you have built up much more of a following than I and yet you struggle to make enough sales. All the best to your declutting. I might do a charity give away for some of the things I'm no longer into making.
How do you feel about print on demand of your comics?
Oof bummer 😔, ya got solutions other than Etsy (not as optimistic in economical sense) to solve this?
aww thanks! yep, I'm leaning more into publishing books and being an online creator :D hopefully it all goes well.
I think she can always sell fan art commissions. And patreon can bring in money
@@mewTripledawesome 😎
@@mewTripled cool
6:35 she's taylor swift!!!
I was gonna buy some things but I felt awkward having something called “succubishes” in my house lol
pov: you are watching stage 5 of the artist to furry commission taker pipeline
May I ask what is the difference in owing a business and being self employed? I feel like owning a small business means you have a license to sell at conventions and sell your own products? But with self employed it's similar but you do everything from content creation, social media managing, selling products, monetizing social media etc. Recently I took a survival skills for artists class, and my teacher have confirmed that you don't need a business lisense to file taxes or do self employed, you basically have to fill out taxes as solo propertier(?)
I get confused really easily haha
No. Self-employed means you are doing business as “your name”. Owning a business means you are doing business as “your business name”. It’s a different process to set up paying tax depending on which way you go.
Interesting to see that this confusion is also existing in the English-speaking world lol In Germany being a business owner means you have to pay special taxes when you make a certain amount of profit. You can be self-employed. But not every self-employed person is a business owner, there are freelancers for example. Those provide a service and don't have to pay the business taxes, but not every kind of job is eligible to count as freelancer, some must have a business, especially when you're selling goods
Are you in the US? That is correct, your SS# is also a business ID if you are the sole proprietor/employee. A very important thing to know is you have to pay taxes for the next year quarterly (so you pay estimated taxes ahead of time, four times a year). Or you will have to pay a late fee (ask how I know 🙄). A good accountant is worth their weight in salt and can give business advice.
Another important thing to be aware of, anything that you did not create (such as a character from a show, book, etc) is subject to copyright infringement. Even saying something is *inspired* by like, Harry Potter for example, is also subject to copyright infringement. If you make a baby yoda doll, and call it baby frog, guess what, copyright infringement. Those big boys do NOT screw around, they WILL sue you. I’ve heard of many people being financially ruined from using sports logos, Disney imagery, etc. “Don’t mess with the mouse.” If you draw a character from a show, it qualifies as fan art, which is not illegal until it put up for sale. Best to avoid any infringement whatsoever.
CZcams sponsorship rates are really high right now. It's a shame that direct support from fans isn't more viable
I hear what you're saying, but hear me out....
The thumbnail would've looked funny as hell if you had a cigarette in your mouth, and I can't stop laughing at that mental image ☠️☠️☠️
What audience you want? As soon i saw the name of the company it was distasteful. And not everyone into " demon " themes. You truly are talented tho! If you want organic traffic you have to lean towards ppl into lower energies. Good luck.
She probably wants the audience who’s into demon themes. Not everything has to cater to people who aren’t into the demon theme. It’s ok to have something that caters to the people who are.
It maybe a good video but I dunno why... her eye and her lash are like staring me, It kinda got me creepy and stopped watching...
🥹🥹 amazing a book deals!! So happy for you!!
Thanks for the info!
Can you show us how you built a following on Instagram for your comic? How regularly did u post? Etc
there is no formula, you just have to post same style content regularly (a few times a week) for years. That's it. No magical day or hour or hashtags will help to make it faster.
As someone who has a small cosmetic business I feel this as well! I barely get any sales and I have had my business since 2017 but I have been taking it seriously this year and I can feel the struggle 🥲. I have a full time job and I have a IMVU shop as well as a hobby and even that hobby makes more money than my dream cosmetic brand 🥲
I've had an Etsy shop for about 5.5 years now and last year was so bad! I recently did my taxes and noticed that I had only made sales in August.
thank you so much for this video! it helped me maintain my expectations for my book and i guess i never realized the downfall comes when you stop promoting your products🥹🥹