image credit Most people who buy fabric online purchase it through one of the established shops like Pink Castle, Hawthorne Threads, or Fat Quarter Shop. There’s a segment of the fabric buying public, though that purchases fabric through private Facebook groups. As these groups grow in size and popularity, their impact on the more mainstream…
How to Set Up a Subscription Club for Your Craft Business
A few weeks ago my daughter, Josephine, turned four. We planned a birthday party for her at the local community center and she couldn’t wait. We bought paper plates and a dinosaur balloon, but the most exciting part of the preparations was putting together the goodie bags. Choosing each item and assembling them was so…
Small Companies are Nimble: Indiesew is Prepared for VAT Changes
Allie Olson is the co-founder of Indiesew, a curated ecommerce site offering “sewing patterns for the modern woman.” With Indiesew Allie and her business partner, Steve Herschleb, are working to promote independent sewing pattern designers and create community among women who love to sew their own clothes. Allie carefully chooses the designers and patterns that…
Why I Still Love Etsy
image source I opened my Etsy shop on July 3, 2005. At that time setting up an independent ecommerce shop was an onerous task that required technical skills I didn’t have. Etsy was like a miracle. A week later I made my first sale. I’d been sewing plush toys for months and was desperate for…
Naming Your Competition
In the spring I hired a designer to create my new WordPress site. Once I’d signed the contract and paid the deposit, she sent me an in-depth survey to help us both drill down to how I really wanted my new website to function. Some parts of the survey were fun, like telling the story…
How to Ship Anything With PayPal
I’m busy. You’re busy. Nobody likes going to the post office and waiting in line to ship something. Good news! You can print a shipping label for any package from home with PayPal. If you sell things online and your customers use PayPal to pay, it’s always been easy to print a shipping label for…
How to Run a Flash Sale on Facebook: Soldsie
Facebook is the largest and most popular online social network and almost all businesses have a Facebook page now. If you’ve really spent time building a large and engaged audience on Facebook you’ve probably tried to sell your products to your Facebook fans at one time or another. Posting a photo of your newest and…
Easily Create a Blog or Etsy Banner for Free Using PicMonkey
PicMonkey is a free online tool for editing photos and creating graphics. It’s easy and intuitive to use, and it’s more powerful than many people realize. I’m a PicMonkey superfan! Today I’m going to show you how to easily create a beautiful new banner for your blog or Etsy shop, for free, using PicMonkey. Head…
Welcome to My New Online Shop
EDITED JULY 2014: My online shop has moved here to my new blog platform! ____ Today is a really big day for me and my business. I’m very proud to show you my new online shop! Come take a look. Here you’ll find all of my PDF sewing patterns for dolls and toys, plus specialty…
Podcast Episode #8: Etsy’s New Definition of Handmade with Vanessa Bertozzi, Program Manager at Etsy
Vanessa Bertozzi Etsy made a pretty groundbreaking announcement last week. Beginning in January of 2014 sellers on the site will be allowed to hire staff, have someone else ship their goods, and sell items they produce with manufacturing partners. After watching the press conference I wrote a blog post explaining the new policies, and questioning…