Here I am...third post of the month! But...it's another post about work again. :P I have some exciting things coming up though!
My sister is going to be working a vendor event with a friend of hers in May...and she's going to be taking some of my stickers to sell alongside the stuff that she and her friend are selling. Since it's kind of a combined thing, I went ahead and prepared some retail packaging that has my branding on it so that it's set apart from their stuff. I'd already started printing my text logo on the back of my stickers. But now I'll also have specific retail packaging. I am printing and cutting the backer cards myself (figured out how to use print and cut to make double-sided cards!) and then I have cellophane bags to put them in. I also have a t-slot hole punch so that the backers can be used as hang tags for display, too. Now we just need to figure out which designs to take!
I decided to make SKU numbers for all my die-cut stickers. I don't necessarily *need* them right now...but I figure it will be easier to do it now before I add even more designs. I never thought about it until I was researching wholesale marketplaces. A lot of sticker makers in a FB group that I like are also selling wholesale so I was seriously considering it. Having unique SKU numbers that match products across multiple platforms is the basic idea. And...it would come in handy if I decide to start doing more vendor events and invested in a point-of-sale system and using barcodes to track inventory and purchases. I'm not at that point yet...but I figure it's easier to add numbers as I go rather than wait until I have even more designs that I would have to go back and add them to. Once I came up with a logical system for assigning unique numbers that I'd be able to easily keep up with as I add designs, it wasn't too difficult. Now I'm just going through all my Etsy listings and adding the numbers in.
I ultimately decided against joining one of the wholesale marketplaces, though. The more I looked into the options available, the less I liked the details. Between higher commissions and some that didn't allow for the seller to control shipping providers...it just started to seem less appealing. So for now, I've created a wholesale listing in my Etsy shop. The 9.5%+.45 that Etsy takes and being able to make my own shipping decisions is better than 15-25% and/or little to no control over shipping.
I'm also not as active on social media as I need to be...especially since I don't have my own website. Social media is one of the things I need to work on this year. I always think about it...then just don't get around to it.
I'm also going to be listing some custom text stickers in the very near future. I'm going to start working on those next weekend, I think. I'm excited to design those...I think they'll be fun. And hopefully people will like them. :)
Oh and I got another order for a sublimation transfer. Every time I think about converting my big printer back to a regular pigment printer and not selling transfers...I get another order. :P I'm still selling "He is Risen" sublimation digital downloads pretty regularly as well. They're generally just a seasonal item so after the week of Easter, those die down. I think I said it before...but I need to decide one way or another if I'm going to keep up with my sublimation shops and if so...start putting out some more designs. Decisions, decisions.
ALSO...I actually have ANOTHER Etsy shop that I'm thinking about. It was always part of my plan in the beginning. I even created the email address and Etsy account for it. I started thinking that I would add it to my sticker shop...but I've got OCPD and I have too many sections in my sticker shop already to add more for a separate product. :P I know I'm being vague...but I am still very much in the planning phase. I'm excited to start, though, so hopefully I'll have more to share about it soon. :)
Well...gonna get back to work!