Scaling Smart on ETSY

Speaker 1: [Music] why most people never open the shop because they can't figure out what to sell. And they spend months or sometimes years trying to think about what is the product that will sell, what will be trending, and they look on Etsy and they're looking at ideas and they're thinking, "How can I compete with these prices or with the quality or the pictures, there's no room for me?" And they think it's saturated. Instead of thinking about what product to sell, we always recommend asking the question of who should I sell to. I'm Melanie Bar. Welcome back to the Sheba podcast, your go-to place to empower you to live the life and business that you crave. I'm here to talk about everything from having the courage to make life and career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively, create successful teams, implement strategies for growth, and infuse tech innovation. I'm here to celebrate your wins and navigate through your challenges. I live in the city now, but I grew up in a town of a thousand people. I've navigated major life leaps, a senior level corporate career, worked in professional sports, and now as a successful entrepreneur who loves business, technology, family, and making meaningful connections with you and the She Built It. I also love a good workout and dose of self-care. Magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy. So, turn up the audio, open your favorite notes app, grab your favorite drink, and here we go. Welcome to the Sheila podcast. Thank you for joining us, Dylan. What's the story behind how you started on Etsy? And what made you realize that you could help thousands of other sellers do the same?

Speaker 2: Thanks for having me, Melanie. So excited to be here. Etsy started for me as one of many side hustles. I was about 25 years old and at the time I had been climbing the corporate ladder with corporate e-commerce, doing really well, very focused on work. Um, but then I met someone in the military and I was up in Seattle working in ecom and we fell in love pretty quickly and I didn't realize that when you're in the military you move a lot. So, we quickly ended up in San Diego which is not huge for e-commerce. And I felt like at 25 years old, my career had peaked. So I was doing all these side hustles. My self-worth was just in the garbage at that point. And I was dog walking, housesitting, selling things on eBay from Goodwill. I was really hustling. I would go to the La Hoya Goodwill. You know, everyone has nice things. I would sell their stuff on eBay. But ended up doing Etsy as one of the many side hustles. Threw something up there from our wedding. Two months later, it sold. And then I quickly started applying our corporate e-commerce principles that I learned from Zapos and Zoolilly. And then by month four, we're over 10K a month. We scaled to over a million dollars in profit. As a military spouse, people were asking, "How are you doing this? How are you making more than your husband?" And I said, "Etsy." And they

Speaker 1: thought, "No, there's no way." And I realized no one is teaching e-commerce principles with Etsy. So, I started teaching it on YouTube, quickly started building a course and a coaching program around that. That was almost three years ago now.

Speaker 2: I love that. And it's so interesting because you see people like you building a business and doing it, but you don't always know how they're doing it or how to do it yourself. And when someone says, "I want to start an Etsy shop, but I don't know what to sell." How do you guide them?

Speaker 1: That's where most people start. And that's actually why most people never open the shop cuz they can't figure out what to sell. And they spend months or sometimes years trying to think about what is the product that will sell, what will be trending, and they look on Etsy and they're looking at ideas and they're thinking, "How can I compete with these prices or with the quality or the pictures? There's no room for me." And they think it's saturated. Instead of thinking about what product to sell, we always recommend asking the question of who should I sell to. Which type of customer? And usually it's not going to be someone like ourselves. So we want to sell to those customers that have higher discretionary income. They're not starting an Etsy shop because they need extra money. They are spending consistently no matter what's happening with the economy. That's what I did and that is what we teach. So, an example of this, I have two little boys. I always wanted two little girls.

Speaker 2: Lots of energy in your house. I have a boy and a girl.

Speaker 1: Okay, you both. That's great. A lot of boy energy and I always wanted a girl. I happened to create floral nursery decor. I didn't have any use for this, but it was large flower walls that were $600 with a name on it that go above the crib. And it was that Pottery Barn mom. They spent $2,500 on a lucite crib. I would never have done that, but that was my customer. And that is what I recommend doing is starting with the customer, building the product mix for them.

Speaker 2: I love that. And it's interesting because I mentioned I have a boy and a girl. And my daughter loves Canva and is online all the time. She loves art. And so I have been thinking about starting something with her to teach her how to grow a business, but also mix in her love of art because my mother was a kindergarten teacher for 29 years. She was almost an art major, but someone told her she probably wouldn't make much money in art, so she ended up getting a masters in education. But my mother loved art, and I think it skipped over me. I have more of the business mind, but my daughter will go into the garage and paint and makes these incredible things out of I don't know. It's funny cuz I'll throw a box in the trash and I'll look down in her art table and I'll think, I thought I threw that away. She loves to make things out of anything that's in the house. Yeah, I've been thinking about how can I teach her the business and help her continue to make art. You found something that you were interested in and that you could grow and turn into a business. Etsy, it's a low barrier to entry. So, I have had 14year-olds who I work with and I've had people in their 80s who I work with. As long as you have a parent who's overseeing, yes, it would be a fun thing to do with her.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 2: Because I'm finding fun and unique ways. And of course, as soon as she starts making money, then she's going to be very interested in continuing to grow it and do it together. Yeah, it's definitely worth it. And if you start with the customer in mind, that's a really smooth way to start, for sure.

Speaker 1: You've helped shops go from 1,000 to 50,000 per month. A massive leap. What's the shift that makes that possible?

Speaker 2: I would say one part of it is the mindset of the person. It takes a lot of grit to get from even 1,000 to 10,000 a month. But once you can do 10,000 a month, you can do 50. I would say between 1 and 10,000 during that time, you're still establishing product market fit. You can get to a,000 a month with one good selling product. But to get from 1 to 10, it's going to take a little bit more success across your product mix. So a little more consistency, a little more balanced product mix. So, I would say it's the mindset of grit, of not quitting. That's what stops most people because it's not a get-richqu scheme like a lot of coaches will allude to. So, it's hard work, consistency, the right customers, the right balanced product mix. We really want to have different listings that have different purposes. I think some people forget that in an Etsy shop, you want to have different listings, not just all mugs or all t-shirts. You want to have some listings where their purpose like a loss leader. So its whole purpose is to drive up the order number. Now that's not going to pay the mortgage. We need other listings that are driving up revenue. So thinking of your product mix like a team, right? We have some people playing one role, other people playing another role. Same thing with your products. And that's what it takes to get to 50K a month.

Speaker 1: Yeah, that's interesting. And it's probably a lower dollar amount product that will drive, but then you also have to mix it with the higher dollar amount.

Speaker 2: Totally. And an interesting story, I have someone who sells digital products and she did $117,000 in a month. And when she came to me, she had only been doing two to 300 a month. And you would think digital products, those are around $5. She has less than 200 listings. Yes, those are high velocity products for her. But then she added in some bundles that were $200. Now if you sell 15 to 20 of those a day, now we scale much faster.

Speaker 1: So interesting. And when you decided to do the wall art, how did you decide who to sell to?

Speaker 2: I was consuming, this is back in 20, let's see, 2016, 2017. So I was pregnant with my first child and I was obsessed with these mommy vloggers on YouTube. And I don't know if Aaron Williams, Tara Henderson, I know of them. Yeah. And I was living vicariously through them. Aaron had her daughter Skyla and they do these full nursery tours and that was the time for that. And so that was in my mind my customer.

Speaker 1: Yeah. And it's so smart that you did that because having the product but then also knowing who to market to, you know, that blend is so important. So, what role does price strategy play in scaling? And what's one pricing mistake that you see sellers make?

Speaker 2: I find this a lot with our artists who come in and they feel like, I put so much time and effort into this. I put a lot of hours and thought and detail and they're pricing in a way that assumes they would have a track record of some sort, but they feel like I'm an artist. I've never sold anything, but I'm an artist and I want to be paid for my time. I'm worthy of pricing high. And I think there's some like mindset things out there where it's charge for your time, your worth. But if you have never sold a thing in your life, my goodness, give it away. I would be willing to give it away just to get that customer feedback, start to get momentum. So, I think a big mistake people make is they come out the gate putting all this effort into this business and they're charging as if they're some established brand with brand equity and they have none.

Speaker 1: That's so true. There's so much information out there. What other pieces of bad advice are you helping people unlearn about having a shop on Etsy?

Speaker 2: There's a lot of people, especially on YouTube, will say the riches are in the niches, niche down, and that can be true for some business models, but when you sell in a marketplace and your goal is to show up under as many search results as possible, the idea is really instead of choosing a niche, let's say dogs, people will go for that niche. then you're only showing up under a very limited number of search results and it doesn't mean anything about the profitability of that customer because there's those people who let's say they're buying dog food, they buy the cheapest thing on the shelf at Walmart. There's other people who get the gourmet chef produced thing that arrives to your doorstep every week. Very different types of customers. Sure, they both have dogs, but in so instead we want to look to the customer and then serve them in many areas of their life because maybe they have a dog and they also have kids. Maybe they have a dog and they also are a teacher. So that will really help your momentum on a marketplace and most people aren't thinking.

Speaker 1: Yeah. And they might buy the high-end product, but they might also buy the lower-end product, too. Exactly. Yeah. We limit ourselves because we think we have to be this specific niche and oh this doesn't fit in my shop. I would say lighten up, loosen up. You're coming up in search results. People are not coming to your shop directly. You're showing up in search results. So Etsy is a search engine. And Amazon sellers, honestly, they're a little bit better about this cuz they want to show up under search in Amazon. So they will have dog treats and

Speaker 2: hair brushes in the same shop. share with us a story about a shop owner who had doubts but then followed your process and gained success.

Speaker 1: There's so many because everyone has doubts. I would say everyone has had doubts at some point and they wonder is this going to work? I would say one that comes to mind she's in North Carolina. She was a teacher. her husband was having major struggles with addiction and she had little kids at home and she was doing Etsy because she wanted to be able to spend more time with her kids and be home with them and her initial products really were not up to the level they needed to be. So, she was doing things with a Cricut and vinyl. The photography was probably the weakest point of her shop. And over a period of a summer, she was stuck at like 45 orders in the shop. We started to evolve her shop, use her laser in different ways. We introduced her to a profitable customer, which was the Stanley Cup collector, and she started making these name plates, and she went from 45 sales to about 4,500 in about a month with that.

Speaker 2: Wow. Wow. As you said that, I thought about my shelf from my daughter primarily of Stanley cups that we have in our pantry. The entire Stanley cup shelf, which we have in our house. Oh, they take up so much.

Speaker 1: They do. I know you're looking for the organizers and all the things.

Speaker 2: Looking back on your journey, what

Speaker 1: mindset shift helped you the most to go all in and create your business? The mindset shift for me happened about 4 months into having my shop and where it was actually seeing momentum. I had been trying that entire year to get a job with Petco headquarters and they're just a little bit northern San Diego. And it had taken me 10 months of interviewing and going through the process to finally get this dream job offer. And it was for more money than I had ever made before. And I had to make a decision. My Etsy shop was like about 10k a month, but not stable enough. I didn't have years of this under my belt. And I had to make a decision. And I was trying to push the decision off. It was right around Christmas time. Everyone was telling me, "Take the job." Like, you're only 25. Take the job. You have so much more to learn than to start a business on your own at this age. Even my dad said that. And then I found out it was like a couple days before Christmas that I was pregnant with my first son. And I thought, "Oh my goodness, I will take this job and have to go on maternity leave in eight months. I can't do that." So that was the point where I made the decision. This income, it was like 110,000 at the time. It was a lot to me. Then I have to make my shop hit 110 in profit and then this will all be worth it.

Speaker 2: I love that goal. And it's interesting how the universe pushes us in certain directions. You're thinking about this major decision and then you find out you're going to be a mom.

Speaker 1: Yes. Yeah. And that changed everything.

Speaker 2: Magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy. We've talked a lot about business today. What is one thing that you do to make sure that you're finding

Speaker 1: and living your joy? Oh my goodness. So now my business looks very different. 41 people in our company. We're in Slack. It's a global team. And it's so fun to build like this Slack culture. You can be remote and work from home yet feel so connected to people. And we'll be on an interview. We do these group interviews with sales people and my sales manager and Nor and I we're listening to all these people say those things and we're just going back and forth about what our thoughts are and it's just so fun. And so I think like the culture of a remote team but connecting over humor and work hard, play hard. Yeah. That brings me joy.

Speaker 2: Yeah. And if someone wanted to work with you, how do you work with clients?

Speaker 1: Yeah. So, we do private coaching for your Etsy shop. So, if you have no idea what to do, what to sell, who to sell to, we help you with that all the way up to sellers doing up to 8 million per year. So, we work with all levels and it's private mentorship and we can chat with you more on a free call with us and you can do that on our website.

Speaker 2: And please share with our listeners how and where we can find you.

Speaker 1: So Instagram is Dylan Jarus, J A H R A U S. And then Tik Tok is my new thing, which I did not think business owners would be active on Tik Tok, but it's blown up. We're close to 100,000 over the last 3 months. Tik Tok is another new place. And then our website, and we have a contact form in the website if you want to have a more in-depth conversation.

Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us today. I'd love to hear from you. Reach out to me at hell@shiltiltit.com on our shebiltit website or at sheiltit on social. Thank you to my editor Rich Duffolino who always makes us sound good. Until next time, let nothing stop you from experiencing the life and business that you crave. [Music]