This group has been so helpful to me - through the games, the people I have met in this group I have learned more in the last nearly 3 months than I have all year (or even last year) when it comes to running a business such as mine. That isnt to say I didnt know a great deal going in to it. That said, something about this group has been frustrating me lately. Before you continue to read what I have to say from my soapbox - stop a second; I ask that you read forward with an open mind - that you do not take any comment I am about to make personally as they are not meant to be so (nor are they directed at any person, just the practices in general that I have witnessed). 1. People are begging (yes what is being done amounts to begging!) because their situation is dire in some way (health issues, death in a family, etc) or are tragedy dropping (slipping in a detail about some otherwise dire situation in an otherwise regular post or comment) when they post otherwise My Thoughts: Life in general is hard, we all know this! I am not saying dont talk about your dire circumstances - that sharing is wrong, however sharing it in this group is somewhat tasteless especially when it is done (either blatantly or discreetly) to illicit sympathy sales. We all WANT sales, we all NEED sales for our businesses to work! What we dont need is to conduct ourselves in a manner that is unprofessional or makes potential customers feel guilty or distraught if they dont buy from us. On a side note - if you were operating a physical store and saw a customer browsing around, would you go up to them and start telling them about all your life issues and how you really need them to buy something? no you wouldnt - that would scare the customer away and they would definitely tell others about their experiences! So when its done online, trust me... potential customers who are subjected this do share their experiences all the same. Just saying. 2. Lately a LOT of people post about quitting or closing up shop - because they dont have sales or they were doing really good until this month or .... basically people arent buying from them like they think they should be. My Thoughts: Stop, just stop. if youre going to quit - just QUIT already, why do you need a bunch of people you dont really know to validate your quitting? But before you give up and quit on what you say is your passion, dream, etc - think about the following: a) it takes a small business on average of 1-3 yrs to even begin to be profitable, possibly longer in order to become self-sustaining. b) it takes money to start a small business (or business in general); in the growth years you will likely spend several times what you take in - this is the cost of doing business Online businesses are the same as those started in physical spaces - these same principles apply if said online business is operated as a business and not an extension of a hobby. So be realistic, it sucks not having sales (believe me I know) but are you doing all you can? Before you complain that you have a family, you have a day job, you have this or that going on that is stopping you - we all are in similar boats - youre preaching to the choir honey, so just stop; if you cant/are unwilling to take the steps that those that are successful do to achieve success - you shouldnt expect the same results, its harsh I know but ... its the truth. Additionally it seems that these i quit posts are really (not all but sometimes) poorly disguised posts to do an end round of the group rules - as many turn in to liking fests, favathons, etc. which are clearly games and unless you have permission from an admin - this is a blatant violation of the rules; this is a group run by a wonderful collection of admins that work very hard to provide for us a platform to help us with our businesses/shops - but it is THEIR group, NOT ours and we need to respect the rules that they set forth for playing in their sandbox and not be surprised when we/others are booted/banned for breaking rules. 3. The Games and marketing (costs/time) in general - people complain about these ALL THE TIME that they dont have the time to do the games, they dont have the money/time to do marketing like others talk about. My Thoughts: The games are possible to do (even the ones 100s of comments long) in less than 2 hours - not time wasted if it gets your shop attention/sales/etc (thats what you want right?), and for those that are unable to participate in the longer games because of some circumstance - there are games that have different requirements (some just take as little as 5 mins to do!) in an effort to accommodate as many group members as possible - be realistic though, no two people are alike and with there being over 5,000 people in this group (and by my counts a fair amount are active) this group would need a staff of several people whose sole job was to run this group in order to be anymore accommodating than this group already is. As far as marketing beyond the games (and the games are just that a marketing tool) - if you think you cant afford it, or think it takes too much time, you dont have to do it/use them. BUT, i think it is worth noting that those who are successful and have those large revenue totals on etsy often pay for some form of marketing, consistently participate in games in this group and others, spend HOURS marketing their products - if you cant/wont put in the time, you really have no right to expect the same results. So, stop. Just stop - please for the love of all that is Etsy stop complaining that your stuff isnt selling when so-and-sos or some other shops is - its apples to oranges, you cant make an apple pie with oranges! Do the work or dont - its your choice, you will get results that are a direct result of what you do or do not do. In closing: If you are running your shop as something more than just an extension of your hobby (just to make a lil cash) - if you want your business to be taken seriously, by customers and others in general, conduct yourself professionally and dont BEG for sales, dont break rules and act surprised when you get called out/caught, put in the hours that are NEEDED to be successful (not the hours you THINK you can) and finally stop comparing and measuring your success based on others. This wouldnt fly in physical store small businesses and it should NOT fly here. *hugs*
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 17:06:31 +0000
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