Day 1- The Game Plan

Hello! Well this is my first venture into the blog world and it feels pretty wierd writing to no one yet everyone. It reminds me of a diary and truth be told I haven't had a diary since I was 16 and my mom found mine, proceeded to read it, then proceeded to try and strangle me, after which I burned all incriminating diary evidence. Anyway, that is neither here nor there and I anticipate this will be a much more positive experience. My co-worker M told me about Etsy probably 6 months ago. I had been wanting to get back into jewelry making but the fact of the matter is I have a full time career, social life, and long distance boyfriend and it was going to require a lot of time. I have sold everything I've ever made (a good problem to have) so starting again means finding the right materials in a new city, designing and creating new lines, finding boutiques where my line would fit and convincing them to sell it. Etsy, however, changed that. I LOVE the idea of Etsy, that people who make nice, hand made products have an outlet to sell their merchandise directly to consumers. I love boutiques and as exciting as it is to see your line sold in a boutique, I don't love sharing my profits with them. Since I started designing jewelry about 5 years ago it was always my dream and goal to one day have my own website and Etsy makes this easily possible. When I say easily, I really should say easier than finding your own web developer and designing your own site. So right now I'm in the very early stages of launching my Etsy site aka I have signed up for an account and for paypal. There's actually a lot to consider when launching your own Etsy site and here is my short term game plan: -Purchase fabric and ribbon for packaging at Britex -Complete at least 10 pieces (I believe I have around 7 now) -Decide best shipping method and develop shipping policy, return policy, and payment policy -Write descriptions for each piece/try to find the names of each stone (some are unique that I have collected over the years and are no longer in the original bag with the stone name ugh) -Price each piece -Write the about me for my Etsy shop -Decide on look and feel and take pictures of each piece -Upload it all onto Etsy! 8/5 is going to be D day to have the site live- I think now that I have a plan this is a realistic start date. I'm planning on going to Britex today to purchase the fabric...I went yesterday but was really overwhelmed (3 floors of fabric!) and they were closing in 15 minutes and didn't want to make any rash decisions so I'll let you know what I end up with. -Heather