To Open or Not to Open A Shop: March 11th, 2015; Precious Bowtique

As we talked about here: 

http://thedollwardrobe.blogspot.com/2014/12/new-years-resolutions-to-open-or-not-to.html

At the end of the 2014 summer we asked shopkeepers 

to submit posts to us about opening/operating their own doll-related online shop.

We got so busy that we decided to hold on 

to the posts until 2015.

So we are going to start uploading the shopkeepers 

posts now as part of the standard "New Year's Resolution" idea!

The First Entry in this discussion is from Brittany....

PreciousBowtique

Hi! My name is Brittany and I am the owner of Precious Bowtique. 

Precious Bowtique is the brain child of an overly creative, crafty lady... me!

I started Precious Bowtique after I graduated from high school in 2009 with the intent of selling hair bows. Little did I know, everyone and their mother sells hair bows on etsy. I knew nothing of social media promotion and shop promotion, needless to say, I was not successful.

Two years later in 2011 I re-opened my shop and started focusing on knit and crocheted items. My grandma and I both create items and I am in charge of creating the listings, managing the shop, and promoting the items. Our shop is filled with all things cute and fun including tons of clothing and accessories for 18" dolls.

I chose etsy as the location for my shop because I love the community feel. On etsy you can make friends, be inspired by others, and just have a ton of fun!

Recently, my etsy shop has become more successful. I have been focusing on adorable doll hats that compliment the outfits people already own for their dolls. This August has been my best month this year in terms of sales, and actually my best August on record. But for the record, my shop was not always successful. I have struggled a lot with having pictures that showcase my items well, that has been a sore spot in my etsy shop for quite some time.

There are many pros and cons to running an etsy shop. The pros being:

-having a place to express yourself, a personal creative outlet

-making friends with other creative people who can inspire you

-can make some money doing what you love

There are also cons to running an online store, but don't let them deter you! Just keep them in the back of your mind so you can have realistic expectations about what the experience will be like.

-you will not become rich and famous, sales will be slow to begin with, 

some months you will sell nothing

- it does cost money to run a shop (listing fees, supply costs, shipping material costs)

-there are a million shops and chances are there are some that sell something just like your items

I don't feel that the last con listed in a bad thing, in fact, it can push you to become a better designer and help you to create new products.

Overall, running an etsy shop has been the best thing I did for myself. Not just because I make some money from my shop, but because it gives me a place to share my creativity with the world.

Check out my shop and social media links:

				PreciousBowtique on Etsy Knit and crochet items, gift tags, friendship bracelets and many other cute items! Ready to ship items for babies to adults! Always accepting...

				Precious Bowtique (PreciousBowEtsy) on Twitter The latest from Precious Bowtique (@PreciousBowEtsy). Precious Bowtique is a knit & crochet shop full of fun, pretty things for dolls, babies, and children!

				Precious Bowtique on Facebook My name is Brittany, I am a college graduate and the owner of an online shop, Precious Bowtique.... Brittany Chatfield (preciousbowetsy) on Pinterest Hello, my name is Brittany and I run an online store through  Etsy called Precious Bowtique. Check it out! https://www.etsy.com/shop/PreciousBowtique Thank you for your Guest Post Brittany! We really appreciate your help! _____________ If you own an online shop and you want to participate in this discussion, please send in your posts to nora.demington@gmail.com! You can sell doll clothing, accessories, foods, furniture, patterns, etc. Whatever doll-related thing you sell! If you want to sign up, you literally only have to write one post for us, haha. And you just write it in an email, and we post it here. The post should contain this info: 1) Background of your shop Why you started it, and brief overview of how you started it. Where is shop located? Ebay? Etsy? Separate website? Why did you chose this location? How many years have you run your shop? How successful do you think it has been? 2) The Cons of Opening and Operating an Online Shop 3) The Pros of Opening and Operating an Online Shop This series is designed to discuss opening and operating an online presence. Many of us struggle with the idea of having our own store. We might want to do it. We might dream of doing it. But yet, we don't do it. We are even among those chickens, haha. So we wanted to have a rational discussion of this topic. With thoughts and opinions from people who have an online shop. So please, send your posts to us and we will load them up here for discussion purposes! Send them to nora.demington@gmail.com. There is no such thing as a right or wrong answer to these things. We are looking for personal reactions to these pros and cons topics. So you don't have to be scared of other people not agreeing with you or thinking the same way. Odds are, we will understand where you are coming from! Often this topic gets discussed on boards, or chat rooms, or private threads. We wanted a source that was a little bit more public. So remember, anyone can read these! But don't let that discourage you. The fact that anyone can read these posts and get an idea of the experience of owning and operating an online presence is a good thing! If you wish to remain anonymous but still give us your pros and cons opinions, you can also certainly do that! Just email us and we can work that out. :-) Any questions? Please feel free to comment below with questions or email us at nora.demington@gmail.com. If you want to include pictures, please send those as well. They are welcome. If you just want to do quick answers to our inquiry, you can feel free to add them below in the comment box!