I am so so very excited to share with you all that I have finally had my first official sale on my Etsy shop!
I was contacted via my Facebook page by a lovely lady who asked if she could have a price on a baby blanket for a work colleague. I agreed and asked politely if she would use my Etsy shop to purchase the custom made blanket, and I am very grateful that she agreed. I really adore the fact that my first sale has such a lovely and personal touch to it. The lady (from this point onwards we shall call her Mrs First Sale) and her colleagues wanted a blanket made for another work colleague/friend who was going on her maternity leave. She was also very instructive about what she would like which helped me a great deal. She wanted blue colours, and a gradient style to it going into white. I’ve never worked with a gradient theme before so I was really intrigued and couldn’t wait to see how it turned out.
I personally at this point in my start up of this ‘business’ love being able to communicate with my buyers at every important stage. Mrs First Sale paid very quickly and also responded quickly helping me improve my turn around time. She needed the blanket for the lady’s leaving date which was the 5th of August. I received payment of the order and a final decision on colours on Saturday 23rd, and discussed with her that my usual processing time is 1-2 weeks for it to be completed and shipped. As I had no other orders to process I let her know that I expect to have it finished in around a week, and for it to definitely be with her before the 5th.
I knew what colours she wanted, however I made sure that I found the colours and laid out a few order variations to make sure I found the combination she wanted. At that point I could begin, I spent every ounce of time I had spare working on the blanket to make sure it was done in time, and unfortunately for me my week became very busy very quickly. This forced me into speedy intense hours of crocheting, and unfortunately the friction became too much and I was a thumb down.
Of course like any sensible crafter I slapped a plaster on and continued, not only was it a case of I couldn’t stop, I didn’t want to! Colour after colour was added and after every single one I couldn’t wait to get to the next, it really was turning out to be a beautiful blanket, and a note to self that I would definitely be using a gradient colour theme again.
It got to the next Saturday and a week had passed, and I had virtually finished the blanket, but I wanted to make sure that I had it all packaged well and neatly, and that I also attached a small card to let the recipient know that I had made the blanket on behalf of her colleagues, and to pass on my best wishes for her and the baby. I didn’t expect this to take so long, as I thought handwritten would make a nice touch. However, I had forgotten that my handwriting leaves a lot to be desired, and so the first attempt was swiftly placed in the bin. I used word to create a lovely style and feel to the card and message, as well as compiling different components of my social media pages to ensure maximum coverage.
After ferrying various family members to and from work and finishing this in between I had unfortunately missed the post for Saturday. I informed Mrs First Sale that I had missed the Saturday post but that it would be taken first thing Sunday morning. My initial plan was to take it to the post office and to send it first class however I use Amazon, and I’m aware that some courier services deliver and pick up on Sundays. A corner shop local to me actually uses the Hermes postal service, and so I decided to give them a try. At this point I’d like to give you the timeline I had for the parcel as I was extremely impressed with the speed of service, as well as how easy it was to prepay for my label and simply drop it off at the shop.
I was also given the option to allow email updates on the progress of the package, and so I entered Mrs First Sales email address to give her direct access to knowing where the parcel was. Hermes was also cheaper to send my parcel which helps me a lot. All in all I am very impressed with the Hermes service, and until (if) I encounter a problem with them, will be using them for the rest of my sales.
And so we’ve reached the current day. The parcel is out for delivery today and I genuinely cannot wait from the feedback from Mrs First Sale and Mrs First Receiver too! I’m hoping to add an update relating to this post as soon as I get some feedback so please follow if you’d like to see that. I’m hoping now I have a first sale under my belt that eventually the momentum will pick up and I’d love to share the details of each order with you, and to do that I need you to press the follow button to make sure you don’t miss it!
My only issue with the process lies directly with my ability to price my orders, I had heavily underpriced my products when I take into consideration the Etsy fees. A big issue with this first order was also the cut that PayPal took because I had forgotten to fill in the details and confirm my card details in order to be able to take direct card payments. Now I have updated this, and repriced all of my products, and hopefully my future sales will now run slightly smoother.
If you’ve reached this point and are still with me, thank you for reading along with me, I hope you’ve at the very least found my post and process interesting, and I hope to see your name pop up if you like this post or decide to follow me.
Lots of Love
x
My Handmade Hobby 