Don't Sweat It

As the holidays approach my "conversations" and orders on Etsy are growing and growing. Do ya'll get those emails from Etsy with tips for improving your shop? I regularly read these, always gleaning some important little tidbit. Well a few weeks ago they had an article about getting help for the holidays. There were some great tips on there, some do's and don'ts, which I always find enlightening. I've been pondering this topic and article more and more the busier I get.

Well this last weekend I got so busy with orders that I had to put my shop on vacation status to catch up. Some of you are thinking, "Wouldn't that be nice?" But I've got to tell you, I was really sweating it. Many of those orders were small, tedious, and minimally profitable. It was my husband's birthday on Sunday, and the last thing I wanted to do was ask him for help.

I thought through that list....ask friends for help? I hate doing that....pay someone to help? Just not going to work on short notice....

It didn't take a genius to figure it out, something had to give, and I knew what it was.

For the last couple of months I've been trying to sell new products to grow my shop. Up until then I'd mostly been hand punching tags. I decided to try out wafer thin dies in my Big Shot (really an embossing tool more than anything). I tried out a couple of brands, and I was really excited about the new designs. But all along I'd been ignoring the facts. Those wafer thin dies, while they save my hands, take a ton of time and attention that I just can't spare.

So I made the big decision to veto those couple of items that were causing me the most stress. Last night as my husband and I were making these last couple batches (until 1am) he turned to me and said, "If you ever sell these again, I'm going to cut your throat." Sounds angry, but he was really just giving me a hard time (hard to convey in words). That sweet, sweet man stayed up with me to the bitter end to finish the last of these orders.

The moral of the story? Don't waste your precious time and energy just to get the sale. Work smarter, not harder! And spend that extra time with the people you love. That's what the holidays are really all about.