hello and welcome back today in this
video i'm talking about how i run my
online art shop i asked you guys on
instagram if you had any questions or
curiosities and to my surprise i got a
good amount of questions all hitting a
bunch of really important topics from
where i get my supplies how to sell art
when you have a small follower base
which ecommerce websites are the best to
use how to calculate the price of a
product mistakes i've made along the way
do you need a business permit today i'll
be answering all of those questions and
more
i've meticulously timestamped this video
so feel free to jump to the portion of
the video that interests you most before
we get into all of this i'm going to
give a brief intro so you can get a
little background information about me
who i am what i sell
so i am 23 years old i recently
graduated from college during the
pandemic long story short i was on tick
tock uh in around may
and i was seeing a lot of artists make
really really cute animal crossing clay
items so i started thinking and then i
made like an animal crossing pin
and that tick tock went
semi-viral
and then people in the comments started
asking me oh where can i buy one and
then i started thinking i was like oh
i could make money from this my
entrepreneurial spirit was was ignited
and then i started selling them on etsy
from there i started posting on
instagram i started getting into
illustration into the world of studio
vloggers people my age making a living
from
art and design and social media so i
really started to
think and from there i've been on this
journey to try to become self-employed
my dream is to have my own ceramics
practice one day but right now that's
not accessible to me so for now i'm just
working with polymer clay i like to make
other kinds of clay pins i've been
making pet pens and magnets for people
on etsy as well as prints and stickers
and recently i started making earrings
which i really really enjoy because i
can make my own designs and i enjoy the
assembly part of making the earrings and
to date on all of my websites combined
so i've tried out etsy big cartoon
squarespace more on this later i made
around two thousand dollars nobody asked
how much i made but i just thought i'd
put it out there this is without
subtracting hefty shipping costs supply
materials website fees so there's a lot
of costs that come with it so this is
this is without subtracting the costs it
is definitely not a salary because this
is cumulative from about six months and
it's not something you can live off of
especially with new york city rent
but it's a fun side hustle that i enjoy
doing so for the first section we're
gonna talk about all things selling and
making money this question comes from my
friend cameron hello if you don't follow
cameron here is a little
little shout out please check out
cameron's instagram she is a wonderful
wonderful artist cameron asks what
website do you recommend and don't
recommend i want to sell prints
so for prints i use the website
imprint.com it's a website that handles
all the printing and shipping for you so
you upload your work you price it how
you want to price it and people can just
buy it through there and you get paid
through their system i like this because
i don't have a fancy printer at home and
i've purchased an example from imprint
before just to test out the quality and
i thought it was a pretty high quality
it's on that nice watercolor
clay paper i also like this option
better than websites like redbubble and
society6 because honestly i think those
websites are a huge rip-off to artists i
think the cut you get is like 30 cents
or a dollar per product you sell to them
i just think the profit margin is way
too low for artists and i just don't
think that's worth it i think imprint is
a great alternative because not only do
they take care of all the shipping and
the production of the print
you can set your own price to something
that you feel is fair to yourself so if
you want to sell something other than
prints and you want to take care of it
all on your own there are a wide range
of websites that you can look at there's
big cartel shopify etsy store envy for
space there's just so many options i can
only speak to the websites i've used so
i've used big cartel etsy and
squarespace i started on big cartel i
like big cartel because they have a few
different themes you can choose from so
unlike etsy it's not a marketplace it's
your own website and i feel like that
comes that adds a touch of
professionalism and they have a tiered
payment system so the free version you
can post i think five products but each
product can only have one photo which is
kind of limiting and you can only post
like five products max the next uh the
next tier is i think ten dollars a month
but you can post a bunch of product
photos you can max out like 50 listings
i like that it looks nice and
professional you get control of what
your store looks like and it's easy to
use but i switched to etsy because i
kind of just wanted to see what it was
like to be on a different platform etsy
is different because it is a marketplace
as opposed to
all the traffic from your store coming
from you and you pushing like your
instagram audience and your friends
towards your store etsy will do some of
the groundwork and push other people
towards your store too so you're not
doing all of that marketing work so i
switched to etsy because i wanted to see
if this really worked like etsy claims
that they'll push people to you and
they'll market for you and advertise
your products on other websites for you
and you can pay like a dollar and
they'll do more of that advertising
stuff i don't know if that really worked
i have this statistical show here it
says i put fifty percent of traffic and
etsy does the other fifty percent and i
think it work i think occasionally for
my pet pins i'll get folks who i don't
know and who don't know me and just
found my etsy through the search engine
um so i think it does work what i do
like about etsy is how etsy will do a
lot of things for you so one my most
favorite my most favorite thing is that
they remit and collect sales tax for you
taxes scare me so much the fact that
etsy does it for me is really comforting
they also have customer service perks so
i'm if you bought something from etsy
before you'll notice you'll get like an
email once you purchase it you'll get an
email once your order is packed and
shipped on your shop landing page you
can see everybody's reviews and as a
customer i like to see other people's
reviews before i buy something but aside
from these perks etsy's fees are a bit
higher it doesn't cost anything to use
etsy but every time you want to list a
product you have to pay 20 cents and
every time you sell a product it's i
think it's another 20 cents plus all
these other payment fees it's hard to
measure whether one option is cheaper
than the other
because if you sell a really large
amount of products compared it might be
more worth it on one platform versus the
other and there's a couple websites i'll
link below that will help you add up
which one's more worth it i also liked
that etsy because it's like a well-known
platform and people know etsy i feel
like that gave me a bit of more
reputability but i think that's
subjective so after i was on etsy i
recently in the beginning of december
decided to move to squarespace and i
purchased a squarespace plan for my own
personal portfolio and i was so excited
to have everything on there i'm so
excited to have my own website and shop
on the same page but i found out that
squarespace does not collect or emit
sales tax for you you actually have to
like individually go into the their like
settings and type in
rate of sales tax for every single
county and state
and i i simply did not want to do that
it probably was irrational i don't think
it was that big of a deal
but i was like peace i'm going back to
etsy but i did like squarespace like big
cartel you can have your own platform so
you kind of have that independence about
what it looks like i know another option
for people especially like really
popular illustrators online is shopify
i think it's a very powerful platform i
only looked into a little because i i
clicked on the pricing plan i saw those
those monthly rates and i was like oh
no
it just i didn't find it it was worth it
for me but if you have a lot of
customers and can make that work i think
it is a powerful platform that a lot of
people choose to use how do you sell
your work with a small follower base
when you have 80 000 people following
you it's easier to sell things because
your exposure is already really large so
odds are within that group of 80 000
people 100 or plus people are probably
going to be willing to buy a sticker or
something from you but when you have
much less it's harder it's much harder
to sell stuff i don't think that should
stop you
so when i say market to the audience at
your disposal i mean for example try
posting a tick tock i posted a tick tock
of me making the pin and then suddenly
there are a bunch of people in the
comments saying oh i love this where can
i get one i put my etsy link in my tick
tock bio and that allowed a lot of
people to go visit my store try making a
tick tock of you wearing your product or
with some nice lighting or aesthetic
sounds a lot of the times audios go
trending on tik tok sometimes there's
even like small business audios that
people use like small business tracks
show your most favorite product so just
maybe try using one of those
the algorithm feels like a lottery like
you can just post one and see if it does
well see if it catches on and if it
doesn't like try again odds are
someone's gonna see it and become
interested in it i think the benefit of
tick tock is that you can reach a lot of
people even if they're not following you
because of just how the app is
structured and the for you page a lot of
my sales were all coming from tick tock
and i know a lot of other small business
owners have found success from marketing
on tick tock if you have an instagram
even with a small follower base still
try to market and sell your work odds
are someone will buy it just think like
200 to 100 is still a lot of people
obviously don't hound your audience all
the time and constantly to buy your
product because they might get a bit
fatigued but i also think like don't be
afraid to advertise once in a while and
put yourself out there i think
personally with friends and family i was
super embarrassed like i still am to
this day i want to be like oh no no like
i don't like to tell people this is what
i do i like to keep it a secret
but at the end of the day like i am
making money and i do think the stuff i
make is really cute and cool so
i think we have to be like as artists
and makers and like crafters we have to
be less ashamed of the work we do
because it's still very valuable and
it's still interesting so maybe try to
sell maybe on your personal instagram or
your facebook or even something like
that like try to put yourself out there
odds are someone will say oh that's
super cute and they would love to
support you and it's always like a
spiral effect so if you include your
business card or just try having a
little note with them in the package you
can say you know i'm just starting out i
love if possible you could
share this with your friends and family
or you know post a picture of it tag me
on instagram
you know just try to get your name out
there and i think exposure is one of the
the biggest driver of sales because if
no one's seen your product they don't
know it exists so exposure is everything
but it's about making the most of the
exposure you can attain right now i
think good product photos with nice
clean even lighting are also really
important for driving sales another
question is how did you start and when
did you start seeing traffic on your
etsy so like i said before i started on
tiktok selling animal crossing pins i
don't think my growth isn't like an
uphill
trend or an increasing trend like i said
i started seeing traffic because of my
tick tocks that were posting but since
then i haven't been really marketing
myself on tick tock as much and i've
been using instagram to sell my earrings
to a smaller more niche audience and my
sales haven't been skyrocketing but it's
still kind of up and down with the
holidays and
just random periods so
if you're selling if you're not making a
ton of money all at once and you're not
kind of increasing linearly i wouldn't
feel bad about that another person asked
where should a young artist start i want
to open my own etsy store but i'm 17. i
did some research for you and big cartel
allows people who are 13 to 17 to use
their platform and you just need your
parents to sign and review a form for
you and then you can start selling on
etsy once you turn 18 if you want to try
outfits the next category we're going to
talk about is pricing and shipping
how do you calculate the price of a
product this is super super tricky
because to be honest i still don't think
i'm pricing my work fairly
often times i think a good way is to
price yourself at an hourly rate so
hopefully get pick a rate that's above
minimum wage and then multiply it by the
time it takes you to make one product
and maybe add on the cost of supplies
this is hard with handmade items because
it takes
so long to make handmade goods sometimes
and if something took me like four hours
to make i price myself kind of low like
twenty dollars an hour
times four plus around ten dollars for
supplies that's like ninety dollars for
an item and oftentimes like i i know my
audience a lot of the people that
purchased from me are you know similar
age to me they're kind of starting out
in the careers not everyone has like 90
dollars to throw but on the flip side i
also see so many artists really
undervaluing their work in the beginning
myself included i've seen folks sell
clay pins for like eight dollars
but and i think that's just really
really low
so it's hard to find the balance between
not wanting to undervalue your work and
also setting the price as something
that's affordable for your audience
so personally i try to ballpark a price
that i feel comfortable with so for
example for a pair of earrings like the
ones i'm wearing right now i sell them
at about thirty dollars so that's around
twenty dollars an hour without
calculating supplies and i spent about
an hour and a half on them so in the
future i would like to raise that price
because i want to pay myself more but
now i think 30 is a good price that i'm
personally comfortable with and i think
it's affordable for the people that
follow me especially if you're making
handmade items please please please
don't be afraid to charge more you spend
a long time on it and your efforts and
expertise are valuable one of my
favorite creators knives meow on youtube
and instagram she was saying how people
will pay like 50
plus for an urban outfitters t-shirt so
i think individuals will also respect
when artists want to price their work
similarly especially when it's a
handmade item
lastly it is totally okay
to change your prices later on and raise
them most of the time people want to
support your work and will support you
and respect your price and if they think
it's too high they don't have to buy it
another great question is what were some
mistakes you made along the way and what
didn't work i put this in the pricing
and shipping section because i feel like
that's where i made a lot of my mistakes
or call them growth moments
um one the biggest one i was not paying
myself enough i was selling my pins for
like 13 with free shipping so i was
basically covering the shipping myself
and profiting around eight dollars for
something that would take me so long to
make it was just not cute another thing
i did as a mistake was listing shipping
costs as free
so etsy will really
really reward you for advertising free
shipping um i'll insert some of these
things here it's like they really want
you to offer free shipping but the thing
is shipping is never free
psychologically we're like oh my god
sweet deal but when we see free shipping
the cost is almost always taken up by
somebody else whether that's the
customer the artist or amazon's case the
workers so for example how does this
work say my earrings i want to profit 30
from them i'll price them at 35 save
free shipping
and the customer will like oh great free
shipping is a sweet deal but it's not
actually free shipping because i'm not
being transparent to my customer and
making them cover the shipping cost on
my end i was offering free shipping and
thinking oh i'll just cover the cost
myself
but i was only profiting eight dollars
from something i spent ages on so
nowadays i kind of ignore all the etsy
pop-ups and state very clearly my
shipping costs are a flat rate of five
dollars which covers the usps fee and
the cost of the mailer someone asked how
do you deal with posting prices i think
they mean like mailing prices i use the
website goshipo.com
it's kind of similar to platforms like
stamps.com but you don't have to pay
like a membership subscription rate you
kind of just pay as you go which i
really really like i do like usps first
class
first class mail which is like the
cheapest option and it takes three to
five days for things to ship
and oftentimes because i'm only shipping
domestically in the united states my
pricing is about like four dollars max
ship like a little item like a clay pin
or something and then i add on a dollar
for the cost of my mailing supplies the
next question is supplies and
organization they ask where do you get
cheap supplies i get to my supplies from
local craft stores so try to do curbside
pickup options if you
if that's available to you because
that's a great way to social distance
and not put anybody in the store at risk
i think buying locally is always a
really good idea and that is better for
the environment too if you can't find
what you want at your local craft store
i also buy art supplies on etsy someone
asked how do you organize your items and
how do you store your clay pins without
taking up your living space um i'll show
a b-roll here but i have a shelf from
ikea i also have this cart which is from
ikea i have this muji desk organizer on
my desk i really need to organize this
better it's kind of chaotic and i
definitely need a better organization
system but my pins don't really take up
my living space i tuck stuff away in
boxes and because my business is quite
small i only ship out a handful of
orders every week i don't really have
that issue of it taking up my home
studio the next section is running the
store
so
how do you plan shop launches budget
ideas shipping etc i don't
okay no i do it's just not very serious
i don't really plan things out in a very
detailed manner again i don't have a
huge follower base so i try to keep that
in mind and how much i can realistically
sell per week or per month i think in
the beginning i was really influenced by
more popular artists who would get a
really high volume of orders and think i
had to emulate that in order to be
successful and make a bunch of things at
once and order a bunch of stickers and
washi tapes and
prints and just all these things but
realistically that doesn't really work
for me and oftentimes if i do order
prints they don't sell out and sometimes
that does result in a lot so lately what
i've been doing is making around five to
six pairs of earrings and like mini
drops and i'll occasionally order some
pranks so with each update it's a drop
of some select handmade items and it's
also great because i don't end up
towering myself out making an insane
amount of things and i can spend time on
designs that i really like someone asked
what are the most difficult aspects of
running the shop being your own boss and
drawing lines between hobby and working
can get confusing like i do recognize
like it's extremely extremely privileged
and i'm really lucky that i can make
money from my hobby but i think once
something becomes work a lot of the
playfulness and joy comes to get kind of
sucked out of your hobby so i used to
love making clay pins for fun and i
still like making clay pins but i think
after making you know
hundreds and hundreds of them it just
doesn't have the same um it doesn't
really do it for me anymore but it's
okay to evolve and change and now i'm
making earrings and i really do like
that when you make the art of business
it it does become hard to draw that line
the next section is business legal tax
stuff etc aka things i do not know about
um someone asked do i need to get a
business permit or a business license
this is a really great question um i
looked it up because i was like oh i
don't know
um i'm really not versed on this at all
taxes and legal stuff terrify me this is
really funny because i have been
accepted to some law schools and i might
go in a few months i'd advise you to do
your own research and go to your state's
government website because each state
and local county have different
regulations based on what qualifies as a
business and what licenses you need to
get so go on to that website and new
york has like a checklist you can do and
they'll tell you what forms you need to
get and oftentimes if you're really
curious sometimes a call
to that
county office or department someone
could help you out so yeah i just
recommend doing your own research on
that i'm really sorry i don't have a
clear answer for you i'm also trying to
figure that out the last section is
challenges reflections and general
advice
um so there's the
i'm not used to talking as much this is
the same question as before but i'm just
putting it in this section
um because there's some more stuff i
want to talk about they asked what were
mistakes you made along the way and what
didn't work something i thought i had to
do was push out orders much faster than
i needed to so in the beginning when i
started getting my etsy orders i would
push them out in like two days and for a
handmade item that is very fast and even
my customers would leave reviews like
wow this guy here really quickly and now
i realize you know i'm not a robot and
it takes time to create these things and
i also realized like if i were to buy a
handmade item from an artist i want to
support
i would not get upset if my order didn't
come in like a week or if someone said
okay it's gonna take me two weeks to
make this i'd be like yeah take your
time it's okay i find that the people
that buy from my store also have that
mindset and i'm just really hard on
myself when i don't have to be so
nowadays i take about two weeks to make
a pin two to three weeks even and i put
that in my description and let people
know that that is the case another
mistake was not taking enough breaks
especially when you're working with
really detailed work like painting pins
um something i noticed is that i already
like slouch i have really bad posture so
like i'll be slouching working on my
pins and all hunched over and it just
would make my upper back hurt so much
and yeah i just wasn't taking enough
breaks and being kind to myself and my
body so another person asked do you
experience pressure to post your art
consistently
yes
i feel like people on instagram talk a
lot about the algorithm
because one it sucks and instagram is
designed so poorly these days the
reality of the situation is that social
media really is important especially as
illustrators so i do experience that
pressure especially when this algorithm
clearly will reward you for posting very
frequently and having a high volume of
work but i'm trying to
repeatedly tell myself that sometimes
oftentimes artwork doesn't work like
that and i don't work like that and
sometimes i want to take longer on a
piece and it's okay to take breaks and
producing that much
work in such a short time frame
oftentimes doesn't create
the most high quality things that we're
proud of so yeah i want to start taking
more time and being more patient with
myself someone else asks any general
advice i have for artists trying to
start and run a business would be super
helpful uh thank you so much it actually
means a lot that people trust me to ask
me questions i feel highly unqualified
making this video but if i were to have
some advice i would say don't feel like
you have to make something a certain
type of way
it's okay to literally make one item and
try to sell that one item on the
channels you have and then grow from
there and honestly it's okay to not make
the art a business at all but yeah pick
something that makes sense for you to
sell and that you actually want to spend
time making i think if you hate working
on little details for hours on end maybe
handmade items really isn't for you
maybe you should invest in a qriket
machine and sell stickers instead don't
be afraid to just pick something that
you want to sell i think for me
especially because i'm on instagram a
lot and looking at other artists and
engaging with them i'm kind of seeing
this model for what successful artists
look like and i want to be successful so
i feel the need to kind of copy them and
kind of do that same model but i'm also
telling myself you know it's okay to do
what works for me which is small earring
drops and if i want to do that in the
future you know i can and lastly it's
really okay to take breaks and i would
say be careful about setting those
boundaries between hobbies that are for
you and not for monetization this is
obviously really tricky because you know
i think being able to make money from
art is
like really amazing thing and i know i'm
really lucky to do that but i think
oftentimes artists and creatively minded
people art is a really important
therapeutic outlet and it's really
important for self-care
and when you try to monetize you know
almost all of the crafts and things you
do for fun that can take a bit of the
playfulness and joy out of it and i
would make sure to
still keep things for yourself i think
recently i was like oh well i'm really
good at crocheting too so i should sell
these but then i realized
huh i don't have to monetize everything
and i can just make crochet things for
fun i think that is all of the questions
i'm sorry this video was so long and i
talked for so long i'm so my throat is
so dry i hope in some way that this
video was helpful to you
uh if you have any more questions leave
them in the comments below or send me an
email or dm me on instagram i would love
to give you my advice i would love for
us to chat about it and help you out
yeah just don't be afraid to reach out
don't be a stranger thank you so much
for watching i really appreciate it
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next week with the new studio vlog and
thank you so much for watching and i'll
see you next week bye