Posted by Cynthia Boris
It’s right there on the top of your list of New Years resolutions: I will finally launch my own store online.
For some of you, that means making the leap from Etsy, or eBay or some other platform where you’re currently selling your wares as part of a marketplace, into a space of your own.
For others, that means making the leap from crafting for fun, to actually selling what you make. . . to strangers. . . online.
Both are daunting in their own ways, but they’re both totally doable.
I hear the objections already. I don’t have the skills to create an ecommerce site. I don’t have time to set up my own store. I don’t have the money to launch a business. I don’t know if people even want what I have to give – let alone pay for it!
All legitimate concerns, but not one is a good reason for not starting your business right now. Or, as soon as you finish reading this, anyway.
Let’s knock out those objections one by one.
“I don’t have the skills to create an ecommerce site.”
If you can post to Facebook, you can build your own site on IndieMade. Our platform is designed for people who don’t have the skill or don’t want to invest the time in building a site from scratch. We’ve already created all the pages you need. All you have to do is upload your information, pick the theme you like best and save! Done!
Which brings us to objection number two:
“I don’t have time to set up my own store.”
You can literally set up your IndieMade website in under a half hour*. Do it while you’re having your morning coffee or instead of watching one show on Netflix tonight.
*The half hour rule does assume that you’re already selling on another platform so you have images of your work and descriptions of your products.
If you’re completely new at this, you can still set up your site in a half hour but you’ll need more time to photograph your work and create new product listings. Still, no one says you have to do it all in one night. Photograph on Saturday, upload on Sunday, launch on Monday. It’s so doable.
Next?
“I don’t have the money to launch a business.”
If you’re a hobby crafter or artisan, chances are you already have a stock of completed items that you can sell. As for IndieMade, our sites start as low at $4.95 a month AND you can try us out for free. If you can’t invest $5.00 a month in your business. . . . well, you get where I’m going.
And finally, the big one. ..
“I don’t know if people even want what I have to give – let alone pay for it!”
And you won’t know if you don’t try. We have hundreds of artisans selling everything from handmade beads for $3 to $3,000 works of art. We have soap makers, jewelry makers, plush toy crafters and fashion designers. We have artisans who sell nothing but dragons and others that carry a wide range of items. Some of our store owners don’t even have physical products: they sell downloadable tutorials, online classes and their own expertise.
Every one of them started out wondering if what they had would sell. They got their answer when they took a chance and opened their own ecommerce store.
Now it’s your turn. No more excuses. Make this the year you cross “open my own ecommerce store” off your New Year’s resolution list. Click here and try us out for free. We have lots of amazing artists selling their work on our platform. What we don’t have is YOU.
