THE COLD HARD FACTS ABOUT RUNNING ANY BUSINESS

          Hey loves! Welcome to my artsy-fartsy website, where I share all my digital art and turn it into stickers! I absolutely love stickers—I always have and always will. Collecting stickers brings so much joy to people and is a great way to capture moments and memories. No matter what I'm going through, a funny sticker always brightens my day. So, how did I get here from being an EMT to a full-time sticker business as a SAHM? I'll tell you! 

 

HARD WORK. PATIENCE. CONSISTENCY. AND MARKETING. 

Okay, I'll try and keep this post short while being blunt and honest. 

 

1. IT'S HARD WORK. You have to want this as much as you want to breathe or you won't be motivated to see your business succeed AT ALL! I'm going to ask you some questions and I want you to answer them as honestly as possible.

 

-Do you procrastinate in life?

-Can you take criticism well?

-Do you follow others' advice or leave it to the side?

-What level of risk are you comfortable with?

-Are you willing to spend money to make money? 

-Can you handle stress well?

-Do you have the necessary resilience and passion to see this through?

 

If you answered "no" to any of these, THAT'S OKAY! No person is perfect and these are SKILLS you can learn. Everyone starts somewhere. But master these skills as you start your entrepreneurship journey and be true to yourself and the strengths and weaknesses you carry. I have another blog coming soon talking about how you can master these steps and create the habits of a successful business owner. 

 

2. Patience is a virtue my friends and not very many people have it, which is going to make YOU stand out and become successful in whatever business you start. You have to be willing to see no progress and traffic to your site before you GET people to your site. There is NO SUCH THING as starting up a website and people magically find your product and purchase it, WITHOUT marketing. Be patient with this. You will fail but you will also learn. Did you know that statistics say a person has to see your product about 3X within a month to buy a product from a website or brand they don't know? This brings me to the hard truth that you will have slow days, weeks, and months. But stay at it and keep a motivational quote in your office or bathroom mirror to remind you that CONSISTENCY is key to success. See how all these keywords I mentioned combine?

 

3. CONSISTENCY! Guys, guys, guys! Did you know that if you keep doing something you will never get worse at it, you can only get better!!! This is why consistency is key and why inpatient people fail before they hit their "perfection" stage. No one is liking your post? I don't care, KEEP POSTING! There is someone out there who will like what YOU have to bring to the table. People buy from people. Share your story because you are likable and you are loveable! Create friends and connect. Keep posting, keep sharing, and keep the passionate side of you that brought your business to life in the first place. There are a billion people in the world and you're going to find a niche and group that will ride or die with what you have to offer!

 

4. MARKETING. Okay. Everyone hates marketing. Or the people that don’t are crazy. Just kidding! (please don't come after me) I'm going to let you in on a little secret. What you sell does NOT matter. How you MARKET does. I once read an article about a man who was so good at reaching his target audience that he made a living selling his trash on eBay! I mean what the heck??? So if he can sell his trash on eBay and make money, why can't you sell your stickers, bookmarks, makeup, etc? YOU CAN! Your business is 90% marketing and 10% your product. Remember, to have a successful business you have to have customers with moolah. And where do you find these customers you ask? In FACEBOOK GROUPS, INSTAGRAM, REDDIT (ya'll sleep hard on this one), TUMBLR (I know we completely forgot about Tumblr), SNAPCHAT, and TikTok. I mean where else do we connect with people?!

 

          Now that I'm done yelling. (sorry I'm just super passionate) This brings me to the conclusion of my very first artsy-fartsy blog post, and that is the top keywords that have helped me run my business. Hard work, patience, consistency, and marketing. Once you have these down, nothing will stop you.

          I know you're probably thinking I've heard this before! Tell me something new, I want to know the super secret sauce to get sales!!! This is. This is the super secret sauce to getting sales. And, I've got many more tips and secrets on the way. Take all of this with a grain of salt as I'm not a super rich fancy, schmancy business owner in her lambo. But I have achieved what only 35% of Etsy sellers and small businesses in general have and I'm here to share my secret sauce with you. Best of luck and STICK (see what I did there?) at it. 

-Stickerlicious