The waiting game

Hi there!

Often when I talk about work I write in a very upbeat manner- “Yeah it’s hard but whatever.” Today… isn’t going to be exactly like that… TBH I wasn’t supposed to write this post till next week, but for reasons I’ll go into then I decided to write this one instead.

By now you are probably wondering what my title has to do with my post; “what is the waiting game?” Well, in this case, the waiting game is waiting for orders on my Etsy. It’s been up for 3 months to the day by the time you are reading this… but I have yet to net a single sale.

Since starting the store I’ve; written weekly posts on my business FB page, made and posted to my business Instagram weekly, pinned all of my jewelry to a business Pinterest profile,re-strung most of my necklaces to correct a small error, and run a Covid sale- not to mention constantly double-checking my stats on all of these sites, and Etsy to boot. 

Don’t get me wrong, I never expected instant success, I knew that there would be a period of growth extending a couple of years even… but I at least thought that I would have a couple of sales by now. 

So what is the waiting game? It evolves with time; at the beginning, it was obsessively checking my stats every couple of minutes, which in time stretched into hours… and now I’m down to checking every day, even skipping some of my media stats on some days!

How long am I going to keep my Etsy up without sales… I need to renew my business name by next year… and if I don’t see any sales by then, (or only see one or two,) I’ll need to consider closing it down so that I can better spend my energy elsewhere. 

Sorry, I know that this is a bit of a downer in a world full of downers, but I’ve got to be honest, it’s who I am, and I don’t want to give anyone any false impressions of what this all looks like. Rest assured, my contingencies have contingencies, and truly Etsy has never been my passion… that honor belongs to writing and teaching.

To end this post on a slightly higher note, it’s possible that my Etsy will grow in the coming months, and it’s equally possible that God is closing this door for a reason… either way, I guess I’ll figure it out in the coming months. 

Thanks for the read!