How Newly Recovering Addicts and Alcoholics can start a whole new career via Etsy Seller.
First I have to say, Etsy, Amazon, and eBay protect their buyers from being ripped off just like eBay or Amazon would, if not more so. But also, none of these selling platforms won’t ask you for your work history or your criminal history. If you are responsible, and can be relied upon for respectful communication and treatment of customers and you sell a good hand made product, they WILL give you a chance to excel in their seller platform. If you show yourself unreliable and customer unfriendly, well then you should not be in sales anyway and you would not grow in Etsy seller.
All you need to start is a product and a Paypal or bank account for the sales to flow into.
Common Scenario of a sober recovering addict
Your clean and sober but no one will hire you locally because you have a criminal record. You have changed your ways, buy no one sees that. All they see is the fact that you stole a candy bar in 2015 and went to jail. You were drunk at the time and have recently gone to Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. You got a year probation and NOBODY will hire you even though your more honest now than you have EVER BEEN. All your AA sponsor can say is “expect distrust you have earned it!” UHG!
Well guess what? Online work may be right up your ally. Not to mention sober recovering addicts tend to be very creative. All we need do is practice our step eleven meditation, use our imagination, find our artistic flare and start creating something people want or need. Then we put our products or art on a listing in Etsy Seller and be patient for the sales to start happening.
Don’t quit before the miracle happens. It took me a good year to start making money on Etsy. In the mean time I settled for an eBay and Amazon seller account which, just didn’t make the grade compared to Etsy systems and software. Amazon and eBay started with a bang and fizzled out with a soft cry, while my Etsy store did a slow-grow-dance, the system testing my business along the way, as it flowered into a thriving burst of colorful energy painted with authentic handmade jewelry and outfits galore, with a steady income to boot.
I thank my Higher Power and online capitalism, that I no longer have to enter the strip clubs to sell my outfits, as I did for so long.
Don’t leave this article without looking at the numbers $$$$ you can do this! Start your own business on Etsy with the new Etsy Plus $10 a month fee There are lots of teaching articles on how to do this.
Did Etsy Seller & Etsy Plus Crash my Sales?
My Sales dropped for a couple months after I switched to Etsy Plus from Standard and I FREAKED!
What can I say? As an ardent Etsy seller for over 4 years I decided the right thing to do to show my loyalty and gratitude to the company that puts the food on my table was to be one of the first to try the new Etsy Plus they offered me in June 2018.
As it stands we sellers have available to us three packages: Etsy standard, Etsy Plus both available now, and Etsy Premium to be rolled out in 2019.
I jumped to conclusions about Etsy Plus
So I purchased Etsy plus around June of 2018. Immediately my sales crashed by 30% for two months in a row. What was going on? I blamed Etsy Plus! It had to be the culprit.
I complained that I was used to having orders stacked up over two pages, usually about 20 pending orders at any given time. Everything being hand made that I sell. Each order took at least a day. But now, I had cleared out my orders…there was nothing on the order page except a blank sheet, I was frantic.
What had they done to the algorithm I thought. What do they want? Have I done something wrong? I just know it, I was late on too many orders! Surely I am being reprimanded and punished for my long handling time. And on and on my mind went.
I decided to cancel Etsy Plus and go back to the standard Etsy where sales were good and consistent.
I remembered my step three
But then I heard the still small voice, I remembered “I turned my will and my life over to THE CARE of God as I understand Him”. Since 2006 when I first got sober nearly 13 years ago I have relied on my Higher Power. “God is my security!” Etsy is my tool to make money but my Higher Power is my provider and always will be!
My fears were quelled and I was able to see the facts about why sales had actually dropped, temporarily.
I took into consideration that summer is my all time WORST sales time of the year. I looked into “stats” within my Etsy Manager, it gave me all the numbers, visits, income, orders, pages views along with dates and times. I found I had actually increased in sales for 2018. As a matter of fact my sales went up so high Etsy allowed me to hire a production partner who made some piece work of some of the outfits I create. Otherwise I would not have been able to keep up with orders.
I had great increases from 2014 to 2018. The sales drop was due to the fact (as every year) it was summer, the kids were out of school and Dad’s can’t hang out in the strip clubs which means…its the slow time for high end strippers and adult entertainers who are my main buyer clientele.
What I sell on Etsy
You see, I am a seamstress and designer who sells stripper outfits, also called exotic wear online. I have a great Etsy brand created website where I own the domain name, so I can always take it with me if something happens to my Etsy account. The site, is cloned from my Etsy store so I don’t have to do hardly any work on it for only $15 a month. If I post an outfit listing on my Etsy store it also gets listed on LeatherandLacz.com
Summer time has always been the worst for my business so I put my panic on the back burner and waited for September sales to pick things up. And guess what? it did. It came in like a champ and in October I made a $1,500 sale one of my biggest sales EVER. No Bull here guys.
IF I CAN HAVE A SUCCESSFUL STORE ON ETSY SO CAN YOU! NO matter how long you were on the wrong road, you are smart, creative, and a passionate artistic human. Etsy is not an Ebay where you buy from one place, increase the price, and make a dime or two. Etsy is for the artist in us all where in a commercialized world we can STILL buy something that is not only hand made, but it’s also made with care and some love.
The statistics
2018 statistics are only 10 months of sales, since it’s now October 31st.
