Welcome back to the blog where I post once a year, ha!
You may remember from my last post (but probably not since it was an actual year ago), that I was starting to despair about what to do next with my life. Well, 9 days later I started an Etsy shop selling t-shirts.
I’ve had shirt ideas for YEARS, but have never been brave enough to do anything about it, until late one night when I was looking for a specific shirt and couldn’t find it, and I couldn’t believe nobody was making it. Before I could talk myself out of it, I opened an Etsy shop, connected it to a print-on-demand company, worked up the design, and listed it myself. Once I did that one, other ideas sparked and I made a few more.
And then the weirdest thing happened… people! started!! buying!!! them!!!!
AND less than a month later I was featured in two different articles on two different pop-culture sites:
BuzzFeed’s “31 Things You Absolutely Need If You’re Obsessed With “Bridgerton” On Netflix“
StyleCaster’s “11 ‘Bridgerton’ Gifts That Are Worthy of Lady Whistledown“
Here we are almost a year later with 17,200 visits, 444 orders received (551 items sold), a 2.6% conversion rate (2.9% is the global average for e-commerce sites), and total sales of $12,528.60.
COLOR. ME. SHOCKED.
That’s about $12,000 more than I ever imagined. Actual profit is less of course, but this little side gig has provided just enough extra cash at just the right moments this last year.
But Sarah, what kind of shirts do you sell?????
The links above may have given you an idea, but I do bookish shirts, with a focus on shirts related to books that have been turned into shows. For example, this is the shirt that started it all, based on the Bridgerton books that became a Netflix series. It’s super simple, just a list of all the Bridgerton siblings, but what I wanted, and what nobody was doing, was using the same font that Netflix was using for the show. It’s available for anyone to purchase, and I just felt like it gave it that extra special something.
I also have shirts related to Shadow & Bone, Sanditon, a Gatsby/Introvert one that has been popular, and some non-bookish ones like the Hallmark-inspired shirts I just listed last week. You can see them all at my shop here – Whims and Noveltees.
As fun as the shop is, it’s miles (like a full marathon’s worth) away from a full-time income, so this summer I also started two other part-time gigs. One of them is working for my husband doing office stuff for his business which is fun (and flexible!), and the other is working at a local boutique a couple days a week which I’m loving.
Thankfully I just work with inventory and do computer stuff, I don’t have to work the sales floor which is good because I have no style and I hate customers. That’s not quite true, I just hate having to be “on” for customers.
After 25 years of working I’ve finally realized and accepted that as an introvert, constant interaction with customers, even just on the phone, is incredibly draining for me, and in the long run that’s not good for my mental health. I know that sounds so dumb to some people, but it’s just how I am, and why I was so worried I’d have to find another soul sucking 9-5 cubicle job.
Anyway… it’s a random collection of jobs, but I really like each one, and I’m able to work from home most of the time which is something I was really wanting. I am extremely thankful for how life is going at the moment, especially after the last two years of craziness.
Can’t wait to see what’s happening a year from now!
PS – Oh, speaking of Hallmark, I started a movie review blog – I’m so great at keeping up with this one, I figured why not start another one, haha! My error was trying to start it with their Christmas movies, and that’s like the Olympics of Hallmark and I had to admit defeat, so I’ll be restarting it in January. Come join the cheesy movie fun at I Have This Thing With Hallmark. ♥