I am so excited to finally have a little bit of time to start working on my blog. After 2 months on Etsy the shop has become a huge success, and I couldn't be happier. I have been to work with some beautiful shops and wonderful bloggers, so hopefully this will be a good place for me to share all of our joint efforts and team-ups.
First off, let me start with the fact that I do not have children. My shop started as a place where I would sell wedding signs as a way to keep myself busy during planning my own wedding. One day during a conversation with my good friend Ana (who had the little girls), I ended up putting my phone down and running to the local craft store to pick up everything I needed to make onesies. I honestly don't even remember where the inspiration came from, but when it came it slapped me in the face. My very first onesie was for Thanksgiving and said "Gobble gobble gobble" in varying shades of maroon. Luckily, I had a couple of girlfriends with kids to give me feedback. We changed the colors to mustard, orange, and brown, and all of a sudden my shop hits went WAY up. I probably sold about 25 of those onesies in November, which to me was so exciting. All of the sudden I knew what I needed to do: holiday onesies. It was the product that launched a thousand ships.
Before I knew it I was making onesie after onesie. Some of them were custom orders and so cheesy, but they started to sell so who was I to complain? I received a message from an old friend from high school who had seen some of my Instagram and Facebook posts and asked me to design one for her baby's first Christmas. I was all over it. I delivered it to her that evening, and she sent me pictures of her baby wearing it the next day, which I posted on my shop and all of a sudden my page views that I once thought were good became great. I think I sold 50 of those in a couple of weeks before Christmas. I was thrilled.
Those page views lead to sales for all my other onesies and business was booming. Between December 14th and 21st, I shipped out about 75 packages. After the Christmas rush was over, it was clear I had a business, which means I had a huge decision to make. Should I go with the cheesy onesies just because thry were moneymakers, or should I remove them and stick with the more streamlined, chic and trendy designs? Luckily my girlfriend Ari, ofHaven. designs, was going through a similar struggle. People were asking her to make very cheesy signs that were outside of her taste, and she wasn't sure if she could call herself a custom sign business if she wasn't giving people custom items. After a lot of discussion, I decided to remove all items I would not dress my own child in. Oh, the struggle. I will always offer custom items, but I do save them for when people ask me for them specifically.
My next step was hiring a photographer. Sarah, from her sea of love, was instantly my first choice. Her eye for detail and staging is exactly what I was looking for. Her turnaround time was instantaneous and I felt the quality of my shop go up about 5 taste levels. All of a sudden, everything felt right. Like... it just clicked! I was essentially a clothing designer!
The best part about the shop is that I found something that I'm really good at. I'm good at the marketing, the hard work and upkeep, filling the orders in a timely manner, but most of all I just love designing. Photoshop is seriously my bestie. I design every single one in Photoshop before putting it together, which allows me to make each one unique in its own way. I have been very blessed to be able to turn haha be into an actual business. I welcome all of you to join me on my journey and please feel free to email me at anytime for partnerships, sponsorships, or custom orders.
xoxo,
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