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Have you ever stopped to consider how to prepare your Etsy shop for tough times?
It’s not something we want to think about, but the truth is, this is something we have to plan for so that our businesses, what we’ve worked so hard to grow, don’t go under when tough times come…
And they will come.
My guests this week on the podcast are the journalist and engineer husband-and-wife team, David & Patricia Beets of Dell Cove Spices & More. They also run a second Etsy shop Dell Cove Tea Co. and this topic of preparing for tough times is one that hits particularly close to home for them and we have an in-depth conversation about the ins and outs of what we as sellers need to do and know when it comes to prepping for tough times.
Patricia and David started their family spice business over 8 years ago and then actually started selling on Etsy in 2010. Now 8 years and over 23,000 Etsy sales later, they’ve learned so many lessons along the way about growing an Etsy shop, expanding your business, time management, and so much more.
We talk all about their journey and lessons learned in our convo this week. Listen in to hear us discuss (in addition to prepping for tough times):
- Running a food-based creative business
- Creative ways to get access to commercial kitchens (great info here if you’re bootstrapping your food-based business or have few industry connections)
- Branching out into wholesale… Knowing when and how to do this as well as some key metrics i.e. “your numbers”, that you must know before diving in
- A typical day in the life of Dell Cove Spices & More
- Division of labor… Determining who handles what aspects of the business (and why)
- Running an ecommerce site on Shopify
- Differences between customers on Etsy vs. those off Etsy
- Time-blocking in order to accomplish tasks
- And lots, lots more…
Special shout out goes to Mina and Veronica! These ladies are part of the team and from the sound of it, we would all be so lucky to have workers and teammates like them helping us in our businesses too 🙂
Resources Mentioned
- Legal Zoom – resource for getting legal documents together (always consult with a lawyer for your own specific needs)
- Small Business Administration (SBA) and SCORE – offer free and low-cost resources (and mentors) for starting and running your business
- Indigo Fair – wholesale merchandising platform
- Shopify – platform for building ecommerce websites
- ShipStation – shipping software for ecommerce fulfillment
- USPS Phone Number (when you need to order more than 100 boxes) – 1-800-610-8734
- USPS Small Business Help Center – 1-USPS-4SMBIZ (1-877-747-6249)
- USPS site for small business tips and free kits
Connect With David & Patricia
- Etsy shops: Dell Cove Spices & More and Dell Cove Tea Co. (send Etsy convo)
- Websites: DellCoveSpices.com (main ecommerce site) and Try.DellCoveSpces.com (recipe site)
- Social media: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest
- Email: David [at] DellCoveSpices [dot] com and Patricia [at] DellCoveSpices [dot] com
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