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Have you ever considered running a brick and mortar plus Etsy shop? It’s not a small feat but it’s exactly what my guest this Shannon is doing….
And doing quite well too!
Shannon runs the Etsy shop Southern Belles Like Big Bows and her brick and mortar shop has the same name as well.
And, oh yeah, she runs an ecommerce website by the same name too! You can check it out here ~ SouthernBellesLikeBigBows.com
In all her shops, Shannon sells handmade accessories for girls and boys and we jump right into talking about how she began her journey into making and selling them, from that first “ka-ching” from the Etsy app till now.
Listen in to hear just how uniquely she has structured her business. Lots of online sellers tend to neglect “the real world” once global selling opportunities on the world wide web open up, but not Shannon…
She was intentional about connecting locally and plugging into her community, not just to promote her business, but more importantly, to give back to the community, and boy has it paid off…
I especially loved talking with Shannon because it felt like I was just chit-chatting with my real life Southern Belle girlfriend drinking some sweet tea on the bayou 🙂 Okay, maybe that went too far, but I did love talking with Shannon.
In our convo you’ll hear us talk about:
- Starting out selling at craft shows and on Facebook prior to migrating over to Etsy… (Question: Could this progression be right for new sellers? It’s worth some thought…)
- Hiring and training staff… Concerns about creating competitors and how to handle such
- An inside look into running a brick and mortar shop alongside an online store
- Dealing with changes on Etsy
- The importance of making a conscious decision early on to scale a business (Question: have you thought about this with respect to your business?)
- Deciding when and how much to pay yourself
- Working with bow reps (aka brand ambassadors in other niches)
- Getting local media publicity and TV coverage
- And way more…
Resources Mentioned
- Later – social media scheduling tool
- Vela – bulk editing tool for Etsy (and Shopify) listings
- Etsify App – tool for moving Etsy data (listings, pictures, etc.) from Etsy to Shopify
Connect With Shannon
- Etsy convo: Southern Belles Like Big Bows
- Email: Shannon [at] SouthernBellesLikeBigBows [dot] com
- Website: SouthernBellesLikeBigBows.com
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For more help growing your Etsy-based business, check out these resources: