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Irene Kwong started her business (though initially, it was a side hustle) on Etsy In 2015 and hung out on the platform, growing her business for over 3 years before branching out to her own standalone shop on Shopify.
By 2017, she realized that she could actually leave her day job and pursue her side venture as a full time business, especially after she was ranked #1 by Etsy on Black Friday that year.
And that’s when her Simply Gilded brand really took off.
Invest in yourself and your business if you want to grow.
Irene Kwong, Simply Gilded
If you ever feel overwhelmed or even discouraged at the thought of scaling your business and growing beyond Etsy, then you will find encouragement and inspiration in Irene’s story.
She started her Etsy shop with 2 toddlers and a full time job and knows firsthand that it’s not a walk in the park. But leaving Etsy was not a flippant decision, she experienced growing pains in her business (you’ll hear us discuss what those were) which ultimately led to her leaving due to certain limitations of the platform.
Topics Discussed
- Growing pains that led to Irene breaking away from Etsy
- Selling products across different categories and niches
- Subscription box systems and how Irene got hers up and running
- Tracking inventory and dealing with shortages
- Handling accounting and taxes
- Outsourcing work and hiring employees
- Steps to take to transition off Etsy
- Irene’s plans for Simply Gilded in 2021 and beyond
- And so much more…
Resources Mentioned:
- ShipStation – shipping platform (an alternative to the USPS site and the Etsy Shipping platform)
- Shopify – platform for building ecommerce sites
- PayPal – online payment processing platform
Connect With Irene
- Website: www.SimplyGilded.com
- Instagram: @SimplyGilded
- Facebook: Simply Gilded
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Connect With Me:
- Instagram: @EtsyConversations
- Twitter: @ConvoMePodcast