As some of you may know, I am selling my art work in the form of bookmarks, prints, stickers, notebooks, and more on my shop ART BY LENA. I have been running this online shop for a year now and although it is a lot of hard work – it is SO much fun. I love every part of it! So today, I wanted to write this blog post on a positive note and share my top 5 reasons why I love working on my shop. I am hoping this blog post will also inspire you to set up shop!
Number One: BEING MY OWN BOSS
The best thing about running my shop is doing what I want to do, when I want to and making all the decisions – even something small such as how many stickers should I put on the envelope?! Or a big thing like is the production and printing price of a set of prints worth it. I get to decide myself about pricing, about what I think is good quality or not, or when the best time is to release a flash discount. I get to make ALL the decisions – yay!
Number Two: YOU GOT A SALE!
The thrill of getting a sale no matter how small or big is the best feeling in the world. It’s not even about the money – it’s the fact that someone wants your art in their home or want to gift your art to someone. It’s a precious feeling – I hope it never grows old.
Number Three: PACKAGING ORDERS
This is a weird one right? But I love packaging orders. I will spend a good hour just to pack up 4 to 6 orders! I have to get the various bits and pieces together (free stickers, thank you notes, business cards etc) and then wrap them carefully and close the package with colourful washi tape. It’s so therapeutic.
(If you want to watch my packaging process - check out my video on Instagram!)
Number Four: It gives you your own SENSE OF PURPOSE and a distraction from life
For me taking up art gave me the therapy and distraction from life that I really needed. And now that I have got my shop up and running, this takes up a lot of my mental space and time and sometimes it’s all I think about. I can spend ages working on my shop, planning updates, working on marketing and making beautiful art. Without my art and my shop, I wouldn’t be able to stay sane during these difficult times.
Number Five: SMALL BUSINESS SUPPORT
Before starting my own shop, I didn’t know about many other small businesses but through marketing on twitter and Instagram I finally found my people! The support that other small businesses and artists have given is amazing. The community has been really helpful and rewarding and it’s just lovely how people come together for art.
And there you have it – the positives to running my own business – overall it’s rewarding and I love it like it’s my baby!
Thanks so much for reading – I will be writing more posts about running the business – so keep your eyes peeled!
Shop: www.artbylena.bigcartel.com
Cover Photo source: Canva
3 Comments
Gosh this brings back memories of the days I had my own etsy store... I loved it, at first, but I really struggled to make sales and spent more money than what I was earning so it was a bit soul-destroying! Reading this post gives me hope that one day I could try it again... And maybe it wouldn't be as bad haha! But yes - I also loved packaging orders and putting cute stickers and ribbon on them!
ReplyDeleteAh I love this! I know my situation is very different from yours but that BUZZ when you get an email saying you've made a sale is brilliant! I'd absolutely love to have my own shop one day - I'm not arty though so I can't see that happening but it looks so much fun! x
ReplyDeleteJenny
http://www.jennyinneverland.com
There are definitely some great perks for being your own boss and running your own business. I have brought a few products from you as you know, I love them!
ReplyDeleteLauren | www.bournemouthgirl.com
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