Sticking my patita in etsy
YES! YES! YES! I finally opened my tiny etsy shop. As I say in my shop’s announcement, I probably should have waited to have more items to sell, but come on!… making two vueltiao hats with the little time I get away from my bollito is no small feat.
As the perfectionist business–background person that I am, it took me a long time to make the decision to sell these hats. I wanted to make more, conduct some kind of marketing research regarding pricing, research outsourcing options, attempt to reduce my costs (i.e. time invested on each hat), etc, etc. I kept spinning around all those considerations while agonizing deep inside because every day for the last week or so Dooce has featured several of her etsy finds in her style section. No, I don’t dream of being featured at dooce. She is not a recognized goddess of style, and I don’t yet offer anything she could use. But it was such a kick in my butt to read every morning “etsy shop this”, “etsy shop that”… I so wanted to be there and have my shop too, like any other decent person who loves to make handmade items.
So Joey gave me the final push, and I finally did it, and listed one hat, and then the other.
Will they sell? Many of you may think not if you disagree with my pricing. And to tell you the truth, I thought a lot about this aspect. I wanted to be competitive, but I also wanted to communicate the value of my product. These things don’t get made like a batch of pancakes, and as far as I know, there is nothing like them out there (yet). Trust me, I looked around, and had I found something like the vueltiao I made for Joaquin, I would have paid that price gladly. In the end I decided that I’m not in any rush to sell. I am totally willing to wait for that buyer who believes my products are worth their price. Those are the buyers I want to have my beautiful hats. I know they’re out there. And if they don’t ever make it, I think I’ll eventually have a baby niece or nephew worthy of a Colombian vueltiao.
So just out of curiosity, go check out my shop. This is a very exciting milestone for me!