My first postcard designs have come back from Moo.com!
(Cue big grin).
I have always wanted to create a product I can sell.
When I was a kid I told my mum I wanted to sell cups of tea to passing drivers. (See – entrepreneurial from an early age.)
Sadly, my business plan was slightly flawed as I failed to take into account the fact that our home was in the middle of nowhere and precisely 5 cars drove down our lane each day.
Still, I admire my entrepreneurial spirit!
Thirty five years later, and I have moved on from cups of tea to postcards. Who knows where this will end?
(Actually, I do know…I’m thinking Muchos Love™ greetings cards, t-shirts and stickers.)
Next step: where to sell them? Etsy? Paypal button on my blog? Local shops?
What do you think? Any ideas???
Katherine Bassford 
I think I’d be most likely to buy from local shops (though of course you then have to share th profits with them…) I’m thinking cafes, florists, bookshops. You could make (or buy?) a nice attractive display stand to make it easy for your cards to sit on the counter.
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Good thinking batman, I’m thinking local shops and cafes are the way to go. A display stand is a good idea, I hadn’t thought of that. Thank you!
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Oh, and can I just say congratulations as well! I know I said it somewhere else before, but worth saying here where it really belongs!
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Ah, thank you, much appreciated x
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Congrats! I’d go with local shops and a PayPal button here at WordPress first – – see how it goes – I visited Etsy quite some time ago and can’t remember the reason I chose eBay/local locations/PayPal, but I did –
Congratulations! Again! Too awesome of an accomplishment to say just once…
Hugs and smiles!
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Really good to get your feedback (and a big thank you for all your support!). I’ll investigate the PayPal button (not sure how it works regarding P&P to outside the UK – guess I need to do some research). Exciting!!
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Forgot you’re in the UK – but PayPal here is pretty easy – WordPress has a tutorial on it – did I already give you the link? If not, here it is:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/paypal/
And if you haven’t found them at your PayPal account yet, button management is found under “My Seller Tools”
:)
Also, many of my customers get wrapped around the fence about shipping calculations, etc. You can fill out shipping zones/rates, etc. in PayPal OR you can calculate what your most expensive shipping option is, add that to your price and just sell at a same price and offer Free Shipping – this is what most of my customers do, as many of them choose not to ship internationally.
Best Wishes!
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Forgot to mention, the including one shipping cost in the overall price works best for small things that don’t vary much in shipping rates here in the US, i.e. prints, cards, as in your case! :)
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You’re a star! THANK YOU!!! Really useful to know about shipping calculations and the WordPress tutorial (I’ll go and check it out now) x
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From what my girlfriend is going through in her creative startup (she had her first jewelry show yesterday!), it seems the most important factor is what you do to bring the customers to you. The world’s most awesome cards (yours are pretty cool), for sale in your stairwell (just a metaphor) won’t get much attention since relatively few people know your stairwell.
Around here, there are farmer’s markets where there’s also a few small booths of creative products. The customers at the farmer’s markets are already primed to support local producers.
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Thanks David. My stairwell is not very well known so I need to give some thought as to how to bring customers to me. I like the idea of a farmer’s market or stall at a local fair etc. Will keep you posted. Good luck to your girlfriend with her startup – how did her first show go yesterday?
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Promising. Bad weather made attendance poor, but, her top-of-the-line product (that she wore without planning to sell) has a tentative custom order.
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Very exciting to get a custom order, especially as it’s her top-of-the-line product and she wasn’t even trying to sell it!
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It is exciting and, at dinner Dana came up with tons of ideas for your cards. Maybe she’ll email them. Artsy entrepreneurs like you two gotta stick together!
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Absolutely, I’d love to hear from her!
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Fantastic news, congratulations! What about Water
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Water???
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Like the Muchos Love brand, I could definitely see this on a whole bunch of products. Interesting to read TamrahJo’s comments on Paypal buttons. I’m tempted to sell online too, but I’m thinking of doing a stall first to see what cards sell and what kinds of people buy them.
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Glad you like the Muchos Love brand (sounds very grand)! A stall is a great idea – nice to meet customers in person and get feedback. Good luck and let me know how it goes. Are you sticking with Moo.com?
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