The Truth About the Snowball Effect | Tips For Etsy Sellers
30. Aug, 2012 
6 Comments
 |
When you are starting a business people tell you there will be a snowballing effect. Be patient, success will come. You just gotta give it that good initial shove, and then once the sales start rolling in they will multiply, right? Well……. sort of.
There IS a snowballing effect, but what they DON’T tell you is that the course you are rolling your ball on is completely uphill. You can’t just give your little ball a push and watch it travel, gathering momentum and getting bigger as it speeds along. You have to be behind it the WHOLE TIME, grunting and sweating, as you force it to move up the steep slope.
You never get to a point where you have to stop marketing and promoting, it is a constant thing that must be done or you will fade away.
You never get to a point where you get to stop coming up with new products because your current line-up is so good it will last you forever – your customers will want to see new styles, no matter how long you’ve been around or how good your current products are.
I remember when my MegansBeadedDesigns shop reached 100 sales and I wondered if it would get any easier to reach my next 100. While I wouldn’t say easier, I will say faster. And faster not because of any other reason than my pushing them along the entire time.
Instead of working less on my business I’ve chosen to work harder at it, but also leaner – cutting out the tasks and busy work that don’t really have a great effect on the big picture. I like to spend my time on what is working, while keeping in mind that what works may evolve over time. For example, I’ve cut out treasury teams that require clicking and commenting on ALL team treasuries. While there was some nice exposure from them, not enough to deserve all of the time they required.
To maintain my upward momentum, I’ve tried to establish a semblance of a routine. I try to make enough items to keep a certain amount in my Etsy shops, post a certain number of times a day to my social networking sites, publish a blog post every weekday, etc. Setting up a basic daily to-do helps to keep me from feeling overwhelmed.
If you are struggling to get the ball moving again, try setting up your own routine. To-do lists with items you can check off will make you feel accomplished. Keep you overall goals in mind to maintain focus, and things will keep moving in the right direction.
This post originally appeared on Megan’s Creative Blog on 5/16/2012.
About The Author
224 
1013
Megan,
I’m learning this is true and am returning to creating variations of designs that have done well for me in the past, with a few changes.
My to-do list is an Excel spreadsheet
I’m also learning to spend less time on social media, just posting items and thinking more about how to engage clients.
Thanks for your post.
Spreadsheets are a great way to keep track! Great tip.
Megan – this is a really great post and so much of it rings true.
It’s so easy and such a waste of my creative time, to spend the day going around in circles, checking Twitter, shop stats and emails without actually getting very much done. A to do list is an essential and something I rely on to get myself motivated and working. I just have to remember to stick to it!
And I agree with the comment about varying designs, it can be easier to keep making the same things because it’s popular, or quicker to make, but we all need a change – including our potential customers!
Thanks for posting this, it was a great read.
Katie.
You’re welcome Katie, glad I could help! If it’s social media that is sucking up most of your time, I have written a post on managing it better on my blog at http://megansbeadeddesigns.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/whats-your-biggest-time-suck/
you might find it helpful!
Just this week I decided to stop spending so much time on team treasuries and favoring all team new/old items. It was taking too much of my time. My items are hand knitted and that is where I have decided the majority of my time should go… building my inventory.
This article couldn’t have come at a better time for me!!!!
Thank you…
You’re welcome Liz, glad I could help! Especially with time-consuming items (and I’m right there with you with my beadwork), we need to be especially conscious of where we are spending most of our business effort. The stuff has to get made so we can actually sell it after all!