Welcome to my blog! I’m a small business owning, plate-spinning mama to two wild ones. I started my own small business way back in 2008 with no plan, no clue and no business smarts. Somehow I managed to sell nearly 1 million products and become an Etsy top 0.1% seller.

My Small Business Story

Whilst I do have a 2:1 degree in Textiles and surface pattern design, and I am currently studying for a Masters Degree in Marketing and Digital Communications, I have mostly got to where I am now by learning on the job. I’ve learned product photography, SEO, Etsy witchcraft and algorithm-pleasing.

After completing my degree, I sort of fell into the designer-maker life. It had never been something I wanted to do, but I wanted to stay in Cornwall and, well, have you ever tried to get a job in woven textiles in Cornwall? It was definitely slim-pickings.

My sister-in-law, who happened to do the exact same degree as me, suggested I look into laser cutting machines. So I did. The next thing I knew, I had ordered a laser cutter and agreed to go into business with my mother. We didn’t even have a workshop to put our newly ordered laser cutting machine in. Oops.

I began by making my own wedding stationery and this naturally evolved into a range of greeting cards. We were approached by notonthehighstreet.com and we began selling our cards on the site. For the first few years in business, we didn’t have a website of our own, we didn’t need to advertise and we thought social media was a place just for cat videos and photos of food. But we did ok. We grew, we employed staff, we bought more lasers and we sold a lot of cards.

Fast forward to today and we are a much smaller team. We’ve learnt some hard lessons and made our fair share of mistakes. We’ve sold cards to royalty, Hollywood A-listers (really!), F1 drivers, world-class footballers, Olympians and national treasures.

I have three Etsy shops, one is a top 0.1%, with over 72k sales, I make laser cut greetings cards. My second Etsy shop is much newer, selling digital downloads for cardmaking, and it is a top 4% Etsy shop, with over 3000 sales. My newest shop sells laser cut crafting shapes and has just hit 1000 sales. I’m on a mission to understand everything about selling on Etsy, gaining visibility in oversaturated categories and a selling across a range of niches. I did conduct a brief experiment with selling AI generated artwork on Etsy to see if I could create a passive income, but that’s a story for another day.

I’m here to share with you my top tips, some of my biggest small business wins (and failures) and what not to do. This is the sort of information I wish someone had shared with me when I started out. It’s open and honest, with zero gatekeeping.

At this point I should probably include some sort of disclaimer, so here goes. I am just a small business owner sharing my experiences. Any decisions you make or actions you take as a result of reading my words are your own responsibility. Every business is different and I do not claim to have all the answers. I am simply sharing what has worked for me. I think that just about covers it.

Shall we begin?