PandaTudePress
My little Etsy shop is 2 weeks old! Time sure is going fast. There’s a part of me that still can’t believe, I finally did it. The shop is open. And I am having a lot of fun creating the coloring pages. Ideally, it would be cool if I published my own art, but I can’t draw that fast. My work around for this is Midjourney. I use AI generated images for the coloring pages. I get so much more variety and volume by doing this. Also, the program upscales the images so the print quality is going to be automatically better. I want to provide quality products.
At this point, PandaTudePress is still a baby. Not surprising, I haven’t had a sale yet. But I keep telling myself this is a marathon, not a sprint. Plus, I’m using this down time to increase my inventory and learn. There is so much to learn. I’m hoping that by the time, I understand and have implemented the strategies that should make an Etsy shop visible and successful, that at that point, the sales are trickling in. Hopefully.
Right now, I’m trying to figure out keywords and tags. Sometimes I think I understand, but most of the time, I feel like I’m choosing words at random. There’s also tips on Etsy that says, videos can create more sales. I’m thinking I should do some, but I’m not really good at videos and I don’t know how to edit. Good thing, we have teenagers in the house for this. I have already recruited my son to help. Hahaha! He doesn’t seem too excited about it.
I think that eventually, I’ll also have to figure out how to build a mailing list. Again, another thing to learn.
For those of you who have the same interest in building a printables business. I encourage you to do it! So far, this is what I’m learning. It’s a lot of work. There’s no getting around this. For me, I’m having to learn how to better divide the time that I have after my day job — it’s limited.
I’m also learning, there’s a lot of resources that are free, but if you need help by using tools (software like Midjourney), it’s worth the investment. There is a lot to learn. Thank goodness there are also a lot of study resources that’s available through YouTube or Google. Searching for those study resources also takes time to find. Just like with anything, some are good, some are bad. If you can join a group through Facebook or a membership of some sort, that could worthwhile also. Again, check out the group first. Some are fairly quiet, but others are very engaged and helpful. The engaged, helpful kind is what you want.
The biggest thing for me and what keeps coming up is — patience and slowing down. At times, my anxiety and FOMO comes up and I feel like ‘I just need to do it,’ whatever it is. I admittedly have a problem with the ‘shiny ball syndrome.’ But, it seems when I go chasing the next shiny ball, or do something without thought, because I let my fears make my decisions for me, I inevitably mess something up. Ugh! I have to remind myself to step back, look again later, and see how I feel… later. I have to force myself to pause.
Building a business, whatever it is, especially when you’re starting from scratch and with no experience is a lot of work. I know I keep saying this, but it’s true. I knew this going in. Despite the mental prep, real-life is always more. But, it’s okay. I’m open and accepting of the learning because I also told myself going in that I wanted to do this correctly, and in a way I can sustain. I am a one-woman show afterall. So far, the best part of this has been the realization, or perhaps the confirmation that I LOVE creating. Yes, I’m using Midjourney as a tool, but even AI requires inputs and prompts from the user. I have to somehow figure out how to prompt AI to create what I’m seeing in my mind. That’s been fun.
I’m spending a lot of time building PandaTudePress, and I love it, but I’m also missing my reading time. I’m going to have to steal a little chunk of time from somewhere so I can read. LOL!
Hope you can visit my little shop and see what I’ve created. It’s still little, but it’s growing. See you there soon!
Take care!
