Staying consistent in your actions is really important for the growth of your Etsy business no matter what level you’re at right now. This is even more true for those of you who are not getting consistent sales on Etsy yet. At that stage it’s easier to go longer periods of time without focusing on Etsy because you don’t have any orders that you’re trying to complete. And then it’s even harder to start gaining traction in traffic and sales.
What is consistency?
My first step is to decide what consistency means for you. Social media is a great example of this. If I tell you to post consistently on Instagram, you might think I mean every single day. But that’s not necessarily true. Consistency might mean two or three posts a week.
The same thing can be true for new listings. I’ve seen a lot of Etsy sellers with the goal of adding one new listing on Etsy every single day. This is eventually going to be really hard to keep up with. Maybe one day you don’t have good weather for photos or a supply order didn’t come in time, and you don’t get your listing done for that day. When you feel like you’re getting behind in this situation, it’s harder to keep up your motivation to continue to be consistent.
So step one is to determine what consistency is going to mean for the particular task that you’re looking at. It needs to be something that you can actually stick with and accomplish without burning out.
Prioritize
The second step in staying consistent on Etsy and in your business is to prioritize. And I mean really, really prioritize. Your priority list should not be 10 or 15 things long. I personally struggle with this so I know how hard it is to cut that list down, but have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule?
This principle states that 80% of our results are created through 20% of our actions. And I have found this to be very true. The more I cut out from my priority list, the more effective I am and the more revenue I make.
So if you’re someone who’s priority list has 10, 15, or more tasks, the challenge is going to be to look at the results that each of these tasks is bringing to your business. And to cut that priority list down to just one to two things.
For my business this is my email list and new products. I have cut social media down to the bare minimum because it doesn’t bring me as much traffic as my email list or my SEO on platforms like Amazon and Etsy.
Make a Schedule
The third tip is to make a schedule. This is something that I work a lot with my students on because it has been such a dramatic difference in my life. And I know that sounds like I’m overstating how much this has helped me, but it really has helped my whole life. I am working less outside of normal business hours, if at all, because I am scheduling my time. I am allowing more time for my family and for myself because I’m scheduling my working hours.
This is something that doesn’t have to be really complicated. My schedule consist of big blocks of time and a lot of free space for things that inevitably pop up. Yours might look a lot different. But however you schedule your time, no matter how loose or rigid that schedule is, you’re going to spend more time focusing on the priorities that you have that really matter and that really make a difference in your business.
Be Accountable
My final tip for staying consistent in your Etsy business, is to decide that you are someone that is accountable to yourself and your business.
This example is really easy to look at when it comes to working out. I feel like we have all done this at some point in time, but you are hanging out on the weekend and you decide I’m going to start working out on Monday. Then Monday morning rolls around and just hit that snooze button and don’t start. And what it takes, is to decide that this is a priority. I told myself this was something I was going to do, and I’m committed to starting.
The same can be said for our business.
Maybe you are dreading an SEO update to your shop. So you “hit the snooze button” and decide to work on your social media or make a brand new product line instead. Because those definitely can be more fun than keyword research. But the thing that was really going to move your business forward, was that priority of working on your SEO.
So deciding right now that you’re someone that completes your priority tasks each week and sticks to your schedule is really important.
My schedule works for me because it’s something that I have decided is very important for my business and that I am accountable to myself and to my business for completing it each week.
That doesn’t mean that other things don’t pop up. Last Friday my kid had the day off of school, so I got none of my Friday activities done. And that is OK for me in my schedule, because I have a lot of blank time and space in my schedule. I’ve purposely built it that way so when things come up it’s not so rigid that I can still get done what I need to get done. But that also didn’t mean that all the sudden I am never going to stick to my schedule again because I missed a Friday.
So decide that you are accountable to your priorities, but be flexible enough that when other real priorities come up, like some thing in your family or a huge custom order that’s really important and needs to ship out, that you have the time, space, and mental capacity to do what you need to.
And if you’re someone who listened to step four, and has decided that this is you. That you are ready to commit to being consistent with your priorities in order to really grow and make consistent sales on Etsy, then I invite you to join me in my free masterclass that teaches you how to get daily sales on Etsy and gives you special access to my Etsy course, The Handmade Creative. You can join us here.
-Sarah
