Thursday 5 December 2013

My Folksy Shop is Open!

I have been busy for the last 6 weeks working on my Folksy shop! I had dreamed about selling online for a long time and decided that 2013 was the year I would step out of my comfort zone and do it!

I have sold brooches, finger puppets, purses and necklaces at local craft fairs for the last few years and had already chosen the name "marta's eco crafts".


The biggest hurdle for me was not in the making of craft items to sell but the business side of things. I wrote up a business plan first, which really helped me to see what I needed to do and what my goals were. I then contacted several banks about setting up a business account. Setting up an account with my chosen bank took about 4 weeks, there seemed to be endless admin problems, the funniest one being that they set it up with my first name spelt as "Magda"!




Opening a shop on the Folksy website was straight forward because they have a frequently asked questions page which really does answer everything! My sister's partner Mat helped me with my avatar and shop banner. I think he did an excellent job and I'm really happy with the colours. I spent a lot of time photographing my work to give clear pictures of my necklaces and brooches before listing them with their descriptions.




Sales have gone well so far which I think has been helped by promoting my page on facebook and instagram. Once I started selling I registered with HMRC for tax purposes (something I'm not looking forward to submitting in January!). I'm looking forward to making new items in the New Year ...

If you'd like to take a peek at my folksy shop, the link is

www.folksy.com/shops/martasecocrafts

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