Dicope finds barretzz !
I love to do things with my hands! if I look back I've been always doing something like drawing, cutting, woking with glass. I've been a crafter all my life.
What first made you want to become an artist?
I've studied architecture in Lima Peru, and some time after moved to the US to get a master degree, when the 2008 crisis hit I lost my job and started doing some shoes as a therapy for the stress of not having a job. After that my hobby became the source of my major income.
Walk us through your typical workday
I wake up early (I am a morning person) and start preparing myself to go to work - althought I work in my house, I like to have this little routine, so I feel I am 'on track' - I usually have breakfast reading emails and convos, promoting a little bit on Etsy and then I start with my orders.
I take a break for lunch and then go back to work. I try to stop at six in the afternoon but always end up working until nine or ten!
What's the hardest part about running your own business?
Definately having to do all by myself. I had to teach me to do marketing, taking pictures, improving my merchandise image (brand, logo, flyers etc). Besides working on my orders, I have to keep an eye for promoting, client satisfaction and client interaction.
What advice would you give to other artists ?
I will start with telling them to have a little faith in what you do. It is very difficult to get noticed out there. I was checking my stats, and I didn't get a single visit to my shop for the first two months! I had to work to get traffic to my shop!
This is a constant in this type of business, you have to work the extra mile to get noticed.
How do you promote your work? Where else can we find you ?
I started with a blog, then I decided to move to facebook. I have a fan page and a user page under the name of my store, so far it works. I have flickr and trunkt, and also a website of my own, that is under construction.
The best site so far is Etsy, but you have to relist every day to be noticed.
In ten years, where would you like to be?
Selling my product globally,in a large scale! with a staff that helps me!
Have any favorite Etsy shops we should know about?
I usually don't have time to look around, but there are this great artists in Etsy, it gets difficult to miss them. One of my favorites is yaelfran - she is in Argentina, and paigerussell - she is an artist that works with clay.
No comments:
Post a Comment