02/10/2024
I’m having a rough go of it right now. Like cried all the tears I had and now I’m just wiped out type of day. And this is going to be long.
I’ve spent so many years refinishing furniture, listening to podcasts in my little workshop and never feeling the need for a social media following. I was told by many people that it was important to help to grow my business, but since it wasn’t the work I wanted to be doing, I didn’t do it.
Facebook marketplace is a great place to sell, as long as you don’t need to actually make a lot of money on what you are selling. I’ve sold a lot of my furniture out there over the years, but I knew I was selling myself short. It’s generally where people go when they are looking to save money buying something used. Myself included! I’ve always had to supplement my income working other jobs, because while I was working extremely hard, I was being stubbornly lazy in certain areas.
I recently did something that I’ve been meaning to do for years… I opened my own Etsy shop, and it paid off immediately. People love my furniture and are willing to pay me what it is actually worth, along with a sometimes hefty shipping fee on top of that. It became apparent right away that I could now just do what I love doing and start taking better care of myself along the way.
I just went out to list a several pieces that are photographed and ready to go and found that my Etsy shop had been permanently closed. For what, I still don’t know. I was following all of the rules, and I am actually the types of business Etsy was made for. Creative, vintage, and handmade products. I immediately filed an appeal, not even knowing how to answer the questions, which was probably another mistake on my part. I asked what rules had been broken so I could address the situation and submitted the form. Not even two minutes later I received a reply saying that after careful consideration and a comprehensive and thorough investigation my shop would remain closed permanently. They would not discuss the case any further nor would they let me know why they closed the shop. And it was clear that there was no careful or comprehensive investigation of anything.
It turns out that I am not alone here. It’s happening to a lot of newer shops. They are being vigilant in not allowing scammers to set up shop, that erring on the side of caution is causing problems like this for legitimate shops, like mine. We just cease to exist. So, it was suggested that it would be a good idea to go to my social media peeps, get out my email list, and set up shop on Instagram. Or Shopify. Or TikTok. And a few other (good) ideas, that would probably end up working quite well… six omonths down the road. .
But my eggs were all in one basket and that basket disappeared overnight. I have spent a little time beating myself up for putting myself in this position, which isnt productive and I’m going to try to prevent from doing more of that in the future. Now besides being determined to get my shop opened back up, I have some other work to do. Besides writing this post I took someone’s advise and I created a twitter (X) account and tweeted about what happened, tagging Etsy so that they would see it. I don’t know what I expected that to do🤨 It’s a lone tweet (or X?) from a brand new account with no followers. The more I write here, the more embarrassing it gets!
At the same time the idea has crossed my mind for the first time ever, to donate what furniture I have, sell my tools and equipment, and let someone else have my fabulous workshop. I think right now I just need to go to sleep and see how I feel tomorrow.
Since I don’t pay any attention to this account, I don’t think I really have any eyes on it at this point in time, so I may have just written this for myself. ❤️❤️
