In recent years, the rise of popular ecommerce platforms and technological business-to-consumer solutions has made it easier – and more profitable – than ever for decorators of all sizes and specialties to get their custom merchandise into the hands of their customers. With a solid set of product personalization skills, an optimistic attitude, and a good understanding of what the people browsing these platforms want to buy, a determined person can really grow a successful business from the ground up all on their own.

Longtime Coastal customer Michelle G. was recently considerate enough to join us for a phone call to chat about how she’s grown her business “the hard way” – by cultivating an embracing attitude toward life’s curveballs, rolling up her sleeves with determination and learning as she goes. From mastering Photoshop and the fundamentals of sublimation, to teaching herself how to manage her own accounting, Michelle has done it all on her own.  Read along to find out how she confidently overcame a life-altering situation and cultivated a thriving business in its wake.

 

 

You’re an Amazon and Etsy person, how did you get into selling products on these platforms?

Well, I spent my entire career teaching at an alternative school and I really enjoyed it – but then my son, who was 12 at the time, started having some really hardcore health issues and I had to quit my teaching job to stay home with him. I thought, “Oh my gosh, what am I going to do”, so I started selling prints on Etsy of my designs (I liked playing around on Photoshop) and that really took off in an amazing way. Sublimation was just starting to be…well, it wasn’t even a thing yet, it was brand new, and I was like, “Oh this is so cool!” It just seemed like magic to be able to put my designs on a mug, so I went ahead and invested in doing that. At the time, I was the only seller on Etsy who would do custom sublimation for people. Having that little niche really helped me grow, but of course, that didn’t last long. 

So, instead of looking for a job elsewhere, you decided to somehow generate income in-house.

Getting a job wasn’t even really an option for me. There was too much going on with my kid where I didn’t feel able to work or like I could show up at work reliably or anything like that – my whole world was just turned upside-down. But – when you really get your back to the wall, good things can come out of that. It was a point in my life where I was going to get really depressed if I didn’t focus my mind in a really good way – that’s why all of my stuff is really positive and upbeat. That really helped me deal with what was going on with my kid.

So, it was therapeutic, then?

Oh yeah, definitely. And you know, just the whole thing of making other people happy. I get these emails all the time from people – and normally this is on Etsy, not Amazon – they’re just like, “Oh thank you so much, my grandma just loves this!” It’s just really neat knowing you’re making people happy every day. Even my employees really dig that aspect of it.

Michelle G Mug | Coastal Business

Where did you learn to design?

I’m self-taught. It was a hobby, I just enjoyed playing with Photoshop, and I think part of it is even my age, you know. I’m 52, and while growing up, none of this was a thing, and so for me, I’ve never gotten over the feeling that this is absolute magic. Every time, peeling that paper off the mug still makes me go, “Whoooa!” It just amazes me, it’s so much fun.

Where did you learn about the transfer side? Where did you pick up dye sub and learn about the application process?

You know…I’m not even sure how or where I noticed that. At some point, I probably saw someone else online doing it, maybe read a tutorial or something, but I just taught myself – just read tutorials until I figured it out. I was literally sitting at home, and you know, my husband works – we had been a two-income family up until that point, so then I was like, “I’ve got to replace this income – like now”. It was so funny, I actually set up my Etsy store with these prints and everything and I had like, I don’t know, 25 designs or something and I started selling them. At the time, I didn’t even have a printer, I was going to a print shop to get them done. I go to the print shop, and the prints are coming out all fuzzy and I asked, “What’s up with this?” They told me, “You saved the files for the web, you’re supposed to save them for print!” I had made all of them wrong. I had to go back and re-do all of them. So, you know, I totally just learned as I went, the hard way.

At what point did you decide to get serious about your prints and focus on creating a legitimate business?

Really, right from the get-go. I had always been a side-gig kind of person. I used to do a lot of freelance writing and I’ve always been really crafty – I had tried a couple crafts on Etsy that didn’t work out, but I just always had it in the back of my head that I wanted to have my own business – so it was just a no-brainer to make everything legitimate. The funny thing is, I told my husband – I told him how much money we were going to be making a day before I was even making $50 a day, and he thought I was acting crazy or manic – like what I was saying was delusional. Now I throw that in his face every now and then. (laughs)

So you had a goal? You put a number out there and said “I am going to reach that” – did you put a time frame on it or anything?

Yeah! I didn’t write down a timeframe or anything, but in my head, I was like, “In a year, this is going to happen.” I think at that point in my life, I really realized that anything is possible and that the only thing holding me back was myself and my own thoughts about what was possible – because oh my gosh, life really is limitless.

What do you attribute your success to? Was it – did you work harder than someone else, did you just hit the industry at the right time – how did you reach that number?

There’s a lot of components to it, you know, I mean certainly timing was a factor, but there were a lot of people who were trying to – look, I run my business by the golden rule – I treat other people how I would want to be treated, so I get a lot of repeat business because of that. I also believe there is a principle at work where the more you give, the more flows back to you. You are not living in an attitude of scarcity. I just give, give, give. If somebody needs something, I try to help meet that need. I donate to things, and I just really think that that’s a huge part of why this has been successful. I mean, I do work hard, but I’m not trying to be here 16 hours a day without sleeping. Also, I’m good at search engine optimization, so that helps, too.

Michelle G Vinyl | Coastal Business

How did you learn the SEO piece?

I learned that when I was a freelance writer. A long time ago, I was using a platform where you could write your own articles and you would get paid a portion of the ad revenue for clicks and stuff like that. That’s the point when I learned that first of all, I needed to write about things that people were looking for, and then to tag it with search engine terms that people are searching for alongside using those keywords in my text. I basically just carried that over into Etsy. I would research what people were looking for and try to find out what people wanted. My customers would tell me what they wanted, too, since I was doing custom work. That alone has really been helpful.

Do you have any issues with getting everything done in a day? Do you have the staffing that you need, and are you able to accomplish everything that you set out to accomplish?

Yes – I mean, I guess that’s the thing about working at home, if it’s a really nice day, I might just go take the dog for a walk, (laughs) but I love working for myself. The thing I’m struggling with right now is that I recently made my company into an S corporation for tax reasons and I had to get even more serious about my accounting than I had been because my order volume has increased a lot – and by the way, [Coastal sales rep] Cheryl just saved my butt over Christmas. She helped me place a huge order in time to have it go through before the new year. But to answer your question – stuff like accounting is such a time suck because I have to teach myself.

What other tools and software do you use? You’ve got QuickBooks as an accounting software, you’ve got Adobe for your graphic designing, what other kinds of systems are you using?

I’ve got the whole Adobe Suite, and I love Evernote. That’s just the coolest app ever. I keep everything on there, all my ideas, to do lists, grocery lists, my everything. I also utilize several browsers so I can log into all three of my Etsy stores without having to re-login each time.

How did you find Coastal?

Google. You guys have fast shipping, you have free shipping, you have great customer service, you guys are killing it compared to your competition. You have Cheryl. (laughs) She’s so patient with me! I don’t even pretend like I’m a true professional, my learning curve is still going on. I know sometimes I have dumb questions, and she’s just real patient with me.

Do you have plans for 2019? Where do you think you’re going to go? Do you have another number in mind you want to hit?

Not really – at this point what I’m trying to do is just continue to provide employment, and I would love it if my business increased to the point where I can provide employment for even more people and ultimately get the business out of my house. What has happened – okay, two years ago, we had grown so much that I bought the house across the street to support my inventory and I moved everything over there. That worked out beautifully. Then my son, the one who had the health problems and everything, he called and said he wanted to move back home with his wife. Given that whole situation, I just moved it all back into my house and gave them the house across the street. (laughs) Now I just want it out of my house, so it would be great if it would grow just enough to move it out and then we’ll see about hiring more people.

Would you ever open up a storefront for local walk-in traffic?

Absolutely! I have been looking for a downtown store for a while now. I live in the oldest town in Texas, and we have the cutest downtown with brick streets, and we get a lot of tourists traffic. I really want to do that and that’s why I’m still in my house, because I do not just want to move to a strip mall place. I want it to be in the cool part of downtown. Even if the walk-in traffic only pays for the rent, that would be okay because I just need to get out of this house.

Okay, last question – if you had advice for anyone that’s starting out, what would that be?

Absolutely believe that what they’re doing is possible – to do their own original work because they uniquely have something to offer. Never be shy about giving to others or even helping others. If somebody messages me on Etsy and they are like, “You know, I really like what you’re doing. This is my artwork and here’s a link to my store and I’d really like to learn how to put this on mugs, can you give me some guidance?”, I’ll tell them how to do it. You know, I’ll tell them which printer I bought and that kind of thing. I’m not shy about giving advice to people or really scared about competition, but I am scared of people just copying my exact designs. If they are doing something unique to them though, I’m going to help them, and I feel like it goes back to that attitude of scarcity. If you’re like, “I don’t want to help anybody else sell mugs because I want to be the only one” – look, there’s enough business for everybody, there really is. There’s something like seven billion people in this world. Find your niche. Don’t come at things with an attitude of scarcity or you’ll box yourself in. I really believe what you put out there is what you get back.