How A Crafty Concept got started

Introduce your Etsy shop and tell us your story. How did you begin and decide on what to sell on Etsy, and how do you create your products?

Hi! I’m Ashley Stallsworth, the crochet designer and business strategist behind A Crafty Concept.

I started selling crochet pieces back in 2012. I was mostly selling through Facebook, texts, word of mouth, etc. I had friends and family telling me I should open an Etsy shop, but I didn’t feel like my products were good enough to be on Etsy. 

After 4 years of dragging my feet, I finally opened an Etsy shop in 2016. I opened my shop specifically to sell crocheted stuffed animals that I designed. On my first day, I sold out of the 12 animals I had listed! I was so surprised! All of my sales were friends and family (or their friends), but I was still super happy about it. 

I got to work making more stuffies. Then, the messy bun beanie trend hit and everyone wanted messy bun beanies. I designed 3 styles and one of them really took off. People started asking me for the pattern, so I wrote it up and listed it in my Etsy shop even though I had no idea how to write a crochet pattern. About 6 months after that, my beanie went viral - thanks to a random Facebook group!

I started designing more and getting involved in the crochet community. I fell in love with design, crocheters and business. Now that I sell crochet patterns, I have a blog where I release free crochet patterns and a course where I teach crocheters how to build their own business from the ground up.

My passion is helping handmade business owners, specifically crocheters, chase their dreams and reach their goals selling handmade things.

Favorite items

What are your favorite items? What makes these so special? Why do you think these items might be selling well?

My favorite item I’ve ever sold is the beanie that really took my crocheting from a hobby to a business. My Linen Claire Bun Beanie and the pattern to make a Claire Bun Beanie. I have sold almost 4 thousand copies of the pattern, and over 1,400 physical Linen Claire Bun Beanies.

I think that listing did so well, mostly because it went viral in 2017. But I think it went viral because it was SEO optimized, priced right (the person sharing it was an affiliate marketer) and the thumbnail photo was of an absolutely stunning model.

Getting sales on Etsy

How long did it take for you to earn your first sale and how do you currently attract customers to your Etsy shop?  

I sold out of my 12 listings the day I opened my shop. I did a lot leading up to that day though, mostly through social media. I also set it up so the first customer to purchase a new animal got to name it. So, the first person to buy my horse stuffed animal got to name it, the first person to buy my giraffe stuffed animal got to name it. 

This got people really excited and some of the names have really sweet stories. One of my cousins bought the first chicken stuffy and named it the Doxie Chicken after my grand grandmother, because she always raised chickens. 

I don’t remember when I made my first “Etsy stranger” sale. I wanna say it wasn't long after opening though. The person who bought my first giraffe stuffy was a stranger. She named it the Wilson Giraffe, after her future child. They were currently on the adoption waiting list. 

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Years later, she actually reached out to me to send me a pic of her Wilson Giraffe and newly adopted baby. It was very sweet!

Managing A Crafty Concept

How do you manage your shop? Are you running solo or do you have any team members? What tools or services do you use to run your shop and how do you handle fulfillment?

When I first opened my shop, it was just me. Then after my shop went viral, I had to get some help asap. After weeding through a ton of people, I selected 9 women across America to help me make Claire Bun Beanies.

They would send me a box each week, then I would tag them, package them, and ship them out to the customers. My sweet husband even learned to sew on tags, cut out wrap labels and help me package.

I was shipping about 100-150 hats a week!

Now, I’ve switched to solely designing and don’t really sell a lot of finished crochet pieces any more. I have about 10 listings for beanies still up in my shop and will make a couple each winter. I kept one of my original 9 helpers and she helps out if we get a bunch of beanie orders all at once. 

I also sell stickers, planners and journals in my shop now. All designed for crocheters. 

I did drop shipping for a little while. I sold apparel for crocheters. I plan on bringing that back.

Services I use are:

Tailwind- A Pinterest Scheduling Tool.

Trello- To organize content and communicate with my VA’s

Procreate- for designing stickers on my iPad

Canva Pro- For all areas of my business 

Social Curator- For stock photos and social media caption ideas when I’m stuck

Sticker Muel- For professionally printed stickers

Amazon KDP- For printing my planners and notebooks

Zoom- For webinars, meetings with my VA’s and Facebook lives inside my course

The future of A Crafty Concept

What goals do you have for your shop in the future?

I would love to make about 10k a month in my Etsy shop. That’s my big goal. I want to add more digital products and a line of apparel. I would also love to make A Crafty Concept more widely known. Maybe some news coverage, or a big partnership with a yarn company, something like that.

Advice for new sellers

What’s your advice for a new seller starting an Etsy shop?

The best advice I can give new sellers starting out is to pick a niche. Find your ideal customer and serve her well with every product in your shop. Make sure everything you sell raises her quality of life in some way. Speak directly to that person on socials and don’t try to sell all the things to all the people. Narrow down a product line that’s just for one person.

Never stop learning: Listen to podcasts, join webinars, read books, whatever you can do to learn more about how to better run your business, do it. The more you are learning and listening the more motivated you will be to keep going and the better equipped you will be to succeed. 

Don’t be afraid to invest in yourself: If there’s a good course that will teach you something specific and save you 2 years worth of research, invest. If you are spending the majority of your time trying to come up with social media posts or checking emails, invest in a Virtual Assistant. If photography is not your cup of tea and your listing photos are lacking, reach out to a local photographer. If you are overwhelmed with orders, hire someone to help you. The sooner you can invest in help the faster your business will grow. Pro tip- you can always bargain! 

Lastly, stay consistent: Show up consistently on social media. Go to craft shows. Add new (ideal customer specific) products to your shop. Update your branding. Create a monthly (or better yet weekly) newsletter. Serve your customers all year long and meet them where they are each season. Don’t be flakey. Don’t be unreliable. 

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Optional questions

Some sellers really get inspired by hearing numbers. Feel free to share these if you like. 

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Question:

How much is your monthly revenue?

Answer:

Monthly varies quite a bit but I currently make about 30k a year in Etsy revenue. The last quarter is my best quarter. 

Question:

What is your average profit margin?

Answer:

For digital products the only cost is what Etsy takes. For stickers I make a little over a dollar I believe. 

Question:

What is your shop’s conversion rate?

Answer:

So far, for 2022, its 4.3% But that might change as we go into “busy season”.