Etsy Seller Interview with Cassie of HunnyBooPrintables

How HunnyBooPrintables 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?

I began selling on Etsy with a shop where I made handmade rustic items. I built that business up to $10K a month, but I was completely exhausted from making all of the products. I found myself working 14–16 hours a day, and that just wasn’t the life I wanted to live. I started looking for ways to make passive income and stumbled upon printables. It was a rocky road in the beginning, trying to figure out how to make them and what people actually wanted to buy. I started trying to design with Adobe Elements, but it was way too technical. So I switched to Canva for designing my printables. Once I got a feel for it, I realized how much I loved it! I also have a blog where I make a ton of free printables for my audience. It’s become my passion.

Favorite items

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

One of my favorite items in my shop is my ugly sweater party set. It has an ugly sweater party invite, voting cards, a sign, an award certificate, and goodie bag toppers. I love ugly sweater parties. So this was a fun set for me to create. I had a smaller set with just the voting set in my shop, and it was selling well, so I decided to expand it and add the invites and bag toppers to it. This one hasn’t gained momentum yet, but I’m hoping that with proper SEO in place, it will this holiday season.

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?

It took me a little over 2 months to get my first sale. In all honesty, I don’t really promote my Etsy shop. I sell the same printables in my own Shopify store. So I send customers from my blog to Shopify rather than Etsy. I kind of just take the traffic Etsy sends to my shop and don’t put too much effort into marketing it (which is not the best strategy if you’re trying to build your Etsy shop).

Managing HunnyBooPrintables

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?

I run my shop all on my own. I use Canva to make my printables and templates. For most of my photos, I just use Canva and make mockups, but for some, I take actual photos with my phone. I don’t have any shipping to deal with in this shop because they’re instant downloads, and I absolutely love that! No packages getting lost in the mail!

The future of HunnyBooPrintables

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

During Halloween and Christmas, my shop gets up to about $3K a month. I would love to have this be my baseline for each and every month. I have a blog and two YouTube channels. So the printable shop is a side income for me that I’m putting into investments for when I retire (which will probably never be because I love online business!)

Advice for new sellers

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

For anyone wanting to start an Etsy shop, my biggest piece of advice would be to really think about what you want to make. It needs to be something you really enjoy, or you’ll lose interest very quickly. Also, do you want to physically make things day in and day out, or do you want it to be passive income where you make it once and it sells over and over? Decide who you want to make products for. That’s the most important. Your shop should target one particular type of customer to get them to buy multiple items and keep them coming back for more.