Etsy Seller Interview with Tash of MrsQuizzes

How MrsQuizzes 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 there, I’m Tash! I’ve owned two shops on Etsy: ASenseOfAwe and MrsQuizzes. I first began selling in May of 2021, after I had quit a day job I was not enjoying. I first heard about Etsy from my cousin, who has had success on the platform. I loved the idea of being my own boss and building a business. I sold personalized scrapbooks and other memorabilia by using a Cricut machine to cut vinyl. It was a fun but time-consuming process, and with my love of travel, it was no longer possible to continue the shop. Although A Sense of Awe is not fully active, I have set up the shop Mrs. Quizzes, which sells digital quizzes and printable games. I’ve always loved doing trivia and quizzes, so making them was just a great next step. I can now create and sell these products while I’m on the move because I don’t have to carry around thousands of scrapbooks with me!

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 products in my shop is the "Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2022 Quiz" because it was so much fun to make; researching events from around the world and creating a kind of ‘best of 2022’ quiz didn’t feel like work. Although the listing was obviously popular around New Year's Eve, it’s still sold throughout 2023. Obviously, there will be a 2023 end-of-year quiz too.

Another personal favorite is the "Unpopular Opinions" game. I created this game where players pick a card from the pile and read the opinion on the card. The players then either agree or disagree with the statement, and whoever has the more unpopular opinion has to do a forfeit (for adults, this could be taking a drink of an alcoholic beverage)! It’s super fun to play and definitely gets conversations and debates going.

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?

For Mrs. Quizzes, I’d obviously had previous experience on Etsy already, so I gained my first sale within less than a week of uploading my first listing. From there, creating a product that I knew would trend—in this case, the 2022 Quiz—would be the quickest way to get off the ground. Since then, I haven’t had as much time to focus on the shop, so sales have been slow because I haven't been creating and working on my listings as much as I would need for sales to pick up. Although it is a shop that sells digital and ‘passive income products, there is constant work needed to maintain consistent views and sales.

Managing MrsQuizzes

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 have run the shops by myself since the beginning, but having a cousin who had experience on the platform was definitely helpful; I probably sent him messages saying "help!" more than I should have in the beginning. I have used a variety of apps to run the store. The main one is Canva because it is so user-friendly and there’s a lot you can create on there; I have also used Powerpoint and Doratoon to create quizzes. Because they are digital products, there’s no need to ship them because they are emailed straight to the customer to download, so it saves a lot of stress and money.

The future of MrsQuizzes

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

In the future, I aim to have created a range of quizzes and games that can be used for a variety of events and holidays. At some point, the products will start selling consistently and will be a great source of income where not much work is required on my part, except for maintaining things like great customer service, of course. At some point, I think I might want to create a physical card game that’s professionally printed too!

Advice for new sellers

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

Make sure that what you’re doing is something you enjoy. People can sense whether you’re passionate about something, and things will sell more. You also need to enjoy the process of creating products and maintaining a shop, because otherwise there’s just no point. Also, create as many listings as you can, even if some are the same products but with different titles or focuses. Having more products listed on Etsy will mean more potential customers will see them, which means more sales. Sometimes, listing a product that starts selling well and ranks high in the search can seem like a potluck, so the more you upload, the higher the chance that this is going to happen.