Etsy Seller Interview with Clare of OkayDoodle

How OkayDoodle 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, my name is Clare, and my shop is called Okay Doodle. I sell cute stickers and stationery with a self-kindness message. Okay, Doodle, was born from therapy. I learned a technique whilst attending CBT, which was to release your thoughts creatively; most people choose to do this by writing them in a journal or diary, but for me, this came out in doodles on my iPad. I design everything I create myself on my iPad and then turn those doodles into physical goodies either in my at-home studio or with the help of manufacturers. Etsy was the first platform I picked to sell on back in 2019. I feel like it’s a great platform for beginners as it drives traffic to your listings and is easy to use.

Favorite items

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

My favorite items to sell are stickers. I think they are a great pick-me-up and a lovely, colorful way to brighten up your water bottle, laptop, or daily planner. I personally love my rainbow washi tape, and I can buy myself stickers, decals, and this self-love sticker sheet.

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?

My first sale came from Instagram, and I think it’s important to try and create a community online if you can. I share my art on Instagram (@okay_doodle) daily, and people resonate with my mental health experiences, which is a unique selling point when it comes to turning that art into products. Etsy also has great marketing tools that help attract customers. I like the abandoned cart feature and that I can add a returning customer discount code to my packing notes.

Managing OkayDoodle

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 am lucky to have a small at-home studio space that houses everything I need to run my business for now, and my best friend Jodie volunteers a few times a week with me. We work well together as we have known each other our whole lives; she has a keen eye for photography and loves packing orders, and I thrive on designing and making everything.

Some of the things I couldn’t run my business without include:

My iPad, Apple Pencil, and Procreate App I am a digital artist, and these items are the backbone of my whole business.
My silhouette cutters and my printers—I make all my stickers in house with these machines.
QuickBooks Online: QBO makes accounting easy for me; everything is online and quick, and there is ALWAYS help when I need it.
Royal Mail Click & Drop: For shipping and fulfillment, it’s my go-to. It integrates both Etsy and my website, so I don’t miss a trick.
Adobe Photoshop: For all the editing that I can’t do on Procreate, I do it here, and editing photographs easily and really quickly (thank you presets!)
Canva is honestly worth its weight in gold. I design all my online graphics here, including banners, templates for social media, my website, Etsy mock-ups, and all my PDF worksheets for sale or my Patreon page. It's all done here.

The future of OkayDoodle

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

I recently rebranded my shop, so the future for me will be building on my stock of washi tapes, stickers, and stationery so I can slot into the planner community with ease and build on a digital side too. I adore creating worksheets and planning materials for people, and I hope to bring more of that into my shop in the future. I also really hope to stock physical stores one day!

Advice for new sellers

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

My advice would be to know your market and niche as well as you can, research SEO (search engine optimization) and keywords as it will help you go far, and remember to have fun with your business. It's very easy to get lost in information and become overwhelmed, but you really just need to believe in yourself and your product and have the patience that everything will work out.