Etsy Seller Interview with Ashlee of TinyHumanPrintCo

How TinyHumanPrintCo 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 am the owner and artist of Tiny Human Print Co., creating art prints, wall hangings, and other designs that empower, educate, and celebrate children. I started my Etsy shop in August of 2019 when my son was 16 months old and was consistently calling me the name of his daycare teacher instead of mommy by mistake. I was heartbroken to realize he spent more time with his daycare teacher than he did with me, all because I worked full time. And I actually hated that job and had been trying for several years to pivot my career.

I grew up loving art, was in AP art classes in high school, and always painted something for people as gifts. Painting was my R&R. So one day, as I was rocking my son to sleep in his new room that I hadn’t decorated yet, I was staring at the blank walls and dreaming of what to do with the space, and the idea came to me. I bought his other nursery decor on Etsy as a digital download, so that’s where I started.

I was always an acrylic painter, and I don’t know what inside me said that I needed to switch completely to a digital form, but I bought an iPad and an Apple Pencil and started playing with Procreate. I quickly fell in love with creating again, and I very quickly fell in love with the idea of having this be my way out of the job that I had been trying to get out of.

As I started to get traction with selling art prints as digital downloads, I would get a lot of people asking me if I would be able to print them and ship them to them, so I started to test print-on-demand sites. Then COVID hit, and POD sites weren’t able to fulfill the orders on time. Customers weren’t always understanding of that, and I hated having late orders knowing that the algorithm would ding me for it, so I started working with a local print shop. I ordered an art print from Rifle Paper Co. to see how they packaged their prints and bought the same supplies on Amazon.

As my son got a little older and started to argue with kids at daycare (his cousin, actually), the idea for the Cool Kids Club banner came to mind. My mom is a really good seamstress, so I asked her to sew up a few banners for me, and I worked with a local screen printing company to professionally print the lettering. I’m a creative person, but the idea of then buying a Cricut to do it all myself while this business was still only my spare time gig was not a good use of my limited time. Plus, I wanted it to be really good quality, and I knew screen printing was the way to go.

The banner immediately gained traction, and my mom started to have some health issues. When she wasn’t able to sew for a period of time, I started looking around for plan B. I didn’t think it was smart to be solely reliant on her or to put pressure on her. After analyzing a million options and considering buying a sewing machine myself, I decided to go with a supplier. My dream is to build a big business that empowers kids, and parents were resonating with the messaging of this banner, so I wanted to test out selling the banner wholesale, and going with a supplier was the way to do that.

Favorite items

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

The Cool Kids Club banner is by far my favorite. The purpose of this banner is to promote kindness and inclusivity, and parents are really resonating with it. I’ve had a few parents message me sharing stories of their special needs children creating a space around this and feeling empowered. Other parents have said that now their kids welcome friends by saying, "Let’s go play in the Cool Kids Club!" Each banner comes with "club rules" to help parents start conversations with kids about what this banner means because being cool actually means being kind, welcoming, inclusive, trying your best, and having fun being yourself.

My other favorites are the Ruth Bader Ginsburg collars and the Mermaid Girl Power.

I was 6 weeks postpartum with my daughter when RBG passed. I was a hormonal hot mess breastfeeding her and binge-watching all the documentaries and movies on her. I doodled the entire print while breastfeeding or rocking her as she slept, and I look back now and tear up at that fact. I am so inspired by RBG, and the print has sold really well, and I did it all while breastfeeding and pouring love into the next generation of females. It feels full circle.

The Mermaids Forever Collection was supposed to be a full Under the Sea Collection of boy/girl/gender neutral prints for a cohesive space, but then Roe was overturned. I was honestly shocked and didn’t think that was actually going to happen, so I decided to stick with diverse mermaids holding hands because that’s what women needed at that moment.

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 think it took about 2–3 weeks! I decided to buy an Etsy course to help me get set up, and that was a great way to start. It walked me through how to set up my listings, where and how to add keywords, and how to research the best keywords to use. It also walked me through the analytics side and how to look at the stats of each listing to improve your keywords and descriptions.

Now, I use Etsy Ads, as well as the same approach of researching keywords and looking at my analytics. I also refresh my listings a little bit each quarter to make sure everything is updated with the way my brand is changing, updating keywords, etc.

Managing TinyHumanPrintCo 

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?

It’s just me wearing all the hats. I had a few VAs for about 2–3 years helping me manage all platforms, but I decided to take a step back to give myself room to better analyze everything.

I use ShipStation to manage all shipping for Etsy, Shopify, and Faire. For me, I wanted one central place for all things related to shipping. I could have waited to implement this, but I wanted to build all the foundations first so that when my business truly takes off, I have all the groundwork in place already.

I ship on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and batch everything. I print a pick list from ShipStation and pull all the products, then add labels to the mailers or boxes, then stuff. I have my workstation set up so that once I grab all the products, I can stand in one spot to do everything else.

I will definitely be hiring help this summer for fulfillment. I am now pitching retailers for wholesale, and orders are picking up. I’m realizing how much time it could save me to hire someone for about 5 hours a week just to fulfill orders and help me package up products so that my time can be spent creating more and working on more of the strategic things only I can do.

The future of TinyHumanPrintCo

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

My goal from Day 1 has been to build a big brand. Tiny Human will be the go-to resource for all things kids empowerment. I feel really passionately about teaching kids to believe in themselves, to be kind to one another, and to live boldly by being nothing but their true, authentic selves. I really hope to be an early leader in kids' empowerment. The foundations for self-esteem, self-confidence, self-worth, etc. all start forming at a really early age, and I believe more resources and guidance for parents should be consciously targeted at building those foundations at the earliest age possible. I have a blog for the resource side and will start a podcast tour soon to get my feet wet with what that will look and feel like. I’ll probably have a podcast of my own one day! And continue to design products that make being kind, inclusive, authentic, cool, and trendy, because it’s so important, and our mental health starts in our childhood.

Advice for new sellers

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

Don’t be afraid to invest in yourself. Buy courses to help you fast-track how to do things, and join groups with other entrepreneurs. Those two things alone have been complete game changers for my business, but you have to keep your head down and actually do the work. Don’t just listen to these courses or chat with other business owners. Learn and implement. Learn and implement.

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

Question: How much is your monthly revenue?
Answer: About $4,000/month

Question: What is your average profit margin?
Answer: 70%

Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: Usually around 2%