Hello! In March 2022, I launched my online shop and I have been running it for about a year now! If you are interested in how I started my online small art business and would like to hear about my experience you can continue reading or watch the video below!

When I decided that I wanted to open my own online shop and small art business, I was a bit overwhelmed by the choices and directions I could take. I needed some guidance and I found that there are 5 main questions that I had to answer in order to move forward. Here are those questions:

1 . What am I going to sell?

When I decided that I wanted to open my own online shop, I knew I wanted to sell stationery. I had seen many artists create their own line of stationery products and I was inspired to do something similar. To start off, however, I knew I wanted to start off with something simple and manageable. For me, that meant starting off with stickers. I started out with a handful of designs and overtime I expanded that number as well as the types of products I sell. Currently, I also sell prints, memopads, greeting cards, washi tape and more!

2 . How am I going to obtain my products?

To make stickers, there are 2 ways to obtain products. I could outsource the stickers or I could make them myself at home with a few tools/equipment. To help figure out what approach I wanted to take, I did a cost analysis. I looked into different sticker manufacturers and looked at what the rates were as well as the minimum order quantity (MOQ). I compared these costs to the costs of purchasing the necessary supplies I would need to get started. I also looked for what other sticker sellers were doing. I listed out the pros and cons of the different routes. For example, a pro of outsourcing is that you don’t need to learn how to use a cutting machine and you get a consistent quality. Or, a pro for making them yourself at home would be that you don’t have to think about meeting a MOQ requirment. In the end, I decided that I wanted to manufacturer the stickers myself at home because it had a higher appeal to me. I liked that I could fully control my inventory and make products as I made sales.

3. Where am I going to sell my products?

I knew that I wanted to open my own online shop so the decision I had was whether I wanted to start on an online marketplace like Etsy or to create my own website with Shopify or Squarespace, for example. This was a tricky decision because its “cheaper” to get started on Etsy especially when you’re first starting out and don’t have consistent traffic. Etsy also helps, to some degree, drive potential customers to your shop. Whereas, with your own website, it is up to you to drive your own customers there.

In this stage, I researched what other small business owners were doing and what they recommended. Overwhelming, I found that many suggested to make my own website because the fees on Etsy were a lot and at the time of making my decision, they were about to rise. I was massively off put by the amount of fees Etsy had so I decided to take the risk and make my own website. Additionally,I liked that I could fully customize it and make it completely my own.

4. How am I going to market my products?

I was already posting consistently on social media since October 2021 so naturally my option was to market my shop and products on Instagram and TikTok since I was posting regularly on these platforms. I looked at other artists that were already doing this for ideas on how to do it myself and how often I should market my products. Because I still wanted to grow my own community and didn’t want to seem like I only wanted people to buy from me.

5. How am I going to ship my products?

I was starting fairly small, so initially I only offered stamped letter mail as my shipping option because it was convenient and cheap. However, as I started to do more shop updates and I started offering more than just stickers, I decided to also start offering tracked mail which required figuring out how and where to get shipping labels. To do this, I looked at different shipping platforms and paid attention to what rates they were offering and how good their reviews where. I picked Shippo because they have a free plan and it gets the job done.

In order to get started with my small art business, I need to figure out what it was going to cost me to get things going. Here is I broke down my starting costs into 3 categories:

1 . Equipment

I needed to make some purchases in order to get things going. I already had an iPad that I used to design my stickers. At the time, however, I did not have a printer to print my designs, so I purchased the EPSON ET-2850 because it doesn’t use expensive ink cartridges and instead used super long lasting ink bottles. I’m actually still using the ink that came in the box.

Now, I could have stopped here and used scissors to hand cut my stickers, but I decided that I didn’t want to spend time doing it myself and purchased a Cricut Explore Air 2. It was rated fairly well and works great for me.

2 . Materials/Supplies

As for materials to make stickers, I use sticker paper from Online Labels and the Avery Self-Adhesive Laminating Sheets. I chose to laminate my stickers because I found that the paper alone wasn’t super durable. Another useful but not entirely necessary tool for laminating would be a squeegee. I got mine from Amazon and it just helps with getting rid of air bubbles.

3. Services/Subscriptions

Since I had decided to make my own website, I had to determine which website builder I would like to use. There were 2 options that I was debating. I went back and forth between Squarespace and Shopify. read so many reviews and watched plenty of YouTube videos on which would be best for. I also looked at other artists’ sites and, in the end, I felt like both were equally good options. Ultimately, I went with Squarespace because it seemed slightly more beginner friendly and at the time were having a promotion. It ended up costing me just under $300 for that year.

In total, my starting costs came out to be ~$900. Keep in mind that you don’t need all these items to start. The startup cost to open an online shop differ greatly depending on everything I have already discussed so it’s important to evaluate for yourself how much you are willing to risk and what will be your budget. This was a cost that I felt comfortable with, and I had money saved up for that very purpose.

By this stage, most of the hard decisions had been made and now I was closer than ever to open my shop! I purchased my website in January 2021, and it took me about 1.5 months before I was ready for launch day in March. In that time before opening, I had to design my website, make and photograph all my products, make listings with descriptions and determine pricing.

Designing my website was a bit intimidating at first because it’s a white screen that can be filled with endless possibilities. So, I looked to other artists for inspiration and gained some ideas by looking at their websites. I took note of what pages they had and other parts that I wanted to include on my own. Making my products was the most frustrating process for me. I spent many hours trying to figure out printer settings and I did end up with a lot of wasted paper. I struggled mainly with getting the colors to come out correctly even after reading all the manuals and guides. I read through many forums and even watched plenty of YouTube videos. It was an annoying process but, in the end, I finally figured it out and learned a lot along the way. Once I had finally made my products, I was able to photograph it all and upload to my shop with descriptions and prices. I finally was able to publish my shop and announce its opening to Instagram and TikTok.

As for the manufacturing process I think that I made the right choice of doing it myself because I was able to keep my inventory levels very low and often would print orders as they came in.

Additionally, my style and skill had changed and improved since I opened my shop, and I ended up redesigning all my first designs. I was glad that I hadn’t outsourced a whole bunch of stickers that I would end up not liking or wanting to sell.

Manufacturing my products myself didn’t have a smooth start, however, the learning curve for printing was a massive struggle and I did make many mistakes that could have been avoided. I think in the time that I was trying to learn I should have been a little more patience with the process and maybe I wouldn’t have ended with so much waste.

The biggest lesson that I learned however, is that planning is absolutely essential. For the first few shop updates after my launch, I struggled with meeting my own deadlines. Sometimes I would be taking product photos on the same day that I was having an update and it stressed me out a lot. It wasn’t until July that I finally learned how to use Notion to plan all the details for my shop and I optimized the process as best as I could. Preparation and planning is the best thing you can do for running a business so I will always urge anyone who is interested in starting their own business to get organized and to plan.