Grand Opening

So finally, on December 11 2007, I opened my shop at http://jenhintz.etsy.com, selling my handmade knit and crochet items. It took nine days before I made my first sale.
Then it took about 3 hours after than for me to make my second sale.
Then I made two more sales the next day.
Then two sales and a trade with another merchant the next day.

So in the space of a few days, I went from "gee, I hope I sell one or two things before the end of the year" to "sweet merciful crap, I'm gonna run out of inventory"! Someone posted a thread in the Etsy forum recently asking people if they were apprehensive about success. Apprehensive? Nah. Stunned with occasional maniacal laughter and waves of sheer panic? Absolutely, approximately every six minutes.

I can't complain, though. It's been a few years since I was able to work a regular job, so I've had no income and have had to depend on my parents for everything in the meantime... and with my medical bills, that's no small thing. This week of sales isn't enough to support me completely, but it's a huge improvement, and every little bit helps. I can't thank my customers and the other Etsians enough for giving me the chance to do what I love and actually make a buck at it here and there.

But to make those bucks, I need inventory! I've been trying to get things made, but this panic has got me starting a project, thinking about another one I could probably get whipped up and posted quick, and then once I'm working on that, having another idea. So I wound up with about three dozen balls of yarn and projects in various stages of progress heaped on the couch, and getting exactly nowhere. I finally got a few things finished today, and hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get them photographed and listed for sale, and then knock out a few more projects. Being able to keep enough inventory on hand was one of my worries when I was getting ready to start selling on Etsy, and in a way I wasn't worried enough. But I'm pretty sure things are calming down a bit now with the holiday madness being over, and things will settle into a steady pace now. I ought to be able to keep up just fine as long as I don't panic. Maybe I should knit some pillows shaped like Valium...