Etsy Seller Interview with Alyce of Doodlepeople

How Doodlepeople 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?

My shop is called Doodlepeople (although I do run another, called Beyond Indigo where I sell handmade watercolor paints and I’ll say, starting your second store and getting it going well is a lot quicker and easier than the first time!).

So, I began selling on Etsy after I graduated from a Forensic Anthropology Master’s degree and got a job teaching. I love forensic anthropology, but I really didn’t get on with teaching, so I quit after only three months. The reason? I was so tired and stressed from work every day that when I got home, I didn’t have the energy to draw. This crushed me. So, I quit.

This was in December of 2016. It took me a long time to work out what I was doing. I was selling art prints, but they didn’t move that well. In July 2017, I bought my first badge machine and realized that I wanted to make wearable art. I still sell prints, but most of my work is apparel and accessories!

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 currently are actually a hark back to my beginnings, and these are my Mixed Media Prints – but they are brand new, so haven’t sold any yet! Other than those, I think my Hello Pins and my Conversation Pins are my favorite. These are more general “sections” of my store that are my favorite, rather than specific items, because there are so, so many designs. 

Advocacy is very important to me and it is at the core of what I do with Doodlepeople, so providing representation for underrepresented groups is very close to my heart (even if they may only ever sell once or twice–that isn’t the core of it for me, although of course I do have to make a living haha).

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 opened my Etsy shop on the 19th of December 2016, and my first sale was in January of 2017 (on the 5th, I believe!)

The sale was for some prints to a friend of mine. I can’t remember when my first “non-friend” sale was, but I do believe it was in January, if I recall correctly. 

Etsy’s search engine optimization tools were not as good as they are now, and my own grasp of SEO was definitely not as good back then.

I actually don’t do anything specific to attract customers to my Etsy shop. I don’t run ads and I don’t post that often on social media. That said, I’ve been running this business for nearly six years and have honed my SEO, so I think it’s mostly the marketplace itself and the search engine optimization I’ve done that gets me my sales. I also have a lot of repeat customers and good word of mouth, so that helps too!

Managing Doodlepeople

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 really is as simple as “It is all just me”. I do everything. I don’t use any apps and tools. I have ADHD, so sometimes that can be difficult and overwhelming, but I also have OCD and anxiety and I’m autistic, so I have a strong need to be in control.

I do have help from my mum. Occasionally, she’ll come up and visit to help me cut the picture inserts for my badges (she finds it therapeutic, apparently–can’t relate, myself!)

Shipping and fulfillment is the biggest part of my day, most days. I ship three times a week on the days my son is at nursery. I tend to try and fulfill badges in bulk at the beginning of the week, as it is more efficient to make them all together.

It’s important to note that everything is made to order in house at Doodlepeople. I don’t keep stock of anything with the singular exception being my enamel pins. So, other than maybe making two patches at the time when I make patches, there is nothing ready to ship. I press every badge, run every patch on my own embroidery machine, cut the vinyl for and press every t-shirt and tote bag. 

Everything is done by my own two hands. I’m honestly hard pressed to even let my mum near my badge machines–again, it’s the need to be in control of it all.

The future of Doodlepeople

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

Right now, I’m in a maintenance phase with my shop. Although it’s my full-time job and my main income, I’m currently just keeping it ticking over. The reason for this is that I only strictly work three days a week. My son is three and goes to nursery three days a week, but from January, I will be upping his nursery days to four and a half days a week. At this time, I will begin trying to grow Doodlepeople as I will be able to dedicate more time. 

A goal of mine has always been to earn enough that my husband can quit his job and work for me part time, and do what he wants the other part of the time - his support, both emotionally and financially, when I started my self-employment journey was invaluable and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without him. I get to do what I love every day, so I’d like to be able to give that back to him.

Advice for new sellers

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

Make sure you are familiar with the fee structure and price accordingly. Don’t undersell yourself - it hurts all of us if you do, because people expect handmade cheaper from all of us. 

Become familiar with how Etsy’s search engine works and how you can hone your keywords, titles and descriptions to make the best of their SEO (search engine optimization). This is how people find your shop! 

Take good photos (you only need a nice background and natural light and your phone camera will likely do the trick!).

And I’ll leave you with some advice from my dad (who runs his own business too, and very successfully, I’ll say!):

Keep going! I know it feels like you aren’t getting anything back, but you’re wrong. You are. You just have not seen it. But it’s there, waiting for you and it’s yours for the taking. But, only those who REFUSE to give up get there. I am one of those few people.‍