Etsy Seller Interview with Faye, Dan and Noah of HappyPlacePrint

How HappyPlacePrint 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?

Two years ago, during lockdown, we missed traveling and decided to put up some of our photographs of our "happy places" around our home. We used the photographs that Dan had taken on our travels and turned some of them into watercolors. We had the idea that if we could bring other people’s happy places into their homes to bring back good memories, we would launch Happy Place Print on Etsy. All of our prints are made using our very own photographs, making them unique to us. Since we started two years ago, we have expanded to include our prints on other products such as phone cases, mugs, calendars, and notebooks.

Favorite items

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

We have prints from a range of places around the world. We love our watercolor calendar, as a lot of time and effort went into it, and they are all handmade to order. We also love creating custom prints for our customers, as we know what a special gift this is for someone. Our "4 Parks" print is very popular as it shows all four Disney parks in one image, and finally, the Florence watercolor print brings back such lovely memories and lets you remember the time and moment Dan took this photograph.

Our custom prints

Our 2023 watercolor calendar

Our Four Parks print

Florence

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?

We launched at around 6 p.m. on opening night, with 10 sheets of card and 10 envelopes. My words to Dan were, "If we sell 10 in a month, that would be amazing." Within an hour, we had sold 15!!! The next morning I was waiting outside HobbyCraft for the shop to open, as we needed so much more stock! To attract customers, we are very active on social media and upload every day. We have Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter, and Facebook, and I would say Instagram is our most successful at the moment.

Managing HappyPlacePrint

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?

Two years ago, I (Faye) was a primary school teacher and had been for 12 years. We had our son Noah, and Happy Place Print took off. I couldn't manage the shop, teaching, and Noah, so we had to make a brave decision. Either Happy Place Print would close or I would leave teaching. So I decided to leave teaching, which was 18 months ago now, and I couldn’t be happier (especially as baby number 2 is on the way). Sure, my hours are quite unusual, having to work late in the evenings and never really getting a day off, but I love it, and it has given me time to spend with Noah, which teaching couldn’t give me. Dan works full time, so he is there to support the shop when he can and is the one responsible for taking all of the photographs! Believe it or not, Noah helps with packaging and posting.

We use Etsy, have our own website created with Wix, and use Quickbooks to keep track of all of our accounts.

We handle shipping and fulfillment by being super organized and keeping on top of stock. We use "Click and Drop," which makes mailing extremely simple. 

The future of HappyPlacePrint

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

Year on year, our sales are going up, so we couldn’t ask for anything more. We would like to keep expanding by offering different products and more prints. I would love to continue to have Happy Place Print as my job because right now it works for our family, and going back to teaching wouldn’t at this stage.

Advice for new sellers

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

Focus on what you are doing. Too many small businesses think about what everyone else is doing. I made sure that when we started, I decided on a target to meet each week, and we have never once not met it, so if that’s all we need to do, then it doesn’t matter if so-and-so is doing more or less. I would also say, "Just go for it!" You never know what could happen.