How IndigoInkBoutique 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’m Laura Szymanski, owner and founder of Indigo Ink Boutique, an Etsy shop that provides downloadable, digital, and printable files. I create distinctive designs infused with unforgettable elegance and joyful color. Everything is considered, from the smallest details to the most impactful WOW-factor elements. I create the most memorable designs for all of your occasions.
My shop specializes in stylish and colorful invitations, party accessories, and art prints that help celebrate life. I believe that every moment should be celebrated, from the smallest moments to the biggest events. So, why not celebrate them all? Birthday parties, graduation parties, holidays, tooth fairy notes, or Santa letters—whatever the occasion, I want to help make it unforgettable.
Indigo Ink Boutique is a design studio founded by my passion for parties and all the little touches that make each one extraordinary. For over 15 years, I have honed my creative expertise in all aspects of design and marketing. During my last position, I spent 8 years at one of the largest craft companies, soaking up all things party, craft, and design. When I left the corporate world to become a stay-at-home mom 12 years ago, I found myself designing not only all of my daughter's birthday invitations and party accessories, but also lunchbox notes, class party printables, and wall art—I was designing something every other week.One day back in 2016, I was designing Easter water bottle labels for my daughter’s kindergarten class and had that light bulb moment of "why don’t I just open my own little shop for printables?" It was so obvious in that moment that I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it sooner, hence the creation of Indigo Ink Boutique.
I had been working part-time for someone else’s startup and decided to listen to all of my friends, who for years had told me I should sell my invitations and party printables. Being a very organized and strategic type of person, I made the decision that I would take a year to research what it takes to start your own business, how to run an Etsy shop, and make sure it was even something doable. I read tons of books and blog articles. Every day, while exercising or cooking dinner, I listened to YouTube tutorials and podcasts on everything about running your own business. I also researched 40+ Etsy shops and what they did. While doing all this research, I struggled with why I should even bother opening a shop when there was so much competition in the digital printable world on Etsy. I came across this quote in another Etsy shop: "A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it." "It just blooms!" and it really resonated with me—yes, there are lots of shops, but why couldn’t I also play in the game? I have my own style, and maybe customers would like what I have to offer. I had to remind myself, and I still do, to stop thinking about other shops and concentrate on my own ideas and designs.And this was proven to me by watching one of my prints sell. There are over 200 designs of the quote "Give a Girl the Right Shoes, She Can Conquer the World" on Etsy, and in less than 6 months, my design has sold over 15 times! Just because someone else has a printables shop and sells the same quote as I do does not mean mine will not sell as well. So go ahead and bloom!
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 in my shop are all custom orders for clients. After a full year of researching and designing, I opened my shop with 30 designs in my Inspirational Collection and 20 designs in my Fashionista Collection. For two weeks, nothing sold, but I kept designing. Ten days after I sold my first printable, I received a custom order asking if I could create a personalized handwriting worksheet set. Getting my first custom order was scary, as I did not want to disappoint a client so early in opening my new shop. I had not even turned on my "Custom Design" button in my shop as I was afraid of doing anything custom! Now I have over 30 different themes of my personalized handwriting sets in my shop, and they are my number-one best sellers. All because I listened to a client and gave her what she wanted! This was not the last time this happened—many of my designs in my shop are there because they were custom orders, and after designing them for a client, I then also offered them in my store! It’s like I have my own marketing research group at my fingertips!
Another two favorite printables in my shop that I love were also custom orders at first: my Let’s Get Lit instant download tag and my instant download Christmas letter. Both of these items plus some of my Santa letters started selling right after Halloween, which is always a shock to me that people buy them so early in the season.
With almost 900 items in my shop, it is difficult to choose my favorite! I would say my other favorites are my New Year’s Eve cupcake toppers and my printable monthly calendars. The calendars were also a custom order, and I would never have thought they would sell because you can just go out and buy a paper calendar and hang it on your wall. But they sell like hotcakes! I have 16 items in the collection and have sold over 1,200 of them in less than 2 years. They may be the lowest priced items in my shop, but selling hundreds of them makes them seem mighty!
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 received my first sale 15 days after opening my Etsy shop. Lots of my clients find my shop through Pinterest, Etsy Ads, and Etsy Search. Many of my customers come to my shop through referrals from their friends who are customers. Also, 15%–20% of my monthly business comes from return customers, which makes me feel great that they come back to my shop!
Managing IndigoInkBoutique
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?
I started Indigo Ink Boutique on my own and still do everything from the design and photos to social media, copywriting, and SEO. I do have family members help me out with proofreading all of my copy. I also have my tween daughter give her opinions on designs and copy, and she normally creates my reels for social media. It began as a 4-6 hour per day job, but the beauty of digital products is that fulfillment is instantaneous and you never run out of product. Some days my business runs itself, which is great since I now homeschool my daughter and only get 1-3 hours to work on my Etsy shop. But I still have to do any personalized or custom orders, plus social media. I currently only use Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat PDF, Word, Excel, Pinterest, and then social media—Facebook and Instagram.
The future of IndigoInkBoutique
What goals do you have for your shop in the future?
I would like to start an email marketing campaign for Indigo Ink Boutique. I also would love to do more on Pinterest, as I feel like that is where most of my clients come from. With all of the custom orders I have created in the past 5 years, I have over 100 new designs that also need to be added to my shop. I really wish I had more time so I could create collections; I also love designing collections instead of one-off designs.
Advice for new sellers
What’s your advice for a new seller starting an Etsy shop?
I have six pieces of advice for new sellers on Etsy. One: Do your research before opening your shop. Find out what other successful shops in your niche are doing, but remember that just because others are doing what you do doesn’t mean you don’t have something to offer also. After the research period, stop thinking about other shops and focus on your own ideas and designs.
Two: listen to your clients! Sometimes your clients have the best ideas for products to put in your shop. It’s like having your own marketing research team at your fingertips, which is priceless.
Three: You will do things that are new and sometimes uncomfortable. When I started a new business, I knew I would be learning and doing tons of new things. What I did not think would happen was that any of it would make me feel uncomfortable. While I enjoy 90% of what I do, including running my own online shop, I have never felt comfortable networking or selling.I do like to market, as this is my background, but marketing has changed so much in the past 10 years, with social media being a big part of any business's marketing plan. So I had to delve into the online social media world. I loved being on Pinterest, but Pinterest is a search engine, not social media, so I really did not have to interact with anyone—just post pretty pictures! Then I started on Facebook, which was not so bad as I have a personal Facebook page, so I know how it works. But Instagram scared me; I didn’t even have a personal account, and I definitely did not understand it. I still don’t! But I knew that I needed to get on Instagram because that is where all the "cool kids" hang out! So for months, I hemmed and hawed about what to post. And 4 months after I opened my shop, I finally got up the nerve to post my first Instagram post! And then I stressed: would people see my post? Would they like my post? Would I get followers? Would I have enough to post every day? Two months after my first post, I don’t stress as much as I used to, but I still worry I will run out of things to post! I have a weekly schedule to help me out, but it is still uncomfortable, but nobody ever said it would be easy!
Four: You will second guess yourself, and that is ok! Normally, I am a pretty confident person in everything in life that I do; it was the way I was raised. So it is not easy to second-guess myself. After designing my teacher appreciation printables in late April 2017 and having them sell well, I was eager to start some new designs. As the school year came to an end in some states, I looked around to see what other shops were offering for Last Day of School Signs—and everything was black chalkboard signs.I wanted my designs to be different, so I created two types of products. The first was a school memory board with a faux corkboard. When none of them sold in two weeks, I started second-guessing myself and thinking maybe I should offer chalkboard signs, so I also designed the sign with a chalkboard background. The other type of sign I offered was the last day of school sign for each grade, but I created it with a white background and only two sold. I thought my designs were cute and fresh, but I reminded myself that I needed to give the customers what they wanted.
Five: Get the family involved! After my first month of sales, I started a sales map. I printed out a blank map of the United States and had my daughter color it in every time I got a sale from a new state. We even had to include a list of countries where I sold.Also, every time I get a sale, my cell phone makes a noise like a cash register and goes "cha-ching." Not only does my daughter yell "yay" after every "cha-ching," but once in a while my husband gets excited and yells "all right." I also like to get my daughter involved in my designs; why not? Most of my printables are targeted for her age group. When I started a new collection of personalized handwriting worksheets, my daughter would give me suggestions. She asked me to do unicorns, pets, and ballet. She also was a big help in making sure I did not forget a letter in the alphabet on the worksheets! Not only does she feel like she is part of my business, but she is learning that when she grows up she can start a business of her own!
Six: It’s OK to grow slowly! When I started my business, I had no idea if my designs would sell at all or at what rate. I was used to the corporate world, where everything happened at a fast pace. And with my teacher appreciation printables selling so well, I thought I would be able to quit my job and run my business full time in less than 6 months. But this isn’t a race, and I have to remind myself of that. It is okay to grow slowly. It’s also okay for some collections to grow slowly. I designed three different reward charts, and at first I would get only one sale a week from this collection. But after a few weeks, they started selling more, and then I was selling almost one a day, and I would get people emailing me saying they saw my reward charts at their friend’s house and they want to buy one for their children! So again, I remind myself: slow and steady, slow and steady, and that is ok!
Some sellers really get inspired by hearing numbers. Feel free to share these if you like.
Question: How much is your monthly revenue?
Answer: Varies depending on the month & holidays but anywhere from $1,000 - $4,500
Question: What is your shop’s conversion rate?
Answer: 3.16%
IndigoInkBoutique
Party Printables and Art Prints | IndigoInkBoutique.com
