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I have been so excited about today’s episode because we have the sweetest lady coming on the show today. Courtney Mize and I actually met over social media way back, like two years ago, maybe even more. We started this social media friendship, and then she walked through some things and I invited her on the show to share her testimony. It’s back in episode #27, way back at the beginning of the podcast…you should definitely check it out if you have not done so.
Courtney is incredible. She’s just a doll and she’s full of joy. She’s a wife, she is a mama to the most adorable little baby boy, Walker, with another one on the way. She’s also the owner of a new Etsy shop, The Littlest Biscuit, which is what we’re going be talking about today. Courtney loves creativity and she loves being able to combine her creative skills, and her digital marketing expertise with being at home with her son. And when she’s not working on her small shop, she loves being with her family, traveling, and enjoying a cozy cup of coffee. So we’re basically soul sisters the way I see it.
A lot has happened since we last heard from Courtney. When we first connected back in 2020, she had just had a miscarriage. It was her first pregnancy and since then, they moved to Florida for her husband’s job, which was around the time that COVID started. They stayed in Florida for a year and then ended up getting pregnant with their son, Walker and moved back to Arkansas. Both Courtney and her husband were working remotely and had the flexibility to move and they were ready to be back home and closer to family. Courtney tells us that Walker is almost 18 months now and he has just been the greatest joy and blessing! And as we mentioned, she is pregnant with baby #2! They have another baby boy on the way and as she says, it’s just been a wild ride for them over the past couple of years.
You guys you have to go follow Courtney on social because she’s just the cutest thing I swear. I just love hearing her story and how they have been blessed. They have experienced trials to testimony and the goodness of God throughout her whole story. It just it makes me smile. It’s heartwarming.
The Etsy Adventure
Now, to add to the adventure, Courtney launched her Etsy shop and I was so excited for her to share her story around that!
Courtney shares that she lost her job unexpectedly in September of 2022. It was a contract position so she always knew that it was a possibility but she had been with the company for several years at that point. So that was definitely a little bit of a shock to them. And so at that point, her husband also worked full time, but she just kind of instantly went into thinking about what she was going to do because they had never been a one-income family. Courtney says that thankfully, her husband does have a really great job and the Lord has just blessed him and his career and so she wasn’t in a rush to have to go get another full time corporate job or something like that. But she didn’t want to just do nothing either because it would be a huge jump for them to go from two full-time incomes down to one. Plus, because she has been working remotely with her previous job, she was able to be home with her son and that was just something that was always been really important to Courtney and her husband, but especially now that he’s getting older. Courtney shares that it is definitely something that’s a priority to her family is that she has the flexibility to be home and especially when he’s this little and they’re going to have another one on the way.
Courtney interviewed for positions, everything from corporate jobs to contract work for other people, and some marketing things. She took a three month contract to kind of get through the end of the year in marketing, which was really great experience. But during that time, she also started her Etsy store, because that’s something you can do from home. She had kind of kicked around the idea of Etsy before and just had never really decided to do it or dive into it. And so this whole experience was a big part of what launched her into going for it.
The Littlest Biscuit
Her Son’s first birthday was in September, so kind of right around the same time that she lost her job. Courtney shares that they always called Walker their little biscuit, because he was just a chunk and the sweetest, happiest, and truly just a sweet-natured boy. And Courtney’s sister offered the idea of her doing a biscuit party for her son’s birthday. She was all on board but also knew that a biscuit party was not really a theme. So she made pretty much all of the decorations for his party, the milestone banner, a poster with all these different little facts about him, goodie bags, etc….everything you think of for a first birthday party. But like she said, biscuit decorations are not a thing so she says she really had to crank up the creative juices and get all that put together, which is what she loves doing. Courtney says it turned out so cute and it was everything she wanted for his first birthday. And so that, aside from her job situation, was the big piece that led her to launching her Etsy shop.
Courtney shares that she was kind-of on the fence about it and mentioned that she has a really difficult time starting new things if she doesn’t feel 100% confident that she’s going to execute it. She kept have doubts and hesitations but her husband was a great encourager and really helped push her to just try it. He said to her, “The enemy wants you to believe these negative things about yourself and they’re simply not true, so just go for it. No harm, no foul.”
Everything Courtney said, I know so many of us, especially as women, really, really relate to being scared to start and afraid to fail. Sometimes I think we’re even afraid to succeed. I’ve caught myself feeling that way sometimes. Especially the need to be perfect. Like if I don’t have it all figured out, I’m not even going to start this thing. I admittedly get stuck in that one a lot.
Diving in & Rolling with It
So I had to ask Courtney when she decided to start this Etsy shop, where did she actually begin?
She shares honestly that she really felt like she did not know where to start. She said she felt that as much as she was kind of on the fence and didn’t know if she was going to do it, she definitely felt strongly that if she was going to do it, she had to just dive in immediately, because of the time of year. The last quarter of the year is one of the biggest times in business, for retail anyway. And so Courtney knew that she would be kicking herself if she waited to start until the new year. because I felt more prepared. She mentions that she was really nervous and felt like she didn’t know what she was doing. So, she watched a million YouTube videos and even Tik Tok has tons of Etsy information out there. And obviously, both of those are free. Cassie Johnson on YouTube is great, and then there’s another girl named Heather and Heather Studio is her YouTube channel. And both of them were extremely, extremely informative for Courtney. She spent hours watching videos that they had and so social media was where she started gathering most of her information. She would pull out a notebook and write things down or make notes in her phone when she was watching them. She didn’t just put the videos on while she was washing the dishes and only half listen to them, she really did use that as her source of research because she just felt like if she was going to do it, she didn’t have time to do some month long course, or, wait for X, Y, and Z. She just found the information she had at her fingertips to just roll with it. She says that there is so much good, free information out there if you’re just willing to go look for it. None of us can hide behind the excuse anymore that we don’t know how to do something, because the information that we have at our fingertips is absolutely mind blowing. Honestly, it’s the easiest time in the entire world to do just about anything you want to do, but especially to start a new business.
Now, where do you go from there?
Courtney shares that one thing that everyone says is to pick a niche, so kind of pick your lane of focus and really dive into that. She had a difficult time doing that, because she didn’t feel like she was resonating with any one particular niche at that point in time. She was interested in weddings and is good at party planning but felt like she didn’t want to be stuck in that and felt it was just too oversaturated. So she decided to go with more of a seasonal approach, especially because of the time of year that it was. The phrase that she coined for her store is a “seasonal lifestyle shop”. She felt like that was something that was broad enough that she could create multiple different products and kind of see what sticks and what doesn’t. She tried to just figure out how she could be general, but with some level of specificity.
Then, after that and watching all those videos, Courtney went ahead and set up her Etsy shop. She knew the name of it, she knew what she wanted to do and so she started with that. But she didn’t have any products made, she just knew what she was going to do and started her shop. She also decided to do what’s called Print on Demand, so instead of purchasing inventory, and housing it at her house, she works with a print on demand provider. And so everything that she designs is done digitally. And then essentially, she does the draft and sends that digital design to the print on demand company and kind of works her design into whatever the product is. And then they will manufacture it and ship it directly from their warehouse. So that is also something that she set up pretty immediately, because that was the route that she wanted to go. From there, Courtney says it’s just cranking out your designs and your listings on Etsy. And that’s a little bit more of the day to day of Etsy as she was first starting.
Now, once the orders come into your Etsy store, that’s a big part of the learning process because you can link your Etsy store to a print on demand provider and you have to integrate the two. And then when somebody orders through Etsy, it automatically gets routed to your print on demand provider. Courtney shares that there are several ways to run a shop on Etsy…you obviously can do print on demand or you can print your own products at home, like paper products.
Pricing, Promotion & Etsy Tools
So I want to talk just a little bit about pricing and promotion. Because pricing wise, if you’re using a print on demand company, the pricing is going to be a little bit higher expense for you. So I wanted to find out from Courtney how to build that into your pricing and how to promote and drive traffic to your store.
As far as driving traffic to your store, Courtney shares that consistently posting on Etsy and having multiple listings like that is huge. And that’s one of the biggest things that she heard when she was doing the research that she did. She did not even come up with as many listings as they were suggesting and a lot of people said, make at least 500 listings for Christmas. That just was not something that was feasible for her, especially at that point in time because she didn’t do any work ahead of time. She just dove in and decided to roll with the punches. But it’s similar to any other social media algorithm, the more things you have, the more chance there is that people are going to see those. for example, if you only have five t-shirts, and none of them are specific to what people are looking for, then there’s not as high of a chance that someone’s going to see it. But if you have, you know, 25 or 50 shirts, then there’s a higher chance that someone who’s looking for, you know, a Christmas t-shirt, or a country concert t-shirt, or whatever, that they’re going to find what they’re looking for, because it’s just a numbers game. So consistently adding listings, and having a good variety of listings is really important.
As far as the cost goes, that is the thing with using print on demand. You’re paying for that convenience of not having to buy inventory upfront, stock it, do the shipping and all of that yourself. So it is a little bit of a higher price point. Courtney likes the tool, EverBee, and there’s a paid version and a free version, or at least a free trial. And that was something she came across when she was doing her research in the beginning. It’s great because it allows you to do specific keyword research for Etsy. So you can add it as a Google Chrome extension and it basically allows you to look up different things, and it will show you all the listings that. For example, if you search for women’s Christmas shirts, then it’ll show you the top results for that. And you can see exactly what keywords people are using in their listings that are helping drive traffic, you can see the price points of all the different listings and the actual quantity of how much those stores are selling of that item. And that is really good to use for your marketing research just to know how to fill out your listings, how to include the right keywords and do your SEO, your search engine optimization so that people are finding your items, but also for the price.
Another tool Courtney uses is Canva for design, which has a paid version and a free version. For mock-ups, she actually purchased them from Etsy and then she brings them into Canva and puts her designs on them. For print on demand, she uses Printify and she also has her store integrated with another called Printed Mint that she used when she needed toddler crewneck sweatshirts. But for the most part, she uses Printify and shares that she’s really happy with the quality and the timeliness of that company. And if you sign up with Printify, it will show you the production and shipping time of whatever item you pick so you have really good visibility to that stuff. And then she shares that you can also choose where you want the item to come from based on the best lead time.
One more tool that Courtney uses is called Creative Fabrica, and they have tons and tons of images and graphics and different fonts that you can install and use. You can them as PNG files, which is primarily what she uses for her Etsy store. You can also download SVG files which is what you would use if you want to print something through Cricut, or on vinyl, or onto a mug. But they have a ton of things to choose from.
Courtney prefaces all of this by mentioning something she found in her research which is that it is highly, highly encouraged that if you get something from Creative Fabrica, or Canva Pro, when you use any of the images that they provide, still make it your own, because anyone can just buy something and then paste it on to something else. The whole purpose of having platforms and tools like that is so that you can take something and then make it your own. So for example, don’t touch Disney because it is trademarked. Courtney mentions that you see so many trademark things on Etsy and she’s a part of Facebook groups where people literally get their stores shut down. So it’s definitely not worth it. Just be creative and make it your own, the possibilities are endless and it’s fun.
Learning through Challenges
In talking with Courtney, I wanted to get a really well-rounded picture of this whole process. So I definitely wanted to be sure to ask if she has encountered any big challenges that she’s had to overcome, as well as the important things that she’s learned throughout this process.
Number one, Courtney says, is just really the time that it takes in the beginning, especially when you’re just kind of diving in like she did. She’s been super honest in saying that it was kind of a last minute thing that she didn’t want to miss out on and not capitalize on the time of year that it was. Some people prepare for literally a full year in advance. A lot of times stores on Etsy actually work very similar to how brick-and-mortar retail works. They will work three months ahead of time, so they might already have their Easter stuff done by January 1, or they might have all of their Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff done by August or September. That was not the case for Courtney, and so not only did she feel like there was a big learning curve, she also felt like she had a lot of catching up to do. She points out that she doesn’t say that to discourage anybody from just jumping in and learning as you go. She says that there’s a huge benefit in doing that, and you know yourself better than anyone else and you know what your time is like, but that was something that she just felt like she was really putting in a lot of time at a crazy time of year.
Now, the flip side to that is, if you want to do this to be making money and to have some financial success, you do have to treat it like a business. So you have to dedicate the appropriate time and as a stay-at-home mom, that’s not always in the middle of normal workday hours. Most of the time for Courtney, it was while her son was napping, and then afterwards until ten, eleven, twelve, one o’clock at night. So that was not a deterring challenge, but just part of the difficulties in starting something new.
And then also, Courtney shares that she just didn’t realize everything that goes into actually creating a listing on Etsy. And when she says listing, it’s like if you go to Etsy, and you Google girl’s Valentine’s shirts, and one comes up, and you think that you like it, and you click on it…that’s the listing, that one particular item. And there is so much that goes into that that you would never know as a shopper on it. When you have to actually make them, there are so many fields to fill out. That’s kind of where this marketing piece comes in, of really being intentional and doing your research about what is selling, what’s not selling, keywords to us, price points, things in the description area that you can fill out using the maximum amount of characters, or you can put tags on your items, things like that, that are really just going to optimize your store and your listing to be seen on Etsy and on social media if you share it anywhere else, but it’s very time consuming.
And if you’re using a print on demand provider like Courtney is, the benefit of that and the cost that it does save up front by not having to front a lot of inventory is worth it to her, but you kind of have to work on the listing between the two. You still have to make everything in Canva, upload it to Printify or your print on demand provider and everything has to be sized appropriately and just some specific digital things that are required. And then you have to select all of your colors and your sizes and your pricing. And then all of that gets put into Etsy and you have to change your thumbnail photos, change your markups, and then fill out all the information that it requires. So that sounds like a mouthful, but once you get the hang of it, it really isn’t that bad.
I love that Courtney really shed light that it is strategic, intentional work, and it is going to take some work. And I remember watching some of her videos early on when she first launched the shop, and she had posted one of her working on the listing. And I was surprised by that, too. Like Courtney shares, you wouldn’t know it if you just shop on Etsy, but there is a full strategy behind it. And that’s what sets it apart from other ways of making money from home to a certain degree.
Everybody’s goals are different, everybody’s intentions are different. So, if you want to start it and don’t really want to put that much time into it, or you feel like you don’t want to learn about this, the marketing and the strategy that can be implemented behind it, and it’s just whatever happens happens, that’s 100%, fine. Etsy is a great place to do that. If you want to start an Etsy with the intention of making X amount of money, or if this is going to be your business, because this really is your passion, then you have all of the opportunity in the world to be strategic and treat it like a real business. Courtney shares that like any business, it’s going to get back to you what you put into it.
Can YOU Start an Etsy Shop?
So how realistic is it to think that pretty much any mom could start an Etsy shop? And what are the startup costs involved?
Courtney shares that the startup costs if you are someone who’s starting and you don’t want to purchase, or you’re not in a position to purchase mock ups or the thumbnail photos and you’re just going to use stock photos or take your own photos, and if you’re not going to be purchasing any tools, or you’re only going to be using free versions/free trials of things, then really, your startup cost can be essentially nothing. Now if you want to use some of the tools and some of the things that we’ve talked about, like Canva Pro, the program EverBee, Printify, the mock ups, and samples, then there’s a little bit of cost involved to that. She says probably in the $100 to $200 range is realistic for starting, especially if you want to use some of these different tools and things that we have talked about.
Now, can any mom do this? Courtney says yes. She truly believes that anybody can start an Etsy store. Etsy is everything under the sun, if you want to do paper products, if you want to do handmade jewelry, if you want to do digital plans to build a chicken coop…you can do anything. So wherever you feel like your interests and creative strengths fall, you can use that on Etsy. She would also say, as we have gathered from her story, you do not have to have everything dialed in. You don’t have to know everything. You don’t have to have years and months of research and planning in the works to be able to start it. And the flip side, you don’t know what you don’t know. So the more information you have, the more beneficial it’s going to be to you. Courtney started with no knowledge and just hit it hard and ran with it fast and furious. And that’s something that worked for her. So whether you’re super prepared, whether you’re not prepared, whether you feel like you’re really techie and good with digital stuff, whether you’re not, she truly believes that it doesn’t matter. Anybody can do this.
I find that so encouraging! And the motto here on the podcast, you guys hear me say this all the time, is You don’t have to have it all figured out to move forward. Just take the one next step and Courtney gave us so many great first steps today. And Etsy is not going anywhere. That’s another thing that I love about this is that Etsy has been around forever. It’s only getting bigger and bigger. I mean, I’ve been shopping it forever and it’s just big and wide and vast. It’s such a great opportunity, and it is there for each and every one of us.
I’m so thankful for Courtney just really opening up her heart and sharing all those insider secrets. She has such a beautiful heart. Be sure to share this episode and run over and check out Courtney’s store!
Connect with Courtney!
- Shop The Littlest Biscuit on Etsy
- Hang out on Instagram at The Littlest Biscuit or on Courtney’s page
- Connect on Facebook
