I’m scared about the future of my business.
Switching from Ebay to Artfire is a big part of this. While sales have lacked for months on Ebay, I was comfortable there. It’s familiar. Artfire looks great and the fees are so much better than Ebay, but it’s a young site and doesn’t have the traffic and popularity of Ebay. Losing that traffic (even if it wasn’t resulting in sales) is scary. I’m going to have to put more work into promoting and I really don’t know how to do that. Rather, I do know some ways, but lack the opportunity/money/ability to do them.
And then there’s money. I don’t have much. I’ve just barely had the sales to cover my Ebay fees and for a few months I’ll have dual fees (Ebay and Artfire Pro account). Speaking of Artfire’s pro account, due to their recently announced fee hike, I’ll need to go pro a month sooner than I had planned to lock in a lower rate. I’ve got the funds to cover this month’s Ebay fees and a month of Artfire Pro, but that’s about it unless I get some sales.
And that means I have no money for supplies and possibly won’t be able to cover fees after this month. I’ll be able to take a bit from our tax refund but that’s going to a desperately needed purchase of clay. (I’ve been out of translucent for months). I’ve been self-supporting (meaning paying for my own expenses, fees, taxes, etc as well as supplies) for over 5 years so losing that ability is devastating mentally. Not to mention that our household funds can’t really afford to support me either.
So I’m sitting here, trying to think of alternatives, ways to make this work, how to increase sales and honestly, I’m not coming up with anything. But closing the whole thing down isn’t appealing either. I’ll still create. I can’t imagine not creating. But without the business to raise money for supplies, eventually I’ll run out and then I’ll be completely out of luck (not to mention, overflowing with creations taking up space).
Sorry to be so depressing but I needed to vent. If you’ve got suggestions or ideas I’d love to hear them.
Dystini - Polymer Clay 