I recently joined a local Etsy Team (Lincoln Handmade) and as a group we offer a nice a variety of handmade products. I can’t tell you how glad I am that I joined and how helpful and rewarding I think it will be. Last night I attended my first team meeting. We talked about upcoming craft shows and markets and will be entering many of them as a group. This drastically reduces the labor and cost of these events when it’s shared by the collective. At each monthly meeting, two team members volunteer to have their Etsy shops critiqued. This can be painful but oh so very enlightening. It really is a good idea to see your shop through several pairs of eyes - each with different criteria for what attracts them and what turns them off. Extra eyes can catch mistakes in grammar and spelling and anything they find technically off too. One team member was lucky enough to be in New York City this week instead of at our meeting. She visited the Etsy Labs while she was there and I’m very excited to hear about her experience on her return.

If you have an Etsy shop and you haven’t joined a local team yet, I strongly urge you to do so. If you can’t find a local team to join, then start one! Online groups are great, but if you sell more of your products locally - or want to - an online group won’t have as much to offer as a local group will. More importantly, if you work from home it’s easy to become isolated. Joining a local group gives you the opportunity to hang out with like-minded people that share your goals and are interested in helping you reach them.

If you have a minute - please visit our Lincoln Handmade Etsy Group.

Find more Info on Etsy Teams here.