We recently connected with Amy Loyd-Williams and have shared our conversation below.
Amy, appreciate you joining us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?
This question means a lot to me as a disabled person. This is kind of my only option for employment that is accessible for me at this moment in time. I struggle with the idea of having a “normal” job almost daily. Doing small tasks can really help me figure out how much I really am capable of doing, so running my own small business is the perfect opportunity for that. While I know that if I was able bodied I would most likely be doing a very different job, and maybe I even would have gone to college, I feel like this really is the perfect job for me. Being able to make my own schedule, have complete control over the supplies I use (mainly sourced from recycled materials or other small businesses), and being incredibly proud of the things I create and the connections I make with customers are all some of the most gratifying things I’ve ever experienced. While I am very grateful for all of these things, it does come with its challenges. I often mourn the fact that I don’t have the choice between running my own business and having a “regular” job, but I feel very lucky that I have the skills and people around me to have the opportunity to have a business of my own.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Scully’s Stuff is a Non-Binary and Disabled owned business run off of Etsy. We sell handmade earrings, scrunchies, machine and hand embroidered pieces and patches, as well as hand embroidered mini embroidery hoop earrings! A lot of our materials are recycled items or incorporates items bought from other small businesses. As a kid, I used to make necklaces and bracelets all the time because my babysitter used it as a way to keep me occupied. I have been into very VERY many crafts over the years, but earrings stuck. It started with some clay studs I would make to match with my Disneybounds or holiday outfits, but a couple years ago it became more than that. In 2020, I didn’t have much to do because of the pandemic since I couldn’t leave the house and I’m Disabled, so I couldn’t have a job. One day around August of 2020 I decided, seemingly out of the blue, that I wanted to make myself a pair of earrings out of old soda bottle caps, so I did! I started making more earrings and experimented with different random materials like tiny toy frying pans, mini tape dispensers, and little lego frogs. By November 2020, I had decided to make a shop, and while my designs and methods may have changed a bit over the past couple of years, I am so proud of my work and I am so incredibly grateful and excited every time we make a sale!
How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.
Scully’s Stuff uses Etsy to sell our products. Etsy has been a great source of new viewers and customers, but it also comes with its issues. I love the fact that you can just search for your interests and our products could be shown to anyone who has visited Etsy, as well as the systems to help with things like shipping, taxes, sales, and reviews. There are also many negatives to Etsy. Their listing fee is far too high so I had to increase the prices of products so I could still make a profit. I struggle with this because I know the value of my products while also understanding being a buyer with financial discrepancies.
It’s really common in the small business community that once a shop develops notoriety, they move off of Etsy and on to another platform. When I first started selling on Etsy, I had concerns with the seemingly random fees and influx of resellers, but I didn’t have much of a choice but to stay with them. I found that the other major selling platforms that buyers are most familiar with also had their own issues. At the time, I weighed the difference and essentially chose the lesser of two evils. Etsy is definitely not the only platform to take advantage of their sellers, Etsy is just known better by the general public, especially with all of these T.V. ads they’ve been pushing.
There is also a program in place called the Star Seller Program which has many issues. The Star Seller program has only been in place for a handful of months and it has already harmed many smaller sellers. It is a pointless program as everything it takes into account is already available for buyers to see through reviews and sales. To make Star Seller in a three month period, sellers have to make at least 5 orders, $300, have a message response rate of 95% or more, a 5 star rating from 95% or more of sales, and a shipping rating of 95% or more. As a lesser known shop with products that are generally priced rather low, it is near impossible for me to ever make this threshold. I understand that it is meant to be a quick way for buyers to see if the shop they’re interested in is reliable, but in turn it drives sales away from smaller shops. I have a 100% rating in my response rate, shipping rate, and 5 star ratings, but I am still nowhere near becoming a Star Seller because of how difficult it is for me to meet $300 in profit so frequently. Not only is this system unfair to those of us who care for our customers just as well, if not better than some of the more expensive shops, but it also drives sales away from us because Star Sellers are pushed to the top of search results and recommended listings. I also feel that off-site ads are an unnecessary way for Etsy to steal more money from their sellers. I hardly have the extra income to be able to afford publishing a new listing, so being denied the option of being charged for ads that I don’t even want running, is an unfair and greedy system.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
I know everyone says that social media is the most important thing, but that’s because it’s true. Instagram and TikTok are some of my main sources of customers. Since I don’t have very many days where I have the energy to work on anything relating to the shop, I also struggle with social media. My fiance helps me to plan out my social media posts and will proof my editing and captions for me. I think my best piece of advice regarding social media would be to have fun and be real. In my experience people tend to like when you treat your shop account like a personal one. I like to post about my products in the usual ways, but I also like to post things about reorganizing my stock, designing new products, making those products, and packaging orders. Some of my favorite posts to make are ones about me and my fiance’s lives as disabled queer people. We create products for the queer and Disabled communities so showing people that they would be supporting people just like them and that they are supported, means the world to not just the buyers but me as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ScullysStuff?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scullys_stuff/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Scullys-Stuff-105379024733620
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Scullys_Stuff
- Other: https://linktr.ee/scullys_stuff?fbclid=PAAaaEMJguEPiAqSpijLZK-ZZbP91aH9pGl559KJ-5S2z770OUEUNxk759b8Y