We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lindsay Shaver a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Lindsay thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s talk about social media – do you manage your own or do you have someone or a company that handles it for you? Why did you make the choice you did?
For me personally, I like to have full creative control over Social Media. It’s how you represent your business, your products, and ultimately, yourself, to the world, and who better to do that, and paint that picture for others, than you! I do think there are things that can be helpful; Ads, Working with Influencers, etc. – but it all must be an organic representation of your business & what makes you unique. Growth through Instagram & FB Ads worked for us, as we felt it was still true organic growth. Someone sees your Ad/Post, and chooses to click & follow you. But the foreseeable future, I can’t imagine not handling it myself.
Lindsay , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Lindsay Skulls, and I am the owner of L’esquelet, a Macabre Boutique based in Long Beach, California. In 2013, I found myself exploring the depths of my interests in gothic artwork, architecture, and décor. I’ve always been a lover of the macabre, horror movies, and cemeteries, but after a trip to Barcelona in early 2013, I came back inspired to start a boutique that encompassed these interests, and expand to reach other like minded people. Inspired by exploring the depths of the city’s Gothic Architecture, and history in Catalonia, my mind flourished. I began writing dark poetry and sketching ideas for dark décor & adornment to create & source for the shop. October of 2013, L’esquelet opened its first virtual doors, and a few years later, a permanent space, inside DeadRockers Punk Shop (our sister company). Since then, we’ve expanded to doing Oddities events around the country, and are always looking for new ways to meet people who value these obscure & dark items the way we do. L’esquelet, which is Catalan (romance language spoken in Barcelona) for ‘The Skeleton’, carries a unique mix of artwork (from artists around the world), homewares, wearable adornment, ethically-sourced bones, specimens, and magical antiques. My particular love of old photographs, tintypes, and Victorian Gothic décor, has a heavy influence on the pieces I curate for L’esquelet. I am constantly picking & saving pieces, and always in search of more enchanting elements to add to the mix at L’esquelet.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
I do manufacture some products for L’esquelet (and currently have more in the works!) Manufacturing products is far more of an intricate process than people realize. Picking every material, finish, paint, design element…and of course the right manufacturer. So many things can go wrong if you don’t pay close attention to detail. I also personally like to test products for a while for quality & durability. To help find the right vendor, I recommend making a list of the things you need & want. For example: Do you need a sample? Do you want to be able to go inspect the production in-person? Do you need a low minimum? What’s your price point? – All of these will be important questions to ask, and ultimately the answers will help you figure out if that vendor is a good fit for you. Having the right team to make your vision come to life is so important!
Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?
While the main focus remains my direct website, I do find using third party sites can be beneficial for wider reach. For L’esquelet, the only extra platform I use is Etsy. Yes there are fees, but if you are manufacturing your own product, they aren’t exorbitant, and you are reaching people that may not find you otherwise. Include things for customer retention in your packaging, and you’ve just done your best with branding & retention for gaining a new customer. Pros: Wide Reach, Free Advertisement, Easy to Operate, Reviews, Lots of built in features for customers to utilize. Cons: Fees … this is really the only one I can think of. So for me, the pros out-weigh the cons here.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lesquelet.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lesquelet
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lesquelet
Image Credits
Sterling Reed
Lindsay Shaver