We recently connected with Melissa Benkert and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Melissa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

I currently sell from seven Etsy shops, and my products can also be found on 13 different additional platforms. Since seven years ago this didn’t even exist I would say my shop presence is significantly larger than when I started. In 2014 when I first decided I was done climbing a corporate ladder I never thought I would have the business I did today. Sure I thought I would be somewhat successful because I had to have some hope to take that launch leap, but I never thought I would be here.

It all started with one shop and five designs. I had a design background so I started to grow the design SKUs, but I quickly felt that my ideas were good, but my audience base was a little “niched down”. So I started a second shop. Recollect, rinse, repeat. I simply reassessed what worked in my earlier business model, weeded out what didn’t, and repeated. A few shops later this method became very seamless and each shop along the way improved. I took back what I learned from each new shop and applied it to the originals as well. But then I sort of hit a plateau so I moved my shops onto additional platforms. This was a lot of initial work – but in my mind, this was a sort of job security. If one platform or sales avenue would lack the others would make up for it.

I would say this scaling was what gave me the ability to work for myself full-time. This was especially true when the Pandemic rolled around. This multi- avenue way of working easily told me what to focus on and what to leave on the back burner. It’s definitely dynamic, but with proper filing and day-to-day operational tasks, I’ve been semi-smooth sailing for four years now.

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

Well, I’m Melissa and I run Melissa Joy Creative, which encompasses a few brands, a few product lines, and a multitude of platforms. I started out doing random virtual assisting and graphic design tasks for other small businesses through college and I was good at what I did. But I was curious, what would happen if I started my own eCommerce business? What if I sold my own designs and graphics? Sure I work a flexible schedule, but what if I only answered to myself and had that freedom? And right about then is when I launched my own shop.

I was lucky. I ran my own shop part-time and barely made any money at first, but I could rely on the clients I had to pay the bills. Once my shop income picked up I would agree to less client work, until finally I found my last client a new Virtual Assistant. And I’ve been full-time ever since!

Since I have multiple brands I sell a wide variety of things from apparel, to decor to digital content and more, So I never get bored and always have an outlet to design no matter how I’m feeling.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I think I actually did this REALLY well. I heard about dropshipping and thought it really fit well with what I was trying to accomplish. Since Etsy has low fees at first I listed my products there but had a drop shipper fulfill them. This way I didn’t really need a large capital to buy machinery or products. Once the order came in a paid a little bit off the top for the drop shipper to make and ship and my customer received it under my branding. This allowed me year over year to then purchase machinery to fulfill new items from the office. I’m sure I could get the loans – but it feels good that as soon as I make a new product off my machines it’s profit – it’s not paying off debt.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

At first, I drop shipped almost all of my products, but every year I purchase new machinery and learn a new craft and fulfill those items from the office. I will say this is not for the faint of heart. This was a lot of practice materials wasted, a lot of nights staying up to get something just right, and a lot of tear-filled days where I had orders to fulfill but I spent the day taking apart and reassembling a whole laser engraver just to reach a 2mm screw that came loose. I’ve learned that if you’re going to do something – do it right. If you’re going to learn a trade – learn the whole thing. Waiting for maintenance, help desk reps and servicers just takes time – learn that side of the craft as well so no matter how big the problem is you can always get yourself out of it.

Contact Info:

• Website: melissajoycreative.com