We were lucky to catch up with Ollie Bandong recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ollie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today

If I were to start over today, there’s a lot of things I’d do differently. I applied first to the local farmer’s market in my college town as my first market, and if I were to start over, I’d have joined the Student-Made AppState club on campus first. I would’ve been given more opportunities to put my work out there, and it likely would’ve been appreciated more there than it was at my farmer’s market. I also would have created a website with my art on it before I started selling, and also looked into the various websites (Square, Shopify, Bigcartel, etc) instead of starting on Etsy. I say this because Etsy takes a lot of fees, and since I was initially selling to raise money for my brother’s top surgery, we needed everything we could get. I also would have looked into any local art markets and Facebook groups in my college town and in my hometown regarding NC artists/vendors. I joined those types of Facebook groups about a year ago, and have seen many tips that would’ve been helpful when I first began selling. I also would have gotten my business cards made at Staples. I do my best to be as sustainable as possible, and decided that the best way to make business cards was to design them myself on MS Publisher(?) and then print them myself. They worked, yes, but took a lot more time to print and cut out than if I’d just bought them. I ended up buying like 500 for $20 once I started running out of my handmade ones, and regretted that I hadn’t done that in the first place. There’s probably more I’d do, but that’s all I can think of right now!

Ollie, 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?

Hi there! I’m Ollie (they/them), a twenty-something neurodivergent, genderqueer Filipino person from North Carolina. I run my small business, “TheirArt”. TheirArt started as a fundraiser for my brother’s top surgery. I was selling pride flag keychains I’d crocheted (under the shop name “SiblingArts”) on Etsy. We made lots of sales, but also lost a lot of money from the fees Etsy charged. I decided to switch the website to a different one, and after polling my Twitter mutuals, I ended up choosing Bigcartel. It has a free plan and has worked for me! However, the reason Etsy fees are so high is because it is a searchable marketplace, and they do the marketing for you. As a result, I’ve had to find other ways to market myself, but I think it’s worth it because I don’t have to pay listing fees or anything like that. The majority of my work is crochet, whether it be hats (bucket hats, beanies, “cat” hats (rectangular when laid flat, looks like you have cat ears when worn), hats for pets), wall hangings, keychains or plushies! The rest of my work tends to be earring charms that can be made into a single or pair of earring(s), keychains, etc. The designs of my charms depend on my mood the day I make them – they vary from cups of boba, frogs, other animals, subtle pride flags and more. I also sell stickers and buttons with reproductive justice, trans* rights, and physical/mental healthcare designs.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I sell on my own site (using “bigcartel”). I started off using Etsy, but the fees they charged for everything felt to be a bit much for me, especially since my initial products were $5 each. There are definitely pros for using platforms like Etsy — they market your items for you, and since it’s searchable, everyone I know uses it. A con of using my own site is that it isn’t in some kind of searchable platform, so it’s much harder to find (sometimes impossible). Some pros of using my own website: I enjoy the creativity allowed with my own website, as I’m allowed to decorate it however I want. I also enjoy the lack of fees from bigcartel. Some cons from using my own website: it requires a Lot of marketing on my part, which has been difficult when I was a full-time student, and more recently, while I’ve worked part- and full-time positions. It also isn’t a searchable platform, so someone needs to be looking for the website to find it. I’ve seen people have more success with using “shopify”, as it allows you to have an entire inventory of products, with a point of sale scanner and as many products as you’d like to add/website. A con of using “shopify” is the money needed to pay for it. One pro of Etsy is that you don’t pay any kind of initial fee – it is just the fees added into buying listings, etc. So overall, there are pros and cons for either way, but I’ve chosen to currently stick with my own website.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

The story of how I built my audience on social media involves luck, honestly. I have a lot of mutual artists that are following me or I’m following them. When I first got my account, I posted as much as I could and tagged all of my posts, trying to reach as many people as possible. Over time though, I realized that this would not be sustainable. Social media and the algorithm screws everyone over, so my advice for those starting to build their social media presence is to post what you want, when you want, and to follow back as many people as possible.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://theirartllc.bigcartel.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theirart_/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliverbandong/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/theirart_

First pic on the additional photos tab was taken by Effie Horvath. All other pictures with me in it were taken by Elliot Froese or Russell Bandong. All other photos were taken by me.