Skip to main content

Welcome to A Woman With A Business!

Hello There!  Welcome to A Woman With A Business!  I hope you will find a comfortable spot and join us for some fabulous conversations!  Navigating the business world as an entrepreneur can be scary, exhausting, and hugely rewarding!  You probably have fears, questions, doubts, and a ton of energy to move forward in your venture!  Or, maybe you have found us after years of slogging along, doing the hard work, celebrating your successes!  You are all welcome here!

We are here to talk about business!  Although, as most experienced entrepreneurs know, you don't get to forget about your personal life when you are in business!  So, we hope you enjoy this blog, learn, laugh, celebrate, commiserate, and cheer each other on!

We are always on the look out for contributors, collaborators, and interviewees, so feel free to get in touch with me at awomanwithabusiness@gmail.com.

A little about me!  I am April, and I live with my kids and husband on almost 7 acres of land in central North Carolina.  I have been a work at home mom since 2002, and became an entrepreneur in May of 2005.   I started out doing craft shows and running my own website, and added my first Etsy shop in June 2008.  I now have 3 Etsy shops, one stand alone website, and still do craft shows.  I have sold on many platforms, including Amazon Handmade, Artfire, and even wordpress using shopping cart plug ins.  While I don't sell on these places now, due to the time involved in running my business, I encourage you to find the right selling venue for you!

Starting in April 2019, I will begin teaching classes on selling on Etsy, and hope to add additional topics as requested.  I have taught classes on Etsy for others over the last 10 years, and finally decided to write my own classes instead of just being a guest speaker.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Slowdowns and Slumps - When to freakout, When to take action, and What to do about it - Etsy Stats

This week I am talking about Slumps and Slowdowns ... how to know if you are really in a slump or slowdown, when to freak out, and what to do about it! Today is all about analyzing stats.  Over and over I have witnessed people freaking out about slowdowns because their stats are down from a day ago, a week ago, and a month ago ... but just this is not enough information to know if you are really experiencing a slowdown.  Retail sales are cyclical, and you need to know your cycles.  If you cannot deal with the natural cycles in your business, then you need to develop a new product line that will work opposite those cycles in your current business.  Trying to even out cycles in your current business is much harder than creating a product line that you market to a different market to fill in slow cycles.  Also note, that cycles in business will fluctuate year to year, and your sales should be increasing during these cycles year to year.  Although as your business grows, you may also fin

a woman with a buisness podcast launch - Conversation with Christen Strang of Letterhappy

To view the podcast - Part A:  https://anchor.fm/awomanwithabusiness/episodes/Conversations-with-Etsy-Seller-Christen-Strang-Part-A-e1qogk   Part B:   https://anchor.fm/awomanwithabusiness/episodes/Conversations-with-Etsy-Seller-Christen-Strang-Part-B-e1qoji Christen Strang: http://Letterhappy.com http://Letterhappy.etsy.com http://happytatts.etsy.com I'm so happy to bring you this first podcast!  Christen is an amazing friend and talented artist and amazingly successful Etsy seller!  Listen to our conversation about business, side gigs, and Etsy! 

Managing your expectations - part 4

Managing the expectations of you and your business is a tricky thing ... I would say that this is more of a problem when you are new and just starting and have a list of things a mile long.  However, after 13 years, I can tell you that I still have days when I feel completely overwhelmed and have to wrangle in the expectations of myself. Do one thing at a time.  The idea of being able to work at home for yourself is very romantic ... you can have laundry going, the dishwasher going, the kids playing a board game in the other room, all while working away on your business like a boss!  What really happens is, you throw in a load of laundry, and it sits in the washing machine wet for 6 hours because you forgot it, requiring it to be washed again.  You start loading the dishwasher, but the phone rings and the kids drop the board game, causing 250,000 cards and dice and pieces to scatter down the stairway.  The dog throws up, the power goes out, and you realize that you don't have a c