Date joined etsy- 2/20/08
Sales to date - 895
-Give us some basic info about you: name, where you live, kids/pets, favorite ice cream flavor, etc.My name is William Dohman, and I live in St. Paul with my wife, Katie, and our
cockapoo, Molly. We all love ice cream in our household, including our dog…Haagen
Dazs and Ben & Jerry have a permanent, rotating-flavor spot in our freezer.
-Describe an average day in life of "you".
The average day in the life of me:
I work. A lot. I have a day job as an architect, and at night and on the weekends, I’m
running the Etsy shop. So a typical day includes working my day job, coming home and
processing orders, and then catching a few minutes of TV with my wife (right now we’re
watching Dexter on Netflix) before going to bed and starting all over again. My wife is
joining in the Etsy shop with me, so she’ll be helping with communications, packaging,
and some creative work.
Were you creative growing up/what did you enjoy doing?
My mom found that an effective way to keep me quiet and occupied for a while was
to give me a set of Legos. Little did she know that it might have launched my career
as an architect! I was always building forts as a kid, too. I played around in my dad’s
wood shop, and my mom was always sewing and crafting. It was just what we did.
What made you want to start selling on Etsy?I started as a hobby and to sell my travel photography. I wanted other people to see some
places they may not go to, or revisit places they’ve been. Then it evolved into prints. One
Christmas, I made my wife a wooden sign for a gift, and so suddenly they ended up in the
shop, too. Then the robots… it’s been an evolving process.
-How long did it take for you to get your first sale on etsy?
I joined Etsy Feb. 20, 2008, with just my photos. My first sale was March 3,
so I’m grateful I didn't have to wait too long to feel encouraged to keep going!
Top 5s
Favorite foods:
Bacon
Chocolate
Ribs
Oranges
Sugar Snap Peas
TV Shows:
Seinfeld
NewsRadio
LOST
Project Runway
Top Chef
Bands:
The Black Keys
Rage Against the Machine
Muse
Weezer
On recent rotation: MGMT
Is there anything you'd like to try your hand at doing?I’d like to try welding. Picking up fly fishing might help give me a time-out from
working. Or having a garden. Or sculpting. But I have pretty limited time as it is, so who
knows when I’ll get to picking up another hobby! My wife is considering making a foray
into soapmaking.
-What would you suggest to new etsy sellers to promote their shops?
The best product is the best marketing. If you have a great product, it fills a need or
desire, and it tends to market itself. Focus on creating a great product rather than pushing
a poor product. Contact blogs that you’re interested in and get inspiration from and see if
they want to feature it—but only if you think your product will be a good fit among the
mix they regularly feature.
Shops I love:
Strawberryluna
Joom
Elementclaystudio
Byrdandbelle
Mincingmockingbird
One year from now, I hope…
I have a better balance between my career and my Etsy
shop and my family. My wife is joining me and we’re rebranding and relaunching the
shop soon. I hope we find that it’s a good, solid partnership, added to our marriage, and
that the shop grows accordingly as we continually refine processes and offerings, and add
new products to the shop.
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Have an etsy shop with over 300 sales and want to be a featured seller? Contact me at phletcher@gmail.com
As always, thanks for reading :)
