How Much I Make Selling Stickers on Etsy (1.5 Years)

So I started selling stickers on etsy back in August 2020, and I've had some pretty good results so far. In this article I'm going to be sharing all my sales numbers from the very beginning.

But before I get started, the reason I'm sharing this article is in no way to brag or flex at all. The reason I'm sharing this information is because, personally, when I see other bloggers sharing how much they make on their blogs, I just find that stuff really inspiring. And that's one of the major reasons I started my Etsy shop in the first place.

So what I'm going to do is just break everything down into chapters. I'm going to be talking about what I was doing and what I was feeling during those time periods.

How I Start Selling Stickers on Etsy

Chapter One: The Beginning

So I'm just going to start with 2020 first. And in August, I made $56.37. In September, I made $446.79. October was $588.08, November was $496.06, and December was $741.18.

So like I said, I started this back in August 2020, and if I'm being completely honest, I don't really know exactly why I got started. I'm the type of person who always has a lot of ideas. Like back in university, I had all these ideas of making the next big app and making a big company that's going to make me million dollars one day. But every time, I never really acted on any of the ideas. And I kind of just fell into the routine of working at my job and not really thinking about business anymore.

But something happened in August, maybe it was because of the pandemic. There was just something inside me that really wanted to start something. So I had this idea for start stickers, and instead of sitting back and leaving it as an idea, I decided to actually try to make it a business.

So to get started, I started looking into platforms that I could use, and Etsy really stood out as the fastest and easiest way to get started, so that's what I did. So I set up my store and I set up my first listings, and I started to get sales.

Honestly, looking back now, this was the funnest part of the whole experience, because in the beginning, you have no expectations and there's like, no stress at all. You're just trying this new thing. You have no idea what you're doing, and it's just pure fun.

Later on, when your business starts to grow, you'll start to get, like, stressed over things. So if you're in this beginning part, try to cherish it because it really doesn't last for that long. But yeah, one of the best things was just making extra money. Like, I wasn't making much money at this time. Like, if you look at the numbers, like 4 to $500 a month for most people, that's not a life changing amount of money, Right.

But for me, it kind of was because I grew up trying to be really frugal all the time, and I was just trying to save as much money as possible. But when I was making this extra amount of money per month, I was able to enjoy life a little more. Like, instead of being frugal all the time, I could start to treat myself a little bit without feeling any guilt. I was buying Pokemon cards, and it was really nice things like that. But yeah, the biggest unlock in my brain at this time was that it was possible to make extra money and it was possible to do it while you were doing something that was fun and enjoyable.

Chapter Two: This Is Real

So in the four first months of 2021, in January, I made $1,036.65. February, I made $1,119.39. In March, I made $2,632.15. And in April, I made $3,047.96.

So that's a pretty big jump already from my previous months. And what I was feeling at this time was that this wasn't just a hobby anymore. It was becoming a thing on its own. These were the months where I started to get more serious. I began to do a about how to create a really successful Etsy shop. And this is the time where I really learned about SEO. I really learned about Etsy ads. I really learned about how to compete against other stores and to make my product photos and everything pop. I feel like I really learned the ropes during this time.

Like, in the beginning, whenever I would get an order, I would be like, oh my God, I got an order. And I would put like an hour into making the order, even though it was just like for $13. But during these months, I was really becoming like a professional sticker maker. I had all the steps laid out, and whenever an order came in or many orders came in, I was able to bang them out really quickly.

But yeah, during this time, I felt like I had to get serious because my business was real now. This wasn't just a random thing I was doing during my free time anymore. I had customers and I had people wanting to buy my product. So it was a real business.

Chapter Three: I'm Going To Be A Millionaire

In May, I sold $2,735.58. In June, I sold $4,007.02. In July, I sold $5,400.16. And in August, I sold $9,375.15. So during this time, my sales were doubling, like, every few months. As you can see, they were going from like four to five hundred dollars to a thousand dollars and then to two thousand dollars and then to four thousand dollars and then to nine thousand dollars.

I thought that this was going to be going eventually. I'd be selling $100,000 every month. And honestly, I thought I was going to be rich. I thought I was going to be a millionaire. I was kind of thinking to myself that, wow, well, business is pretty easy. Like, it's easy to create a business and it's easy to become a millionaire.

But the funny thing is, looking back during this time, it was actually the most stressful time in my entire life, because you have to remember that every time these sales were doubling, the amount of work that I had to do was doubling, too.

At the time, I was still working full time at my normal job. And this Etsy thing, making stickers was still a thing that I was only doing during even and weekends. And instead of just like, putting together orders for one hour every night, it was taking me sometimes four hours to get all the orders ready and ship them out the next morning.

So, yeah, during that time, I had no social life, I had no time for myself, I had no time to relax, and it was just really stressful. And not only that, I was stressed about the future because my sales were doubling so fast. I was thinking in the next few months, I would be selling $20,000 a month and then $40,000 a month, right? And I really wasn't able to make that amount of stickers with the equipment that I had.

So I was looking into scaling, and that in itself was really stressful. I was looking at commercial printing machines, commercial cutting machines. I was looking at office spaces that I can maybe rent, how to hire employees and how to Manage. I really didn't want to purposely slow down any sales.

Like, a lot of people, they get stressed and they will put their shop on vacation mode. But from what I've read, like, putting your shop on vacation mode really hinders the momentum that your store has, and I really didn't want to do that.

So I was thinking of ways that I could scale as fast as possible, and it just really added to my stress as well. Like, it wasn't really good for my mental health at all. But, yeah, looking back at that time, it was pretty crazy. It was a huge rollercoaster of emotions. And I'm actually glad that I never really figured out how to scale because I would have wasted a lot of money.

Chapter Four: The Humbling

Okay, so moving on to the last four months of the year. In September, I made $4,923.03. In October, I made $3,020.01. In November, I made $3,621.16. And in December, I made $2,758.

So, yeah, after the crazy ride of sales going up every month and thinking I was going to be a millionaire faster than I expected, sales slowed down a lot. It was a pretty big reality check for me. I think it was the universe saying that it's not going to be this easy. And honestly, I was pretty sad because I thought my business was dying.

I started looking around the Internet for reasons why this could be happening. I went on to like, Etsy forums and Reddit and there's people saying the same thing of, like, Etsy sales were slowing down at this time and how it's because Etsy was chang the algorithm or how the economy was bad and a lot of stores were struggling. And I kind of just got caught up in this mentality where I was just blaming everyone else for my problems. I was blaming Etsy for maybe changing the algorithm and killing my shop. I was blaming the government and Even blaming Covid for causing like this economic crash where people weren't buying on Etsy anymore.

But I realized during this time that this is where you have to focus on yourself and this is where you have to focus on what you can do as a person. I started to look at the things that I could actually do, like the things that I could do to improve my shop and to improve my store. I even got into creating another store off of Etsy so I wasn't so Etsy reliant. And mentally I got myself into a much healthier place I think.

I had to remind myself that this is still good money, right? Like a lot of people are wishing to sell 2, $3,000 a month and here I am complaining how this isn't enough because I used to be making more. When really, when you think about it, this thing just started like barely a year ago and I should be grateful for what I have already.

And yeah, I think it was just naive to think that business is that easy. And I think I was way too focused on just the monthly, monthly trends that I have to remember that this is a long term game. What I'm trying to do is build a business that's going to last me many, many years. And if I'm going to do that, I have to start looking at the big picture. Instead of looking at sales month per month, I have to look at them year over year.

But yeah, with all that being said and looking at the numbers from my past four months, you might think that I'm pessimistic going into 2022 and that's really not the case at all. I think that I've grown a lot as a person during the last year and I'm ready to just take everything that I've learned and just to apply it and see how far I can go. And I'm just going to focus on the things that I can do and can control and just whatever happens, happens.

So if you're reading this and you're anything like me back in August 2020 and you have this idea to start something and you just never got around to it, I want to say to you, now's the time. There's always going to be reasons not to do something. There's always going to be things happening in your life where the timing might not be perfect or maybe you feel like you don't have the knowledge or the ability to get started. But if you feel like you don't have time, what you can do is prioritize what's important in your life and cut out what's not. And if you feel like you don't know how, like you can learn. Everything that I've learned starting this business is from YouTube and Google.

I had no idea how to make a sticker and run a business two years ago. But you're never going to learn if you never tried, right? And I've just been having this thought at the back of my mind that the Internet is just really amazing. We're so lucky to be growing up in a time where the Internet is accessible for so many people. And the Internet really provides an opportunity that didn't exist before.

Like, if our grandparents wanted to start a business in their free time, they really couldn't because they'd be working full time during the day and during the nighttime, everything would be closed. Nowadays, when you get home or maybe you're working from home, like you have the time to go on the Internet and start a business from your phone or from your laptop, and it can make you a lot of money and it can change your life.

So, yeah, if you're hyped up and you're ready to start your own Etsy shop, check out my my article, where I go through a hundred of the best Etsy shops of the year. I think it's a really good article for beginners to read because it highlights the three most important things in what I think makes a successful Etsy shop.