Today we're chatting about whether Etsy sellers should be worried about a recession.

Throughout the UK (and possibly around the world) the majority of us are facing increased financial hardship, all thanks to Covid and the last 2 years worth of chaos.

I've received some messages lately from handmade business owners asking if they should be worried about a recession, and if there's anything that they can do now to prepare for one. 

So I've put together some key points and advice from days gone by where there has been financial hardship before. 

1. It's been going on a long time

There has been financial hardship going on in the UK (and possibly around the world) for years. Despite this, there have been businesses that have started up, survived and THRIVED over those years.

Businesses can thrive off of economic hardship, it just depends on what you do, what things you sell and what things you put into place. 

2. Be in control

If you aren't putting much effort into your Etsy shop, or it's running in the background without much effort from you, then now is the time to have some sort of side hustle where you have some level of control over the income that you bring in. 

If you have a 9-5 job, you have no control over when you might be laid off, or when a company goes under and you're out of a job.

Now more than ever, it is really important to have some sort of side hustle, and Etsy is the perfect way to do it. 

Even if you have an existing Etsy shop that hasn't been doing too well, or you've forgotten about it for a while, then you can relaunch it. 

We have a fab free resource called: '30 Days To A Kick Butt Etsy Shop Launch Plan' and this will help you build or relaunch your Etsy shop business. 

Having your own business, whether that's on Etsy or your own website or a different platform is a sensible way to bring in extra money to help towards those increased bills, and lack of pay rise.

If you build a legacy business, then you are effectively safe from being made redundant or losing your 9-5 job if that company goes under. 

3. People will always spend money

It is human nature, people will always find extra money to spend. This is why we find it difficult to save our money, we're natural spenders. This works with e-commerce sellers too.

Think about it, even if people don't have a lot of money to spend, there will always be birthdays, there will always be gift giving occasions and events. People don't stop spending for these occasions. They don't stop celebrating a new house, a new baby, a new job and a wedding. People will still decorate their homes and treat themselves to candles and books and self care products. 

I just want you to be aware that people will not stop spending just because there is a recession or financial hardship.

You just need to do a better job of 'convincing' them (I hate that word!) to buy your item. You need to do a better job of gaining their trust and getting them to spend with you.

So what does that mean? That means you need to 'warm them up' on social media and on email marketing lists which is more important now than ever. 

You have to put your brands best foot forward. You can't just expect people to come and find you and automatically spend their money with you anymore, because it doesn't work like that when there's time of economic hardship. 

BOSS! Do you want to make more sales on Etsy? Then you need to increase your conversion rate! DON'T PANIC! I'm going to explain exactly how to do that in my FREE 90 minute masterclass - The 3 Step System To Skyrocket Your Etsy Conversion Rate 🙌🏻

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4. Protect cashflow

Cashflow is king in a business. 

Don't spend EVERYTHING that is coming into your business. Instead, I'd recommend to do a deep dive into your spending habits and finances. 

We all have expenses whether it's Etsy fees/ ads or whether you have virtual assistants working for you, or maybe you use tools like a social media scheduler that comes out of your account each month.

The biggest thing that I tend to focus on is cutting costs but from a positive mindset. 

It's really hard to not focus on the 'lack' when there is a recession. But that is the opposite thing of what you should be doing. When we focus on the 'lack', you get more of the thing that you are focusing on. 

If you're constantly running an internal programme in your mind that is saying 'I don't want to be poor, I don't want to be poor, I want to make sales' and so on, then you're automatically going to be focusing in on that, and that's what you're going to get more of. 

So, what I do is look at cutting costs as a positive experience. Instead of saying 'oh my goodness, I need to get rid of that tool because it's costing me £30 a month', I actually look at A) how I can utilise it better, and B) how can I instead switch that over to a tool that is a little bit cheaper but is also better. 

 

And I just want to leave you with this:

It is only temporary.

Even in the 2008 crash, people were still spending, people were still going on holiday and bought new cars. No one stopped spending. It's only temporary.

I don't want you to make rash business decisions and cut something that is working for you because you're panicking and thinking 'this is going to be life now'. We don't know how long these things will last for, but it's only temporary. 

I hope that the tips and tricks that I've spoken about in this blog post will help you to recession proof your business.  

 

If you would prefer to watch me visually teach everything I've spoken about in this blog post, you can watch my YouTube video HERE.

 

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