One giant step for women kind...

Well maybe not womenkind, but certainly for one woman.

Good morning. Welcome to my first post. I've never blogged before, as you probably can tell.

I've just opened my very own Etsy store (chainmaillemaven.etsy.com) and am really hoping that it's successful. Right now, I have 14 items in it, but I'm more worried about marketing and getting the word out and building a clientele and a rapport with customers than I am about selling anything really. Sales will come if the other stuff is right.

So, in a down economy, with retaillers closing left and right, why in the world would someone start a business or a store? I was pretty much self employed for the first 15 years of my career as a political consultant. After leaving the business I fell into a sales job, which one might think would be a natural extension of my skills, but really it was very differant. Consultancy fed my creative side in ways that sales only dreamed of. I was laid off in January from my sales job, and decided that I wanted to take take my jewelry making, which I've been doing for years and enjoyed, to the next level.

I sold a few pieces on Ebay, but Ebay didn't really seem like the right place for my pieces, and one day while I was chatting with a few of the women in my aqua fit class, they turned me on to Etsy and three days later, I had a shop and items in it.

So here I am - and I hope that you are here too. This Etsy thing is all new, but I'm very excited and motivated and hope you take a look. And as always, feedback is welcome.

Enjoy today!