4 BIG Benefits of Being an Etsy Mentor

Share Your Strengths

The Benefits Of Mentoring Someone on Etsy

I can already hear the balking. “ Mentor? I can’t even mentor myself”; “I don’t know enough to mentor someone else”;   “I don’t have enough sales to be respected as a mentor”, etc.

Phooey, I say. You know more than you think you do.  If you have figured out that selling on Etsy is not a straightforward endeavor, you officially know more than a new seller.

Allow me to compare apples to oranges for a minute to make a point.  Selling on Ebay  IS a straightforward endeavor that you can figure out as you go. No need to read a lengthy sellers manual.  Ebay walks you through very simple steps.

• You decide to sell an item, any item.  
•  You take a photo or two or twelve. They can be really bad photos and nobody cares
• You look around at other items like yours to research a price.  Decide to auction or sell.  Pricing is a cinch!
• Choose a category and write a title stuffed with catchy keywords, willy-nilly.  (No worries about # of characters for the pesky Google Bot
• No matter how lame your description is, it sells. No one expects colorful language. You don’t count the characters or words to feed the Google Bot.
• Your item goes live
• You answer a bunch of email questions (maybe)
• Your item sells. You get paid through Paypal, and you print a Paypal shipping label and ship.
• You get feedback, with most transactions

If it is so straightforward, why don’t I just go and sell on Ebay, you wonder. Baaaa! Don’t get me started.  I am simply illustrating that it is a different selling experience from Etsy. In many ways, (most not good). It is quite a different world. It is not a warm and welcoming community of crafters and artisans like you will find on Etsy.

So, if you have established your shop, been active in the Etsy community, (Teams, Forums, etc.); have kept up with the ever changing tips and rules for improving relevancy and being found in search, then, face it, you are a well -seasoned Etsy-er. 

The numbers do not roll in over night in any new business, and the very competitive online handmade, vintage, and supplies (businesses) are no exception.

You do not need high sales to be able to share your strengths: 

your empirical wisdom and experiential knowledge

You know what I think? Now, as I learn something new  in business, I feel if I can’t share it, it is being wasted. I am not worried about giving the competition a leg-up. Once you become generous with your knowledge, it seeps into your core values and you find yourself feeling like a giving, better person every day,

 

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Give  and  You  Shall  Receive

4 Benefits of Being an Etsy Mentor

• Learn new things!

Mentoring a younger person will undoubtedly earn you a hearty education in a technical area you may have previously been clueless about.

    It’s inevitable that someone younger than you will know  (a lot) more about a topic you’re less familiar with.

For example, if you have always wanted to ease your way into Instagram, perhaps a Generation Y mentee can help you learn it in a day.

•  Develop leadership and management skills.

Becoming a mentor can help you learn how to oversee and guide others. If you have never been in a professional setting as a mentor, a casual mentor/mentee relationship can help you discover skills such as coaching and feedback and tap into leadership abilities you never knew you had.

• Professional Esteem

People who are seen as mentors are granted   higher credibility and are seen as greater performers. You appear as more connected and will draw others to you for consult.

• Impress Yourself: 

You take for granted all that you have learned and the skills you have honed over time.  When imparted onto someone new, this knowledge sounds vast and sage. It is great for an ego boost and a reminder of how far you have come.

 

Why would you pass up an opportunity to feel good about yourself? 

You can truly open up someone’s world with a small time investment. Very simple words can give people new ideas and opens doors for them. It can truly change lives. You open their minds to possibilities, expecting nothing in return. This, in turn, gives you more meaning in your life




Following is a quote from Gloria Flynn of Earth Energy Gemstones on Etsy. I asked her to tell me about her experience with her mentor. They have been together more than a year:

 

EarthEnergyGemstones on Etsy

"My Etsy mentor is the lifeline for my jewelry business.  From the very beginning she had my back and encouraged me to join her team called Jewelry on Etsy (JETs). From the moment I was welcomed into the team, she has been an active participant in my success.

She makes herself available for me and responds to questions in great detail, and with love; everything from what to include on my listing tags to how to make jewelry from recycled silver. When I'm not asking her questions, she's asking ME questions. For example: How often do you tweet? Do you have a Google+ account and are you using it? She explains how things work in social media, and tells me what to do--but in a good way, like how I could be using it better.

She builds me up when I'm down, and constantly encourages me to stretch my wings a little, like "You should be making (fill in the blank) because they are in the top searches and will bring more traffic to your shop”.

The Etsy jewelry world is HUGE, and it's easy to get lost--but not when you have a mentor who shows you the way. Mine has and I'm so grateful!"

Thank you for reading!

Norah Downey

YourDailyJewels on Etsy