I Make $175K a Year Working Part Time: 2 Strategies I Used To Grow My Etsy Shops

Emily Odio-Sutton is a working mom who started her side hustle as an Etsy seller in January 2023 and has made over $175,000 in under a year. She started her journey while working full time in education, but has since been able to scale back to part time due to the success of her two Etsy shops.

Here’s how Odio-Sutton was able to make her shops so successful, plus, her tips for other moms who want to profit from this lucrative side gig .

Check Out: 7 Most Profitable Small Business Ideas for 2024

Up Next: 6 Subtly Genius Moves All Wealthy People Make With Their Money

Money mistakes the super wealthy never make - that you might be doing now.

Finding the Right Side Hustle

Odio-Sutton was finding it more challenging to juggle her full-time job with parenting responsibilities and was looking for a way to make enough income working on a part-time basis.

“It was the year prior to my oldest daughter starting kindergarten, and I was starting to feel the stress of managing the elementary school schedule with two working parents,” she said. “Also, I had started to see side hustle content popping up on my Instagram algorithm, and I felt like if other people had success with making money online, then surely there would be a way for me.”

Odio-Sutton started her entrepreneurial journey by reselling products with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).

“I pretty quickly realized that it would be too physically intensive with packing products myself,” she said. “The margins were also fairly low, it took a great deal of capital upfront to pay for products and I felt like it would be too risky to build a long-term future with it.”

A few months after starting to sell on Amazon, she stumbled across a video about selling print-on-demand products on Etsy.

“I was hooked,” Odio-Sutton said. “I started my shop as a New Year’s resolution in January 2023, and I was all in. Once I started having success with print-on-demand products, I launched a digital products shop to diversify with something even more passive in August 2023, and I was seeing daily sales within a month.”

Discover More: I Rent Out a Home on Airbnb: Here’s How Much Profit I Actually Bring In

Learning the Ropes

Odio-Sutton did not have experience with print-on-demand or digital products before starting her Etsy shops, but she developed these skills as she worked.

“When I was starting, I was focused on learning through action,” she said. “I watched tons of YouTube videos to try to learn every strategy I could learn about selling print-on-demand products on Etsy. I had never been a designer, so I spent countless hours watching how-to videos while practicing in Canva.

“I learned quickly that research was an important part of the process, so I tried multiple Etsy research tools and dove into finding opportunities for a new seller like me,” Odio-Sutton continued. “Lastly, it was really just taking action — listing, listing, listing! I knew my designs weren’t high quality yet, but I knew I needed to practice. I am so glad I took that action early on because I learned so much through those early products.”

Strategies for Success

Odio-Sutton did not have instant success when she launched her two Etsy shops.

“There was a ton of trial and error at the beginning of my Etsy journey,” she said. “Two strategies that really helped me grow my shops were focusing on micro-niches and targeting gift products. I learned that by narrowing down my products to more specific customers, I was able to give them a product they could emotionally connect with rather than something generic.

“Secondly, I realized that selling products that a customer could purchase as a gift for a loved one was something I had been missing,” Odio-Sutton continued. “Rather than selling something like apparel that can be difficult to purchase for someone, I shifted my focus toward other products that people like to give as gifts. Once I made those changes, my sales started skyrocketing.”

Scaling Back Time, but Not Profits

Thanks to her savvy strategies, Odio-Sutton has been able to cut back drastically on the hours she puts into running her Etsy shops.

“When I first started my Etsy shops, I was easily spending 25 to 30 hours per week on them,” she said. “I would wake up early before the kids to work and then work for several hours after they went to bed. Now, I am really only working about 10 hours per week on both shops.”

While she sometimes has to work more during busy seasons, she usually does not work more than that.

“It will ebb and flow depending on the time of the year, so for example, in Q4 (October-December), I will have a larger amount of orders and customer service to manage,” Odio-Sutton said. “On average, I would say I spend no more than about 10 hours per week on both shops, and my digital shop is only about two hours of that time, making it the most passive income I have.”

Leaving Her Full-Time Job

Thanks to her Etsy income, Odio-Sutton was able to go part time at her job in June.

“My goal had been to go part time prior to the summer, and it worked out perfectly for me to take this step,” she said. “My Etsy shops were bringing in a higher monthly paycheck than my full-time job, but I actually really love my day job, so I didn’t want to leave entirely. I have always worked in education, so it has been amazing to be able to keep that connection while pursuing my entrepreneurial goals and being present for my two daughters.”

Advice for Other Moms

Balancing work life and family life can be difficult, so Odio-Sutton recommends that other moms who want to supplement their income focus on finding a side hustle that they truly enjoy.

“In the social media world, it can be really hard not to get overwhelmed when you see all of these people posting about the money they are making when you know as a mom your time is extremely limited,” she said. “However, I would love other working moms to know that it is absolutely possible to find a way to reach your goals, whether that is leaving your 9-to-5 job, making a little extra spending money or somewhere in between.”

Odio-Sutton, who is now coaching aspiring online business owners on the Gold City Ventures platform, said to not get discouraged if it takes a bit of time to get your side gig off the ground.

“I like to keep it very honest and be clear that I did spend many hours during that first year building my shops and learning as much as I possibly could,” she said. “I think having a clear ‘why’ helped motivate me to keep going on days where it felt hard, because I knew ultimately I wanted to have the flexibility for my family.

“There were definitely days where I didn’t know if it would be worth it, but I really focused on why I was doing it and tried to keep going. Also, I really love and enjoy working on my Etsy shops, so for me, it was a lot of fun.”

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : I Make $175K a Year Working Part Time: 2 Strategies I Used To Grow My Etsy Shops