Happy to say... I'll be closing early this year.

[froggy]

I put my prices up four times on Etsy trying to slow sales down, due to the recent Royal Mail delays and having a big influx of wholesale orders. The daily sales rate rose even higher!

Found exactly the same thing 2 years ago, changed the way our business sold products (and the quality of products) ever since. One line we bought in ended in us buying machinery to manufacture a range of similar products and gives us our best returns. Quality and design is king.

[Earl Smith]

Hi Janners. Dumb question. What is POD sites?.

[Mrteajunkie]

Print on demand

If your interested there are a lot available.
https://www.google.com/search?q=pod+sit ... e&ie=UTF-8

[JMugs]

Hi Janners. Dumb question. What is POD sites?.

Hi Earl
I use this lot, https://www.zazzle.co.uk/

Have a nose around, there is no cost to you, just your time.

Janners

[SubOnCotton]

PoD is good because you don't need to invest in your own machines or have your own industrial unit.
PoD is bad because your margins are lower, the quality isn't as good as you can produce yourself, your designs can "leak", and you've got all your eggs in one basket.

It's good for small volume sellers, but if you do any volume then you're better off doing it yourself.
The fastest I've had a mug go out using PoD was 2 days. The fastest I've had a mug go out doing it myself was 2 minutes.

If doing t-shirts, PoD tend to use Kornits, but you get better washability with Epsons.

Another problem with PoD is this: it allows people from India, China, etc, to sell into Western markets. Since these people are happier with a lower margin per sale, they can sell a mug for £6 for example, whereas a Brit might want to sell one for £11.
Over time, the Brits who use PoD will give up and it'll just be Indians using British PoD to sell to British customers, using designs stolen from said former British sellers. It's already happening.
There are Facebook groups which deal in these stolen designs.

[pw66]

I always shut early for Xmas. Hopefully I'll be gone by the 18th this year.
I don't really do any 'one off' personalisation, and the thought of a load of emails and calls ( or worse - knocks on the door) for single items gives me a nose bleed.

Probably have to spend most of Xmas repricing the websites and showroom stock, if we get a no deal brexit.