Have you ever wondered what the magic formula is for making it big on Etsy? Here's the thing: that magic formula involves a lot of working pieces all combining together to make for excellent products, incredible customer service, and a business that succeeds. Cindy Funk has been selling adorable vintage tea towels on Etsy for several years, and with over 6,000 sales, she knows a thing or two about that magic formula.
Learn from Cindy and discover all the pieces you can bring together to create your own magic formula for success. You got this!
On the Podcast:
01:11 - What Martha Stewart and Cindy Funk have in Common
05:09 - Where Can You Find Mint Condition Vintage Items?
08:38 - Why Cindy Doesn't Cast a Wide Net
10:48 - Cindy's Fascinating Customers
13:45 - Why Cindy's Branding is "Anti-Etsy"
18:00 - Etsy SEO + Promoted Listings
26:08 - Inventory Management
28:11 - If I Could Turn Back Tiiiiiiime!
35:23 - Cindy's Wins
39:05 - 3 Tips for Making it on Etsy Long-Term
40:39 - We're Here, We're... a Little Different! And We're Not Going Anywhere!
43:00 - Cindy's Hilarious Mom Moment
What Martha Stewart and Cindy Funk have in Common
Cindy's business began as a long-time hobby first. She has been collecting vintage linens for years since her father passed away. She became interested in them because of the nostalgia and memories they carried. After collecting so many, she realized that her home was being taken over by linens ,and something needed to change! Cindy started looking for ways to sell her linens. At first, she signed up for a booth in an antiques mall, but the mall closed down before she was able to sell anything.
So what do Martha Stewart and Cindy Funk have in common? They both love Etsy! And they both discovered it around the same time! Not long after her antiques mall attempt, Cindy was watching an episode of Martha Stewart and saw one of the founders of Etsy being interviewed. After learning that Etsy sold vintage items in addition to handmade, she signed up in 2009 and began listing her first items in 2010. It didn’t take long for Cindy to realize that Etsy was a great platform for her vintage tea towels! They started selling pretty quickly on the site. In 2011 Cindy set a goal to sell 100 items, that year. Instead, she sold 1000 items! From that point on, she started looking at her Etsy shop as a real business.
Where Can You Find Mint Condition Vintage Items?
It turns out... all over the place! Cindy hunts far and wide for just the right vintage linens to add to her shop. Since she focuses on items that are in mint condition, it can be quite tricky for her to keep her shop inventory at the 250-item level that she prefers.
Here's a list of all the places Cindy has found Vintage Linens:

Garage sales
Yard Sales
Church Sales
Antique Fairs
Flea Markets
Church Sales
Antique Malls
Thrift Shops
Estate Sales
E-bay
Online Stores
Her Mailman! (He's very interested in antiques but not linens, so when he runs across them in his hunts, he saves them for Cindy.)

Cindy dedicates one day a week to scouting vintage items. She picks one town that's within driving distance to her home in Central Illionois and goes shopping! There's a flea market once a month about an hour away, so she tries to attend that on a regular basis. And she also hunts online.
Cindy has great relationships with several antique dealers. They have her card and give her a call when something of interest comes in. As an experienced seller who likes to keep her inventory high, it's in their advantage to call someone who may make a large purchase all at once.
Why Cindy Doesn't Cast a Wide Net
Once upon a time, Cindy thought she could grow her business by offering a wider variety of items. She branched out to vintage collectibles and spent about 6 months buying up inventory. She had 500 items in her shop! Cindy thought that new customers would find those collectibles, head to her shop, and buy other items while they were there. That didn't really happen! They just b