… I think about my customers when creating. I think about them when listening to music, especially vinyl records. They like the things I like, I think. I was born in 67 and grew up with punk, disco, new wave, Americana, space-age, new romantics, house music, and the start of hip hop. I imagine my creations are influenced by this and attract a similar following.

… I sell sanitizer dispenser holders that can be small and mounted on the wall. I also make free-standing dispenser stands that replace the dull boring metal dispensers you see everywhere you go now. However, my dispenser stands are completely customizable with many different options to choose or base your design from such as menu holders, mail slots, magazine shelves, business or gift cardholders, and more!

… The best part about my shop is that I get to interact with different people all around the world . It has been an incredible journey so far and it is a lot of fun to get to do what my family does on daily basis back in Morocco.

… I try to make sure that every single day I catch up on orders and don’t let them go into the next day. The promptness of receiving items is VERY important to me in my business management. For me, it is all about finding a balance between creating new pieces to offer in my store and managing the orders that have already happened.

… Arte Torre, awarded the title of ” Excellence in Craftsmanship” by the Piedmont Region of Italy, has for three generations been dedicated to the printing, graphics, and reproduction of works of art.

… I started without any expectations so I wasn’t really worried. I just suffered a bit of the imposter syndrome and was just afraid that my work didn’t look professional enough as I was ( and still am) a one-woman business.
The returning customers and good reviews helped me to overcome this and encouraged me to design new patterns and widen my embroidery kits range.

… The idea for new or other products is a fluid process. I try to broaden my view of what I consider to be beautiful or appealing by consulting my customers, visit other sellers’ shops, read books on the objects, and visit exhibitions, fairs, markets, and museums.
I try to understand what my customers value the most, and why they prefer certain styles or designs. It seems that in the choice of antique and vintage items cultural history is quite dominantly present.

… Don’t force things, let the sellers choose which programs to use. The “free shipping” is a perfect example. It works for me but I don’t think it works well for all shops. Also, the recent change to offsite ads is pretty horrible. If you pass a $10,000 sale threshold you are forced into the offsite ad program which charges a ridiculous 12% per sale. No seller can afford that.

… I was raised in a household full of drying herbs, potted plants, and folk stories. I’ve always felt a strong pull to the green world, and to the Irish and Menominee legends I grew up hearing. As I got older, I felt that there was a disconnect between the modern world and the stories I loved; today’s world treats them either as quaint or venerates them as ‘wisdom of the ancients’.

… Selling online has changed my life. It is my life now. I never thought that my full-time job would become online-selling. I have had some stressful moments and I am just coming out of a period of time when I had no access to the material. I feel like stress while working for yourself is different than stress imposed on you by an employer. Yes I have stress but it is nothing like the stress I have had while employed.