Right before the holiday season, many of you are receiving or shipping final orders before you start to hunker down for a well-deserved hibernation for a few weeks. And let me be the first to say: PRIORITIZE HIBERNATION. Sink into it with all the cookies and family and naps you couldn’t possibly make time for over recent months.

Today we’re sharing tips for staying healthy and productive from two more powerful makers who know their stuff.

Regular people don’t realize how insane the pre-Christmas months are for makers. But: it’s true, they’re insane.

The sheer quantity of work -- in combination with the uncertainty and pressure of making the most of holiday sales -- adds up to quite the exhausting scenario.

The other day, I was coaching one of our newer makers by phone. To get to know her line, I flipped through her product listings to get a sense for what the jewelry was all about. Most of the pieces were ornate, creative, asymmetrical confections that were both vintage and fresh. But part of the line was simple brass jewelry. In our conversation, I asked how she felt about the brass pieces -- is that a direction she was planning to go in?

Mostly, growing your handmade wholesale business is not a place for cheats or tips or tricks. 

Mostly, growing wholesale is a long-term game where “boring” things like consistency, follow-up, respect, thoughtfulness, and gradual improvement of your product line are what work.

Since we spend all day everyday working with makers who are doing wholesale outreach, sometimes we’ll come across a fun tip that just is so simple and works so well that we think, “Gosh, I wish everyone knew about that.” 

As one maker friend put it: People were saying for months that a shift was going to happen with Etsy Wholesale. And, well… Shift happened.  As you’re probably well aware by now, Etsy Wholesale is closed its doors: July 31, 2018 was the last day of the platform. While few people are surprised -- since Etsy Wholesale had been quietly withdrawing for months -- many makers are understandably frustrated, freaked out, or just… tired.

SugarSky is one a maker brand that has found the elusive balance of being very well-respected by peers and customers alike — but also scaling pretty quickly in smart ways.

So we decided to hop on the phone to hear how her business has evolved. What she shared was really inspiring, very actionable, and sometimes surprising.

This year, I was invited to speak about growing your handmade wholesale business at Makers Summit (by Makers Collective, in Greenville, South Carolina.) It was exciting, since I really admire the Makers Collective folks and the authentic, thoughtful way they do things. But I had some reservations, because it's hard to take time away from work and life to do something that may be awesome or may be meh.