Etsy Struggles

Lately it seems that I have fallen off the face of the earth. I promise this is justified. I've been trying to set up my shop on Etsy, BUT, that has not gone as planned. I will describe in detail the struggle this has been since it's so pathetic it's funny. And it might factor into future decisions to start an "easy online business"... NO. just... no.

Ok. Where to start...

WARNING: I am about to go on a very long rant. Stop reading now!!!

1) First, I thought I had this quick, simple idea to make some money on Etsy sooo I looked into buying my basic supplies and found that they were cheapest online. That seemed fine but I didn't have a credit card. No problem, I'd make one. Wait. I went to the bank and they said I have to be 21. (Other people have since told me that's not true, but I swear that's what the guy told me*) Fine I'd ask my mom. Of course that took awhile before I had the card in my hands in front of the computer and it wasn't until checkout that I realized the shipping was going to cost me almost as much as my entire bulk order. Crisis #1: mostly averted.
2) Next, I had to battle with the production aspect of my brilliant business venture which, to be honest, I really had not thought through yet at this point. Let's just say that it involved a lot of spraypaint and that I was living in a college dorm in a very cold area of the country. Obviously that went well.
3) So far, I really wasn't doing too badly. I got a few of my friends to model for me and I'm a decent photographer so that went off without a hitch for the most part (it did start raining during one photoshoot). That got me all fired up to plaster every social media platform I know of with the pictures, although before I got to do that, I'd have to actually set up the Etsy shop to link to or else my homemade advertising would be pointless. Little did I realize how complicated that could actually be, starting with shipping expenses. I had no clue what to expect. I went to a UPS store to find out and they told me around $8 if I was lucky and probably actually closer to $15. Well... dammit. That was more expensive than my product. Then I had a stroke of genius. I tried asking the same question at the post office and YAY apparently it would ship for a flat fee of $5.20 or something.**
4) With a lot of luck, I had gotten through the first two parts: Name Your Shop and List Items before I reached a point that gave me goosebumps and made my blood run cold: Get Paid. That sounds great right? Except that would've entailed having to give my bank account numbers and stuff (which I definitely did not know) and more importantly, I hate banking. I don't understand it and I'm scared of it so I generally try to keep my distance. This was a terrifying moment on my long and winding path to Etsy success. Admittedly, I was a little deterred, but I'd already made stuff and spent money to buy it (I hate spending money almost as much as I hate banking) so I couldn't just quit. New plan! I found out about an old bank account I'd had when I was younger and apparently it still had a little bit of money in it! Easy solution? No. It was a custodial account, meaning it was my money and yet I couldn't do anything with it. I couldn't take it out, transfer it, close the account, nothing. I left the bank in tears. (I would have anyway though, banking is stressful.) Wait, in retrospect that was a dumb move. I came back two weeks later, my mom still had not touched my custodial account (I had asked if she could close it and give me my money), and opened a new account. (Which I could've done two weeks earlier if I had my head screwed on straight) To my knowledge, the custodial account still exists with all the money I owned at age 10 sitting in it.
5) Armed with a shiny new debit card and a new set of routing and account numbers to memorize, I ran to my computer to once and for all to open my shop! Still... no. Initially, everything seemed to go as planned (except the first time when I think I typed the numbers in wrong and it rejected me) until the page where I had to give my PayPal account or decide to use checks. Considering the fact that I hadn't ordered checks because they were like $11 or something ridiculous, that left me with one choice- which meant it wasn't really a choice. Begrudgingly, I made a PayPal account. Or at least attempted. For some reason, it kept directing me to the UK version and then asking me for my county. I'd click on the US flag and it would send me back to the homepage. I did this dance for like 10 minutes. It eventually let me create a US account where my state was listed and although this was delightful news, it then asked me to confirm my bank account. I could do this online or in 2-3 days (in person) but there's this one little thing that I have neglected to mention so far: I don't drive. Or, I try my very best not to. I'm bad at it and I don't like it. Usually I wait for someone to give me a ride but this delays things (which is a big part of the reason the whole Etsy affair was such a struggle) and 2-3 days is not a reasonable expectation. I'd have to confront my fears of online banking... this brings me to crisis #
6) which was when I decided I needed to vent about all my entrepreneurial obstacles. I had a million tabs open while Etsy and PayPal and the bank and blogger were all waiting for their turn to get my attention and my computer was running slowly because of it. I cautiously typed in the url of the online banking site and clicked ok to the user agreements that I hadn't read. I got out all the banking information for the thousandth time in the last few hours and prepared to type in meaningless digits. Poised for action, I was caught off guard when the screen suddenly changed:

UNIVERSE, I HEAR YOU. I would quit except I already put money into this half-baked idea. I clicked back to the Etsy tab and it was asking me to confirm my PayPal by email address. On a whim, I typed it in. It worked. What. Why.

That's the story.

*Also I know that I kind of skipped over mentioning that I do have a debit card, but before any of the struggles began, I was about to just type in the numbers and use that before my mom freaked out and said that was risky since it's attached to my bank account with my life savings. True, I have a tendency to complicate life and maybe I could have just used my own debit card here but then this sad tragic account of my inability to handle real life would not be as entertaining because then my life would have been easy. I may have unneccessarily complicated matters for myself by not taking the same risk of using the debit card here.
**In this summary of events, the timeline is pretty different. Between the UPS store incident and the Post Office miracle, there were actually a few months. The moment that I had the [really stupid] idea to open an Etsy shop to the moment that it [fiiiiiiiinally] opened actually spanned from Thanksgiving to June.


Here's the link to Etsy!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/190299136/go-wild-barcode-spray-painted-tshirts?

Runner

A pretty basic piano melody with meaningless lyrics and layers added in garageband.

https://soundcloud.com/570rmxiii/runner

Lester

I actually uploaded something!! It's kinda cool even though it's really bad because I kept the video of me playing it attached to the final, edited sound... if that makes any sense. Or, you could just go watch it: https://vimeo.com/56136170 Just make sure you listen with speakers or headphones with nice bass- trust me, it matters.

So hopefully I'll keep doing stuff since I have a couple weeks off. I'm working on something else that might turn out- or might not, depending :) Until then, maybe you'll actually like this?

and here's the soundcloud link:
https://soundcloud.com/570rm/lester

XXX
storm

Still

I've gotten everything that I used as an excuse for not making better music. I used to say that I could do it when I had a Macbook. Then, only if I had my own Macbook. I said that I needed a synth. A better guitar. The right cords and converters. Guitar lessons. A band. New software is still on the list, and a tabla or drum machine, but you and I can both see how this is going. Tonight I realized how pathetic my attempts have been. Since I moved into my dorm, I have only touched my guitar and Garageband once. ONCE. And, (even though I try not to say this out loud), I may have some ridiculous dreams of actually doing music for a living someday. I am a contradiction. I want to take the world by storm with my music, but yet I don't write or even play. I've heard it said that if something is important enough to you, you'll make time for it. But music is important to me. The only reason I can think of is that I'm scared- it might not turn out like I imagined (read: perfect), and then I would feel like permanently quitting. Isn't it better if I just postpone the failure so at least right now I can feel like I'm good at music?

Tonight, I broke out an unfinished song, one which explores new musical territory for me. That means that there is a huge risk involved. If my attempt to.... rap (yes, little middle-class white girl, blah blah blah- shut up)... if rap doesn't doesn't go well this time, I might never touch it again. I found some old synth/iPad recordings and tried to put the two together. Perfect? NO. But at least I opened Garageband.

I need to remember to keep getting back on the horse, even though it's big and it's scary and it is wayyyy too easy to fall off. And tomorrow, I will open Garageband again.

XXX
storm

We can check that off.

     One thing I remember learning in ninth grade health class besides "drugs are bad" was that the high you get from them is the same as playing music or sports or acting on stage or skydiving or rock-climbing. So you can buy happiness. It's called weed. But, wouldn't it be more fun to actually skydive?

Amazing skydiving video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFEN7BQ7Zus&list=FLjZlHcBb2iP7iP6pJeYE-VA&feature=mh_lolz

My health teacher at the time was a musician, and he told us he found euphoria playing with his band on stage. I always thought that was kind of cool, and never having experimented with lessthanlegal substances myself, wondered what a rush that was worth risk and money would feel like. I also happen to be a musician, but am pretty shy and scared of playing in front of actual people. I wasn't the type of person that could play live. But, lately I've been restless and frustrated with the multiple ruts I've allowed myself to fall into. I've been far too busy with The Mentalist to bother to climb back out of those ruts. That's just pathetic. A week or two ago, I called up my friend who, like me, loves music, but is scared of performing. "Play live" was on the summer bucket list. In fact, "LIVE" had been on my hand (where I write everything important) for the past three years. Tonight was open mic night at a local venue. And tonight, I can finally wash my hands of "LIVE"- literally. I couldn't help noticing that my name online is storm (the reasons behind this deserve their own whole post) and, as we drove home, a huge thunderstorm blew in, with the dramatic flashes following us as we sped away at the speed of light, euphoric at having finally conquered some long-standing fears. A good omen?

XXX 
storm

http://soundcloud.com/570rm/this-used-to-be-the-future

So here I am. 1:33 am and more awake than I've quite possibly ever felt before. I guess I didn't know exactly how it would feel, despite all the hours I laid awake imagining it. I finally completed a song, recorded it, edited it, uploaded it, and amazingly, still liked it. Obviously it's not perfect, because my voice cracks at 2:55 and the "blinded by your arrogance" doesn't fit like I'd planned, but it's done. And so, even if you normally see naive, teenage DIY musicians trying to get people to listen to their stuff and are indifferent or slightly annoyed, I'm really, really sorry but it would mean the world if you commented. 

http://soundcloud.com/570rm/this-used-to-be-the-future

XXX
storm