Keeping Them Separate - But Equal

I am happy to say that I am the proud owner of two Etsy shops.

I started my first shop (a supply store - http://www.michew82.etsy.com) in March of 2008. At the time I was just getting into making my own jewelry with beads and findings and I figured that since I was buying supplies on-line anyway, I might as well buy them in bulk and share the discount I received with my Etsy friends. I really got into it... I started looking for fun and unique items, items that other supply shops didn't have and I found my niche in importing gemstone beads from Thailand and India. My customers loved that they could get these items without having to deal with the costs of importing and the hassles of customs - and I loved that I had an excuse to buy all of these gemstone beads, even if I knew I couldn't/wouldn't use them all myself! I came up with a system to organize the beads and I bought a shipping scale so I could easily weigh my items and print my shipping labels off Paypal.

Although I love working on my supply shop, it made me a little sad. In the spirit of Etsy, I wanted to be involved with the handmade community on a more personal level. I have always been a crafter... I use my Knifty Knitter weaving loom to make scarves, I make handbags with funky fabrics on my sewing machine (when I was in high school - years ago - I would make a lot of my own clothes), I make jewelry with gemstone and glass beads.... so many crafts, so little time!

I knew that if I was going to open another Etsy store I would have to be creative - think outside the box. For those for you that don't know (wink, wink) there is a lot of competition on Etsy (especially in my favorite category - jewelry)! What could I possibly offer that wasn't already listed 100 times over? Staring at my embroidery floss box, it came to me... stylish embroidery floss jewelry!! And on October 31, 2008.... CraftyChick101 was born (http://www.craftychick101.etsy.com).

Now I find my biggest challenge of all... keeping my shops separate - but equal. I have to say, my jewelry shop is my baby. I love them items I create - my heart and soul goes into each and every piece. I map out patterns and color combinations and I take my time editing my photos and describing my items so that my visitors get all of the information they need easily. I love to Twitter about my ideas and the new items I list, but oh man, that shop takes a lot of work!

My supply shop on the other hand, gets a lot of sales. If I re-list items regularly, I can get several sales a week (all of which I am very grateful for), but when I visit other supply shops I see that some of them that have been open less time and have (literally) 10x the sales I do. I know that if only I did some external advertising - made a Twitter account for my beads, posted on the forums regularly (like I do with my jewelry shop) that I would drum up a lot more traffic and potentially sales, but how in the world (with my full time job and my embroidery floss shop) do I find the time??

And that is my dilemma friends! How to keep my two worlds separate - but equal. Is it possible to have the time (and energy) to manage two Etsy shops successfully?