2020 - Another Year In Business

Since starting this blog I have tried to do a little recap at the end of each year regarding my online business. A little later than usual, it is already 2021 after all, I am looking back at 2020, a strange year in life and business.

LOOKING BACK AT 2020

January is often a very good month in business for me. The majority of my clients is from the USA and Europe, so in Winter I suppose people are more behind their computers and thus more likely to purchase my products. With the beginning of a new year lots of people also have new ideas about starting projects and businesses and I think part of my January success is linked to that. People looking for graphic design items for these new ventures.

After a very good January and an equal February, who would have thought that our world would be shaken up by a virus? Not me. But March came around and all panic broke lose with lockdowns and travel restrictions. I prepared myself for a year of less income. So many people were affected financially by the lockdowns that I thought that I would see that in my sales. But to my surprise I closed the year in December with more revenue than the year before. It's just mind blowing to me.

While September and October did have less sales compared to the years before, business picked up again in November. What must have been the strangest year in life brought me a 20% growth in revenue compared to the year 2019. So I am extremely thankful for that. 2020 exceeded all expectations that I had on a business level.

While my sales on Etsy were equal to the year before, the growth happened on the other platforms I sell on. I was invited several times to join a design bundle on these platforms that got me quite a bit of sales. And on top of that the company Adobe purchased a design from me to incorporate into one of their creative apps. This growth on the other platforms led me to take a leap of faith at the end of 2020...

NEW ADVENTURES IN 2021

With a growth in revenue I decided to use some of it as an investment, and after selling on online platforms for almost 7 years, I finally took the plunge to start my own separate webshop. I am still working on it, but hope to be able to launch it completely within a month time, so stay tuned for that!

It will be a guess whether this webshop will generate extra revenue. The nice thing about online selling platforms like Etsy and Creative Market is that they automatically bring in traffic because of their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and their advertising and social media presence. With a stand-alone webshop I am in charge myself of bringing in that traffic. Especially the social media part is not my forte. I don't even have social media accounts for The Dutch Lady Designs. It's really too much work to keep up with such accounts next to my graphic design work. So time will tell if a stand-alone webshop is a good addition to the online platform shops.

I am giving it a year. If by December 2021 I have not earned back at least my investment it's probably a done deal. But who knows? If 2021 is as surprising as 2020, then I will gladly let myself be suprised!

I hope that 2021 will be an amazing year for all my readers and clients. May we all get creative and make our lives and the lives of our loved ones a little bit more positive! ~ love, Daphne