I sold my e-commerce business at the beginning of the year and didn’t have any plans to start another one. Well, over the summer I got inspired to start an ornament store.
I’ll most likely end up selling more than just ornaments but that’s where I decided to start. I found a supplier who offers about 20 different ornament designs and they use my own designs to make the ornaments.
I originally had the idea to start a new e-commerce store called Sketch The Seasons back in 2021. I bought this failing e-commerce business that was selling personalized caricatures. It was called Print Steve when I bought it. I liked the idea of selling personalized art and I thought it would be a good idea to make the art offerings seasonal themed.
This is an example of what I was envisioning (that’s me!)
I decided to change the name to Sketch The Seasons. I liked it and it fit better with the direction I wanted to take it.
Unfortunately not too long after I started the rebrand I got busy with other things and Sketch The Seasons just sat there for a few years. In the back of my mind I always wanted to do something with it I just didn’t know when.
In March of this past year I started an eBay store reselling used holiday decorations that I could ship easily. The item I ended up gravitating towards the most was ornaments. I realized a lot of ornaments sold year around and that they make ornaments for almost every occasion or reason you can think of.
New baby, retirement, graduation, new job, new pet, places you’ve visisted, places you live, religion, hobbies, new home, professions, humor, sports teams, political, parents, grandparents, friends, starting school and many more.
What really drove the point home for me was when I went on vacation this summer to the Outer Banks and saw they have a Christmas retail store that sells 90% ornaments year around. I looked up the business and realized they are actually a chain of stores down south that have been in business for many years and have expanded.
Even just doing some quick Google searches I found other e-commerce stores that sell just ornaments and have been in business for a long time.
All of this led me to the idea to restart Sketch The Seasons as an ornament store. I’ve only been working on it for about a month but I’m happy with the progress I’ve made. I’m mainly focusing right now on designing ornaments and building up collections. I started with Halloween and a little bit of Thanksgiving. I’ll get some Christmas up as well over the next month or so.
My expectations with Sketch The Seasons are not high. If I was focused soley on profits I would have never chosen an ornament store. There are many better products to sell that will make more money. However, I enjoy it and at this point in my life I’m choosing to pursue my interest over profit.
I’ll continue to give updates on my progress. Looking forward to see where things lead to. One thing I know from past experience is things don’t ever go quite the way you expect. You have to be fluid.