22 Etsy Business Success Stories [2023]

Hi! My name is Mike, and I’m a serial entrepreneur living in Montreal, Canada. I run Vagabond Heart, a company that makes modern vintage-inspired travel patches and stickers to help your luggage stand out on a the carousel.

I started the company just under two years ago, and we’ve been growing at a 100+% growth rate ever since. Currently we sell just over $5,000 per month worth of patches and stickers.

Hi, I’m Theresa the owner of the blog DIY Lifestyle. On my blog, I share dozens of gluten-free, vegan, paleo, raw vegan and healthy recipes, fun crafts & DIYs, helpful life hacks, and travel tips. I started my blog because I was looking for a place to write down useful information to share with people all around the world but it quickly turned into something more.

Hi there! My name is Markus Hartel and I started Raghaus Studios, a boutique letterpress print shop and graphic design studio five years ago after moving to a new domicile with nothing but a dream, no customers, and little cash in my pocket.

The Raghaus product line includes irreverent beverage coasters, fun comment cards, rad stash boxes and the latest addition to my portfolio are motivational candles.

I’m Colin, and I started Stencil Stop in 2015. We manufacture and sell different types of stencils, including custom stencils, which are some of our best-sellers. Our custom mylar stencils are super durable and reusable and are great for quickly painting a company’s brand, text, or designs on almost any outdoor or indoor surface. Custom layered stencils have become a go-to product for people looking to create multicolored, detailed images or logos.

Today we earn around $100K per month in revenue and are continuing to grow quickly by expanding our product lines and manufacturing capabilities, as well as by solidifying our brand’s visuals and message.

Hi guys! My name is Paul Kaster and I’m the owner of Crooked Branch Studio. I started the business in 2016 making handcrafted wooden bow ties, but I’ve since expanded to carbon fiber bow ties under the sub-brand Carbon Cravat.

After outsourcing most of my day-to-day work to contractors around the United States, my business now consistently pulls in around $1000/mo in profit with minimal upkeep. If you’re interested in learning how to turn a labor-intensive business into a self-running income stream, I’ll be diving more into specifics later.

My name is Sasha Weekes and I’m the 25 years old owner of Timber Grove Studios. Our home-based woodshop is nestled in the hills of PEI’s countryside, and we specialize in decorative shelving and home decor with a focus on minimalist design and simplicity. Each piece is made to order with 20+ color options, meaning it will be the perfect fit for each customer's space. We ship Canada and U.S. wide.

Moving twice in two years has definitely caused organizational, financial and opportunity hiccups, but the business has grown steadily regardless so we’re very excited about where 2020 will take us. We’ve learned what to focus on during which months, as revenue can range anywhere from $2000 during slow months to $10,000 during high months. Net profit has run anywhere between 20-50% throughout the life of the business and varies month to month. It’s closer to 20% right now as we’ve been spending all we can on new tools and materials for our new larger products and our Christmas stock.

My name is Ryan Popoff and I am the owner and maker at Popov Leather. We are a Canadian company that makes and sells small leather goods online. The majority of our sales are focused on direct-to-consumer and almost entirely in the USA.

Our top selling products are (you probably guessed) wallets. People love a great quality wallet backed by our amazing customer service.

Oh My Balm was founded two years ago and we make kitchen-crafted all-natural body products. Our tagline is “Two Mom’s Making it Real.”

We promote them through our marketing, as they work on several different projects that create a life of prosperity for African women and their families. You can find more about them here. The other charity that is close to our hearts is Behind The Scenes, which provides financial support to entertainment technology industry professionals if they, or their immediate dependent family, are seriously ill or injured. We make a body butter, “Crew,” and we give a portion of the proceeds of every tin sold to BTS. This got us mention in several entertainment industry magazines.

Hello there! We are Lindsay Ann Gottschall and Courtney Joy Bleier, two sisters from Miami who started Ann + Joy. We make handmade real flower and resin jewelry and sell online and in stores around the world. We take pride in being one of the first companies to make real flower jewelry. During our first year of business, we blossomed almost immediately into a very successful Etsy shop. Etsy was constantly featuring our products on its website and in promotional emails. We are proud to say that since starting in early 2017 we have had over 5,000 sales online.

For all the readers, we are providing a 20% off coupon to our Etsy shop. Use code: STARTERSTORY at checkout!

My name is James Wolfer, and I am the founder, owner, and operator of Valhalla Wood Forge. We are a veteran and first responder run woodworking company that started in 2017.

As an update, October 2019 was our biggest month yet, grossing $8500, with about a 70% profit. We paid ourselves $5000, and reinvested about $1000 into future product lines and another $600 in running Facebook and Google Ads. As of today, November 14, we're already at over $4,000 gross and have had a pretty good ROAS.

Hi, my name is Jeff and I started Stoic Muse last year as a creative side project. I am currently selling about 100-150 t-shirts per month ($3K revenue) with around a 40% margin. I am hoping to sell 500 in December!

I’m Ralu Petrea, the founder (and UX Designer) at Outline Planner, the paperless planner that took me one week to launch and two years to refine. I started this project as a test, with a €499 initial investment, and it paid off since my first week. It is my full-time job two years later, and I am now open to growing my team.

I launched the first planner in November 2018 on Etsy, as a test, with a €499 investment (for my iPad and the Apple Pencil) with no followers, no business plan, and a brand name borrowed from my previous business that failed. From November 2018 until October 2020, I sold my planners exclusively through my Etsy shop and reached €80K+ in sales, with profit margins around 70% (mostly depending on ad-spend). In 2 years, I got 4K+ orders (15-20% are returning customers) with an avg. customer value of €58.36, and all that while working on my UX design service business.

We are Mari and Matt McNamara and we’re the founders of No Cold Feet, a gifting company currently focused on groomsmen gifts. We’re in our third full year of business and planning on growing our business more than ever with new products, increased marketing, and focusing on growing our various platforms.

Last year we passed $200k in revenue and have cumulatively sold over 10k orders in the last three years.

Over the last 12 months, we’ve expanded our products to include two tattoo designs in six colors, swimsuits, and clothing, all with the unifying “mermaid scale” theme. These last six months we’ve averaged about $1,000/month in mostly passive income.

I am Betsy and I run Betsy DeVille at betsydeville.com, an e-commerce business capturing the positive viewpoints of the atheist, humanist, freethinker, lifestyle and expressing them in fashion, accessories, home decor, and gifts.

My income has doubled each year and I estimate I had about $1000 in sales last year. I am also a full time professional in fintech, with a family. I aim to bring two new ornaments to market each year and to expand the brand into another space. This year, it was Instagram and neckties.

My name is Jamie Skinner and I am one of the co-founders of Jungle Culture. We are an e-commerce brand that sources eco-friendly products directly from farms, small craft workshops, and ethical factories and sells them online worldwide.

Propelled by our success and the desire to create more change, we switched our focus to eco-friendly products as a whole and created Jungle Culture, which this year turned over just over $1,000,000.

The backstory to the creation of Choast came from a long time of smoking weed with friends and being around people you can be yourself with. This is a very important aspect to us because being able to be yourself and not have the stress of being judged by your peers or friends really allows that person to be who they truly are.

Choast has become one of the most well known upcoming brands within the Toronto community and also within the cannabis niche suiting stoners all around. Having products ranging from hoodies to stickers, Choast has made an impact on the stereotype surrounding cannabis with the younger generation, creating a new way of thinking around cannabis. Choast is making $5,000 per month.

Lauren Keplinger ran her Etsy shop for four years but made less than minimum wage from her efforts. So, she closed down, rested, and re-evaluated.

When she opened back up in 2016, she employed a new strategy: get rid of every marketing tactic or time-sucking activity that wasn’t producing results and focus only on what was growing her business.

The result? She now works less than 10 hours a week and makes $14,000/month on Etsy.

Apart from her Etsy store she has also launched a new website of the same name, Funky Monkey Children, and directly sells from this website.

Also, Lauren has recently started another website under her own name where she helps other people looking to grow successful with her proven tips, strategies, and guidance material.

Read the full story on handmadeseller.com ➜

• The founder of OpossumRotStudio goes by the name Erick as she lists her goods for sale on Etsy.
• She has a side business on Etsy that earns her more than $1,000 a month despite being only 16 years old.
• Before starting her Etsy shop, Erick had no prior experience managing an online store, and she had no customers.
• However, this 16-year-old learned about running and managing an Etsy business on her own and managed to generate 4 figures per month income by selling Possum pins on Etsy.

Listen to the full podcast on podcasts.apple.com ➜

• In 2019, Vlad Kuksenko founded TagPup, an Etsy shop selling pet supplies.
• The company offers custom collars, pet tags, dog bandanas, and a wide range of other pet products.
• Only a few years ago, Vlad invested $500 to launch TagPup. He now generates $60K in revenue each month with a 50% profit margin.
• Before starting TagPup, the founder worked as a graphic designer and product consultant.
  

Watch the full video on youtube.com ➜