Recently, TheStreet.com reported about the decline of revenue on e-commerce website, Etsy.com. While that may be true in some cases, because let’s face it, those numbers don’t lie, it is not necessarily the case for all of the Etsy entrepreneurs. Alicia Shaffer’s Etsy shop, ThreeBirdNest, for example, regularly rakes in hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue per year. Okay, need the numbers spelled out? $960,000, or, you know, a few numbers and one comma shy of $1 million. Sure, Shaffer and her handmade scarves and embellished accessories may just be the exception among thousands of failed peddlers, but she proves something very important to her fellow entrepreneurs. So if we lost you around that enviable mention of the whole $1 million thing, then listen up. Shaffer’s Etsy success proves that to succeed, you simply do not give up.

Heard that pearl of wisdom before? Maybe it has been said too many times, ingrained in our sometimes stubborn skulls, but it has been continuously reiterated for a reason. Shaffer, after all, had to get to where she is now by first recovering from a failed baby-apparel making business, and then go on to now let other small setbacks discourage her. Much like most of us face.

And along her path to success, she too found the benefits of social media marketing. Doing so gets you up close to your consumers and allows them immediate access to all there is to know about what you offer. Take it from the near-millionaire.

The point is, business ventures through hosting sites like Etsy could fail, sure. They could dissapoint you and send you running for the “would you like fries with that?” crowd. But only if you let it. As an entrepreneur, your mantra should involve never giving up and always being inspired by the success stories. If your idea needs to evolve, as Shaffer’s did, then so be it. And if you need to rework your plan, you have every right to – it’s your plan. Just don’t allow yourself to be scared into obscurity.

Photo courtesy of Fosforix