Reaffirming the Team Vision

There is no more powerful engine driving an organization toward excellence and long-range success than an attractive, worthwhile, achievable vision for the future, widely shared.

� Burt Nanus, Visionary Leadership

Less than six months ago, in response to then-current Etsy events, this team was formed in an effort to elevate the status of Etsy handmade shops over the increasing number of reseller shops, and to raise awareness of the importance of handmade in general. In our efforts, we determined that we first needed to establish a team reputation, and to do that, we needed to get our team "out there." That is where we are now.

In the past few months, as our membership has grown to over 800, we have created a team blog, promotional website, Facebook page,  Pinterest page, and have begun promoting on Wanelo. Some of these promotional avenues are still a work-in-progress, but as we continue to grow and learn as a team, our progress will be reflected in our promotional output. Keep in mind, in team years, we are pre-schoolers!

The first few months were spent getting the team off the ground. Now it is time to have some fun! We have started putting forth more team games and challenges, and all members are encouraged to participate. Besides great promotional tools, games and challenges are a fun way to get to know your teammates.

We have also loosened the rules for team treasuries to give them more diversity. We need to keep up the treasury-making as this is one of the best ways to keep our team out there on Etsy. And, once again ----- please tag your listings with the team tag - "teamhandmade." Otherwise, you are missing out on free shop promotion. If you can't be found, you can't be promoted! Simply add the phrase "teamhandmade" (no quotes, no capital letters) as one of the tags in each of your listings.

With our team vision in mind, we will continue to promote our members and build our team reputation as we move toward our goal of raising awareness to the buying public about the importance and value of buying handmade. It is my belief that by working on this goal, we will be much closer to attaining our goal of elevating handmade shops above resellers on Etsy.

Work is continuing on a handmade directory that is a stand alone website. This is a slow-going work-in-progress, but once completed should help our team reach its goals. Please bear with me. I will be calling on membership for help when I get a little further along.

As always, suggestions and ideas for attaining team goals is always welcome and appreciated!

As a reminder: During team formation, we decided to be as inclusive as possible and to accept members, not based on skill-level or quality of product, but on dedication to keeping the spirit of handmade alive and well on Etsy. And this is the criteria I have used in accepting shops onto the team. There may be team shops some members find questionable as to quality and/or "handmadeness" of shop offerings. I think most of us would agree that quality is a choice for the buyer. And - I stand behind my conclusion that "handmadeness" is in the eye of the beholder.

Also, many of our newest members are also new to Etsy and trying to find their way around this often confusing place! We need to continue to make them feel welcome to Etsy, and especially welcome to our team. It is only as they become acclimated to Etsy that they can better understand our team goals and mission.

I appreciate everyone's work in building this team.
I appreciate the help and assistance members give to one another.
I appreciate the respectful, friendly, and inviting tone of our team.

Keep up the good work, ya'll:)

The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get. ~Jim Rohn

 

 Cap'n Kathi