I’m 34 and I’ve made £1.5m selling jewellery on Etsy, it started as a side hustle but here’s how I became a millionaire | The Sun
MANY people dream of starting a side hustle – and one woman has revealed how hers has made a staggering £1.5million.
Ashley Bostwick, 34, from Orlando, has hit seven figures after launching her Etsy shop Wander and Lust Jewelry in 2014.
As her business name suggests, Ashley specialises in making handmade jewellery pieces, and says personalised products are where the money is at.
Speaking to Business Insider, Ashley said: “My HR job was just paying the bills, so I wanted start a hobby or a side hustle. I was on Etsy one day looking for bridesmaid gifts for my upcoming wedding and realised it would be an amazing hobby or side business to sell something on Etsy.”
After her fiance lent her an initial $300 (£242), Ashley bought materials to make her first pieces and then listed them on the selling site.
She enlisted the help of a friend who owned a good camera, and also set up her first photoshoot to get snaps of her products.
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Although she had to sell the jewellery alongside her main job, Ashley said she was willing to do whatever it took to make the business successful enough to do full-time.
In her first year, she made $20,000 (£16,190), which was around half of what she made in HR.
The income wasn’t enough to quit her job for, so she tried to find a niche in the market to help her stand out.
She explained: “In 2014, a lot of the jewellery trends had to do with big, chunky pieces. I never really loved that look. I always liked the dainty jewellery. So, I started developing dainty jewellery because I noticed that a lot of places didn't have it.”
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The gamble paid off, and in 2018 she hit her first six figures.
Ashley said that her increase in sales was down to identifying rings that weren’t common on Etsy, such as “moonstone” rings – which is one of her bestsellers.
In 2019, she doubled her sales after focusing on “personalising and customising” her products.
Ashley continued: “A lot of Etsy customers are looking for gifts, so making your products easily giftable and offering different options to personalise them is really what gets people to buy.”
She soon started selling cards that could accompany the jewellery – and said that rebranding her best-selling pieces into new specific niches was key to her growth.
She advised: “Look at what influencers are promoting, what's hot on Pinterest, in magazines, in online publications, and on TikTok.”
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