Welcome to part two of my Q&A series! This time, we’re getting into the messy, magical, often-overwhelming world of running a small creative business. You asked some really insightful questions: about numbers, burnout, orders, and that ever-elusive balance between passion and paying the bills.
So if you’ve ever wondered what it’s really like behind the screen of favoritepostcard.com, this part is for you.
Here come the business questions:
- How many items do you sell in total — every sticker, bookmark, card… you name it?
I’m not entirely sure I understood the question correctly, but I’ll do my best to answer it both ways!
If you mean how many different products I currently have in the shop (as in, how many things you could add to your cart if you took one of each), then it’s around 1100.
If you mean the total quantity of physical products in stock, well, I don’t know the exact number right now (I do a full inventory at the end of the year), but we’re probably talking about 40,000+ items sitting on shelves, in boxes, or waiting to be packed.
Yes… that’s a lot of postcards and stickers. 😅
- What was your largest order ever?
I don’t do wholesale, and there are a couple of reasons for that.
First, I run a small shop and try to keep my prices as friendly and fair as possible. People buying for resale usually expect big discounts, and honestly… there’s no margin for that here. Second, popular wholesale platforms like Faire don’t work with Lithuania, which makes finding resellers a bit trickier.
So all of my orders come from individual customers, lovely people who support small business with their own money and love for postcards and stationery. On average, orders are usually around €30–50.
That said… there have been a few that made me blink, double-check the numbers, and maybe sit down for a moment. 😅 Over the years (nearly 15 now!), I’ve had a few orders that went over €500, just a handful, but each one felt like a little milestone.
- What are the upsides of running a small business? ❤️
Honestly? Every upside can also feel like a downside on a bad day, but here are the things I genuinely love about running a small business:
First, it pushes me to constantly learn. I do everything myself, from product design to customer emails. My husband helps with tricky technical stuff, but the rest? All me. This year, I completely redesigned my online shop and continue tweaking it almost daily. That means I’ve had to level up my IT skills, dig into marketing (without being annoying, still learning that part!), and try to understand the mysterious world of email automation.
And taxes. Don’t get me started on ever-changing laws and bookkeeping rules… but hey, that’s a skill too now, right?
One of the biggest upsides? You’re only accountable to yourself. You get to decide which idea is worth chasing, and how fast you run after it.
But the real magic? The connection with customers. I get to know people, not just their names, but what they love. I notice their Instagram posts, I remember if they’ve had a hard week, and when I pack their orders, I can slip in a surprise they didn’t expect but maybe really needed. That’s something you rarely find in big companies. And I never take it for granted.
Also: every order still makes me happy. Even after all these years. That joy? 100% a small biz perk. 💛
- Have you ever felt tired of doing stationery / sticker business and how do you manage it????
Oh yes. Definitely. Especially this year.
There are moments when I feel like I’m pouring my whole heart into what I do. I ask my followers what they’d love to see. I create based on their wishes. I spend weeks designing, planning, uploading, preparing… and then I launch a new shop update and – silence. No clicks. No buzz. No views on reels even.
And then, just when I start wondering if maybe it’s just a slow week, I find out about some new tax law or bureaucratic requirement that affects almost all small businesses, including mine. Another change. Another headache. Another night reading accountant blogs and still not understanding a thing.
That’s when the doubts sneak in: Maybe it’s time to quit. Maybe I should find a “real” job. Something safe. Something predictable.
I stop creating. My brain shuts down. I don’t want to design anything. Even opening my laptop feels like too much.
But then, something small happens.
An order comes in, and someone leaves a kind comment. Or a message appears in my inbox: “Thank you so much! I love everything.”
And I remember.
I don’t sell survival essentials. I create joy. My products live in mailboxes, on desks, in journals, they become part of people’s hobbies. They travel the world, spark connections, decorate letters, and bring a little color into someone’s day.
That kind of thing doesn’t show up in a spreadsheet. But it matters.
And when I sleep on that thought, when I let it sink in, I always wake up a little more inspired to keep going.
So yes, I do get tired. But somehow, kindness has a way of waking me up again.
- What is your favourite part of having an online shop and the worst part?
The best part? I get to make all the decisions. Every little detail, from how the homepage looks to what words I use in social media. That kind of creative freedom is rare and powerful.
I love building products from scratch. I love planning collections, naming them, thinking about what someone might feel when they hold a postcard or peel a sticker. It’s a strange but wonderful mix of imagination, storytelling, and problem-solving.
But… there’s the other side.
The worst part is how much time disappears into bureaucracy. Taxes, forms, VAT rules that change every few months, it’s not just boring, it’s overwhelming. Especially when you’re doing it all on your own and have to learn everything from scratch.
And there’s this constant pressure: you can’t just create, you also have to sell. Marketing, emails, social media, analytics, it’s all part of the job, even on the days when all I want to do is design something lovely and pack it with care.
So yes, running an online shop means being a designer, accountant, tech support, packer, and marketing department all at once. But in the end, it still feels worth it. Because it’s mine.
- How many devices you use in your business?
Oh wow… a lot. Probably more than I should admit. 😅
Let’s see. I have three plotters for cutting stickers (though I only use two, because I cannot stand how noisy the Silhouette Cameo 4 is). Two heavy-duty laminators, one at home, one at the office. Four regular printers. One sublimation printer. One thermal printer. A guillotine cutter. A notebook binding press (yes, I have it even though I haven’t made any notebooks… yet). A heat press. A laser machine (also waiting for its big debut in the shop). And we have a sewing machine (my husband operates it), which was used to make linen tote bags, so I can count it too.
My gear is now spread between two locations, which sounds very serious – and maybe it is?
Oh, and if I ever decide to pivot into 3D printing? Yep, I’m ready for that too, that robot is standing right behind me.
And computer, phone, tablet. I’m probably forgetting something, but you get the idea. I run a postcard and sticker shop, but also… a tiny, chaotic print lab disguised as a business.
- What does your average workday actually look like?
It depends on the day, but yes, I try to have structure (key word: try).
Mondays are sacred: packing day. After the weekend, there are usually more orders, so I focus only on packing, printing labels, and organizing everything for shipment. I avoid planning anything else, because packing always takes longer than expected.
Tuesdays to Thursdays are a mix of everything else: design work, product uploads, writing descriptions, replying to messages, updating listings, tweaking the website, planning newsletters, photographing products, cutting stickers… and trying not to forget lunch.
Fridays are bookkeeping day. Not my favorite, but necessary. It’s when I update my spreadsheets, track expenses, and try to pretend that I totally understand how taxes work. 😅
Sticker production happens 1–2 times per week, because once I start, it takes hours. I also do a lot of switching between my home and office space depending on what machines I need that day.
So is it glamorous? Not really. But it’s mine, and somehow, that makes the chaos worth it.
- How do you come up with new product ideas?
Honestly? I ask my customers. 😄
I often use Instagram to check in with people, what themes they’re interested in, what kind of postcards or stickers they’d love to see next. Those conversations are gold. Sometimes a whole idea is born from one comment or vote in a story poll.
I also keep an eye on what’s doing well in the shop, and then I play around with variations on that theme. If something resonates, why not explore it from another angle?
And then there’s the purely visual inspiration. While browsing through illustration libraries (where I buy licensed artwork), I’ll sometimes stumble across one beautiful image, and suddenly a whole new theme starts forming in my head.
That’s actually how the Postcrossing Truths series began. I was brainstorming new postcard ideas for the “Let’s…” collection, something fun and postal-related. I came up with “Let’s check the mailbox three times a day”, and that one silly thought snowballed into a brand-new series with a bit more sarcasm and postcrosser humor.
So yeah… part logic, part instinct, and a lot of listening.
- What’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened while running your shop?
Oh, I’ve had my fair share of “oops” moments, but this one definitely takes the cake.
It was just before World Postcard Day, and I had created a new design: “Let’s celebrate World Postcard Day!” I loved how it turned out and was pretty excited, I had ordered a big batch, confident it would do well. (Spoiler: it became my shop’s all-time bestseller.)
But then… disaster.
Before I even listed it in the shop, I slipped one into a customer’s order as a little freebie. That customer posted it in a postcard exchange group on Facebook. And that’s when I saw it, in a photo. Not World Postcard Day. It said Word Postcard Day. 😱
Cue internal screaming.
There was no time to reprint before the actual date, and I had a full box of flawed cards. So, I did the only thing I could: I owned the mistake. I publicly admitted the typo, dropped the price to match production cost, labeled them clearly as “defective,” and, here’s the fun part, I added the missing “L” by hand with a black marker on every single card.
People loved it. The entire batch sold out, and it actually created a little moment of humor and connection with customers. The corrected version (with all its letters intact!) is still a bestseller today.
Moral of the story? Sometimes a fail is just the start of something fun.
Thanks for reading part two of this Q&A series, I hope it gave you a better idea of what life behind a small business actually looks like. It’s messy, unpredictable, sometimes frustrating… but also full of heart, growth, and little moments of joy that keep me going.
If anything here made you smile, nod in agreement, or want to ask more, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
In the next post, we’ll talk about all things postcards and snail mail, including my favorite card designs, Postcrossing confessions, and sticker-hoarding habits. Stay tuned! 💌
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