Top 5 Shop Essentials

Top 5 Shop Essentials

DAY-TO-DAY STICKER SHOP EQUIPMENT I USE

Today I am sharing my the list of my top most utilized items for my online sticker business. I use these shop essentials every single day to run my sticker shop (and honestly, my blog). Along with a little bit of insight into the day-to-day behind the scenes action, I hope those of you who are interested find this post useful.

ELECTRONICS

Obviously my iPad and Mac are first on the list. My little studio needs these gadgets to design stickers and printables, print and cut the designs to sell, process orders, and even more for the blog. I use my Mac to edit my YouTube videos, I spend countless hours drawing out all of my designs on the iPad, and I use both devices together more often than not. They kind of go hand-in-hand in my mind so that’s why they are together as my most important (and frankly most expensive) shop essential.

Related: How to Print & Cut Sticker Sheets With Procreate & Cricut

If you want to know my top five apps or computer programs leave me a comment below, I’ll do a post on those two.

PRINTER

Arguably the most important piece of equipment I use in the shop is my printer. It’s how I get the desired look that I am able to send out through the shop and I really love the one I use. I went with the larger format printer so that I could also print large-scale photos when I am memory keeping and it has already paid itself off in the shop. I had not had a printer for years so I did a lot of research and made sure I got something that could do everything I needed personally, as well as for the shop. So far so good.

 

sticker shop essentials infographic

 

PACKAGING

If you want to read about how I package my products you can read about that here but it is super important that my product arrive as close to the way I sent it out as possible. I try to keep shipping as eco-friendly as possible so everything I send out is recycled, recyclable, and even biodegradable. It was also vital that my own style and shop branding be able to shine through as well. I like packages to arrive and feel like a little gift in the mail, so packaging is a big deal for my shop.

Related: How I Branded My Shop & Blog

BACKDROPS

So much of my business revolves around my photos so I have gradually been getting more and more serious about the way they look. I like a nice backdrop for my product shots but also for blog post photos, and even when sharing things on social media. I have a few backdrops from Replica Surfaces and really enjoy styling on them. They have been holding up well and always find a way to my my products or props pop.Full disclosure, before I purchased the ready-made backgrounds, I just used my desk most of the time. It was DIY’d from a piece of leftover wood we had from another home project and some adjustable desk legs I grabbed from IKEA. I mixed two stain colors together, added a clear coat, and pow. When we moved out of the house I had my husband cut the “desk” down for me to still use for photos and it is still my go-to backdrop. I just love the color so much. Sure, it is heavier and less flexible but it’s my favorite.

CUTTING MACHINE

All of my physical sticker sheets are cut with my Cricut Explore Air 2 and while it is finicky, it’s definitely a requirement for my sticker shop. I am saving up for a new machine, but I will go into that more in a later post. Completely irrelevant but I really enjoy the emerald color, even though I was shopping for the yellow version.I purchased mine on Facebook marketplace because I was pretty unsure of whether this sticker thing would stick (😉) back then and I didn’t want to invest all that money when there were so many for sale in my area. I am glad I went this way becuase it allowed me to test the waters without feeling too pressured. Cricut machines are known to be temperamental and unpredictable and mine is no different. Now that I have figured my machine out I am quite content with it. That said, every time I unplug it and move or they upgrade the software, I have something I need to re-learn again. Maybe I’ll post a review of my experiences with it one day.

And that is it for today, my biggest shop essentials to run an online sticker business from home. Let me know if you have any questions or want a specific post going into more detail one of the essentials!

xox.

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hi, i'm v.

ISTJ, Taurus, Type 5

I'm a sticker maker, shop owner, Marine wife and mom. I design and create everything behind LBH in my home studio in Kailua. You can read more about my story here to get to know me better, and read about how the shop came about. 🍋