From Hobby to Hustle: How to Scale Quail Sales + Payments, Websites, and Reviews

In this episode, we’re talking about how to scale from hobby quail-keeping to a real business—without getting burned by scammers, chargebacks, or platform fees.

Carrie’s back from travel (and we’re recording during an ice storm), so we’re using that momentum to break down the practical business side of quail: how to start selling, how to get paid safely, where to sell online, and how to price correctly when fees stack up. Even if you raise chickens, turkeys, ducks, or other poultry, the same business principles apply.

What we cover:

• The 3 types of poultry people you’ll run into (and why it matters for learning & scaling)
• Payment processors: PayPal, Venmo, Zelle — what they do and what they don’t protect
• Why “Friends & Family” payments are a major red flag for buyers
• Purchase protection fees (and why sellers must price for them like any other cost of doing business)
• The buyer/seller trust balance: shipping risk, fair expectations, and chargebacks
• Selling platforms: Etsy, eBay, Amazon, Shopify, Squarespace (pros, cons, and what fees really cost)
• Why websites are never “set it and forget it” (and when platform fees might be worth it)
• The importance of reviews: reading them, leaving honest ones, and building long-term credibility

If you want more business scaling strategy and quail-specific education, check out Quail Mania (free): quailmania.com.

Email us:
Carey@PoultryNerdsPodcast.com
Jennifer@PoultryNerdsPodcast.com
Or: poultrynerds@gmail.com

#Quail #QuailFarming #CoturnixQuail #HatchingEggs #PoultryBusiness #SmallFarmBusiness #FarmMarketing #EtsySeller #eBaySeller #Shopify #Squarespace #PayPal #Venmo #Zelle #Hatching #Incubation #Homesteading #BackyardFarming #PoultryNerdsPodcast #QuailMania

Join Carey of Show Pro Farm Supply and Jennifer of Bryant's Roost as we delve into chickens and quail (mostly)  to help you enjoy your birds more and worry less. Backyard chicken keeping shouldnt be stressfull, let's get back to the simple days

Valley Hatchery is a proud sponsor of Poultry Nerds, find more at ValleyHatchery.com

Transcript

Jennifer: 0:39

Hey poultry nerds. We are back. Carrie is back from his traveling. How was your trip?

Carey: 0:49

It was great.

Jennifer: 0:50

Did you get, like, was it all nice and warm and toasty down there?

Carey: 0:55

So when I got home I knew it wasn't gonna be the same. So I had, you know, pants on instead of shorts.

Jennifer: 1:04

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 1:05

But. Yeah,

Jennifer: 1:09

so if you're listening to this in the future, we're in the middle of an ice storm.

Carey: 1:14

I came home to ice.

Jennifer: 1:17

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 1:20

And the Seattle airport was cold, and when you don't have a blanket or a pillow and you have to. Unfortunately spend the night there. I, I think they have a conspiracy or, or something because they know for that person that is gonna get it, they'll pay for it. So for like one of those lease throws, like, you know, you sit'em at Christmas time at Walmart for like five bucks. 34.99.

Jennifer: 2:05

Did you bring it home with you?

Carey: 2:07

Oh yes.

Jennifer: 2:08

See, for the rest of your life, you're gonna tell your grandkids, I paid$35 for this stupid thing in Seattle. You are gonna sleep with

Carey: 2:18

like that. That thing will probably travel with me everywhere I go now. Um, and I got one of those neck pillows that I think it was 30 bucks. And, um, yeah, I mean, I, I slept five hours probably. So,

Jennifer: 2:41

so he was gone for like two weeks, right? Mm-hmm. Yep. Working on upscaling your business.

Carey: 2:50

Yep.

Jennifer: 2:50

And so we thought in honor of that trip we would talk to you guys about scaling. Business level, and we're, we're mostly talking about quail because we're still getting ready for quail mania, which by the way, because you just came in, what, yesterday? We are up to 437 signups as of right now.

Carey: 3:14

So like I get the emails when people sign up and sometimes it's, it's like a slot machine hitting or something. You know, they're just ding, ding, ding, ding. I'm like, what is my phone doing? And I look, and, and like they're all grouped together and it mm-hmm. It's one email and then I tap on it. I'm like, oh no, it's eight. Okay.

Jennifer: 3:37

Yep.

Carey: 3:37

But yes, I'm super excited about all the people signing up for Quail Mania. Um, last year we had Quail Mania worked.

Jennifer: 3:49

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 3:50

You know, we, we had to change some stuff the night before and. We, we learned a lot and we had some good guests. This year we have a really great lineup of guests and I have watched quite a few of the presentations and some of them are great, and there's one or two of'em that have just blown me away, so. I'm excited.

Jennifer: 4:21

Did you know that while you were, well, I didn't tell you so you wouldn't know. Um, people are already asking to be speakers at Quo Mania three. And so I had to create a way to sign up for that while you were gone. So no, you probably didn't know that till just now.

Carey: 4:39

I mean, know and, and that's awesome because one of the things that I have learned about chicken people and quail people is, I mean, there's, there's three types of people in, in the, we'll call it in the industry. So there's people that don't know anything but act like they know everything and want to teach the world how to do quail.

Jennifer: 5:08

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 5:09

There's people that know absolutely nothing and very humbly asked questions and want to learn. Unfortunately, sometimes they get up with the first kind. And then there's people that have been doing it for 3, 5, 10, 12 years, and there's no secrets. Like they'll tell you, Hey, mm-hmm this is, this is what I did. And you say, okay, well I, I lost every quail in my brooder. What, what happened? And you're like, send me a picture. And they send you a picture and you're like, oh, well you need to do this. And then you hear back from'em like a month later, they're like, I hatched out some more of my eggs and I did what you said and it worked.

Jennifer: 5:58

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 6:00

And, you know, that's, that's the other kind. So

Jennifer: 6:04

that's good for us because that reminds us why we do this.

Carey: 6:08

Yeah. I mean, I, I, I'm, I'm a teacher at heart. I like to help people. So it just kind of works.

Jennifer: 6:21

Mm-hmm. So another thing I did while you were gone see, you know, uh, for those of you who may be new to watching us, we're just friends.

Carey: 6:32

Well, like, everybody's new to watching us because, you know, I had to, I had to work on that for about a year and a half.

Jennifer: 6:38

Yeah. So, um, you know, is any good. Relationship. You know, the woman just does things while the man goes off away. So Carrie leaves and goes outta the country and I start creating crap over here. But we're just friends, other

Carey: 6:56

people. But I mean, hey, you with it? I trust you with it.

Jennifer: 6:59

So while you were gone, I created the Incubation Masterclass Facebook group.

Carey: 7:06

So it's blown up

Jennifer: 7:09

a little bit. Um, 3,700 people as of today.

Carey: 7:15

So I did see about that when I got an invitation.

Jennifer: 7:19

Oh, and I made you an admin too.

Carey: 7:21

Yeah, that'cause that was a lot of the other notifications and I'll just be like. But no, this is crap. There's how many? And I would go and look and it's like 78 new requests. I'm like,

Jennifer: 7:34

yeah, I had to bring in some help to help moderate the group, and it just keeps growing. I think it's already grown over 300 people today alone.

Carey: 7:42

But I mean, incubation is such, it should not be as much of a science as it really is. Because when you look at, you know, quail in the, in the wild and chickens doing it themselves, you know, it, it doesn't matter what time of the year, like this time of year, I mean, last year I had chicks hatching out from a broody hen in December. And it was cold like in the forties and thirties at night. And you know when, when a hen does it, it's like whatever, you know, humidity fluctuates extensively, or the temperatures like 40 at night and 70 during the day. It don't matter. But when we start, when we take the eggs and we try to do it ourself. You gotta get scientific with that crap or it's not gonna work great.

Jennifer: 8:46

Well, the difference is, is the hen incubates by conduction our body heat right on it.

Carey: 8:52

Mm-hmm.

Jennifer: 8:52

And we're incubating with hot air, hot dry air. Usually'cause hot air is dry. Right? And then we're trying to make humidity stick to hot air, which, you know, goes against everything.

Carey: 9:07

Doesn't Yeah. It goes against everything. So,

Jennifer: 9:10

yeah. So that's the difference. Oh, and I'm almost done with my class, thank God. Like, like right now I have two more lessons left. Oh, just two more. And then my final exam, I feel like I'm in college again,

Carey: 9:29

which

Jennifer: 9:29

I guess I kind of am.

Carey: 9:30

I was gonna say, it kind of is a college course you're taking.

Jennifer: 9:34

I know, right. But anyway, I have learned. So much and yeah, that's why I'm trying to relay that information in the Facebook group and I'll probably be doing some updated videos in the incubation masterclass. Not to change anything that we put in there, but maybe like to expand on some stuff.

Carey: 9:58

Well, I mean with that, our promise to the, the people when we did that series. Was, as we grow our knowledge, we were gonna add that to the data, the database, if you will, so people could get more.

Jennifer: 10:17

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 10:18

So,

Jennifer: 10:20

so even though the class that I'm taking is, um, on commercial chicken broilers and layers, um, the, a lot of information is really, you know, can scale down to what we're doing. But the, one of the lessons that I did today,'cause I did two, you know, this class is roughly. You know, I don't know that I looked 60 to 80 hours of video. It's a lot. Um, but one of the lessons I did today actually had data on there from quail, and I was like,

Carey: 10:53

oh, I packed that up. 80 hours.

Jennifer: 10:56

Yeah, it's a lot on.

Carey: 10:59

Hatch and eggs.

Jennifer: 11:01

Yeah, I just send you, so every time I download a lesson, I send him the PDF on the syllabus, right? So he can like gloss over the information and then I sit here for hours watching the videos and trying to understand the statistics and the data and the graphs. There's bell curves and there's the

Carey: 11:23

curd

Jennifer: 11:23

names. Other graphs, regular graphs, and then, uh, there's all kinds of graphs. I don't know, there's one that they even call the crazy graph. I'll have to find it and show it to you.

Carey: 11:34

Is it about hatching eggs or customers?

Jennifer: 11:39

No, it's, it's about hatching eggs. They don't really talk about customers that much.

Carey: 11:45

I mean,

Jennifer: 11:46

they call them untrained, untrained employees. They're very, very nice about it thing. But anyway, what I was gonna, that's was one of the things they were talking about today was extreme temperatures. Like if your hatcher goes up in. In temperature. Right. Then in the, in the last couple days, the last 48 hours or so, then the damage that it can create and how they studied that was on quail. Yeah. And they. Took quail that they hatched at an a higher temperature, not extreme, but just a higher temperature. And then they followed them for 12 months and then of course, they carved them up and looked at'em and everything and dissected them. But the right ventricle of the heart was enlarged. And the wall of the heart was enlarged. And so the heart has to pump harder for the same volume of blood because the birds are the same size. Hmm. And so it's very, it's just more, one more piece of information that makes it that much more important. That it's very important to keep temperature stable.

Carey: 13:57

Now, I do know. That to be a fact.

Jennifer: 14:00

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 14:01

You know, I've, I've, my wife, when she was doing her, um, research for her doctoral degree, um, she had access to ResearchGate.

Jennifer: 14:13

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 14:15

And, um, there's people, mainly in Africa is where I saw a lot of the research done on quail. My new finite little Beaty things and I'm like, somebody did a study on this, and then I would spend two to three hours reading it.

Jennifer: 14:41

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 14:42

Um, but yeah, I mean there's, there's lots of stuff. That's where I learned a lot specifically about the quail nutrition and the lighting is because, you know, somebody over there. Patched some quail out and did like 15 different levels of lighting on different spectrums and followed it out for a year, which seems to be a popular number on most of those. And every single day they noted how much food they consumed, how much water they consumed, how much poo they put out their weight. Like everything, every day they track that data. Then, you know, they tell you what they came up with and I'm just like, who has time to track? How much did you get paid for that? Like, but the data is really cool because you can learn a whole lot from that type of research. About your birds?

Jennifer: 15:47

Well, I will say this. One thing I have noticed in pretty consistently in all of these lessons is that people, the, the speakers who are PhDs from all around the world, um, harp on using the data. So my brain, you know, works a little bit differently. So I'm thinking about this as I hear it, you know, for the fourth time, the 10th time and the 20th time, and I'm like, so do they collect all this data and then just not use it? You know, they probably just like everybody else, they get too busy. You know, they got it and then they put it to the side. You know, I'll come back to it when it's not hatching season or when it's not busy season or when I'm back from vacation or whatever, and then they never get to it.

Carey: 16:34

Well, like with my Chick Hatch record book thing that I have, I collect a ridiculous amount of data, um, because I talk to different breeders about different things that they do. And what they had in their logbook and what they wish they had and, and found, you know, all kinds of data that I could possibly ever want to track and why it was relevant, because I would rather have the data and not need it than wonder and then have to go down the rabbit hole again because I didn't make notes the first time.

Jennifer: 17:16

Mm-hmm. It's true. You know you have it. It's better to have it, not need it, than need it, not have it, right?

Carey: 17:23

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jennifer: 17:25

Well, so my thinking on tonight's podcast was to kind of pull together what we both have been doing. Mm-hmm. I don't know how, how much information you want to give on what you've been doing. I should have asked you that before we started recording, but kind of couples together with the class and how we've both gone from. Hobbyist to business level, I guess at this point. Um, David likes to just still call it a hobby, but it's really not, I don't think at this point, like I think it's pretty much a machine and it does its own thing.

Carey: 18:06

Sometimes it's well old and sometimes it is about to explode.

Jennifer: 18:12

Yeah, so we have done podcasts before on how we particularly scaled up, but tonight we wanna be a little bit more, or today we wanna be a little bit more specific on how, how we're doing it, like in a, like a direct way. And then more specifically, we're gonna talk about. Um, payment processors and platforms and how to use them to benefit you in your, in your upscale. Um, while we have a lot of this going on in Quail Mania. And it will specifically be about quail. There is absolutely zero reason why you couldn't apply this to chickens or turkeys, or ducks or whatever you wanted to do the same information. So if you're listening and you're, and you don't care about quail mania, you might sign up for free anyway, just to hear the business side of it, um, to use with your chicken hobby. Right, because I started with chickens and then quail took over.

Carey: 19:25

Well, I mean, chickens is initially where I started too. But you know, when I wanted to learn what different things would do when you made changes, well, do I wanna wait six months for a chicken to mature, or eight weeks for a quail to mature? And then after I tried a few things with quail. Like that obsession just kind of skyrocketed.

Jennifer: 19:53

Yeah. It's much more, it's, um, I don't know, keeps your interest longer because it's, the turnover is so much quicker, like in more instant gratification. And in today's world, that seems to work

Carey: 20:06

well and like, okay, so let's say some quail get out. Okay. You, you walk over there and pick'em up. I couldn't tell you how many times the little suckers have jumped out of their cage and I take my hat and I scoop'em up, toss'em back in there and we're done.

Jennifer: 20:23

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 20:24

You may you let a chicken get out and it's like, woo hoo. It takes off running like a 3-year-old at Disneyland and you know, you either say, screw it, it'll come back tonight.

Jennifer: 20:40

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 20:41

Or you chase it for a while, till you fall and bust your rear end, or, or

Jennifer: 20:46

the turkeys who wanna roost 30 feet in the, in the air and look at you like you can't do anything about it.

Carey: 20:54

Yeah. I mean, it makes you wanna be like, oh yeah, hmm, I got a rifle. And, uh, a meat slicer.

Jennifer: 21:03

Well, last time you were here, you helped me get a Turkey back in. I mean, it's the, yes, it's much different moving a 25 pound bird than a. 12 ounce bird. So,

Carey: 21:16

well, I mean, are we talking about chicks or quail?

Jennifer: 21:21

Yeah, exactly. Okay, so let's talk about scaling up. Now you have elected to study nutrition because that interests you and move that direction to kind of scale your business. And for me it's more the shipping. Um, educating people on how to ship and, and sell. Um, I personally am just a born salesman. I've been a salesman my entire life selling different things. Um, so it kind of comes naturally to me. But when,

Carey: 22:01

well, I mean, like for you, that, that is very natural because sometimes I've seen you do stuff and been like. Okay. But you know, with me, I didn't have to figure out shipping because I had a friend. Um, once we connected and, and I found, I like hearing you talk about shipping and how you had it to a science. I was like, okay, so tell me the lowdown, and I think you giving me the lowdown is. What made you create your shipping class?

Jennifer: 22:41

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 22:42

Because I mean, I only asked once or twice, but I'm sure other people have asked 50 million times and now you can just say, well here, go check this out.

Jennifer: 22:54

Yep.

Carey: 22:55

And you break it, you break it down. And I, I'll say those methods work.

Jennifer: 23:01

I'm not going to say that I know everything, but I have always, in my entire life, regardless of the subject, operated under, look to somebody who's doing it, learn what, how they do it, and then tweak it for yourself.

Carey: 23:16

Sure.

Jennifer: 23:16

So that's how I operate. Um, some people I have met throughout my lifetime who just want to bang their head on concrete wall expecting a different free action eventually. So we let's, well,

Carey: 23:29

that's what we call an idiot. Isn't that the def? No, that's insanity. What is it mean? Insanity when you do the same thing over and over, expecting different outcomes.

Jennifer: 23:39

Insanity. Mm-hmm.

Carey: 23:40

Yeah. And, and I mean, quail sometimes will drive you insane.

Jennifer: 23:45

Okay, so let's talk about how do you start selling? And the first thing you have to decide is your payment processor. Now, if you're just selling to your neighbors, that's just gonna be some cash in a box at the. When you, you hand it to'em probably. Right. Um, and that's the old school way. That's the easy way. And I like cash when people come here and pick up stuff that, that works really well. But then when you start shipping, you obviously there's no cash involved in that. Um, so that's where Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, comes into play. Now one of the things that we need to discuss right off the bat is the, um, the purchases where you turn purchases on, I don't know what that's called, um, but you turn purchases on or is this somebody, you know, personal or purchases or something like that on Venmo and PayPal? Purchase protection.

Carey: 24:46

Yeah, purchase protection. So like when you Venmo or PayPal, somebody. And you say that it's to a friend, you don't have purchase protection,

Jennifer: 24:58

right?

Carey: 24:59

So if you don't really know that person and really know that they're not going to scam you, and they talk you into doing that, um.

Jennifer: 25:11

They're not your friend.

Carey: 25:12

Good, good. Good luck with that support. When you call'em or email'em and say, Hey, I got scammed. And they're like, well, you sent it. Friends and family. Sorry.

Jennifer: 25:20

Right. So if I am selling something, let's just go with a hundred bucks.'cause it's nice round numbers. I think the purchase protection is 3%, right? 3% of the order number amount. That

Carey: 25:34

sounds right.

Jennifer: 25:35

Right. So that's the same as a credit card fee. Yeah. So if I sell you something for a hundred dollars, then that's, we're only talking about$3 here. Okay. Now I, as the seller. Should already have that$3 figured into my sale price should, that's part of doing business. No different than the feed that is required for the bird or the egg foam, egg shippers for shipping the eggs or the postage. Okay, so that. Purchase price fee is part of doing business. That's just part of it. And as a seller, if a seller says, I only accept. Friends and family, I'm not paying the fee. Then you say, that's fine, I'll pay it. Um, yeah, and the probably chances are we'll still balk at it because,

Carey: 26:37

and if they do, you need to pretend that they're waving a red flag.

Jennifer: 26:42

Yep.

Carey: 26:44

Because that's what they're doing.

Jennifer: 26:45

Yep. I mean, you don't go into Walmart and you say, is there a cash or credit price? So you shouldn't do that anywhere else.

Carey: 26:54

Now some like small stores, when you're doing things like that, they will say, I'm seeing this. More prices reflect cash. The credit card processing charges a whatever percent fee.

Jennifer: 27:11

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 27:12

And I get that like mm-hmm. You know, I'm choosing not to carry cash for my convenience'cause I want to use my phone and tap to pay or whatever. So I mean, it's$3 for every a hundred.

Jennifer: 27:27

It's a convenience fee. Exactly what you're saying.

Carey: 27:29

Yeah. If and if another thing, if that$3 for every a hundred will break you, then you need to rethink about what you're buying.

Jennifer: 27:41

On the flip side as a buyer, because I know there's some sellers listening who are grumbling right now, as a buyer, you need to understand that there is a gamble with shipped eggs, and if the seller sends you what you ordered in fair. Condition, then you agree not to do a chargeback?

Carey: 28:14

Yeah, I mean like if you, if you ordered two dozen hatching eggs and they send you two dozen hatching eggs and half of'em hatch out. Number one, that's typical.

Jennifer: 28:30

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 28:32

And number two, you got what you paid for. You know exactly this. Well cracked them open and they're not fertile. How do you know? How do you know they weren't fertile? Do you know what a fertile egg looks like? Did you. Go to YouTube University, like, you know, there's, there's a balance between that.

Jennifer: 28:56

Yes. And there's still, even with the purchase protection, there's still an element of trust because now the trust is on the seller that you're not gonna do a chargeback.

Carey: 29:08

Right. Um,

Jennifer: 29:10

so chargebacks. Mm. Chargebacks make me angry. I will throw things when I get chargebacks because I know that I went above and beyond, and I do that with every order. Okay. So it's not fair if people are just using that to skim the system. Mm-hmm. So we will just leave it at that part. So that is going to apply to Venmo and PayPal, Zelle. I believe you have no purchase protection with Zelle. It just is money moved. Okay.

Carey: 29:44

Yep.

Jennifer: 29:45

So, but you have their phone number and you can find them that way if you

Carey: 29:49

want to. But I'll, but I'll say this, when you Zelle somebody, you have to put in their name and a phone number or their name and an email address. And if you're talking to Billy Joe Jimbob and she tells or he tells you to. PayPal or Zelle or whatever money to somebody whose name is Tony Jones. That's a red flag.

Jennifer: 30:21

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 30:23

Because why ain't Tony Jones the one selling it? And you know, they, they give you, well, you know, I'm doing this for a friend or whatever. I would still be careful because you, like she said, you have no recourse.

Jennifer: 30:37

Right.

Carey: 30:37

You know, you call Zelle and be like, Hey, I was scammed, and they're gonna be like, sucks to be you.

Jennifer: 30:44

So we talked about the payment processors, but let's just briefly discuss how to find the, the buyers, you or the sellers, I guess. Um, usually it's social media here lately, social media, Craigslist, um, any kind of sales platform like that. Um. And the seller has the option to take deposits, put you on a wait list with no money. There's, there's lots of variations on how to sell eggs. I, this is my personal opinion, so please don't hit me with hate mail. I do not think that you should sell too far out because you don't know what's gonna happen. A raccoon could eat all of your birds. Um, a tornado could fly them away. I mean, you just don't know. So sell, um, into the foreseeable future, but I wouldn't go that much further because you, especially like if you're doing chickens and you're coming into the summer, you don't know when malt is going to hit or they're gonna stop laying because of heat stress. Um, and you don't wanna start too early because if you're not lighting your birds, you're not entirely sure when they're gonna start. There's, there's a lot of variables in there. So ask the seller like where you are on their wait list, if they're charging to be on their wait list. Um, how, how does that, how does their wait list work? You want that information before you, you get on it. Mm-hmm. And then if you find, if you're on somebody's wait list from the buyer's point of view and you find it elsewhere, just. Simply send the seller a notice and say, Hey, you know, I found'em. If you wanna scratch me off your wait list, that goes a really long way into some brownie points.

Carey: 32:35

Shoot, they'll, they'll, they'll be like, wow, this person's nice.

Jennifer: 32:40

Yeah. Um, so just kind of do that because when I used to run a wait list, it's very time consuming, sending messages and waiting for responses when you've got eggs that you can be shipping out or you're trying to make plans or, or whatnot. So it's nice to have updated information. Okay. So

Carey: 33:03

when you, well, I mean like the more reputable people that do use those lists. That they do take a wait list. I know some that will post on social media like once a week, a breakdown. If you ordered this, this is the number I'm at. If you ordered this, this is the number I'm at.

Jennifer: 33:24

Right?

Carey: 33:24

You know, and if somebody does that, then you know, they're probably a pretty legit thing. So it might be safe, but the ones that don't offer updates. Again, I would, I would be weary of that.

Jennifer: 33:38

You need to ask the information upfront. Make sure it works for your situation. Mm-hmm. And if it doesn't, say no thank you. And if it does, then either follow through or have the courtesy to not ghost the seller and say, you know, I'm sorry I found'em elsewhere, but thank you. For your time, yada yada.

Carey: 33:58

Yeah.

Jennifer: 33:59

Okay. So once you have outgrown wait list or you have decided you're done pulling your hair out over wait list because they are a pain, um, then you will move on likely to shipping platforms. And I personally started on eBay. Um, but there are new ones, um, shop. I haven't even been on shop yet. It's a little bit easier to get on Amazon nowadays. Um, Etsy is hot and cold. I don't know. Uh, I'm on Etsy. Um, but it, it is really hot and cold. Some people get kicked off of it for life. Like you, you're kicked off of it, right?

Carey: 34:38

Well, so, um. I'd been selling, I had a ad for hatching eggs on there for well over a year. And you know, a few, like two, three months ago, I got a thing that says, oh, this ad's been dropped, this has been dropped, this has been dropped. And I was like,

Jennifer: 35:02

yeah,

Carey: 35:02

wait, I haven't changed the wording in that in a really forever. Why are you doing this now?

Jennifer: 35:11

Yeah, so I have figured it out how to be really creative with Etsy, but it is, um, it's, it is really hot and cold. I gotta plug in my computer.

Carey: 35:24

Yeah, I mean, it, it is, it fluctuates. The stuff that I still sell on there fluctuates. And you know, it, it is frustrating, but that's why you need to not put all your eggs in one basket, so to speak. You know, um, do the Etsy. I will say if somebody is selling on Etsy, they make you fill out a lot more paperwork than eBay does. So you got a better chance of not getting scammed. But you know, I don't know. I do Etsy, personally. I do eBay. I do have a product on Amazon, but they like to feed you to death.

Jennifer: 36:19

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 36:19

And um, I use Shopify for one of my platforms. I really like it. It's easy from the back office side, figuring out the website part is not the easiest, but once you figure it out, it's pretty simple. They do not offer a lot of templates at all. Um, Wix is another one that's pretty popular. It's kinda, hmm. Sorry, Brie. I know you love it, but, and Jennifer introduced me to Squarespace, which totally unaffiliated with Square, the processing company.

Jennifer: 37:05

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 37:06

Um, but Squarespace has a ton of different themes and all kinds of stuff that work really well.

Jennifer: 37:17

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 37:18

I like it. And it's actually easy to build a page or a whole bunch of pages. There's a lot. It has a lot that you can do, especially once you turn the commerce part on, you can, you can do a lot through one Squarespace plan.

Jennifer: 37:37

Okay, so one thing I wanted to mention while I was messing with the plug is that when you're on the selling programs like eBay and Etsy, they will, they do fee you a lot. Um, Etsy can be as much as 20% if you get hung up in one of their ads. And, um, Amazon's pretty pricey too, depending on if you are on Prime or if you self fulfill. Um, different things like that, you've gotta pay attention and while it may seem like they're feeing you to death, you have to have that built in to your price. Kind of like we were talking about the 3% earlier. Yeah.

Carey: 38:19

If.

Jennifer: 38:21

If I have something for$20 on my website, if you find the exact same thing on Etsy, it's probably going to be 24 or$25 because just for the fees, I'm not gonna have people go to Etsy and buy something. Cheaper than they can buy on my website because the whole point is to convert and move people to my website. And so when you are thinking that you have grown to a place where you might want your own website. Websites come with their own costs first, literally. Oh yeah. The cost of having a website and then you still have payment processing, which is, um, dependent on how much in your sales, but let's just say roughly 3% for a guide. So you're still paying that regardless. Yep. Plus the upkeep of the website. Um, um. Websites are not one and done like, like you can't pay somebody to set up your website and then expect it to run forever. It's a cons. It's like a pet is how I describe it. Like I had to tweak mine today because somebody found where I had wrote on there for fall shipping and I didn't, I forgot to delete it. So you're constantly in there. Tweaking something. Um, pricing or shipping didn't work right or shipping rates increased, and so your flat rate has to be reflecting of that. It's, it's a never ending tweaking, and so if you have an IT background, well that's kind of a no brainer. I personally did not have an IT background and had to learn all of this from scratch, and I mean, I have time. I had time to do that. If you don't have time to do that, it may be woo. I'm having all kinds of. Problems with the computer tonight. Um, it may be easier to pay the fees because that's what you're paying for. You're paying for the IT people to keep eBay and Etsy working for you and those, those payment processors, that's literally what your fees are paying for.

Carey: 40:39

Mm-hmm.

Jennifer: 40:40

So I don't know that until you scale. To a certain amount of money, and I don't know what that number is because it, there's a lot of variables there, but until you are at a scalable point, it, it may be cheaper to pay the fees on Etsy versus the website. I hope that makes sense.

Carey: 41:06

I mean, it does make sense to me, but. I think that something like Etsy is a good place to start.

Jennifer: 41:16

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 41:16

Because they do market a lot for you. Um, but you just need to know that it's expensive.

Jennifer: 41:25

It is.

Carey: 41:25

And you need to think about that when you're setting your prices because, you know, there's people out there that say, oh, well I, you know, I sell mine for this. I don't, I don't know why you sell yours for so much. Well. Mine are so much because I actually thought about those fees when I put my price together, and I thought about how much an egg actually costs to get it out of a hen and um. I got, I gotta at least make a couple pennies.

Jennifer: 41:56

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 41:57

And those people that have them really dirt cheap, it's usually why you don't see'em around for a long time because they're lose, they wind up losing their butt because they're not planning on, you know, they're not calculating all that in. So,

Jennifer: 42:14

all right. So the last little bit that I wanted to talk about was reviews. Um, it is very important that. With all the amount of scammers and bad sellers and bad buyers out there, um, that reviews are given and read. Uh, so if you buy something from somebody, give them a review on if they're, if it's Etsy or eBay, or even Amazon, is very important that you review them accurately. Um. Because then other buyers have reasonable expectations. You don't wanna come in there and say, well, I had a hundred percent hatch rate and they all grew up and was laying by four and a half weeks. You don't wanna say that because that's an unreasonable expectation. You want to put out there exactly what happened. And so the other sellers can make their decision based on that accurate information. Um, and then. It also shows a history. So my website is like three years old, but I've been on eBay for years and years now. So I have history on my accounts and you can go back and you can see that I'm a real person who ships real stuff and people leave real reviews. And there are a few that are not nice and I have left them because nobody is a five star, um, seller. Day in and day out, they're gonna have a bad day, the chickens are gonna have a bad day. It's just life and nature and it's gonna happen. Um, and it's how you react to that, recover from it and move on is what is important. So

Carey: 44:07

yeah, I think people that say, you know, oh well this is great and blah, blah, blah tho, those are ones that you really should. I think twice about to

Jennifer: 44:22

right,

Carey: 44:23

because nothing, nothing's perfect.

Jennifer: 44:25

So on websites, when you do have your own website, you can delete reviews and I know people know that, um, they may not think about it, but they have to know it. And to be fair, I have deleted two reviews from my website. But neither one had anything to do with birds. One was reviewing some dishes she bought, I don't even know why. She left me a review about dishes, so I deleted that because people are weird. And the other one. She actually emailed me and she had bought egg foam and she wasn't happy, but then she was happy and so I deleted it because you can't go back and delete it yourself. And so I deleted that one, but that's just being honest. But all of the other ones I have left, um, there are some people who weren't happy and I have left them because people need to see all of it to make a, to make a decision for themselves. You know,

Carey: 45:30

so, so with Shopify, um, you, you can't delete them all. Really? Yes. Um, there's, there's been some that I have wished I could have deleted, and because of, like the person said something totally asinine that made no sense. And it would not let, if they're a verified buyer, like if you're sending out email invitations to invite them to leave a review.

Jennifer: 46:03

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 46:05

Uh, with Shopify, you can't delete the review. So,

Jennifer: 46:10

wow. See, that's a, that would be a big strike. So obviously I'm on Squarespace. I have the Poultry Nerds website on Squarespace and um, yeah, you have full control over the reviews on there. So

Carey: 46:23

I roll the dice because, you know, I'm confident in what I sell and if somebody really does have bad luck with it. I'm okay that they, if they leave an honest review, I'm okay with that and, you know, I'll leave a comment that has my answer to it or whatever.'cause sometimes maybe it's the process or, or whatever, but you know, it's, it's all part of being transparent, which is something we talk about a lot is being transparent. Um. But I don't know what the rhyme or reason is to some you can delete and some you can't, but I just,

Jennifer: 47:14

Hmm, that's interesting.

Carey: 47:16

I don't know if you wanna buy something and call me two business days later and, you know, threaten to file scam charges with the processor because you got a confirmation email, but I haven't shipped it yet. Okay. Because when you do file that claim, I'm gonna make sure I ship it UPS, and when I answer that claim, not only am I gonna include that tracking number, but I'm also gonna include the picture of the product sitting on your doorstep when I file, when I answer the claim back to the processor. And they're gonna deny your claim.

Jennifer: 47:59

Mm-hmm. We'll have to spend a whole nother episode talking about chargebacks. Yeah. Because that's, that's an easy hour right there.

Carey: 48:08

Oh, definitely. Definitely.

Jennifer: 48:10

Alright, well for today, I think we went through our. Our outline here and discussed everything, but if you want more information on scaling more, more specific to what your needs, please sign up for Quail Mania. It is free@quailmania.com.

Carey: 48:27

Yep, check that out and look at the topics. And if you got any questions, you can always email Carrie at Poultry Nerds podcast or Jennifer at Poultry Nerds podcast, um, that comes to us individually. Or you can send one to poultry nerds@gmail.com and it comes to both of us.

Jennifer: 48:47

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 48:47

And we will do our best to get you the answers as quick as possible and help you out. Be sure to like and subscribe and we will see you next week. Yep.