7 Reasons Thousands Of SA Women Are Quietly Starting Etsy Stores
With no experience, nothing to make or stock and just a few hours after work.
By Izabel PrinslooFounder, Cha Ching Club · Top 7% Etsy seller worldwide · South African
01
It wasn't you. It was the side hustle.
Most side hustles break in one of three places.
If you've tried one, you've probably hit at least one of them.
-
It needed you to be a sales person.
MLMs, reselling, network marketing.
-
It needed a second-job amount of hours.
Freelancing, social media managing.
-
It needed a lot of money up front.
Reselling, baking, products from home.
None of that means you're bad at this.
It means the side hustle was built for someone with a sales personality, free days, or spare cash.
Etsy works differently on all three.
02
On Etsy, buyers come looking for you.
Etsy is one of the biggest online marketplaces in the world.
Around 87 million people shop on it, and most of them are in America.
They type what they want into the search bar, like "personalised gift for my sister," and buy from whoever shows up.
Your job is to show up.
87 million
Active buyers, mostly in the US
No messaging friends.
No posting in the family WhatsApp group.
No followers.
You don't even have to show your face.
And because most buyers are overseas, they pay in dollars.
You spend in rands.
03
Built in the gaps of your day.
Your day job already takes the day.
You don't have another 40 hours in you, and you shouldn't need them.
A listing on Etsy is something you make once.
After that it stays up in your shop, where people can find it while you're at work, in traffic, or in class.
That's the difference.
Freelancing asks for your hours every week.
Etsy asks you to build something once, then keep improving it.
I'm sure you can see how it stacks when you put up one listing per day.
Dani 10/5/26, 10:24 AM
Barely got any sleep last night with Etsy blowing up my phone 😂 Four orders—a new shop record—and so many favourites! 😁 Considered putting my phone on silent, but apparently those notification sounds are my new love language. Who needs sleep when your shop’s getting attention? Q4, jou lekker ding! 🔥
It still takes work: finding what to sell, writing listings that get found, and staying patient while your first ones pick up views.
But it fits the hours you actually have, between dinner and bed.
04
No holding stock.
The last thing you need is a room full of stock you spent thousands on and couldn't sell.
The way we do it on Etsy, the order of things flips:
- 1A customer buys from your store and pays you.
- 2Then you order the product from your supplier.
- 3The supplier ships it straight to the customer.
You only pay for the product after the customer has paid you.
Etsy charges a small fee to list each item.
There's no stock to buy and nothing piling up in your room.
05
I'm South African too. I did it in the gaps.
Most SA women have never seen anyone from here win on Etsy.
So it's easy to assume it's an American thing.
You might have seen me on your feed recently.
I built my first profitable Etsy store while studying a BSc, tutoring and coaching netball.
Not on a gap year.
In the gaps of a full day.
Top 7%
Etsy sellers worldwide
Multiple
Profitable stores
Thousands of women now follow my method.
REAL POSTS FROM THE COMMUNITY · SWIPE →
It starts with just one listing after work…
06
One cheap way to find out if this one fits.
Look, people overcomplicate this.
You don't have to make a big announcement.
You don't have to quit your job.
You just need the right steps to set it up in a few hours per day.
10,000+ copies sold
Cha Ching Ebook
The Cha Ching Ebook is my whole method to win on Etsy in plain language:
- What to actually sell
- How to set up your store from South Africa
- How to write listings that buyers find
- And everything in between
And all for less than a Friday-night takeaway.
200% money-back guarantee
07
There's literally no risk.
I know you're wary of trying again.
So I'm putting my own money behind this.
A 200% Guarantee.
Follow the ebook step by step and keep your store live for six months.
If it still hasn't worked, I refund double what you paid.
Not just your money back. Double.
That's how confident I am that if you put in the work, this works.
Terms apply. Results vary and aren't guaranteed. Read the full Refund Policy.
You don't want a side hustle.
You want to stop asking someone else for your own time.
No leave forms.
No swapping shifts to see your family.
No hours deducted.
That all starts with an income you control.
And it's worth one more try, as long as this time it's built for how you actually live.
200% money-back guarantee
200% money-back guarantee