In case you haven’t noticed, I have a daughter. A little daughter. A daughter who is nine and a half months old and checks in at barely 15 pounds. She’s tiny. Tiny people require carseats. And carseats with tiny people in them are heavy. Really heavy. Even if you only have to haul them around for a few minutes.
I love the job that carseats perform, but they’re such a hassle. It takes so much time to strap Micah in and out of her seat that if I’m only going to be out of the car with her for a few minutes, I roll up my sleeves and take out the whole carrier. Because it’s easier. And faster. But heavier.
So when Senojal Designs started booming and the orders rolled in, I consolidated my trips to the post office as much as I could. I was grateful for the business, but I hated the six-mile roundtrip trek to the post office, hauling Micah in and out of the car in the aforementioned carrier, standing in line, juggling packages, and wasting 30 minutes of my day on such a mundane task.
I started looking for solutions.
Many etsy sellers choose to use the integrated shipping option offered by PayPal, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do that. Have you ever gotten a package with a PayPal label taped to the front of it? They’re ugly, no? I want my packages to be pretty, just like the stationery I sell, so PayPal shipping was out for me.
Other etsy sellers recommended using stamps.com for shipping, but since I’m cheap frugal, I refused to pay the monthly service fee. I don’t need all the bells and whistles that come with a service like stamps.com. I just wanted to print postage like the post office. I wasn’t interested in big labels or tracking packages. Just postage, please.
I ordered a kitchen shipping scale from Amazon and continued to research my options.
When I first stumbled upon Endicia, I dismissed it as I had stamps.com, but when I revisited the site, I found what I had been looking for all along: printable postage with no monthly fee. I couldn’t have been more excited. I downloaded the software, ordered some postage labels, and waited anxiously to try it out.
Y’all, it couldn’t have been easier. So far, I’ve shipped four packages using Endicia’s free service, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. No more trips to the post office while lugging around a heavy baby carrier. Only a walk to the mailbox while Micah naps.
As with all things that seem too good to be true, there is a catch. For one thing, you can only print first class postage for packages that weigh 13 ounces or less. If your package weighs more than that, you’ll have to either take it to the post office, or use a Priority Mail flat rate box {Endicia does print flat rate Priority Mail postage}. The vast majority of my packages weigh less than 13 ounces, so this really isn’t an issue for me. I don’t mind going to the post office occasionally, I’m just not interested in going two or three times a week.
Before you sign up for Endicia’s printable postage, you should know that you can only print the postage on labels supplied by Endicia. I paid roughly $20 for 124 labels, which is a negligible cost for me. It’s worth it to avoid the post office.
If you’re running a small business from home and looking for an inexpensive shipping solution, this is the way to go. Seriously. I wouldn’t lie to you. See for yourself, and let me know what you think!
Until next time, grace and peace.
