Starting a Teachers Pay Teachers store is exciting, but it can also be really easy to get distracted by all the things you think you need to do before you can make sales.
You need the perfect logo. You need dozens of products. You need to know exactly what your niche will look like five years from now.
Except… you really don’t.
If I were starting a TPT store today, there are a few things I would intentionally avoid. Instead, I’d spend my limited time figuring out what teachers actually want, creating great resources, and learning how to sell them.
Here are three things I would NOT do as a new TPT seller.
1. I Wouldn’t Create Products Without Checking Demand First
It’s easy to come up with a resource idea, spend hours creating it, upload it to TPT, and then wonder why no one is buying it.
Before I created anything, I would spend some time figuring out whether teachers actually want it.
What are teachers searching for? What types of resources are already selling in my niche? Where are there opportunities to create something useful or different?
You don’t need to copy what’s already popular. The goal is to understand the market before investing hours into a product. Your own classroom experience is incredibly valuable, but combining that experience with actual demand gives you a much stronger starting point.
This is exactly why Day 1 of my $1K TPT Challenge is all about DEMAND. I’ll show you how to find what’s selling on TPT right now within your niche so you can make more strategic decisions about what to create.
2. I Wouldn’t Spend Weeks Making My Store Look Perfect
I love pretty branding as much as anyone, but your logo isn’t going to be the reason your first product sells.
New sellers can spend so much time choosing fonts, changing colors, redesigning banners, and trying to make their storefront look like an established business before they’ve even created their first product.
It’s important to keep it simple.
Choose a store name, a few colors, one or two readable fonts, and a simple profile image or logo. You can always update your branding as your business grows.
I’d rather see you spend those extra hours creating a high-quality resource that solves a real problem for teachers.
And if you’re stuck on the actual creation part, Day 2 of the $1K TPT Challenge is CREATE. You’ll get a resource template and learn how to fully create a resource teachers want to buy.
3. I Wouldn’t Assume a Great TPT Resource Will Sell Itself
You can create the most amazing classroom resource in the world and still struggle to make sales if you don’t know how to sell it.
Creating the product is only part of building a TPT business.
You also need to think about how teachers will find your resource, what will make them click on it, and what information they need before they feel confident purchasing it. Your title, cover, preview, description, and overall listing all work together.
This is one of the biggest differences between simply uploading resources to TPT and actually building a TPT business.
And it’s exactly what we’re talking about on Day 3 of the $1K TPT Challenge: SELL. I’ll show you the #1 mistake I see TPT sellers making and how to fix it before you start.
Start Your TPT Store With a Strategy
If you’re a new TPT seller, you don’t need to know everything before you begin. You also don’t need 50 products, perfect branding, or years of business experience.
You need to know what teachers want, how to create something they’ll actually use, and how to sell it.
That’s exactly what we’ll work through together during my $1K TPT Challenge.
Over three days, we’ll go through Demand + Create + Sell so you can stop guessing about what you’re supposed to be doing and start building your TPT store with a plan.
Whether you’re still thinking about opening your store or you’ve already started but aren’t sure what to do next, this is a great place to begin.
