Toni Lösche and Celina Rewel founded the Etsy shop Wunderwunsch in 2021. Miracle Wish/Pixel Pusher
Toni Lösche and Celina Rewel from Coswig near Dresden started as Etsy sellers in 2021 – and have grown successfully in just three years.
In addition to their first project, Wunderwunsch, they have now opened an Amazon shop and their own web shop, as well as five other Etsy shops. In 2023 they achieved a total annual turnover of almost eight million euros.
In an interview with Business Insider, they explained how they got there, why they wake up at 4 a.m. and what their best advice is for other aspiring entrepreneurs.
The History of the Etsy Shop Wish for a miracle starts with the flu, says Celina Rewel. She plagued her boyfriend Toni Lösche after Christmas 2020. While scrolling on Facebook, he discovered a small laser for wood engraving – and simply ordered the device. It was delivered from China: “The device didn’t even have a CE marking,” remembers Lösche. But as soon as the delivery was delivered, he started engraving all the wooden items in the kitchen – while his girlfriend was sleeping.
Three years later, Lösche and Rewel from Coswig near Dresden built a small Etsy empire. In their main shop they sell personalized gifts for children – breakfast boards with animal designs and engraved names, for example – and are very successful with them. But it didn’t stop there: they now operate a total of six different Etsy shops, an Amazon shop and their own web shop. Total sales in 2023: around eight million euros. Business Insider has seen receipts for their sales.
Wunderwunsch founder: “We just started with breakfast boards”
The impulse to turn Lösche’s engraving obsession into a business came from Rewel. During her marketing studies, she worked on Etsy, among other things, and also enjoyed buying gifts there privately. “Because there are more unusual things there than on Amazon and Co.,” she says.
Read too
Three Amazon sellers reveal how they achieve six-figure sales – even though they started with less than 4,500 euros
She needed money anyway: her job in the catering industry virtually disappeared because of the Corona lockdowns. Lösche, who was 26 years old at the time and a trained mechatronics engineer, had already been self-employed for eight years and, among other things, was involved in a company that ran Amazon reselling. However, he laughed at Etsy at the beginning and didn’t expect big sales.
Nevertheless, they decided to try it out for themselves. “We just started with breakfast boards,” remembers Celina. “For example, we engraved a toast on it and next to it the words ‘Grandpa is crumbling here’ or something like that.” They took a product photo on the balcony with a cell phone camera and created an Etsy listing.