Modish Biz Tips

Introducing...The Etsy Way with Shannon Riffe!

I'm excited to introduce a new column and a new contributor to you here today, Shannon Riffe from Make It and Rifferaff! Shannon has been an Etsy member for over 3 years and has a wealth of support and knowledge on what it takes to run a successful shop there. She'll be stopping by once a month with some Etsy specific marketing tips and selling advice, so if there are any particular topics you'd be interested in her covering here in the future, please let us know in the comments below! Now, here's Shannon to say hello!

Hi Modish Biz Tips Readers and thanks to Jena for having me here!

A few words in the way of introduction: My name is Shannon Riffe, I have a little creative business called Rifferaff where I make soap and screenprinted papers and I write about my craft-business adventures at my blog, Make It.

I’ve been an Etsy member since March 3, 2006 and have participated since that time as both a shopper and a buyer. I’m here to write exclusively on the topic of using Etsy for your business. I don’t present myself here as an expert on the topic, just someone who, like you, is currently running an Etsy shop and is interested in making it the best it can be.

Why Etsy? Well, I’m willing to bet at least 80% of the readers of this blog have an Etsy shop. The ease of set-up, and high visibility of the site, coupled with the low costs and low risks associated with trying it out, makes it essentially the go-to site for small home-based creative businesses. Etsy is exploding with so many new members that it’s hard to believe the site has only been around since June 18, 2005.

What’s not hard to believe is that Etsy has, truly, revolutionized the retail landscape. Many of the tried and true rules for starting a brick and mortar store or a wholesale line are completely irrelevant in the face of Etsy. 

Do What You Love: Rewarding Yourself

{photo by Larsz. Give yourself a gold star!}

Yes, working for yourself, being able to set your own schedule and not having to answer to anyone else is incredibly rewarding. But, it can also be incredibly stressful and lead to a max-out burn-out situation if you're not careful.

That's why I think it's important to have some sort of reward system in place when you work for yourself. Since you have no bonus headed your way, no allocated raises, no free lunch, office parties or even coworkers around to laugh at your bad jokes, I think it's a good idea to make sure you're rewarding yourself for all your hard work, when you can.

I tend to set up little rewards to keep myself going throughout the day. For instance, once I finish writing this post, and only after I finish writing it, I can reward myself with a little break for some food and catch up on the latest episode of the Hills (er, purely as an example of course, not like I'd ever watch that show... ;) Or, if I get all my morning posts on Modish done and scheduled the day before, I can reward myself with pancakes the next morning or by meeting a friend for coffee.

I like to think of "rewards" as all the little perks that come with self-employment that we really ought to be taking advantage of. Think back to when you were working the 9-5 grind, just daydreaming about working for yourself full time... what are the perks you imagined for yourself then? Are you satisfying those now that you are self-employed?

If nothing else, rewards help motivate people to get the job done and done well. Think back to the sorts of reward systems that were in play in your past jobs (or perhaps there weren't any and that's one of the reasons why you left! :) Be the boss to yourself that you always wish you had, the kind that rewards a job well done in a way that's appropriate to the task at hand.

From a cupcake break to a meet up with friends or a non-crowded afternoon in the park, I think it's good to reward yourself every now and again to make sure you stay a happy, healthy and productive employee. 

For those of you who are self-employed, how do you reward yourself in big or small ways? And when? At the completion of a big project? After a particularly productive day? Do you think rewards help keep you motivated in your work?

Setting Up Shop: Handmade Marketplace Comparisons

{photo by psd}

So, you want to open up shop but you're not quite ready to host your own website and the thought of learning html of any sort gives you the shudders? Well, you may want to start out opening a shop through a marketplace site.

Marketplaces offer easy shopping experiences for you and the customer both. They provide built in traffic, help through forums and other community members, often have traffic stats and blogs included, and other perks.

They're a great way to test the waters when it comes to selling your own handmade goods so you can see if you're making the type of items that people will actually want to buy! They're inexpensive, usually free to join with minimal fees charged upon the sale of your items and easy as pie to set up and get started.

Here's a rundown of some of my favorite handmade marketplace sites so you can see which ones might work best for your products and your target customer base.

Etsy

Etsy is probably the largest and most well known handmade marketplace on the web today, and it's still growing! Described as "your place to buy & sell all things handmade" it's super easy to set up a little shop of your own featuring your handmade goods (they also allow you to sell vintage goods and crafty supplies.) All you have to do is register for free and you can start setting up shop!

The deets:

• It costs $.20 cents to list an item + a 3.5% transaction fee upon the sale of the item.
• You can have up to 5 different photos for each item + a description, a policy page, profile
• Payments processed through paypal, check or money order
• Open to international sellers
• Tracks traffic stats with google analytics
• Has a large community with forums and tons of resources to help you improve your shop and make it a success
• Built in traffic, large customer base, daily features of shop sellers by etsy admin on front page and featured sellers each week. Etsy works hard to help connect you with fellow shop owners and customers alike.

1000 Markets

1000 Markets is one of the newest handmade marketplaces. It's centered around "markets" that group 2 or more shops under various themes, like "foodcrafters marketplace" and "inspired by nature", for example. It looks really nice and clean and is open to people selling handmade goods only.

Starting all over again

The following is a guest post by Caroline Devoy

{photo by mistamoni. This doesn't have to be you!}

Okay, so tax season is over for 2008.  If you haven't thought about it already, it's time to decide the best way to keep your accounting house in order so you don't experience the same panic that you did, oh, say yesterday?

Let me preface this by saying I am the world's worst at keeping up with my accounting duties.  So, any hint of a lecture is directed at me more than you.  Accounting doesn't earn you any revenue and detracts from what you really want to be working on, but it is necessary.  So how do you record these details with enough regularity that you don't forget them, but not abandon all revenue-generating activities?

First, I recommend any type of computerized accounting, because you have a backup (tell me you do, yes?) of the data on the computer, you can generate multiple reports without a calculator, and it's easy to generate any information that your tax-preparer/accountant requires. 

Also, computerized accounting often provides accounting advice or help in how things should be entered.  For example, when you write a check, the software often provides a screen that looks like a check, deducts the money from cash and allows you to categorize what expense the check belongs to.  That said, you may not need to physically enter your transactions into the accounting system until you accumulate enough receipts and other information on paper.

To simplify things, I'm going to divide you into two groups:  the graphic designers (GD's) and the Etsy Sellers (ES's).  The graphic designers sell their time, usually don't have a lot of expenses and bill weekly at most.  Etsy sellers sell product, possibly several times day, are constantly buying supplies to sell or to make their product, hold inventory and bill daily.  Those are pretty much the two extremes of accounting (for purposes of this post) and they really do require different approaches.  Ultimately, I think both should use a computer solution, but how you get it there and how often you sit down and update it are a different story.

Do What You Love: An interview with Jan DiCintio

Today in our Do What You Love series, we have an interview with the wonderful Jan DiCintio of Daisy Janie and Scoutie Girl! Jan is one of my go to ladies to ask for advice when I feel the like my business-brain is about to explode. So, I knew she'd be an excellent voice to include here as she's full of life experience and laughter, which we can all use a little more of. Read on to see how she makes her way through the sometimes crazy world of self-employment!

What do you do for a living?

Most hours of the day, I am a fabric and surface designer. I design and sell collections of my fabrics to hobbyists and other small business owners; I create surface designs to sell to manufacturers; and I work with manufacturers to print large wholesale orders. In the other “most hours of the day,” I write/manage/edit posts for my blog Scoutie Girl, which features passionately handmade items from independent artists & designers.

How long have you been self-employed? What made you decide to take the leap?

I started painting anything that dared to get in front of my brush in 1998, but I didn’t sell my first piece of art until May of 2000. It was exhilarating b/c it was truly a whim! My son was 2 at the time, and my husband, Matt, strongly encouraged me (and helped me) make more art – partly to keep me from cleaning the house twice a day while my son napped and partly b/c we both recognized the potential money-making opportunity. The deal was sealed, and it set me on a path of learning how to build a business around something I really enjoyed. There have been many stepping stones, crossroads, ‘the-light’s-not-getting-any-greener’ and ‘oh-$hit’ moments along the way (as well as a couple part-time job stints), but basically, I haven’t looked back since 2000.

Do you work from home or have a studio/office elsewhere?

Out Monday

I'm taking today "off" to catch-up behind the scenes and work on some of my goals for the month! :) How are you April Monthly Goal Meetup ladies doing so far? I added the list of all the participants at the end of the post. Feel free to say hi to and check in with other participants and see what similar goals they have!

I'll be back tomorrow with a new Do What You Love interview. See you then!
<3 jena