How to Save Big Money Using Etsy Shipping Labels

If you're not using etsy shipping labels, you're missing out.  I don't know how long this service has been around, but I only discovered it this year and I'm totally hooked.  It saves me almost 10% on postage, I don't have to address envelopes anymore, it fills out customs forms for me when I do international shipments, and I never have to go to the post office again. Oh, and it's totally FREE.  Thank you etsy!

What is a picture worth?

A picture is worth a thousand words, the old adage goes.  Etsy sellers would heartily agree that not only is a picture worth a thousand words, but a great product picture can be worth a thousand dollars too!  (Or, don't we wish....)  So, this brings me to my question: how much would you be willing to pay to have great photography in your etsy shop?  Are you willing to invest in all the photography equipment you need to get a great shot?  Or, here is something you might not have considered: Are you willing to pay a professional to take the pictures for you??

A quick etsy search for "product photography" will reveal a whole host of options for you, ranging from this listing for 10 pics for $15 to this listing for 10 pics for $115.  There are even super specialized photographers out there: this seller will take a picture of your products modeled by dogs, and this one specializes in taking pictures of products on American Girl Dolls.

I accidentally came across this genre of etsy sellers when I was shopping for photography equipment on etsy.  I was looking for a light box and I stumbled upon a whole list of professional (or semi-professional) photographers with lightboxes willing to take the pics for you.  I ended up buying the light box instead of hiring any of these people, but let me tell you: I kind of regret that.  The truth is, I don't have a very nice camera and I don't really know what I'm doing in terms of "stylizing" my items.  This is one of those situations where I should just get professional help.

My shop would actually be a perfect candidate for this kind of service because I sell multiples of the same product.  That means I can spread out the cost of a single photo against the profits from several sales.  If you sell one-of-a-kind jewelry or something like that, it could be prohibitively expensive to pay a professional photographer to photograph each item when you will never be able to use the photo again after you sell the item.

A few things to keep in mind before you buy into these services:

1.  You Get What You Pay For (Sometimes).  One of the primarily truths I have learned in my life as a consumer is that most of the time, you are gonna get what you pay for.  That's not to say that there aren't great bargains out there, but, more often than not, the best rule of thumb is to spend the most money you can afford rather than try to get an inferior product on the cheap.  Just look before you leap, is all I'm saying.

2.  Apples for Apples.  Make sure the photographer you are hiring has experience photographing the type of product you sell.  For example, I sell buttons which are a pain in the behind to photograph because they are shiny and reflect light all over the place.  The photographer I pick may have a wonderful portfolio of beautifully photographed hand-knits, but, before I sign on with them, I'm going to want assurances that they have photographed shiny stuff before.

3.  Communicate . . . and Be Specific.  Give the photographer the most specific instructions you can in terms of how you want your products to be staged.  You are both going to be a lot happier if you are on the same page from the beginning.

That's just a few things I'm going to consider before I try out this service.  What other advice do you have to offer?

Brighten Your Whites With FotoFuze!

Remember when I showed you a neat trick using photoshop where you could take a photo with a dull white background and make it even whiter using the levels feature on photoshop?

Well, what if I told you that you could go even WHITER??  And you don't even need photoshop to make your background look like this:

Pretty neat, huh?  Let me tell you about a great web application called FotoFuze.  It is super easy to use, and it's semi-free.  Here is how it works: you start with a photo that has either a black or a white solid background, then you use a little brush to color in the subject of your photo, then presto-chango, the program makes your background super white... just like the pics on the front page of etsy.  Try it!  You'll love it!

So, here's where the semi-free part comes in.  It's free to use and you can download a low-quality version of your changed photo, which might be totally fine for you.  I wanted the higher quality images, so I signed up for a premium account.  How much does it cost, you ask?  You decide!  They trust you to enter a monthly figure that you think reflects what the program is worth to you.  Cool business model.  I entered a relatively low amount because I don't anticipate using it a lot.

Do you use FotoFuze for your photo editing or do you use another program?  I'm interested to hear what you think about the best way to edit your photo!

What Would I Do With $20K?

I recently read a great article by Lisa Jacobs which asked the question, "What would you do if you had $20,000 to invest in your business?"  This little prompt is supposed to help you think about expanding your business and making some long-term goals, so I'm going to go ahead and make my own list:

What would I do if I had $20,000 to invest in Buttons and Things?

1.  NEW EQUIPMENT: The button press that I own is not the fanciest, but it is perfectly fine for the sales volume I have right now.  However, one updated piece of equipment that I could use right now is an automatic circle cutter, which would speed up button production immensely.

2.  MY OWN WEBSITE: I already have a website set up for my shop that points users to etsy.  What I'm talking about here is a full-on e-commerce website where I can cut out the middle-man.  That would be cool.

3.  ADS EVERYWHERE: The only place I advertise right now is through etsy's search ads.  I have dabbled with placing ads on facebook and on ravelry, but never stuck with it because I was getting a pretty low ROI....  but wouldn't it be cool if ROI wasn't a factor (initially) and I had an unlimited advertising budget so I could try out lots of places to reach knitters and other creative people?

4.  HIRE A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT: Sometimes I get really into my social media efforts, and other times I just let all my networks languish.  Wouldn't it be great to have a virtual assistant on call who could monitor your social media marketing whenever you just aren't feeling it?

5.  CUT MY HOURS BACK AT MY DAY JOB: Right now I would classify my etsy shop as more of a hobby than an actual business. What's the difference?  A hobby is something you do when you (1) feel like it and (2) have spare time.  On the other hand, a business is something that you need to tend to even if you are busy and even if you're really not feeling it today.  It's hard to treat my shop as anything other than a hobby when I'm already working a full time job, so, if I really had $20K to spend, I'd invest a good portion of it on subsidizing my income so I could devote a few "business hours" each day to the shop and not try to cram everything in during my "free time."

Where does this leave me?

Honestly, I'm a little lost on how I can take this list and turn it into actionable goals.  I guess I would have to say that, of the five things listed, number five is probably my biggest priority.  I think that having more quality time to devote to my business is going to be the most important thing to it's growth.  I don't really need the fancy equipment or hired help as much as I need to put my full effort into the shop.  Since I don't have $20K (yet!) I can't afford to devote several hours a week to this, but maybe I could convince myself to just find as little as 15 minutes a day, every day, to devote to my biz.  This is such a small amount of time that it won't require me to cut back my hours at my day job, but it won't (inordinately) cut into my free time either.  OK!  It's a plan!

What do you think?  What would you do if you had $20K?

Another little etsy shop!

I'm happy to announce that I am opening another little etsy shop!  It's my own blog design business, Creative Counsel Blog Design!  Yay!  In this blog, I'm still just going to be focusing on the growth of my main etsy shop, Buttons and Things, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm running another shop which I may refer to from time to time.

The challenge with this new shop is that blog design is an extremely saturated market on etsy, so I think it's going to be tough standing out from the crowd.  Luckily, this is just something I want to do on a very part-time basis, so I will be fine with a low sales volume.

When It's Time to Seek Professional Help

I like to think of myself as a jack-of-all trades, and I think a lot of etsy sellers feel the same - we are all crafty, entrepreneurial spirits, unafraid to take on new challenges.  Sometimes it's hard for us to admit that there are things we just can't do on our own and admit it's time to seek professional help.  For me, it was designing a new logo.  I like to think that I have some pretty mad graphic design skills, and I'm sure that if I really applied myself I could have designed a great new logo myself, but, for the reasons I outlined below, I decided to punt the project to a professional.  And I'm so glad I did!

It's time to seek professional help when you could do it yourself, BUT....

1.  You have more money than time.  Sometimes it's just a matter of dollars and cents.  Your time is valuable, and you need to prioritize how you spend it.  For me, I have a day job that pays by the hour.  I estimated that it would take me X number of hours to design my own logo vs. Y dollars to pay someone to do it for me.  It turns out that it was cheaper to just pick up a few extra hours at work and hire a professional to do the project, rather than doing it myself.

2.  You just aren't that excited about the project.  Sometimes it's not just a matter of dollars and cents.  If something sounds fun, then who cares if it is more economical to pay someone else to do it?  But if the project doesn't sound fun... then it's time to ask yourself if it would be worth it to just delegate.  In my situation, I tried to sit down and design a new logo several times, but I just couldn't get into it.  It felt more like a chore than a creative opportunity.  Even thought I  could do it, I didn't want to.

3. You need a professional eye.  As much as us creative-types like to think we are good at everything, the truth is that sometimes a professional is simply going to do a better job.  I designed my first logo and I never really cared for it, and I wanted my new logo to be something I would love, so I decided it would be worth it to pay someone to make me a high quality logo that I can be proud of.

4.  You want to support another entrepreneur.  Do you like someone else's work?  Then why not give them some business?  There's absolutely nothing wrong with with being a consumer as well as a producer.  It's how the economy works.  Embrace it.

Your Little Business Plan

The first topic I'd like to tackle in my Etsy 101 series is the benefit of having a business plan.  Let me preface this discussion by saying that I did not have a business plan when I started my shop... and it showed.  I ran my business with an if-it-feels-good-do-it mentality.  What can I say?  I was a liberal arts major in college and I never took a business class.  My plan for my etsy shop looked something like this:

1.  Make buttons
2.  ???
3.  Profit

See that step number two, with all the question marks?  That is the spot where your business plan goes.

If you run the words "business plan" through google, you are going to get a lot of information on how to write a formal business plan.  And if that's what you want to do, go for it!  It certainly wouldn't be a waste of time.  But, personally, I think a 10-page, 16-part business plan is overkill for a little etsy shop.  So, I'm going to tell you how to write a little business plan.

There are three major components to your little business plan.

The first, and most important, component is your Mission Statement.  To write your mission statement, just ask yourself the question: "why am I doing this?"  Is your primary motivation just that you like making stuff and you need a way to unload everything you create?  Or are you in it for profit?  If so, how much profit?  For many etsy sellers, the goal is just to create a self-sustaining hobby.  For others, the goal is to be a professional artist and to make a living by selling your wares.  For most, it is probably somewhere in between.

The next part of your business plan is pretty easy.  What are you selling?  That's your Product.  Consider what you are selling both literally (hand-knit cashmere scarves) and figuratively (warmth, luxury, beauty, etc.)

Finally, you need to figure out where is your Market.  Who is going to buy your stuff?  If you sell baby clothes, your market is probably going to be new mothers.  Try to get as specific as you can when you are defining your market.

And that's it.  That's really all you need for your little business plan.  Just consult these three components whenever you have to make a business decision and you'll be on the right path.