Lessons
An Introduction to Etsy
14:56 2The Etsy Sales Process
03:46 3How We Use Etsy and Why We Love It
10:11 4Setting Up Your Etsy Shop
22:34 5Shop Settings & Policies
10:24 6Payment Methods
17:17 7Chart of Accounts and Expenses
14:41 8Other Expenses
25:32Consumer Tax and Understanding VAT
13:48 10Bookkeeping Process
22:26 11Deposits and Payments
33:13 12Profit and Freelance Rates
24:25 13Business Profit
19:36 14Understanding Statistics & Web Analytics
18:27 15Wholesale
15:17 16Digital Products
08:55 17Sustainable Wages
02:59 18Pricing
15:21 19Sales, Coupons, and Discounts
16:32Lesson Info
Shop Settings & Policies
If you're just getting started like you are, um you're going to need to set some things up uh and it starts with you know, the info the shop title your little banner image what you want to say about the description of your shop uh I'm not gonna spend any time on that that's up to you that's marketing on that's not my area of expertise the one thing I will point out in the info on appearance section, which is that very first page of your shop info um is your message to buyers and your message to buyers for digital items specifically, um we're going to talk about shop policies in a second but shot policies air long, multi page documents that cover a lot of things like payments, shipping, et cetera if there's a piece of information that's really important to get across to your customers that they're never going to find if they read your shop policies because let's face it, the vast majority of buyers are not going to go and visit your shot policies and read them even though it's important...
for you to have them there um unless they have a problem that's the only time someone ever reads your shop policies if something goes wrong and they're like wait a minute that my father is it their fault that's like literally the only reason that anybody ever reads those things so if there's information that it's really important for people to have right off the bat, if it's a question that comes up all the time from your buyers, if it's a pain point, um, this is the place to put that so and we'll talk about this more when we get to the digital items. But for example, I have another etc shop a third at the shop with my husband, where we sell a downloadable wedding invitation template. Um, it's a digital file. Ah, is a fairly complex one. It requires the customer to either be able to use photo shop or illustrator themselves to edit it or have their printer do that. Um, and so I get questions about that all the time. So not only do I have a frequently asked questions on the listing page itself, but in the message to buyers is it says up front, like you or your printer need to know how to use this kind of software to make edits. We cannot make the edits for you, and we don't provide tech support. Um, because it's a somewhat pricey item, it sells for one hundred dollars, and so a lot of people think, perhaps not incorrectly. That when they buy this thing they're also going to sort of get a tutorial and a little bit of like virtual hand holding in making it look the way that they wanted to for their wedding before they go and get it printed and we just can't do that um we don't have that kind of time so that's something that we would like to include in that receipt just is a reminder even though it's on the listings page even though it's in the shop policies it also goes out on the receipt when they purchase something here's what you're getting here is what you're not getting um so this is a good place to put any of those things on here this one also calls out the policies page for more information um and then if you were paying by money order or cashier's check you need to email us for the address to send it to because that's not spelled out anywhere else really on the site so uh any questions about anything I have covered so far we have some questions that come in from online lenka is asking if I open two or more shocks on nazis do I need to do we're keeping separately or does he help you keep track of multiple stores store fronts as he does not help you keep track of multiple store friends you will have to do it all separately but that's really not a bad thing if you have two separate shops presumably um they're two pretty different businesses to start with and you would want to track them separately if one business is going gangbusters and the other one is tanking, you don't want to average them out together and try and make decisions that apply to both of them. Um, so you probably want to do your bookkeeping separately for those two businesses anyway or at least make sure that you're labeling all of those chins up early, and we'll look at that when we look at the ledger, um, in the next segment, how you can sort of tag and label your entries to filter them out by product or filter the mouth product line or business. Um, so you would want to keep those things pretty separate anyway? Um, but no there at he does not really help combine uh, your book keeping across shops. All right. Um, we're also going to talk about this a little bit later, but this message to buyers for digital items might also be the place where you want to put some information about the new u that rules. Um, as of january first, twenty fifteen, there are new rules in the european union about selling digital products. Um, the's apply to sellers outside of the european union as long as the customer is in a member state of the european union you are supposed to be collecting that that that value added tax and then sending it into the appropriate country managing this has become a big mess for a lot of people who sell a lot of digital products. This is where you might want to start putting in a message about that depending on what you decide to do about it um and we'll talk more about how people are handling that um in their etc shops specifically later on but I just wanted to point that out as part of the info on appearance section um for later on so we have looked at in phone appearance I want to look at the policies really briefly a cz j k o mentioned we have as part of the bonus materials um sample shop policies that I have put together their both retail shop policies that I used for my own shop as well as policies for my wholesale shop because I have also an nc wholesale account which we will also look at leader um again these air sample policies and um they are part of the bonus materials as a word document so that they can be totally edited to suit your own business. Um these air not a legal document nobody is checking I agree to these terms and conditions in order to buy from you um but it's a really good place to start as faras informing customers up from what you know are and are not willing to do. Um in general, people tend to abide by these shop policies, but because they're not actually a legal document I prefer to write these in plain english, right? Because this is my communication to buyers. This is not my communication from my lawyers to a buyer's lawyers. Um, I like to write these out in perfectly understandable layman's terms. Um, so you don't need to write them in, like all kinds of fancy language. You know, it says things like in my shipping policy by default all items airship using the least expensive shipping method available. Usually this is usps first class mail, which is not automatically insured. Um if you want to upgrade here's what you do so on and so forth um, the payment methods that I accept, um, the length of time that I will wait to get paid before I just cancel an order how long people can expect, uh, to wait for in order to get shipped to them. Um, you can put information about, uh, customs and that in here, so just talk about that again if you have, if you're selling, uh, physical goods to some someone in a country that has a value added tax usually they have to go and pay those customs fees and on top of a couple of other fees when they get to the post office to pick up their package, they don't get to take that home with them until they've paid all of those government fees and taxes. Um, we don't have that here in the u s most people in countries where they have that are pretty familiar with that process and so they know when they're going to pick up their package that they're going to have to pay some of those fees, but a lot of customers in other countries are also usedto having that that included in the price which is not the case on etc, so it might be a nice place to give a heads up to those customers if they're reading your policies like j f y I it's also nice to put it in the message to the buyer when they buy something from you, you know you can edit it for each individual transactions. So if you are sending something to say europe, you can say just so you know you can expect to pay up to twenty, twenty five percent of this in fees when you go and pick up your package, if you need me to cancel that for any reason before I ship it, let me know within, you know, two to three days um I've never had a problem there but it's really it's nice customer service it's good to give people a little bit of a heads up um if you know these things ahead of time any questions about the policies okay? So we've got you sort of welcome message payment policy shipping policy um you've also got these there are a couple of things that you might have to fill out if this is required in your country this is not required in the u s but there are some countries um where if you are selling on it see you are required to have your name, physical address, email address on and we're applicability tax identification number available for everyone to see um the same thing goes for this private receipt info some countries require that additional information be provided to buyers who purchased from your shop these things are on ly listed on the buyer receipts so that's not for everybody to see that doesn't go in your general shop policies this is just when somebody actually purchases from you they see this information and it says right here this information will not appear in your public shop policies page and then there's a frequently asked question where you can go to for more information but for all the sellers watching this in other countries it's up to you to familiarize yourself with local business laws and make sure that you're complying with them um when you're on etc and anywhere else that you're selling in doing business.
Class Materials
bonus material
bonus material
Ratings and Reviews
Ssparrowinflight
This is a meaty course that has you at a run from the moment it opens. If you are like me and you have been wanting to start a handmade business using Etsy, this will be a great course for you! What I like best about this course is the information that is given is not from a sterile corporate perspective. She has been down in the handmade trenches from the very beginning of Etsy so she has seen all the changes. Lauren also shares the realities of business and shows you how to calculate the actual costs that go into your products. She gives you the knowledge and resources to know how to set up your book keeping as it relates to Etsy. The only negative about the course is that there is literally not enough time to cover EVERYTHING that you might run into for your personal situation concerning Etsy, but she does give you enough information and resources through her Extras that gets you in the right direction. I would sincerely recommend this class!
a Creativelive Student
This was so helpful! I have been wondering about so many things the last few months since I opened my shop on Etsy and have found some information, but often it is encrypted in such technical terms that it feels so unclear. I felt like Lauren answered so many of my questions (as well as questions I didn't know that I had) with such clear, easy-to-understand ways! I can't recommend this course enough! Thank you Lauren for making complex processes of bookkeeping seem reasonable and doable. Thank you for sharing experiences to back-up the information that you shared. This was wonderful!
a Creativelive Student
This course has a lot of helpful information, but I do caution that there isn't really enough time to get it all down if you are watching the livestream. Also, quite a bit of time is spent talking about VAT rules which are out of date, and much easier to deal with now.