I've been taking a litte time "away" - yesterday my neighbor came over and we tackled my studio. The giant mess in there was really preventing me from getting anything done. We worked on organizing and got a very big dent put in the mess! The next step is to get all of my inventory organized, and start a numerical system to STAY organized.
When I started selling on Etsy last November, I didn't realize how quickly things were going to take off.. how large my business was going to grow, and how much attention I would get! :) its lovely... but I was so not set up for it. I haven't kept a single record beyond what is auto recorded by Etsy and Paypal. I need some serious "business running" help - so if anyone has any tips for me.. please share! I also need tips on how to manage a serious inbox problem. I've decided to release items in collections and also to raise my prices a bit...
Anyways, here are a few recent photos! enjoy! xo (I've been playing around a lot with my new camera, you can see more photos here
6 comments:
I dont' have any suggestions for your inbox problem but as far as recordkeeping goes, I keep spreadsheets for everything. Sales, supplies, other expenses. Makes tax time much easier to deal with.
Great pictures! So glad you're feeling better about things. You'll be fine!
Hi there,
first of all, congratulations on doing so well and being so successful... I can only dream of my little papercraft "business" taking off like that!
But I can appreciate it must be difficult to keep on top of it all!
I missed your post from yesterday - will go and check back now!
But I hope you are ok - you should be pleased at your success :-)
I am not sure if I know anything that can help you business wise - I am SO small-time at the moment! But I am in yr 2 of a business degree (yr 2 of 6 lol) so I am hoping that doing that will give me some business sense for IF (big if lol) my business ever grows!
Have a great weekend :-)
Rose XXX
Don't feel bad Chelsea - we're in the same boat with record keeping. I do keep all my recipts organized, and I know I can go back and make a spread sheet of all my sales - but I haven't done it yet. I set a goal for myself - to get it all cleaned up and organized by the end of September so we'll see what happens. You'll get it all straightened out too!
even though i'm not as busy as you are, i do have a few things i have set up so that when i do, i will be ready. First-i use spreadheets. I also have an inventory system that my hubby set up for all my merchandise. Each product has it's own number that i enter into the spreadsheet and i stamp it on each products tag. I also use a spreasheet to keep track of sales and how much each one is bringing in.
All i can say is use a lot of spreadsheets. Have fun!
Treat your etsy store like a store in the mall. Every item or collection (group of items) needs a inventory number so you can track it. As everyone has already said spreadsheets are the key to recordkeeping. Excel has excellent ones that are fairly easy to use but you can start off hand doing them too and keeping them in a binder. I'd also reccomend that you print out pictures of all your items and keep those in a binder with info like pricing, how many sold, supplies used, inventory numbers etc. A visual record like this can be very helpful if cold numbers aren't your thing. I do mine this way beacuse I'm such a visual person & it helps keep me on track with my spreadsheets. You also need to keep all your receipts for supplies & thrifting and make a spreadsheet for those items too so you know if you are making any money or just over buying.It will take some time to set up but the time you spend is worth it in the end.
I loved your post yesterday! I'm not at the point where I can spill all yet but do greatly admire you for doing so. It was nice to get a closer glimpse of who you are.
Best wishes!
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