Boss Up Project – Sell on ETSY

Welcome! I’m so happy to see you here all bossed up and shit! Are you ready to setup shop on ETSY. The Boss Up Project is where I walk you through setting up your ETSY shop so you can have all the tools to sell on ETSY

Having thoughts of failure? Leave that at the door.

Why Sell on ETSY?

I have been selling on ETSY on and off since 2008 or 2009. I have had a handful of shops. Some were amazing and some not so much. With my experience and the success of my tshirt shop (we made 6 figures in 2021!) I wanted to give you some of my knowledge.

I truly believe ETSY is a great platform to start a small shop because of the amount of traffic the site is recieving and therefore potentially able to send your way. When I have tried to sell on other platforms it has usually ended in little to no sales.

While some people say your friends and family are a great place to start (true in some cases but not in all)… 99% of my sales are NOT coming from poeple I know. Also… I used to have dreams of opening a brick and mortar shop, but now I see so much more potential NOT having that extra stress and expense.

Boss Up Project Starts Now

I am going to be sharing a lot of the Boss Up Project on Instagram becuase it is the easiest platform for me. I created a highlight so you can always go back and rewatch the information I’m sharing. If you are not already following me on Instagram (why the heck not!?) follow me @poofycheeksblog

If this is your first ETSY shop use the link and we both get 40 free ETSY listings!

First Step: Set Up an ETSY Seller Account

In order to setup an ETSY seller account you can use an existing account or register a new one. You will need to enter the following things:

• Your address, name, social security number (all that good stuff only you know)
• Bank Account information where you want your deposits sent
• Credit or Debit card information to be charged if you ever have a negative shop balance
• Shop Name

I wish I could help you a little more with this part but alas I don’t know your personal information and luckily ETSY makes it near dummy-proof.

The Dreaded Shop Name

SO.MANY.PEOPLE can’t get past creating the shop name. It’s like a blank hole of ideas or when you FINALLY think of a good one it has already been taken. It doesn’t have to be that difficult though.

I’m using a shop I created a few weeks ago Kelsey Sapp Weddings as a guinea pig for the Boss Up Project. It will be a way to watch me grow a shop while you grow yours along with me. I am not a fan of the shop name but it got the shop open, allowed me to start adding listings and when I think of something more fitting I can change it down the road.

Don’t loose sleep over this. Try one of those games where you take your favorite animal + favorite color or something crazy like that. If you know your items are going to have a theme then maybe base it around that. I urge you not to spend more than 20-30 minutes on this… SERIOUSLY!

I mean what the heck is Poofy Cheeks? … besides a very memorable name I can no longer change for fear of people not being able to find me anymore in search.

ETSY shared a great article on How to Open an ETSY Shop in 4 Steps and their shop name portion is very insightful.

DO THIS NOW:

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Setup your ETSY seller account today or AT LEAST by this weekend. This doesn’t mean you have to add listings, we will touch on that next. At least get your foundation set with the personal information and the shop name.

What are you waiting for!?

Second Step: Brainstorming ETSY Listings

Chances are if we are meeting like this then you already have product ideas for your shop.

Download ‘My First 20’ PDF to help you brainstorm the first 20 items you want to list in your shop. The goal DOES NOT need to be 20 listings to start, but that needs to be the end goal. We are all going to work through this at different paces becaues of money, time and drive. That’s okay!

Here are my tips for brainstorming listing ideas…

1. Create products that have something in common. Examples include a tshirt shop (all items are tshirts), product theme (all products are dragons), celebrations, wedding, crochet etc. Get my drift?
2. Work towards a minimum of 20 listings in your shop. There are some things ETSY likes and this is one of them. They typically don’t feature shops with a handful of listings. Bottom line they are trying to make money too and want to link to an established shop. Again, this doesn’t have to happen right away but should be the end goal.
3. Don’t overthink your products. Having variations of one product is perfectly fine. For my Save the Date magnet cards I’m creating the same product over and over with variations in design and magnet shape. The premise stays the same.

When Coming Up with Listings Make Sure …

• They are profitable! Nobody wants to make $1/hour (and if this is just a hobby and you are underpricing the rest of us trying to make a living dislike you more than you know!)
• The time it takes to make the product fits into your schedule (think about selling 4, 5, 10 items a day) Does it still fit into your time schedule?
• How many products does it take to quit your ‘real’ job? (If that is your goal) Can you keep up with the time your side hustle takes until then?

This might mean you need to cross a few things off your Top 20 list and that’s okay. Do you think every designer sells every product idea they come up with? That is a big fat NO.

Pricing Worksheet Printable

Download the ETSY Pricing Worksheet

How to Use the Pricing Worksheet to Sell on ETSY

The pricing worksheet is something you HAVE to do with at least one product in your shop. It really helps you realize how much you are spending to make your items. There are a lot of expenses we often forget about when it comes to cost – this worksheet will remind you why you are worth charging more than bottom dollar.

First go through and fill out the front of the pricing worksheet. There are 6 areas:

• Cost of Supplies – The cost of all supplies you use to make your item. For my Save the Date cards this includes the paper, enevelope, magnet and magnet supplies
• Cost of Packaging – This is the cost of supplies to ship. The price of box, shipping label, polymailer etc. should be included here.
• Other Costs – Other costs would be anything else you pay for to run your shop. Do you use internet? Do you drive to pickup supplies? Sometimes this can be hard to determine if you are running your business from home so it is best to add a set amount that you can build into your price. Maybe start with $0.25 and revisit this in the future.
• Cost of Product Labor – I calculate the cost of product labor by determining how much I want to make per hour and multiplying that by how long it takes to make my item. So for example if I want to make $30/hour and making my product takes 1/2 an hour to make I will enter $15 here. REMEMBER that cost of cost of product labor IS NOT profit.
• Cost of Shop Labor – The cost of shop labor includes the time it takes to take product photos, edit photos and creat listing. The good thing is that if you have a product you sell over and over (I really hope this is the case for your sanity LOL) then you should be able to set it and forget it. I usually don’t look at a listing again after I create it for at least a few months. Take the time it takes for shop labor and divide it by 50 or even 100 to get this number. EXAMPLE: I make a listing and it takes 60 minutes to edit photos and make listing. I want to make $30/hour so my hourly rate is $30. Now divide that by 50 or 100 since you won’t look at this again for a few months. Now my cost of labor is $30/50 = $0.60
• Fees – These are the fees ETSY charges you to sell on their platform. You will need to work a little backwards here because you won’t be able to calculate the exact fees until you know how much you are going to sell the product for. I’m breaking down ETSY fees below.

When I did the Pricing Worksheet for my Save the Dates I realized selling a single Save the Date was quite pricey with the acrylic magnets. However, when I sell them in sets of 10 it makes them cheaper because there are some costs that stay the same regardless of selling 1 or 40 Save the Dates. My total cost for the front page was $21.40.

Back Side of the Worksheet

On the back side of the worksheet there are four boxes. The first box is total cost which you calculated on the front side of the worksheet.

The second box is profit. How much do you want to profit from making this product? Profit should be used to reinvest back into your business so this is important! (Whereas your cost of labor is how you pay yourself.)

Third box is your wholesale price. Sites like Faire.com are making it so easy to sell wholesale now and I’m here for it! Add your total cost and your profit boxes together to determine your wholesale price.

The fourth box is your retail price. The retail price should be more than your wholesale price. I’ve heard many people say that your retail price should be double your wholesale price. I feel like that doesn’t always work. As a matter of fact I’m never going to sell my Save the Date cards wholesale due to the personalized nature so I’m skipping that all together.

I decided to add $15 as my profit per 10 Save the Date cards and retail them for $45/ set of 10. I think that $4.50 per Save the Date card with an acrylic magnet is a fair price that I feel comfortable charging. I can always revisit this number if I notice they aren’t selling well.

What are the Fees to Sell on ETSY?

ETSY charges three different fees to sell on their site. They charge $0.20 per listing, 5% transaction fee, 3% + $0.25 processing fee.

While calculating the fees for my Save the Date cards I decided to charge $45 for a set of 10 and then I was able to go back and calculate what the fees on that woule be. >> $.20 listing fee, (45*.05 = 2.25) $2.25 transaction fee, (45*.03 = 1.35 + .25) $1.60 processing fee.

TOTAL ETSY FEES for my $45 listing = $4.10

Here is a breakdown of the ETSY Fees:

• $0.20 listing fee. You get charged this each time you make a new listing. If you have your items set to auto-renew when you make a sale then you will get charged the $0.20 each time it renews and relists onto ETSY.
• 5% transaction fee. This is what ETSY charges to process your transactions and you are only charged this when you make a sale. They use this money to keep their platform running, create commercials, market ETSY and I couldn’t tell you what else. It does seem like a lot but for all the traffic ETSY brings to me I am willing to pay the fee. (NOTE that you are charged 5% on the total amount of your product and shipping charges)
• 3% + $0.25 processing fee. The processing fee is what ETSY charges to take credit cards, paypal, apple pay etc. It covers taking the payment and then paying out the money to your account. ALL platforms (paypal, venmo business, square) charge a processing fee that is comparable to this amount.