Money Saving Mom®

Guest post from Lauren of Funky Monkey Children

Often times when someone asks the question of how they can bring in extra income while staying home with their children, people respond with “how about setting up an Etsy shop?” While I think that is a wonderful suggestion, and one that I did myself back in 2012, it isn’t really as simple as just building a shop and having customers flow in.

Over the past 2 years of having my Etsy shop, Funky Monkey Children, I have learned some invaluable lessons about running and business. Here are a few things I wish I had known when I started mine:

1. Start by Brainstorming Ideas

What is a skill you have or a product you make that has a wide market of desirability? Are you willing to learn a new skill or craft that could someday turn into a product for sales? Do you have a side hobby that friends keep telling you to sell?

Brainstorming for a product idea is the very first step in setting up an Etsy shop. This may seem obvious, but make sure it is something you like doing. It would be unfortunate to “hit it big” with a product you really have no interest in continuing to make!

It’s also helpful to think long-term with your ideas – are there items you could add for a coordinating set down the road or ways that you could expand that product into a bigger or more complex line in the future?

2. Manage Your Inventory

When I first started Funky Monkey Children, I was open to anything people asked of me. I had no problem driving around to different fabric shops (with my two toddlers!) looking for a certain pattern that someone requested, or running out to the store to pick up a single item to monogram for a specific customer.

I quickly learned, however, that this consumed a huge amount of my time and wasn’t very profitable. I ended up with so much inventory and so many supplies that I wasn’t able to use on a continuous basis.

In order to streamline my business I decided to focus on just a few items (burp cloths, bibs, and shirts) and not expand so wide that I was drowning in inventory (and spending all my profits on more inventory!)

3. Create Specific Goals

When you start a business, it’s important to make very specific goals for the future… as well as a path to achieve those goals.

When I first started, my goal was for this to be a self-sustaining hobby. If I got busy and didn’t have more time to work, I closed my shop for a few days and never thought twice about it. As long as I could make enough money to buy more fabric to play around with in my free time, I was happy.

As time progressed, however, my goals changed in a big way. The goals that I have set for the business now are allowing us to save a 20-30% down payment in the next year to buy a house, which is something I never could have dreamed of a few years ago!

4. Pinpoint Your Market

In order to appeal to your buyer, you must know exactly WHO your buyer is. Once you know who you are appealing to, you can figure out how best to reach them and where to find them.

It is helpful to think in very specific terms; knowing that “women” are your target customers doesn’t really help. Knowing that your target customer is a 25-35 married woman who works outside of the home and lives on the West Coast is substantially more helpful.

5. Make Prototypes

You have to have something to advertise in order to get started. One of the best ways to get more traffic to an Etsy shop is to increase the number of items you have listed.

When I was starting out, I made tons of gifts for friends. Since I primarily make baby items, and I have young children myself, I had no shortage of people around me with babies.

With each and every item I made, I took a picture and listed it as a listing for sale. Eventually customers would ask for variations of the same product (different colors, fabrics, applique, etc) and each time I would take a picture of that item and list it separately.

There is a rumor around Etsy that 75 listings is the “magic number” to really increase the traffic flow to your shop. I’m not sure if that is true, but I can say that the amount of traffic to and subsequent sales in my shop increased substantially with more listings.

6. Price Your Items Appropriately

Make sure you aren’t under-pricing your items! In addition to making people think the item is less valuable than it really is (or cheaply made), if you don’t add in a profit for yourself you are doing a lot of work for no reward.

Another thing to think about is the time involved in each item. When I first started, I priced each item the same. Every shirt had a certain price, every burp cloth, etc. Now when I price something I take into account the amount of time that particular item takes to make.

Since I can only do one item at a time, it doesn’t benefit me to sell an item that takes an hour and an item that takes twenty minutes for the same price.

7. Learn about Tags and Titles

Titles and tags are huge on Etsy. Learning about the basics of SEO (particularly as it relates to Etsy’s relevancy formula) will be extremely beneficial to your shop.

While Etsy brings in a lot of traffic on its own, there are millions of Etsy shops open today, so you need to set yourself apart to see success.

8. Take Good Photos

This is something that is incredibly hard to do when you are first beginning, and something that I continue to struggle with in my own shop. Since Etsy is a very visual platform, clear and bright photographs are a must for any successful shop.

Learning the basics of a good quality camera is helpful, as is finding a consistent light source (whether that is outside or a lightbox). Amazon has some inexpensive and decent quality lightboxes that can be very helpful if you don’t live in a particularly clear climate.

Having consistent product placement and the same background in every picture also helps to build your brand and have a cohesive image of your shop as a whole.

9. Provide Excellent Customer Service

Etsy customers expect top-notch customer service. Because Etsy started as a strictly “handmade” platform for selling (it has since evolved beyond that), a typical Etsy buyer is expecting a more personal interaction than they would get from a traditional store.

This means that often times, buyers will message you for more information, ask lots of questions, and generally expect a dialogue about the product or service as they go. Providing good customer service goes a long way in developing a loyal fan base.

10. Learn Your Limits

This has been one of the toughest lessons for me as my shop has grown and sales have increased. Because Etsy provides a more personal platform for interaction between sellers and buyers, there can be some unreasonable requests at times.

It isn’t totally unheard of for people to message asking for a discount, for overnight shipping at no extra charge, to make an item and ship it out by today, or even for totally free items just because.

As someone who very much wants to make the customer happy, it is hard for me to say no. However, I also have learned to value my time and recognize that the time that I am working is time that is taken away from my family.

Through the years of doing this I have had to find a balance between providing excellent customer service and also not being “on-call” to answer messages, send emails, and jump up and make an item for a customer at all hours of the day. Learning this limit will go a long way in keeping your family on board for your new Etsy venture!

Do you (or have you) run an Etsy business? If so, do you have any other tips to add to my list?

Lauren Keplinger is a part-time working mommy of 2 young children who bring joy and chaos to her life. Her hobbies include sewing, running, cooking and reading, but she spends most of her “free” time now working on her Etsy shop, Funky Monkey Children.

Guest post from Jessi of The Budget Mama

“How did I let this happen? I know better than this. I swore I would never end up here again, what happened?” That was my inner dialogue a few years ago when I realized that I had allowed my family to sink back into the depths of credit card debt.

Back when I was twenty-one years old, I was in such financial trouble that I was near bankruptcy due to credit cards. I truly knew better than to allow the “buy now, pay later” game to suck me, but it did, again.

I am still not sure how it happened; maybe it was out of fear that we would not be able to afford all those “must-haves” when we became parents for the first time. Maybe it was because we desperately “needed” that vacation to Mexico, or maybe I was just turning a blind eye because that was easier to deal with.

We were not only slowly sinking deep in credit card debt, but that fully-loaded Tahoe that we just had to have because we were now parents (and apparently you cannot drive anything other than a four-door SUV when baby arrives) was putting us even deeper in the hole.

Yep, we were deep in the red and the inner accountant in me was screaming bloody murder at the foolishness I had allowed to happen. Something had to be done because we were going to be broke soon if we did nothing.

I pulled up all our financial statements – credit cards, checking account, savings accounts, Tahoe loan information, and my student loan information. I spent hours tediously combing through them in order to figure out how long it would realistically take us to pay off these debts with my husband’s current income and our current budget.

When I presented my findings to my husband, he immediately pulled out his credit card, cut it up, and told me that struggling was out of the question and we were going to have to figure out how to get this debt monster wrangled back in his cage.

We did just that.

We have paid over $25,000 in debt in the two years since we made the commitment to get out of debt for the last time. We still have more to go but we are not struggling and by the grace of God, we will have my student loans completely paid for by the end of this year.

It takes serious hustle to defeat the debt monster. We have had to apply every well-deserved bonus check, tax refund check, savings bonds, and we even had to give up that fully loaded Tahoe in order to dumped $18,000 of debt in one day. Downgrading is not easy in our consumer-driven society that places our value in what we drive, what we wear, and where we live… but sometimes it is the only option in order to live the life you truly want.

Debt is not forever and if you are battling the debt monster, remember you are not alone. It is possible to defeat him. It will not always be easy, but you can and will do it if you hustle.

How have you hustled to defeat the debt monster?

Jessi Fearon is a wife, mom of two little boys, and writer behind The Budget Mama, a personal finance site where she shares her family’s real life on a budget. She is devoted to helping her readers thrive on a budget while becoming better money managers.

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Guest post from Sarah of The Jelly Jars

We are in the middle of raising our family of four with two little girls and a third baby on the way. While I hold down the fort of raising and growing these littles, my husband works part-time and is pursuing his Masters degree part-time.

Needless to say, our finances are tight as we live on his part-time income.

But because of this process, I feel like our perspective on what is most important in this life has shifted in the very best of ways. I know how difficult it is to raise a family when money is so tight, so I wanted to share a few ways finances are handled in our home — in hopes that they might help others in a similar situation.

1. We talk about finances in our marriage.

A central value in our marriage is communication. Whether good or bad, confession or celebration, small talk or crisis, we talk.

And since that is a non-negotiable between the two of us, it naturally carries over into our financial health. We are in this together so we talk about stressors, financial plans and dreams, and where we stand each month.

2. We spend our money on things we value.

We guard against spending money on perceived wants, and instead spend it on what actually adds value to our life. That is a totally personal choice, one unique to you and your family.

Just think about what you love to do, eat, experience, etc. and then spend your money there rather than randomly spending money as your whims strike.

We value health, so we pay for good food and good running shoes, for example. If a purchase falls in line with a family value, it has a place in our budget.

3. We prioritize our emergency fund.

We unexpectedly had to pay for four new tires last Christmas season — a time of year with lots of money flying around. It was painful to pay an unexpected $800 bill, but it didn’t bankrupt us and we didn’t have to throw it on the credit card because we had savings set aside, saving us a lot of stress.

4. We live frugally.

This might sound obvious, but we don’t buy brand name. Instead, we opt for generic whether it be food, shampoo, you name it.

We shop at thrift stores, I go to garage sales, we buy furniture on Craigslist, and we don’t buy many new clothes. We might not be on-trend every season with the latest fashions, but we make it work.

If an item is something we want but don’t need, we don’t buy it. If we can’t pay for it outright without putting it on a credit card, we don’t buy it.

I have learned that finances are so much more than what is in your bank account, it is an indicator of how you live your life. And we have also seen that we can still enjoy life while living on a part-time income without going into debt.

Sarah is a mountain-loving, dark chocolate-eating, Frank Sinatra-listening, owie-kissing, truth-telling, freelance writer/blogger who seeks out a passionate life with her husband and two kiddos. She writes at The Jelly Jars.

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