The Tax Man Cometh

The holidays are done. If you're like me, you're looking around at your life trying to remember what it looked like before the holidays struck! What exactly do I buy at the grocery store when I have time to go there!? Why is the line at the post office so SHORT today?? What year is it!?? Truly, we all deserve to take a deep breath and celebrate our survival through the joyous, yet stressful, holiday season. This is especially true of we Etsians (of the SCAD variety) because, with any luck, each and every one of us was swamped with holiday orders.

Ah, the sweet smell of relaxation.... wait, what else am I forgetting? I feel like there's one more thing on the horizon... oh, no, it's TAXES!! Just when we thought we were safe, in walks the Tax Man.

To be honest, I must confess that I am a FREAK of nature. I ENJOY doing my taxes. Well, I should say I enjoy organizing my finances, figuring my earnings, working on financial strategies. It's like raking the yard or cleaning the bathroom or painting the kitchen. Not exactly fun, but rewarding and satisfying. Spending time with your financial reality is a very good idea, especially when you are operating on a shoe-string budget. I'm no expert- I'm trying to learn what I can as the need arises, and I thought I would try to share some of the things I learn with you.

This year I learned about Sales Tax. It's the first year I have ever collected it because I officially became a business this year. These are different than your income taxes, which are due in April. In California, where I live, you report your earnings and pay your sales taxes based on a schedule provided to you by the state Board of Equalization (http://www.boe.ca.gov/). For me this is yearly, and happens to be due in January, so I filed already and got a head start on my BIG tax day stuff.

I found a blog post from last year that covers the basics of sales tax and a little bit about how it applies to Etsy sellers. Take a look: http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2010/tax-tips-everything-you-need-to-know-about-sales-tax/

Etsy has a great feature that makes adding sales tax to your items pretty simple, but they can't tell you what tax rate you should be using based on where you live, so you'll have to do some research on your own. Remember that each state is different! To set the tax options on your shop go to Shop Settings>Sales Tax Settings.

In CALIFORNIA, my BIGGEST TIP is to keep track of all your sales made within the state of California, and look up the COUNTY right away. Store this info with the record of your sale. You will have to report how much money was sent to you from each California county when you file (because of varying sales tax rates, I suppose) and it is a PAIN to look up each county when you have a huge  list of sales in front of you (ok, it wasn't as huge as I would have liked).

 The other great TIP, which they mention in the blog above, is try to be as accurate as you can in your tax collection because you cannot keep any extra money and if you come up short it will come out of your own pocket. No fair. Life (and taxes) are not fair.

I hope this will help to get you motivated about tax time. Now is a good time to at least begin organizing your books and figuring out what you will need to do to square things with Uncle Sam.
I'll try to post helpful things as I advance in my own tax adventures. Good luck everyone, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Laurel http://www.etsy.com/shop/LaurelBushman

Hi Everyone!!!!

We super excited about the Renegade Craft Fair in Austin, TX next weekend that our company Make Shop Live will be in attendance.  For us, it is big and exciting because it is our first trip out for a craft fair. Are there team members in Austin that are showing??? Please if you live in the area come out and say hi!

I am not sure what some of your summer plans may include, but I would kill to hear the inner workings of any and all craft/ independent design shows. Seriously,  I want to hear the wide spectrum of "happenings" of anything from celebrity sightings to artists in competition feeling ripped-off.  Come on- there is something.  A customer gave you the most wonderfully stated compliment ever... this stuff is fantastic!

We have been regrouping from Unique LA which all ways keeps us busy! And has us full of ideas to include for next weekend.
Check out the show here or our post at http://makeshoplive.blogspot.com/2011/05/unique-la-highlights-and-pictures.html.

Our new cards really emphasize the SCAD+Etsy=Love Team, and we have geared more marketing towards Etsy in hopes that it brings customers into our Etsy shop & hopefully Everyone else too ;)

I have been behind on the blog posts for the team :( But I have kinda been searching for something I felt passionate about writing.  I was hoping to do a wrap up of so show info/ marketing trends I see here and I think it would be really great if it could be so much more...

Now that we are getting bigger as a team, I am sure a ton of you all are out dealing with all types of sales and I want to know what everyone is up to??? Any tips you figured out?  Did you nail a display that is so awesome you will burst at the seams to share with everyone??? I want to know, and I am sure so does everyone else!  We are all up to amazing things these days I think we should have a call for entries. What ever you you have that you think can relate to this topic: please shoot an e-mail with details HERE by June 13th.

Maybe a campaign can be assessed for creating a bigger buzz for the team too- Just a pre-holidays thought... I know it seems soon but I am starting early!

Hope everyone is doing well and making some amazing things- and $$ too ;)
XO,
KC

Here are more details for people in Austin who want to attend the Renegade Craft Fair

 If you come buy and say hi, we will share a 15% discount to fellow SCAD-sters :) Booth #162

Moo to the Rescue

We had a discussion on Team Board a little while back about a promo Moo was running, and I thought I would share how we've found this product to be a wonderful way to highlight your brands.

Click this link to score 50 Business Cards for FREE all you have to do is pay shipping.

I almost like the free ones with the visit my shop on Etsy and Moo watermark on the bottom better than the full price version!  The banner on the bottom automatically sparks a conversation about our shop every time we pull out these cards. We made an assortment but focused a bunch of these with our picture to give to friends and family.  These cards are a great way to highlight your merchandise or illustrations but don't forget sometimes people like to see pictures of you too ;)

One of my favorite products they have are their sticker books.  We made some assorted stickers that help put that finishing touch on all of our Etsy orders :) The stickers are 1" and make perfect closures to products and gifts to highlight your logo or message.

We have been thinking of purchasing some of the new post cards now that you can make them with double-sided prints... They were originally only available with one image and a selection of pre-made backs to chose from.  Their print quality and the weight of their cards are so nice I am sure the post cards are awesome.  I'll have to let you know when we place our next order and try them out.  If you want to get either the postcards or the stickers they are running a free shipping promotion with the code YAYSTICKIT

Tips for Etsy: Avatars and Shop Banners

We have been so happy to see the SCAD + ETSY = LOVE Team applications flooding in!  I wanted to say a quick hello from Laurel and I to all our new members :)

The beauty of being in a team is having helpful incites from your fellow team members to constantly evolve and tweak your shop so that not only you will increase business, but also to bring other team members exposure on Etsy as well.  Now more than ever there are so many things to shift threw online that it can be a very exhausting process seeing everything.  While we want our team to not be too labor intensive for those of you on  a busy schedule, I do want to point out that for some of your fellow teammates their shop may already be the prime focus for showcasing their business.  By having some shops empty or without an avatar/ shop banner it lowers the standards for the overall group.  Here are some helpful (and quick) tips to get your shop appearance set and up and ready for business:

Standard Info for Banners and Avatars

For your Avatar/ Profile Picture:

You can use image editing software (for example: Adobe Photoshop or GIMP) to tweak a photo you've taken.
You will need to crop or re size your image to be a small square, 75 x 75 pixels in size at 72 dpi resolution. The file should be one of these formats: .jpg, .gif or .png.

For your Banner graphic at the top of your Shop:
Make sure you have your properly sized image saved on your computer. Your banner should be 760 x 100 pixels at 72 dpi. Banner images must be .jpg, .png or .gif file format.

To upload your banner image to your Etsy shop, go to Your Account > Info & Appearance. Click the Browse button to locate the file on your computer, then click the Save button at the bottom of the page. Your new banner will show up in your shop momentarily.

Make a Quick Banner HERE on Etsy's Banner Generator

Etsy Resources- Pre-made Badges

Etsy Resources- Pre-made Banners and Avatars

Here is a post from Etsy on Making a personalized shop banner in Photoshop

Wanna get a graphic designer to make a super sweet one for you?!? 

For Under $10 You can get a custom made avatar and shop banner from a fellow Etsian-

Modern/ Fashion

Simple/ Modern

A little bit pricier, but includes everything you would ever need- 

Full Packages with Vacation, Sale, even a custom reserved listing place holder!

I have created a fun picture for an Avatar you can click and download here:

Feel Free to promote your shop and our Team using this 

"Solid Gold" avatar or Etsy Flag picture ©Make Shop Live-

 

 

Tips for Etsy: Treasury Widgets

Hello Team Members!

Laurel and I have been having so much fun working on the Team and I am so happy to see the growth in membership!!! We have created this blog to promote and help our team members with their Etsy business and I am going to help with a section featuring tips and tricks to maximize your time on Etsy and within the team.

Some useful sites to bookmark are:

CRAFTOPOLIS: http://www.craftopolis.com/  

This site is sooooo helpful and you would be a fool not to bookmark it!  It sets up a calender that shows on each day how many people visit your shop, if you receive a heart(s), and how much money you made daily/ monthly! 

The best feature here for saving time when updating your shop is "Edit Express" where you can  edit price, title, description, and quantity on items in minutes.

Etsy On Sale: http://www.etsyonsale.com/sellers

This site is useful to batch organize your items for sales and it very easy to even set up sales in advance.  You can even use it to change the tags on your items if you haven't tagged SCAD yet ;)

My absolutely favorite site for Etsy users is Craft Cult! http://www.craftcult.com/heartomatic.php

You can see who hearts your items and shows helpful charts that you can use along with your analytics to maximize and analyze your sales.  If you haven't set up analytics in any of your sites- No worries! This helpful site gives you all the information you need :)

Here is my latest Treasury Selection for the Team.  If you haven't tagged your items with "SCAD" you are missing out on an opportunity to get exposure in our treasuries and features,  Please make sure you tag your items as well as put the following text in your shop profile: "I am a proud member of TEAM SCAD + ETSY = LOVE.

The above treasury widget can be created on Craft Cult as well and it is super easy to create!

http://www.craftcult.com/treasury_widget.php?userid=

These widgets are perfect for including on your blog or site promoting your Treasuries and Team.

You can also make a super awesome Shop Widget here too, and we are hoping for a similar one on this blog each month featuring one of our Team Member's Shop :)

Hope this can help!
XOXO,
KC Cooper Sears