Course Hub
Welcome to Small Shop Success! This is your course hub. Each individual module is broken down into bite size chapters. Remember to save this page’s link and password so you have access to this course indefinitely. Scroll down and get started!
Course Materials
Printable Workbook — Click Here
Slideshow Printout — Click Here
Digital Financial Sheets Pack — Click Here
Overview
Housekeeping
QUICK TIP! - Make sure you save the login page web address you were directed to after course payment! This will ensure you always have access to these courses!
Mindset
Mindset is easily the most important asset to running a business. In a world of fast paced stressors, anxiety and depression working for yourself can aggrivate any negative mental state. I always encourage clients to dress up their spaces with plants and living things. They do not only clear the air but they literally liven up a space and also give you something to look after and care for that is not your business. I like to get my plants from Lowes, Pigment and I even get the monthly subcription box from Succulent Studios. I also reccomend my clients and shop friends to go all out in decorating their space to make it a room of complete creativity. Furthermore I think filling your day with some meditation, excersize and learning podcasts is great both mentally and phyisically. And lastly I created a set of Spotify playlists for any work from home mood you can think of!
Organization
QUICK TIP - Make a copy of all your Etsy message responses and pop them into Etsy snippets, but also same a copy in a Google Drive document for safe keeping!
Using Trello
Start using Trello now - CLICK HERE
Using Google Drive
Scheduling
QUICK TIP - If you have a business that requires you to speak with people one on one consider setting up a Calendly account where customers/ clients can schedule a coll with you that is linked to your Google calendar. They can’t see why you’re busy, just the days and times you deem available for calls!
If you ever need you can find hired help on UpWork, Fiveer and Fancy Hands!
Using GooGLe Calendar
Business Building Blocks
Fun fact, I went to a small business training and we were told to bring our business plan. I didn’t think it would be that serious if I didn’t have one. It turns out that was your ticket to the free event. They didn’t think you were serious about your business if you couldn’t provide a business plan of any detail on hard or digital paper. That’s how important this is!
1, 2, 3, Goals
Having goals is EXREMELY important. You wouldn’t feed your pet fish if you didn’t have a fish right? It sounds silly, but that’s the same logic of having a business without any business goals! You have to have them to really get anywhere or measure your rate of success! Keep your goals handy and review them throughout the year. You may even find it beneficial to keep them or keywords from them hanging on your offce desk to give you a daily reminder if what you’re working for!
Standard Operating Procedures
This may seem like unneccesary work, but what happens if you landed in the hospital tomorrow and you were there for a few weeks or months? How rewarding would it be to have a family member or hired help continue your business? A medical setback of having to close your shop creates unhappy customers, lost income and a lot of time to build your business back up. It’s not worth it. Maybe take the time to train someone to step in if anything ever happened. This even creates the possibility of leaving the business to someone in the event of passing as well. Think of your business as creating a revenue stream to support you or your family for years to come.
Find Your Niche
Finding Your Niche
Financials
Take the time NOW to figure out your finances. I waited much to long to create a plan of appropriate action and really regretted trying to pick the pieces up later. Doing this and finding a GOOD CPA you can TRUST is key. Possibly even speak to a financial advisor that specializes in small business ownership!
Finances Explained download - CLICK HERE
Remember in Etsy to select to be paid every day so you get your funds as soon as possible to buy supplies and fulfill orders ontime!
Using the GOOGLE Sheets
Overall Shop Health
Per request here is a copy, paste and fill in the black Privacy Policy that I use!
——-
This privacy notice discloses the privacy practices for _________ Etsy shop and applies solely to information collected by this website for this specific shop.
INFORMATION COLLECTION, USE, AND SHARING
We (the shop owner and Etsy) are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to collect information that you voluntarily give us on your order form and through messaging. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone. We will use your information to respond to you, regarding the reason you contacted us. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization, other than as necessary to fulfill your request, e.g. to ship an order.
ORDERS
We request information from you on our order form. To buy from us, you must provide contact information (like name and shipping address) and financial information (like credit card number, expiration date). This information is used for billing purposes and to fill your orders. If we have trouble processing an order, we'll use this information to contact you. Your payment information is processed by Etsy and is subject to their privacy policy, we never see your billing information except for name and address. Only your contact information is shared with our fulfillment service _________ and your email is shared with our newsletter service ________.
YOUR ACCESS TO AND CONTROL OVER INFORMATION
The only contact you will receive from us will be pertaining to your order. Once your order is fulfilled you will no longer be contacted unless you are opted in to our newsletter. You may opt out of any future contacts from us at any time by unsubscribing to our newsletters at the bottom of the newsletter or by emailing us to remove you from the listing.
SECURITY
We take precautions to protect your information. When you submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and offline. While Etsy uses encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, order fulfillment or customer service) are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers/servers in which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment. Your order information is stored indefinitely on our site unless requested to be removed.
If you feel that we are not abiding by this privacy policy, you should contact us immediately via email at _______________
Finished Shop Areas
Think of your shop homepage as your internet face. Would you present yourself to the world with your face and hair all messy? Probably not. This is the FIRST impression potential customers, market organizers, and investors are going to have of you. Make it count!
Find your Etsy ODR - CLICK HERE
Creating Sales & Changing Your Shipping and Processing
Make sure you offer free shipping in your shop to maximize sales, but also always have upgraded shipping available like 1-3 day priority and possibly even next day. High ticket customers are willing to pay for quicker shipping when they wait too long to order. Be sure to price appropriately for this!
When setting up processing times in Etsy, eBay, Amazon etc be TRUTHFUL and give yourself leeway. If you are contonsouly shipping late platforms will penalize you and potentially take negative action against your shop!
Presentation
QUICK TIP - If you think you’re photos are “okay” you should already have an action plan lined up of how to fix it. If you find this to be too time consuming, try and atleast redo your main listing photo. And if your photos have a dark background or are not as good as your competitor, you should’ve re-shot them like yesterday!
Taking a Good Listing Photo
Links to products Lightbox , Umbrella Lights , White Backdrop , DSLR , Lens, Lightroom
Watch Me Take Listing Photos
Downloading and Using a Lightroom Preset
How to use a mockup
If you create your own mock ups try and give your item a shadow to make it more “real”. You do this by duplicating the item you are laying into the mockup. Once it’s duplicated you make the “bottom” copied layer black/ gray and then drop the opacity so it’s a bit see through. Then offset it in the same direction as the shadows on other items in the mock up scene. Lastly if you drop a white item into a mock up scene it will look fake. try dropping the opacity or lighting by 5% and it will look less stark and more real!
SEO
Two Weeks FREE of Marmalead - CLICK HERE
QUICK TIP! - Always remember to use commas in tittles only and NOT these as Google can’t read them properly -> | / \
SEO seems daunting. It seems just a mythical as the Instagram algorithm, but it is not! SEO is easy to comprehend with programs like Marmalead! Just research, plug and play! This is KEY to succesfully selling on Etsy!
How To Use Marmalead
Example of using both long-tailed and short-tailed keywords that are both large niche and small niche.
“candle, soy candle, organic candle, pink candle, candle gift, gift for her, bridesmaids gift, gift for mom, gift, home decor, fragrance, living room candle, decoration”
The FIRST word or phrase will be the MOST IMPORTANT in search results. Make this exactly what your product is!
How To Use Erank
Remember - there is no need to purchase this, you only need the free version to see spelling errors!
Pricing
Pricing Explained download - CLICK HERE
I’ve always liked the way this girl talks about pricing your items - CLICK HERE
Remember to price for potential ad fees as well as build bulk items needed for order fulfillment into your price (envelopes, business cards, printer ink etc)
How To Use a Pricing Calculator
Link to calculator - CLICK HERE
Ebay Calculator - CLICK HERE
Amazon Fees Explained - CLICK HERE
Shopify Pricing Explained - CLICK HERE
Big Cartel Pricing Explained - CLICK HERE
Squarespace eCommerce Pricing Explained - CLICK HERE
Building The Perfect Listing
Remember that copying a isting and then editing the attributes is the quickest way to make new listings on Etsy. Be sure though you are changing the wording a bit here and there because Google NEGATIVELY ranks listings that appear to copy one another. This means if you have all your listings written out on Etsy and you plan to copy them to eBay or Amazon you should change the wording while doing so!
Consider keeping a LONG and running list of similar listing descriptions, relevant keywords and title phrases that you can pull from frequently when making new listings!
How To Get More Sales
Always remeber that MORE VISITS results to MORE SALES (if your product is quality of course). If you aim to get more traffic to your shop (getting the word out) or more eyes on your items (listing on more marketplaces) you’re bound to make more sales!
Driving Traffic
Remember to sign up for Google Adsense (and eventually MediaVine) for both your Youtube and Blog. If it gets large enough you can make advertising money from ads on your blog and videos as well as drive traffic to your shops! You’ll be surprised how much money you can make online when you break into this world!
Marketing
QUICK TIP - Make sure you have exhausted your list of free advertising and you have a high conversion rate (over 4%) before you start paying for traffic to be directed to your shop. This way you’re only spending money when you need to and it’s paying off.
Etsy has both On Platform Ads (optional) and Offsite Ads (optional for sellers that sold under 10k last year). The notion of paying for ads is that it takes money to make more money. Etsy onsite ads YOU elect if you want to participate and YOU set your budget. I reccomend to only put a few items “on”. Etsy Offsite Ads are run entirely by Etsy and you can opt in if you sold under 10k last calendar year or you are automatically enrolled (with no choice) if you sold more than that. If you elect into the program you pay a 15% fee IF THE CLICK LEADS TO A SALE, if you are automatically enrolled you pay a 12% fee. This is imperative to remember at pricing.
Using Later & Planoly
Use Later - CLICK HERE, Use Planoly - CLICK HERE
Optimize Social Media Accounts
Wanna run a giveaway to bring followers to your page? Reach out to similar businesses like yours and all agree to give something away. On the main post be sure to list all the shops participating and reuire all entrants to follow them. The require them to like the photo and tag a friend (or three) in the comments to get more entrants, but also raise the engagement rating of the post. Giveaways work best if ran for 24-48 hour time frames, are shared to stories and have reminder posts. They also work best with 3-5 shops that vary in follower count! Post the giveaway during your peak engagement time and you should be golden!
sTREAMLINING PINTEREST MARKETING
Free month of Tailwind - CLICK HERE
Mailchimp
Use Mailchimp now - CLICK HERE
How To Set Up IFTTT
Use IFTTT now - CLICK HERE
how to find the best hashtags
QUICK TIP - Be sure to vary your hashtag use as well as mix their order up frequently. Instagram Gods know when you keep reusing the same keywords and will limit your post’s reach!
Using Etsy On Sale
Free credits for Etsy On Sale - CLICK HERE
the marketing plan
Let’s chat about outdated “marketing” strategies to gain followers and get likes.
Follow/ Unfollow - When you follow someone in the attempt to get them to follow you back and you unfollow if they do or don’t to raise your follow count. This is outdated, spammy and kind of wrong.
Bot Messaging - Setting up robo messages to people who do not follow you to get them to follow you. Outdated, and against many platforms terms of service.
Paying For Followers or Likes - Self explanitory. Do NOT do this. These are typically bot likes and if they are real people I can almost gurantee you they are not your target customer. Instagram also bans accounts that pay for followers.
Paying to Join A Giveaway - Self explanitory and goes with the previous point. It’s only worth it if it’s another similar shop running the giveaway and not a company.
Alternate social platforms EXPLAINED
It may seem self explanatory, but the more views your items get - the more sales you will get. So getting on additional platforms than just Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest could be very valuable.
Sites like We Heart It and Wanelo are great shopping social platforms that, althrough are older, are still being used today. You typically only need to add your listing to these platforms once for that post to cycle forever. People have friends and lists on these sites and they add listings to their lists and also share them with friends. Be sure to use all appropriate keywords and titling to get more eyes to our items.
Snapchat is a great way to share exclusive content about your business, however since stories disappear in 24 hours. It’s almost best to keep up with the use on InstaStories instead. However, if you would like to update an exclusive group of followers through a story feature, add those specific people to your “Close Friends” and when sharing stories only share to them.
TikTok may have started out as a Gen Z guilty pleasure, but it has grown to even include the Boomer generation. TikTok has a knack for “blowing up” someones account either immediately or weeks after they’ve posted a video. TikTok algorithims vary, but there are a few keys to being successful. First you want to be posting atleast 1-3 times a day. You want to use songs others on the “For You” page are using a lot, songs from the “Trending” or “Featured” category because they are doing just that - trending or being featured. Use releveant hashtags, but also ones others are using, but keep in mind you have limited characters in the caption to fill. Create a lot of videos and sprinkle in filters, transitions and effects while both autosyncing to music and adjusting your own clip. Try to take part in “challenges” or “trends” others are doing as they even give your account more life and views “behind the scenes”. Be sure to turn on blocked words and hide words that typically are associated with bringing others down or words like “copy”, “ugly” etc. Lastly, be sure to switch your account to a “business” one for the analytics, and also “join tiktok bets testers” so in about 24-48 hours you can add a link to your shop in the bio and it will actually be clickable. (until that time, just write it in the bio). Have fun and make friends too!
new platforms
Keep in mind some platforms take a while to approve your application (Amazon Handmade) and some take a while to allow you to list all your products (eBay) so applying now is worth it. If you can handle checking and fullfilling orders on multiple platforms this is the easiest way to grow your business and get it in front of new eyes. Even if you grow to a new platform and you only make $50 profit from it monthly it is worth it. Imagine if you grew to a new platform each month over the next three months. That’s $150 more profit a month and you’re still doing the SAME workflow. Make sure you check each platforms fees as they are different and remember that your new platform will most likely gro slowly month after month. And lastly, give yourself doable time frames for getting on a new platform. Thinking you can upload 200 new products in a weekend is not realistic.
Platform Links
Etsy, Amazon, Amazon Handmade, Amazon Merch, Ebay, Teepublic, Redbubble, Shopify, Squarespace, Creative Market
eBay is a bit easier than Amazon handmade, so THIS simple how to guide should be all you need to get started!
More Products
When growing your product line rememeber that each shopping platform has millions of items, so if you only have 30 items you have less of a chance as being seen as someone who has 300 items. If you simply cannot grow your product line, consider breaking up your listing variables into multiple listings. Don’t forget to vary the new listing keywords so you have more chances to be found!
Remember that the most sold items on Etsy are decor, giftable items, digitals, personalize products and “gifts for her”!
BIG TIP: Want to make a sale like NOW?! Making a shop update on Etsy, Uploading a PERFECT photo on social media, Creating and pinning the perfect pin, sending a marketing email with a HUGE special, or sending $1-$.50 off an item with the ‘Send Offer’ option on eBay is a great way to get immediate sales. I do this very exact thing THREE days before the end of the month to get those few extra sales!
Business Owner Toolkit
Business Resource Toolkit - CLICK HERE
DO NOT SKIP this link. It includes ALL of my suppliers as well as links to items I use to fulfill orders (envelopes, ink etc)
Keeping Up With The Competitors
Stalking Your Competition
Pro Tip - I read my competitors BAD reviews to see what they may be lacking and I try and fill this hole in my own business.
How To Create Your Own Branding
How To Make Graphics on Canva
Use Canva now - CLICK HERE
If you need stock footage but do not want to pay for it on Canva download photos from royalty free stock sites like Unsplash, Pexels and Pixabay!
How To Optimize Your Email Box
Google Analytics Explained
Google Analytics is my favorite long term analytics keeper as I can track ALL my shops pages/ accounts in one place!
Understand Your Shop Stats
Where DO I Go From Here?
Pro Tip - Two days before the end of the month I create a “Shop Update” on Etsy, and on eBay I discount my items about $.50-1 that are being “watched” by “send offer to buyers”. Both of these EMAIL buyers and can close sales to make your end of month total income higher! Plus I typically announce that things are 10% off on social media too. This way I’m getting the few extra sales from people that were on the fence.
Your Thoughts…
Upon completion of this course please take a moment and discuss a few things about the course as well as share your thoughts. Your feedback is highly appreciated!
Want More?
Be sure to check out my Holiday Shop Prep Course!