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Don’t fall into the age-old Etsy trap of not paying yourself for the work you put into the products you sell on Etsy. Be it the time you spend either making or designing your products OR time spent sourcing and hunting for the vintage items or supplies you sell.
And don’t forget that you also spend time on administrative tasks like shipping, customer service, organizing your inventory, etc.
In this episode, I’m going to give you some tips on how to ensure that you get paid for the time, effort, and skill you put into the products you sell and the business you’re running.
First Things First
- You must understand your expenses…
- If you’re on the handmade side, that includes the cost of your raw materials and everything that goes into making your products
- If you’re a supply or vintage seller, that should include not just the acquisition cost of the goods you plan to resell, but also the costs associated with acquiring them… Like for special licenses, entry fees, gas, parking costs at places you go to buy, etc.
Putting a Price on Your Time
- One method is to track the number of hours you spend on your business… Then decide on an hourly wage for your time… Finally, build that hourly wage into the price of each item you sell (this is in addition to the cost of your raw materials or the acquisition cost of the vintage or supply item that you’re selling, as well as time for your labour either making the product or cleaning and prepping an item for sale)
- There is no minimum or maximum hourly wage, that figure has to be a personal decision based on your own unique situation and what you think your time is worth
Putting a Price on Your Skills Set
- Don’t you hate it when people minimize what you do by insinuating that they can do the same thing? Whether it be making or reselling an item…?
- If you’ve developed a skill in making a product (or more) OR you’ve developed an eye for vintage items, you understand their history, and know how to value and sell them for top dollar…
- So… You need to be charging for those skills…
- If the price you come up with is more than what you think you’d pay for an item, don’t worry, just remember that sometimes, even you might not be your own customer… >> There are people out there who are willing to pay someone like you to do all what you did so that they can just get the product without having to do all that work themselves
- Also, Etsy shoppers aren’t necessarily looking for a deal like shoppers would be on eBay or Amazon perhaps…
- Be sure to always highlight both the features, as well as the benefits, of your products to shoppers…
- As a rule-of-thumb, benefits show what value the products will bring to the buyer, while features show what your product will and can do
- So…. A benefit of an oyster shell bracelet would be that it complements most evening wear and will make a versatile addition to one’s accessory stash >> While a feature would be that it has an easy grasp clasp to make putting it on very easy to do with just one hand
If you’re churning out lots of products and you feel that your current pricing is just right, another way to increase your income is to offer a premium version of your product which you can charge more for, …but sell fewer of.
Remember, the price of a product sends a message about its value… >> Too low, and it might seem of inferior quality
Now Over to You:
- If you like what you heard in this episode and think you could benefit from having this type of detailed educational tutorials about ways to make your Etsy selling experience better and more profitable, then please consider getting on the early notification list for (and subsequently subscribing to) “Etsy Success Strategies ~ The Audio Series” once it launches… Go to ConvoMe.com/ReadToMe to sign up
- Now, please go and log in to your Etsy shop and do something constructive with what you’ve just learned.
- Still have questions? Leave them in the comments section below this episode and I’ll do my best to answer them
- Lastly, if you’ve found this helpful, could you please help me spread the word about this resource to other current or aspiring Etsy sellers?
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- If you struggle to keep up with the Etsy Success emails (and other educational materials from Etsy), OR if you’ve fallen behind in going through the Seller Handbook…
- Then sit back, press play, and get caught up one recording at a time.
- Get on the early notification list now at ConvoMe.com/ReadToMe and you’ll get notified by me once it launches.
- When you sign up, you’ll get immediate access to the entire library of audio recordings not available on the free ConvoMe.com site or anywhere else…
- Then stick around because I add new audio content to the library continuously.
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For more help growing your Etsy-based business, check out these resources: