Search results (tags) for: "management"

Prep Your Shop for the Holiday Rush: 2009 Seller Workshops

2009-09-24T10:29:00-05:00

Looking at the upcoming calendar can be a daunting prospect for Etsy sellers this time of year. If you're wondering how to optimize your shop to appeal to the coming influx of holiday shoppers, you're in luck! We've created a series of live workshops in our Virtual Labs, hosted by your fellow Etsy sellers and Etsy Admin. We'll talk about everything from developing the perfect gifts that will fly off your virtual shelves, to making sure you're prepared to ship all of those items.

These workshops are sure to whip you into shape for the holidays! Most will be held on Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET in Etsy's Virtual Labs. Core tips from these sessions will also be shared in the Etsy Success newsletters, so be sure to sign up here.

Wondering how our online workshops work? Have a look at this blog post to get a quick understanding of Etsy's Virtual Labs.

Sept. 24, 2009 at 4 p.m. ET	Product Development and Photography Hosts: Daniellexo & MaryMary Topics covered: Product development brainstorming session Colors and styles that will be hot this season Tips for photography and tagging from a merchandising expert For more info, check out these posts on creating great products.
Sept. 28, 2009 at 9 p.m. ET	Creative Ways to Gain Exposure Host: Amy from Pikaland Brilliant ways to gain exposure Building a solid reputation Start thinking outside the box! Recommended reading: Creativity, Competition and Copycats by Pikaland.
Sept 30, 2009 at 8:00pm ET Oct 1, 2009 at 3:30 p.m. ET Oct. 1, 2009 at 4:30 p.m. ET	Bigger Than a Breadbox: Photography for Medium to Large Items Host: Amby from JulipBags For more info on JulipBags, check out this Quit Your Day Job interview. Photography for 2-D Artists JenKiaba will cover taking photos of paintings, prints, collages and drawings. Jewelry Photographing for Etsy Host: Rhonda from ProlifiqueJewelry For more info on ProlifiqueJewelry, check out this Quit Your Day Job interview.
Oct. 8, 2009 at 5 p.m. ET	How to survive your first Holiday Season on Etsy Host: Aja from SagittariusGallery Topics covered: Question and Answer session for newbies Making your first sales on Etsy Lots of tips and insights for your first holiday season Check out SagittariusGallery's Ultimate Newbie Guide.
Oct. 15, 2009 at 4 p.m. ET	Tagging, Titles and Descriptions Hosts: Daniellexo, HeyMichelle, MaryMary, JulieinCharge Topics covered: Using tags to get noticed Creative descriptions to woo buyers Optimizing tagging, titles and descriptions for SEO Recommended reading: Guidelines and Tips to Tagging on Etsy.
Oct. 22, 2009 at 4 p.m. ET	Promo Mojo: Get Recognized This Season Host: Jen from JStephens13 Topics Covered: Spice up your shop How to coordinate your look and get recognized A complete look, from your shop banner to your packaging Etsy friends who can help Where to get labels, banners, tech help and packaging How to get the word out there For more info on JStephens13 check out this Quit Your Day Job interview.
Oct. 29, 2009 at 4 p.m. ET	Brown Paper Packages Tied up With String Host: Kristal from RikRak Topics covered: Beautiful, budget-savvy, eco-friendly DIY packaging ideas How to make a great first impression with your package How to efficiently organize your packaging supplies Packaging and shipping materials and shop branding For more info on RikRak check out this Quit Your Day Job interview.
Nov. 5, 2009 at 4 p.m. ET	Shipping Tips Host: TBA
Nov. 12, 2009 at 4 p.m. ET	Make the Most of Cyber Monday Host: Beth from DiffractionFiber Topics covered: Product tips Having a sale Promoting Customer service and more For more info check out these videos from DiffractionFiber's last workshop.
Nov. 19, 2009 at 4 p.m. ET	Customer Service for Your Handmade Business Host: Stephanie from StephanieFizer Topics covered: Great customer service communication Handling tricky situations with style and grace More nifty skills to help run your business For more info on StephanieFizer check out this Quit Your Day Job interview.
Nov. 24, 2009 at 4 p.m. ET	Staying Organized in the Holiday Rush Host: Nicole from Lillyella Topics covered: How to prepare your shop Maintain your sanity and stay on top of your work load Organization, time management and efficiency For more info on Lillyella check out this Quit Your Day Job interview.
Dec. 3, 2009 at 4 p.m. ET	Top Ten Tips to Bring in Last-Minute Holiday Sales Host: Corrina from Piddix Topics covered: Small changes that make a huge difference Research on holiday buying trends for 2009 Great places to find last-minute packaging supplies What to do if and when those sales start pouring in For more info on Piddix check out this Quit Your Day Job interview.
Dec. 17, 2009 at 4 p.m. ET	Holiday Recap and Party Host: Etsy Lab Rats Team Reflections, reactions, and fun!

Looking for more Holiday Tips? Check out this list of all our Holiday How-To's:

The Seller Handbook | Visit the Virtual Labs | Virtual Labs FAQ

About Us: Sean a.k.a. sean11

2009-06-12T13:22:00-05:00

Sean works on the Product Team, developing new site features. Right now he's focusing on the shopping experience. As many of his colleagues point out, Sean has an absolute passion for user experience, product management and design. Perhaps even more impressively, he can clearly explain dry computer-y stuff and make it really interesting.

Fun Facts:

He consumes vast quantities of mints.
He's a foodie, but Lauren notes that he doesn't know how to cook.
He didn't like his lab coat photo so we combined it with his avatar photo!
Sean's obsessed with Rhode Island history and hosts RI birthday parties (evidence!). Sean and Vanessa are the two Admin who share Rhode Island roots.
Played for a straight-edge hardcore band and published a straight-edge hardcore fanzine in high school. No longer straight-edge; now really interested in Belgian beer. KC confirms Sean's love for witbiers.
He's a former wannabe graffiti artist and claims to have skateboarded with Shepard Fairey in his youth. Anda comments that he practices graffiti all over his notebooks, though she can't vouch for his skater skillz because she's never seen him skate.
First concert: Verbal Assault (a Newport, RI hardcore band), afternoon matinee, age 13. Sean sang for a hardcore punk band called Non-Conformity in the eighth grade.
His favorite TV series is The Sandbaggers.
He thinks public data should be put to good use.
KC notes that he refuses to use iTunes to listen to his music.
Sean is big into old-time comics and spent formative years in cartooning classes at RISD. He vaguely looks like a Chris Ware character, according to Alison.
He loves books and notebooks (evidence!).
His father has the largest handlebar moustache in Rhode Island and possibly the East Coast.
He's been a vegetarian (or rather pescetarian) since age 13.
His Etsy username is sean11 because 11 is his "life path number" in numerology.
He's seen almost every movie shot in New York City in the 1970s and thinks all the best music was made in that decade.
Jen points out his Nike sneaker fetish. Pete says, "He started wearing Nikes on Fridays and then extended it to other days of the week as he became more 'casual.'"
Before Etsy, he worked for the 92nd Street Y.
He has an endearing habit of rubbing his hands together.
Sean is on a mission to visit and document every island in Narragansett Bay (there are 30).
Lauren found a college class that uses his blog as a reference for how to create good wireframes.
Self-proclaimed Big Nerd!

Sean submitted this as an awkward photo, but we think it's pretty rad:

Sean used to compete in breakdancing competitions in the '80s. Again, pretty rad:

Baby Sean sees his first wireframe:

And one more cute one, for good measure:

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt recently and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We've been posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

Some favorite shops below...

Etsy Seller Survey: Shipping Address and Order Management

2009-05-19T15:50:00-05:00

Attention Etsy Sellers!

We want to make the selling experience better on Etsy and we need your help. We value your input and would love to gain some more insight into your process regarding shipping procedures and notifications about sales.

If you are an Etsy seller, please take our brief Shipping Address / Order Management Survey. It'll take three minutes!

Click here to take the survey.

The survey closes in one week, so don't delay! And we thank you for your participation!

See related posts about other surveys.

P.S. If you want to get the breaking, vital Etsy news as it happens — delivered straight to your email inbox, then sign up for Etsy News Alerts emails. Read more about it here. Expect this as an Etsy Alert email in your inbox if you already subscribe to the list.

You can also get an RSS feed of all TechUpdates here.

Tech Updates: Item Status and Shipping Address Added to Sales Data CSV Download

2009-01-08T18:03:00-05:00

We have updated the data that is available in sellers' CSV download file, available on the "Sold Orders" page in Your Etsy. This comma delimited file shows orders for your Etsy shop, and we have appended the following columns to the end of this file:

Ship Status: Shows the date the item was marked as shipped by the seller. If this field is blank, the item has not yet been marked as shipped.
Paid Status: Shows the date the item was marked as paid, either by the seller or automatically after a notification through Paypal. If this field is blank, the item has not yet been marked as paid.
The shipping address of the buyer provided during checkout, which includes:
- Ship Name: The first and last name of the shipping recipient
- Ship Address1
- Ship Address2
- Ship City
- Ship State
- Ship Zipcode
- Ship Country

These updates will provide you better information on the status of orders and provide a means to export shipping addresses for bulk shipping. Finally, we will continue to evaluate additional data that we can provide sellers to improve the order to ship process.

To learn more about our CSV download, read the previous article on downloading sales and billing data.

ps
If you want to get the breaking, vital Etsy news as it happens — delivered straight to your email inbox, then sign up for Etsy News Alerts emails. Read more about it here. Expect this as an Etsy Alert email in your inbox if you already subscribe to the list.

You can also get an RSS feed of all TechUpdates here.

Holiday How-To: Organizing for the Holidays (and Beyond)

2008-10-03T12:43:00-05:00

Managing time can feel like a nearly impossible hurdle. There are lots of books and resources on this topic — most sitting on well-intentioned and very busy readers' bookshelves waiting to be read. We recently had a few Virtual Labs sessions on the topic and we have summarized the highlights below.

Before you start, take some time to think about why time management is so challenging. You may think that it should be an easy concept to master, but it's important to understand why you're having difficulty managing your time in order to address those challenges. Most of us like to focus on the easy tasks so we can feel like we are crossing things off our to-do lists. You may find yourself doing the things that have been requested by others, time sensitive tasks and scheduled or planned activities. Phew! When that is all done, there is not much time for things like attending to your shop, fulfilling orders and all of the creating you want to do for the holidays.

So what to do? There are three key components to time management:

Plan – What do I need to do? When do I need to do it?
Manage – How do I set up a personal system to be most effective and efficient?
Organize – What do I need to do to focus my work and decrease time wasters?

Planning. Start the planning process by setting goals. Make a detailed list of actionable tasks necessary to accomplish that goal. Rank what you will do in the order you plan to achieve it. Below is an example of a goal to reach out to blogs, and the steps necessary to achieve it.

Estimate the time it will take to do each task, remembering to keep in mind all of the other commitments you have. I like to take a calendar and map out the time so I can visually see how long everything will take. Remember to be realistic!

In the planning stages, some other ideas that will help save you time in the long run include:

Pre-ordering Packaging Supplies – Including boxes, international custom forms, bubble wrap and gift wrapping. (Offering gift wrapping is a great service to offer to your buyers.)
Create a Mailing List of Your Customers – For all of those updates you plan to send during the holidays. (Only for those people who have opted in, of course.)
Plan Your Promotional Activities – Order your business cards, stickers, etc. ahead of time and outline other activities such as pitching to blogs or local press.

Manage. It is easy to get distracted during the day, particularly with phone calls, drop in visitors, emails and instant messaging potentially filling up a big portion of the day. Take some time to measure how much of your day you spend doing these activities and you may find there are some hours to take back.

Overall Tips:

Prioritize Your To-do Lists - Accomplish all of the high priority items on your list and fill in with the other tasks as you have time.
Focus on a Few Key Priorities – Decide up front what those are.
Attack the Important and Unpleasant Tasks Early – This will not only give you a big sense of accomplishment for the day, it will also be a huge relief!
Batch Processes – Think about answering emails every two hours, instead of every two minutes. This will save time and will keep you focused on the tasks at hand. You can also do this with instant messaging, making yourself available only at certain times of the day.
Block Time to Do Your Work, Ideally Without Interruptions - This is easier said than done, but if you can do more continuous work, you will get more done in less time.

Organize. There are 3 key areas where you might want to start organizing.

1. Record Keeping: Detailed and accurate record keeping is critical to track your costs, inventory, orders, supply purchase, tracking numbers and payments. You don’t need anything fancy for record keeping. Some options:

Pen & Paper: You can use a notebook, journal or bound general ledger.

Spreadsheets: We have an inventory spreadsheet you can download for free. There are also Etsy sellers that have a wide variety of spreadsheets to fit different needs, including JMMFinance, serena, simple solutions, Lldesign and lots of others.

Accounting Software: For large volumes or more detailed inventory tracking, you might want to consider accounting software packages like Quickbooks or Peachtree.

2. Organizing your computer and email: The ideas below work well for both your desktop and your email inbox.

Organized Desktop. A well organized desktop can help to alleviate many headaches during the holidays. Think about a filing system and what each file will be called. For instance, you might have a file for shipped orders, item descriptions and other components of your Etsy business.
Keep all Etsy-related files together.
Back up your work.
Create templates. Save time when it comes to frequently sent emails and answers to questions.

3. Organize your Space. Some people are fortunate to have a dedicated place in their home for their craft-related work and fulfillment supplies. If you don’t have a dedicated place, you still need to create a system using baskets, closets or whatever space you have. Regardless of your space, thinking about where you will keep your supplies, finished items and shipping supplies, as well as creating a system to utilize those supplies will help keep stress at bay. Mary Ink's work space is a great example of well-functioning, organized place to work. Rachelaustin and many of the other sellers in the Quit Your Day Job series also have great pictures of their organized work spaces that you can peruse for inspiration.

Tips You Can Try Today

1. Identify non-productive habits that absorb your time (and creates ways to limit them).

2. Create a plan and use it. Set goals and plan ahead by breaking down goals into smaller projects with deadlines.

3. Prioritize "to-do" lists every night for the next day.

4. Do the #1 priority task first and stick with it until it is done.

5. Use a calendar to help stay organized.

6. Block time on your calendar to create, or specific goals you are having difficulty accomplishing.

7. Keep specific lists.

8. Manage distractions and control interruptions (e.g. batch email).

9. Learn how to say no politely. (Don't take on more than you can do!)

10. Just do it!!! Even when you are feeling overwhelmed, starting on one piece of work is a great start.

If you have any ideas or input on how you stay organized, leave it in the comments below!

For more how-tos about selling, see the Seller Handbook.

Holiday How-To in the Virtual Labs: Getting Organized for the Holidays with Beth & Julie

2008-09-22T17:09:00-05:00

Dear Sellers,

If you missed her past talk, Etsy admin Beth aka bethela will be presenting again in the Treehouse Room of the Virtual Labs on Thursday September 25, 2008 at 4pm (Eastern Daylight Time).

And she means business:

"I will give an overview on how to plan, manage and organize for the holidays. We'll work on goal setting, prioritizing and managing your time and organizing not only your work space, but your records and your computer and email."

Please come prepared to follow along! You can download materials for this class here. Julie will be co-hosting and giving some tips too.

Want more how-tos for sellers? Check out the Seller Handbook! If you want the latest events in the Virtual Labs, see the Virtual Labs Schedule.

Community Chat - Holiday Session #3: Time Management, Friday, August 22, 2008 at 12:00PM EDT

2008-08-20T11:53:00-05:00

Dear Sellers,

Please join special guest admin Beth Ferreira, aka bethela (of the famous Mega-Beth Tour), in the Treehouse Room of the Virtual Labs this Friday, August 22, at 12:00pm EDT for our bi-weekly community chat.

Times on the Virtual Labs Lobby are displayed in your local time.

Topic: Scheduling and Time Saving
This week we will be having our third of four holiday 2008 discussions. Holidays in August? Yes, that's right, the holidays will be here before you know it and now's a great time to prepare.

Agenda:
In this session we will discuss creation, inventory, promotion and shipping planning and more. We will cover some time saving ideas and some time-management pitfalls to avoid.

Download materials for this class here.

About Community Chatt With Matt:
Each week Etsy admin Matt invites you to join him for a live, online discussion of topics of interest to the Etsy community. Our intention is to give buyers and sellers alike the opportunity to speak directly and candidly to Etsy Admin. We listen, take notes, and make sure that everybody who wants to gets a chance to speak. We can always be reached at community@etsy.com with more ideas and suggestions.

You can view minutes from past meetings HERE.

The Generations of Men on Etsy

2008-06-06T13:37:00-05:00

During our Virtual Labs office hours, Etsian abitabite tipped the Storque that a post about humbleglory, Rith, and donaldrith would make an interesting story about three generations of men on Etsy — ripe for our Dude's Perspective series. Turns out this family has even more relatives on Etsy than we'd thought:

My name is Gary Rith, my shop is Rith.etsy.com and I have been a full-time potter for eleven years. I live outside of Ithaca, NY with my studio, 3 dogs, 2 cats, and 1 wife. My father Donald Rith aka donaldrith is a watercolorist who lives an hour away and my nephew is Ben Rith-Najarian aka humbleglory, who is an alchemist (etc). Ben's mother aka riversedge, Ben's sister aka leslierrn, and Ben's other aunt aka janetexcat are all also Etsy artists.

[Ben aka humbleglory with aunt Jane janetexcat at art fair in Chicago]

I was the first to join Etsy. I had read about Etsy winter of 2006-07 and got started, and then talked to my father and sister and then they got involved, and Ben too.

I make pottery on the wheel and sculpture. I would not say there are any direct influences between us, but our family has been making art for generations, so it seems to be hereditary.

donaldrith, the grandfather in the group, spoke a bit about tuning into Etsy after his retirement. He made me think about all the Etsians out there who must have retiring fathers who, now free of their day jobs, turn their attentions to something more creative:

I took up painting watercolors upon retirement from teaching at the State University of New York College at Brockport twelve years ago. At that time my daughter Janet Rith-Najarian who also sells various home made crafts such as hats and other wearing apparel for small dogs including Pugs in particular, sent me a set of watercolor paints and said "get going!"

I was further encouraged to engage with Etsy by my son Gary Rith, a potter and ceramics expert, who also sells his ceramics creations through Etsy and is very successful at it. But that is not the only family involvement. My granddaughter Leslie Rith-Najarian has her own unique creations she sells on Etsy and plans to continue to do so even while attending Harvard University as a first year student this fall.

Thus, as this Father's Day approaches, I feel very fortunate indeed to have, along with myself, such talented children and grandchildren involved in such entrepreneurial experiences through Etsy.

The Riths are a great example, then, not just of men on Etsy but of many family members engaged in making things by hand. As humbleglory put it, "I was raised with the idea that a handmade/created gift was better than a store bought gift."

[Donald and grandson Ben]

And while they claim that their artwork doesn't directly influence each other, I wonder if the generations — both older and younger — set examples to each other, nudge each other, encourage each other to share their respective work with the world. Maybe the entrepreneurial spirit, enthusiasm, and drive is passed on.

[Gary with cousin Christina from Germany who is "not yet on Etsy"]

And each has his own way of doing business. After speaking with Gary, I realized he is an example of a talented artist using Etsy on his own terms. He was already an established potter and sees Etsy as just another venue for his sales. I asked him about his thoughts on the Etsy community, and I found his point-of-view to be one not often voiced on Etsy, above the clamour of the intensive users aka the "Etsy addicts":

The three of us guys tend to be solitary. It seems that many people, perhaps women more than men, enjoy socializing on Etsy. I am a member of the EtsyMudTeam and Beagles Team, but don't have the time to [be involved]. It is exhausting trying to keep up with all of it, and I don't know how Etsy or groups could better draw men in. Etsy to me is a minor offshoot of my blog http://grpottersblog.blogspot.com where I daily describe my work and ideas. I sell hundreds of items directly through my blog each year. I think the difference is that the blog is mine to control and be at the center of, whereas Etsy and the teams and groups are in somebody else's control. If I could blog directly on my Etsy page every day, I would do that instead, but as it is I have to use blogger.

[Ben's mother aka riversedge, Ben's sister aka leslierrn, at the Minnesota "Pug A Dazzle" Pug Rescue fund raiser, with items from their joint Etsy shop PortlyPug]

Gary does not want to "socialize" on Etsy and speaks about the spread-too-thin feeling many of us get when tackling all of our online activities layered on top of our real-life lives — like so many blankets on top of the bed. How is one supposed to make one's bed in the morning when there's so many blankets, nevermind get in it and feel confortable at bedtime? We've all experienced the moment when, after finally catching up on email and checking in on Etsy and writing a blog post and checking the other websites we use — when all that is done, we find that the day is almost over.

I hear this lament from different types of people. I'm not sure if it's related to gender or even if it's a "generation thing." I think certain artist/business people prefer to carve out their own space while some prefer to work collaboratively within a pre-existing space — when it comes to the creative process and/or the social networking that supports and facilitates a business community. Perhaps too much social networking could become detrimental, according to humbleglory:

I spent some time in the community parts of Etsy at first, and it really helped sales and exposure. But it can become quite stressful at times.

The Rith's ways of doing business on Etsy show that there are many different modes of using the site. From this, I would put forth that Etsy should develop other tools to help support this sort of user — more ways to adapt Etsy to one's outside blog or website, an extended profile page for portfolio work, ways for families to help get relatives started, and perhaps opt-in blogs for each shop.

Speaking with the Riths brought up some interesting points. Do you think the "socializing" is more of a female way of doing business? How do you use Etsy — are you a networked-artist or a solitary-artist? Post in the comments below!

Father's Day Showcase | Gift Guide for Him | Father's Day Gift Guide | A Dude's Perspective