We advocate for public policies that make it easier for creative entrepreneurs on Etsy to pursue their passions, work for themselves, and succeed on their own terms.
The emerging maker movement offers the exciting promise of a better economy—one that puts people at the center of commerce, promotes local, sustainable production, and empowers anyone to build a creative business on their own terms. Yet makers face many challenges: As micro-businesses, they are often subjected to the same rules and regulations as much larger entities, and are frequently overlooked in efforts to help small businesses. We seek to bridge this gap by connecting the Etsy community with their elected officials, working together to advance public policies that enable human-scaled, people-powered economies to flourish.
Our policy platform
Creative entrepreneurs are an important part of the economy but are often poorly understood by policy makers. That’s why we published our first policy paper in 2014, A Call to Action: Five Proposals to Support the Emerging Maker Economy, which encourages policy makers to consider the following big ideas for supporting Etsy entrepreneurs around the world:
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A micro-advocate in every agency: Advocates inside regulatory agencies should help micro-businesses learn about and make sense of compliance requirements.
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Entrepreneurship training in every jobs program: Workforce development programs don’t account for the changing nature of work and micro-business; they should include entrepreneurship training, such as Etsy’s Craft Entrepreneurship program.
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Peer-to-peer trade in every market: The patchwork quilt of international shipping and customs and duties requirements should be simplified and harmonized across countries.
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Small-batch manufacturing in every community: Small designers and manufacturers often don’t know how to work with or even find one another. Government should make it easier for small-scale makers to find partners and resources in their communities.
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Economic security for every entrepreneur: Micro-entrepreneurs lack full-time employment benefits and experience dramatic income swings. The public sector should help micro-entrepreneurs manage income volatility and build financial security through tax-advantaged savings accounts and social insurance. Learn More
Protecting the open Internet
We advocated for real net neutrality, and we won!
The Internet was built on the principle of openness. For the cost of an Internet connection, anyone can spread new ideas or start a business—even spark a new industry. This democratic access allows Etsy sellers to compete with much bigger and more established brands. It is what allowed Etsy to grow from a tiny company in a Brooklyn apartment to a global platform that hosts over one million sellers worldwide.
In May 2014 FCC Chairman Wheeler proposed rules that would have undermined the free and open Internet. His original proposal would have allowed big companies to cut deals with broadband providers for faster access to consumers, putting them in the “Internet fast lane” and relegating everyone else to the “slow lane.”
Right away, Etsy and our community joined the fight to protect net neutrality. At the time, nobody thought we could win — the cable companies were too powerful. We were a just bunch of startups, small businesses, and public interest groups. What power did we have?
But over the course of the year we made our case — not by hiring an army of lobbyists or making political contributions — but with the real stories of real people. We told our story to anyone who would listen, meeting with people in the FCC, the Administration, and Congress. 30,000 members of the Etsy community contacted the FCC on a single day, and many others made handcrafted products calling for real net neutrality. Throughout the campaign, we heard over and over that the Etsy story helped convince policy makers that this issue mattered to real people.
Those voices made a difference. In November, President Obama came out in favor of strong rules. In February, Chairman Wheeler announced his intention to propose clear, bright line rules that banned discrimination online under the strongest authority available to him. On February 26, 2015, the FCC voted to enact those rules.
This is a victory worth celebrating.
Connecting Etsy sellers and policy makers
The best way to connect the Etsy community and their elected officials is to bring them together face-to-face to discuss challenges and identify solutions.
Last year we participated in the first White House Maker Faire, where Etsy seller Tom Jaszczak of RawClay was invited to attend as an honored maker. Jaszczak brought his unique perspective as a ceramicist to the event, while Etsy made several commitments to work with policy makers to support their emerging maker economies, including expanding our Craft Entrepreneurship program and helping the Consumer Product Safety Commission modernize their educational tools. President Obama even recognized our contributions in his opening remarks!
In June we convened a seller meeting with U.S. Trade Ambassador Michael Froman, where a dozen Etsy sellers explained the challenges they face shipping goods internationally, and encouraged the Ambassador to prioritize de minimis customs exemptions—the value under which goods are not subject to customs and duties—in the ongoing trade negotiations. Since the meeting, Ambassador Froman has included examples of Etsy sellers in his speeches and in-person events—a positive step forward.
In September we kicked off the first in a series of seller roundtables with local elected officials in Fall River, Massachusetts. In partnership with Congressman Joe Kennedy, we brought together local Etsy sellers, small-batch manufacturers, and representatives of local governments and service providers to brainstorm ways to more efficiently connect Etsy sellers with local manufacturing partners. During the meeting Congressman Kennedy remarked that he had attended a number of meetings about manufacturing in his district, but never one that was predominantly comprised of women! Since the meeting, we’ve been working with local officials to identify better opportunities to connect Etsy sellers and local manufacturers.