The Best Bookkeeping Spreadsheet for Your Handmade Business

As a data analyst for the last 8 years, I've been lucky to have advanced Excel and modeling skills, as well as a solid understanding of financials and bookkeeping.

Having a handmade business has been a great learning experience, and the most important lesson learned is that you should never be in the dark when it comes to your expenses, revenues, and financials as a whole.

I do all my bookkeeping in Excel. There are many software tools out there at different prices that offer ways of keeping track of inventory, wholesale orders, and expenses, but honestly Excel is very diverse and has so many options for modeling your handmade business financials that I think other options are not worth my investment.

I built my own Excel spreadsheet for bookkeeping and have revised and added more useful features over the years to help me run my business on Etsy. It tracks everything in once place - inventory, sales, fees, and even a price calculator for figuring out what you should charge for your products and adjusting that price for wholesale orders or retail. In addition, the spreadsheet provides a ton of visual aids to make it easier to see trends and make comparisons across months and products.

I wanted to share my spreadsheet with other Etsy sellers and make their bookkeeping experience painless and practical. You can purchase my Bookkeeping Excel Template here, and I'm happy to work with you further to customize it for your specific needs.

Sales Tracker

This is where you fill out your sales - simply enter the date, item name and info on price, tax, and shipping - and it calculates the rest automatically. It gives you options for using Paypal or Etsy Direct Checkout, an international or a domestic sale, and even of the transaction has multiple sales in it. Then it will show you all the Etsy and Paypal fees and what your final revenue is for each product you sell.

Expenses Tracker
Here is where you track your spending on inventory, labor costs, or any other business expenses.

Pricing Calculator
This is one of my favorite features - a detailed breakdown of each material used to make a product. It calculates the cost of each item and then gives you a suggested wholesale and retail price that is associated with those costs. You can also calculate the potential profit from each item, or see what you should charge in order to get your desired profits.

Visualization
Last but not least - another great feature that shows you all the data in charts. I'm a visual person and I find it helpful to see graphics that summarize the data and help analytically - much better than just staring at the numbers all the time. This feature provides summary analysis with tables and charts to help you view your business performance on a monthly and annual basis, and a head-to-head monthly comparison. You can see your revenues and expenses, a breakdown by categories, and net profits - all based on the information you enter into the spreadsheet.

What financial tools do you use to run your handmade business? I'd love to hear your thoughts and what you've found useful.

Marketing Corner: Tips for a Successful Craft Show

I've been to four craft shows so far, and thought I'd share some of the lessons learned and valuable observations for the future.

Once you find a craft show and your application gets approved, you need to start preparing for it right away. The more thought and time you put into it, the more prepared and successful you'll be at the event.

Make lots of stuff. The more you make, the more variety you'll be able to offer to customers. People have different tastes, and sometimes what you thought would be a best-seller ends up not being noticed as much, but other items seem to be more attractive to buyers. Of course, you don't have to have every single item on your table because you don't want to make your display look too crowded, but you can experiment with placement and products. Make sure you have a large range of options, as well as a wide range of prices. Which brings me to the next point...

Jewelry String Price Tags

Make sure ALL of your items have a price tag or a sticker. Always. People would rather walk away from your booth than ask you how much something costs. Being able to see the price of an item right away would make them feel comfortable browsing and avoid this awkward situation. You can find price tags on Etsy (see link below), at Office Depot or Staples, or on Amazon. If you have a lot of items (and you should as pointed above), it will take some time to put a price tag on every one of them, but it's worth it! As you're tagging your items, prepare an inventory sheet with each item, its price, and quantity to keep track of. Bring it with you at the craft show and make notes when you sell items and at what price (in case you've given a discount), mark the items people are most interested in, and also make notes about possible custom orders.

Make a list of all the things you need to bring with you and pack the night before the show. Don't leave things for the last minute. Arrive as early as you can to have lots of time to set up. One of the shows I went to had an assigned time slot for each artist to come and unload at the loading dock. It only gave me a bit over an hour to set up before the show started and I barely made it! Make sure you give yourself enough time to set up. And if you have some time left before the show starts, walk around and introduce yourself to the other artists. Get inspired and observe how they do things - some of them are experienced craft fair goers and it's amazing how much you can learn from them! And you'll be surprised how many of them have a shop on Etsy, so you can keep in touch and maybe even find products you'd like to buy! A fun thing to do at craft shows is trade some of your items for somebody else's products :)

Try to give your table a sense of your products and style. Cover it with a nice table cloth. Depending on what you're selling, the color/pattern might play an important role, but for jewelry I like to choose a neutral color. I've heard some people bring flowers to decorate the table, so feel free to do that if you think it fits your theme. Create a banner for your business and attach it to the front hanging part of your table cloth, or maybe have an easel with a poster right next to your table.

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Bring lots of change for people who like to pay in cash. If possible, accept credit cards. Nowadays it's easy to make that possible. I know some people have credit card readers or other such devices. I personally use Square. You can hook it up to your iPhone, iPad, or Android and process a payment right away. The customer uses their finger to electronically sign and approve the charges, and then the confirmation can be sent to their email. Also, the processing fee is just 2.75%, which is a great deal!



Having a great display is crucial to bringing more attention to your booth and thus more sales. Make sure you product is UP at eye level. Also, think of creative ways to display your items. You can reuse something from your house or the local thrift store.

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- for jewelry, you can buy and old picture frame and fill it in with wire mesh (you can buy it at the hardware store). Your jewelry pieces can hang from the mesh - and it gives it a very unique but professional look. Here is a great tutorial on how to make your own.

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- reuse items from home: baskets, vintage trays and mirrors, cupcake tiers

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- use old books to pile them up and lift your displays
- old book shelves or filing units

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If you don't want to make your own displays, you can easily get them on eBay, Amazon, or even Etsy. Here are some Etsy shops that sell displays:

TomsEarringHolders

BlackForestCottage

TheGreenCoyote

JewelryHoldersForYou

bluebirdheaven 

Be friendly and approachable! Smile! Don't sit, be up and visible, ready to answer questions or explain your product (if they seem to be looking and interested). Make sure people know they can touch and try things on, even if they don't end up buying anything. If you're selling jewelry, have a mirror at your table, so that people can see how it looks.

Know your product and try to make it personal - tell people how you made it, what materials you used and some interesting fact about the supplies or the process behind making it - something they can relate to.

Wear your product (if it's wearable). If possible, bring your tools and create things while you're at your table. People will see you making things on the spot and will be more interested to see your final products and respect your work.

Tell your friends and family about the show. They are your biggest fans and supporters, and you never know what word of mouth can do!

Important things to bring with you:
- Purell/wiping cloths
- tools for your craft - if you want to make your items as you sell, or just to have in case someone needs something to be customized or adjusted
- packaging materials, jewelry boxes (or whatever you're using for your items)
- business cards - encourage people to take one even if they don't buy anything. Also, include one in the packaging with every sale. I have a coupon code for 10% off of next purchase on the back of my cards, and let people know when I wrap up their purchase
- notebook and pens - you can use that to take notes about different items and people's questions/requests. You can also have it on the side of your table and have people sign up for you newsletter (make sure you reassure them that their emails will not be used for any other purpose)
- water and food/snacks - this is essential as not every craft fair has food vendors and also you may not have the opportunity to step out of your booth and go look for food and drinks. You can also bring some candy and put it on the side of your table. This is a great idea if you have some seasoned candy (i.e. candy corn for halloween, chocolate for Christmas, etc.)
- make sure you charge your phone/iPad/computer. If you bring a computer, you can prepare a slideshow with pictures of your items.
- bring some extra lights if you think you'll need them. This is especially important if you're selling jewelry or small items that need more light. Lights also attract the eye, so you can't go wrong with bringing some extra ones just in case.
- bring a friend! Not only to keep you company, but also to help you carry stuff and set up, keep an eye on the items if you need to go to the bathroom or if it gets too crowded in front of your table.


And last but not least - HAVE FUN! It's great to meet people and show them how much you love doing what you do and sharing your craft with them. Try to make the most of it, be cheerful, and remember that sometimes a non-sale is not always a bad thing. As long as people have a way of reaching you after the craft show is over, you still have sale opportunities.

Hope this helps and if you've been to a craft show lately, I'd love to hear about your experience!

Marketing Corner: How to Promote Your Etsy Store

I'm not an expert at marketing or advertising but since I started my jewelry business, I'm always on the lookout for creative and cheap ways to promote it and spread the word. I've kept a list of some really good ideas shared by other Etsy sellers, or something that I stumbled upon at one time or another. I haven't tried every single item on the list so if you have any insights, I'd love to hear them! Here's a list of 25, but I've also included some useful links with a lot more info and ideas.

1. Submit your work and your Etsy shop for free on any of these promotional websites:
http://www.craftjuice.com
http://craftgawker.com
http://www.craftstylish.com/share
http://www.craftytips.com
http://www.designstolove.com
http://www.plaincraft.com
http://tryhandmade.com/promote-handmade
http://coolmompicks.com/yourpicks.php
http://thehandmadedirectory.com/directory
http://etsylush.com
These are just a few examples but there are tons of websites targeting handmade products and crafts. Here's a list of 120 websites, courtesy of Indie Pretty Projects. And here's another list here - some of those may overlap.

2. Submit your shop to renowned blogs in the indie crafts sphere. It's free but you need to do some homework to single yourself out from the numerour requests they get on a daily basis.

3. Create a Facebook page for your shop. You can see mine here.

4. Create a blog. Blogging is not for everyone, of course, and I'm sure this deserves an entirely separate post in itself, but if you have a creative mind and have lots to share with the community, this can be a great way to build a network and market your craft.

5. If you have a blog, you can submit your blog posts to other blogging sites with more traffic. I recently submitted my post about Heartsy to the Handmadeology website, and it got picked up by Tech Crunch! If you like to make tutorials, check out the Totally Tutorials blog, and also submit yours there.

6. Use your family and friends - they want to see you succeed the most! Keep them posted on what you're working on and what's new in your shop and your schedule. Word of mouth can be a very powerful advertising tool sometimes.

7. Create a Youtube video to promote your art - it can be a series of photo slides, a tutorial, or a video of you in the process of making something.

8. Put your shop links in all your email signatures (except your day job one, of course).

9. Advertise for free on Project Wonderful. Some Etsy sellers offer free ad space on their blogs as well - browse through the forums or just ask around to find who they are and contact them directly.

10. If you make jewelry - wear your designs. This is the best way to showcase your work and get people to notice it and talk about it.

11. Visit local venues that have bulletin boards and post your business cards or mini catalogs there. Those can be the local coffee shop around the corner, local centers for adult education and arts, or the local public library.

12. Visit your local public library or go to bookstores and hide your business cards in books that target your audience. You can also create bookmarks with your business info on them, and ask if you could hand them out to customers.

13. If you live in an area with lots of colleges and universities (and if college students are your target audience), visit the campus and post on their bulletin boards. You can also contact sorority houses and see if they would be willing to organize a house party.

14. Create a newsletter. It's the best way to keep in touch with your customers and let them know what's new in your store and what you're working on. It can also be a great way to offer them discounts and seasonal offers, and attract more return customers. I use Mail Chimp, and I'm still working on my newsletter but if you'd like to sign up, you can go here.

15. Cross-promote your work with other Etsy sellers. Find another seller whose products could complement yours and collaborate together to create a new item. See this example. Their customers could become your customers too! Another idea is to trade props for your pictures. If you have a close group of Etsy friends, you can also create a package of the business cards for each shop and everybody can include it in their orders.

16. Offer a referral program (or a coupon) to your customers. It can help you gain return customers.

17. If you travel a lot for you day job or vacation, leave some promotional materials in the hotels where you stay (mini catalogs, business cards, discount offers, freebies, etc.).

18. Host a house party. Sometimes telling people that you run a small business is not enough. They may know the big picture of it but have no idea exactly what you're capable of creating. Show them! Invite some friends over and share your work over wine and cheese, or afternoon coffee.

19. Host a giveaway. Competition and scarcity always attract people.

20. Join an Etsy team. Teams are great for building a great network of friends on Etsy - don't forget that sellers are also buyers!

21. Create treasuries. Or join an Etsy team for making treasuries. Being in a treasury increases the chances of your shop being noticed by more people.

22. Include your location in your Etsy profile. Many people search for local artists and this is how they will find you. You can also get a lot of offers for wholesale from local indie shops and boutiques.

23. The Etsy forums are a great source to find information about promotion ideas. You can see a long list of online venues for promotion here. In this thread, you can read about the pros and cons of different social media and marketing tools. And here is another discussion on creative ways to promote your shop.

24. Get an interview feature on someone's blog. There are tons of Etsy sellers who love to showcase others' work on their blogs and would love to interview you. Just search the forums to see how's looking for features.

25. Participate actively in the community. Whether it's by participating in the forums, contributing to a team, following other people's blogs and commenting, or chatting on Twitter.

You can find another extensive list of creative ways to promote on Almcleary blog here. Also, for a list of 101 ways to make more sales online, check out this blog post.

I'd love to hear about your experiences and what you do to promote your shop that has been successful. Please comment below.