Unexpected costs and schedule glitches

January 1st, 2008 marks the first day that The Far Grove is open to the public. Yay! Exciting, scary, exhausting. I’ll be on the computer all day as I am listing one item per hour for a total of ten items today. If you want to sell on Etsy some day, DON’T FORGET COMPUTER TIME IN YOUR PRICING. Listing an item takes me at LEAST 15 minutes, sometimes much more. Don’t forget that to list an item you have to take pictures, edit the pictures, write out your description, tags, materials, price your item, list your shipping fees, and upload all your pictures in the right order, perhaps needing to resize or crop them as you do so.

It also takes me about 15 minutes to package up the sticks for mailing. Why? Well, I have to print out the invoice, number and trim it, and stuff the envelop with the invoice, a pamphlet (which I have to print out and fold up on a regular basis) and a business card (ditto). Then I have to cut the extra-stiff cardboard backing, wrap it in bubble wrap, place the stick, finish bubble-wrapping, tape, use foam paper, apply TFG sticker (which I must also print and cut on a regular basis, as I use them up) and wrap in gift wrap as well, if requested (it usually is.) If the sticks are an unusual shape, I have to cut little bits out of the cardboard, too, to keep things sized so they can be shipped at lower costs without compromising safety.

In other words, when you add ALL the ‘miscellaneous’ time spent on making and selling my sticks, I actually spend even more time listing/packaging/promoting them than I do putting them together. So I might make a stick in an hour, but it actually took 3 hours out of my time before it was available for sale.

In other words…don’t forget the little things! Now, I have to go get ready to list another item (I do several ahead of time so I don’t get taken by surprise) and I need to take some more photos of new sticks.

I suppose I should eventually go shower and take my needle, too. I have to tell you…syringes have no business in the Grove, and I protest their inclusion.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 1st, 2008. Tags: advice, business, Etsy, info, money, pricingYou can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.