Business Secrets By Savor Soaps

hey everyone!

medical issues got in the way of life, but regardless i have been really busy as well.

but first here is a GREAT article from Savor Soaps, read on:


I just hit a milestone in my store, and to celebrate, I'm detailing as much business knowledge as I can come up with, of what I've learned while running Savor.

These are not really secrets! I lied! My title was just a tease :) These are tips and advice I try to share all the time with the forums and with people who convo me. I wanted to gather everything in one place for people to see.

My tips won't work for everyone but I would LOVE to get a discussion going about what does and doesn't work for YOU! What have you learned? What can you share?

Accounting:

Without proper accounting, you will overspend, underbudget and never have a clear picture of the state of your business.

Keeping track of expenses is required for tax purposes (you'll want to write off every penny you can) but it also gives you a reality check. “Did I really spend $20 renewing this month?”

Categorize your expenses. It's my view that variable expenses are really the most “dangerous” -- they can creep up on you so quick. Consider categories like Advertising, Promotion (business cards, banners), Equipment Upgrades, New Products/Supplies, Shipping Materials, Office Supplies.

Fixed expenses would be things like Fees, Insurance, Club Dues, Raw Materials, Rent, and Utilities. I say Utilities only because this is something you have to pay each month – even if the amount differs, the lights still have to be paid.

Consider calculating two differentials to add to your item price. I have a figure for labor (where I pay myself a wage) and a figure for overhead. Labor is calculated for me based on how many soaps I can sell in a month and a per-hour-figure (that I hope to continue to raise until it's livable). Overhead is calculated based on rent, utilities, insurance and shipping supplies.

If you buy items for your business online, you know it can be tough to track receipts. I use PrimoPDF, a free program, that allows me to “print” any page online to a PDF file instead of a printer. I store this file and print it at the end of the month – so, I can just print July Receipts.PDF and save that paperwork.

Shipping (I have posted this part before on Etsy):

I print all orders to PDF. I have an excel sheet that I keep for inventory purposes. When I get an order, I thank the buyer, update my inventory sheet, relist the items if I have more, and print their receipt. If the buyer overpaid on shipping, I refund it. I also print any convos to the PDF file if they apply to orders.

I bought a laser printer for the receipts and the shipping labels. I use two-per-sheet shipping labels.

Check each etsy address against the paypal one in the multi-order window. Adjust any addresses if needed. I then attach thank you notes to each order. Print all the shipping labels to PDF.

Supplies:

Uline: boxes, tissue paper, tape, tape dispenser, bubble wrap. Esupplystore.com: Bubble mailers, shipping labels.

Peanuts: I keep these from anything that I order.

USPS: flat rate envelopes and boxes, customs envelopes.

Uline shipment:
http://flickr.com/photos/savor_soaps/2650711247/

Orders filed in their places on my shipping table:

http://flickr.com/photos/savor_soaps/2597008230/in/set-72157606016985300/

I use collapseable card tables and TV trays so that I can store the tables away when not in use and move them around easily.

Here is how I store all the soap waiting to be shipped:

http://flickr.com/photos/savor_soaps/2276951894/in/set-72157606016985300/

Advertising:

Everyone's favorite topic and the question I get asked the most.

Yes, I spend money on ads, but no, it's not very much. $30 every other month or so.

Work on your store first. Get everything in order – descriptions, pricing, inventory. Have a good selection, have clear store policies, look professional and polished. Have GREAT photos.

Spend some time thinking of your target market, and spend some time thinking about where they shop online. Check out sites you visit every day – do they have an ad section? How much does it cost? Are there similar sites with less expensive ads?

Project wonderful ads are going to give you limited success, but I think it's a great place to start. It's simply hard to find a real winning blog. Great thing about PW is you can spend very little and get a taste of it.

Do you visit other websites online? Do you have friends who like particular websites?

Any website that you visit, start to look for an ad page. Almost every site has them. Some ask you to write to them for rates, some publish it on the site.

Photography:

I CANNOT stress the importance of good photos enough. Biggest problems I see are blurry photos, and photos done where the items are on the carpet, on sheets, on couches.

NO.

Really, NO. Do not do this. It looks unprofessional and often disgusting. Sorry, but that is true. This is not eBay.

Look at the front page, look at treasuries. Are you photos good enough? Be objective. Are they really really good enough?

Every time you see a front page, ask yourself if you have something that could have gone in one of those slots. This is a tip I picked up from CricketsCreations.

Use good lighting (natural or lightbox, I don't care). Use props that relate to your item. Use a CLEAN SURFACE. I really should not have even have to say that but I do.

Don't put the date stamp on the photos, it looks awful.

Show all angles – back, front, inside, bottom, and “in use” if applicable.

Descriptions/Titles/Tags:

Your item descriptions should be spell checked, clear, and contain all relevant info without getting too wordy. Include measurements in US and metric (use google, it's easy).

Default search is Handmade, Titles and Tags. Are your titles and tags good enough for your items to be found? Search isn't going to check your descriptions unless the user changes the search options, and they won't, hardly ever. DONT repeat words in your tags that are already in your titles unless you're angling for that category. Otherwise you've wasted your tag.

International Sales:

This is not scary. This is not scary. This is not scary. This is not scary.

Use http://ircalc.usps.gov/ to calculate postage based on weight.

Here's a good breakdown, roughly, for non-Canada intl shipments:

4oz: $4
5oz: $5
6oz: $6
7oz: $6
8oz: $7
9-12oz: $9
1 lb: $10

After a pound, if you can fit the item in a flat rate envelope you're much better off. Flat rate boxes are very expensive internationally, so if you can't fit it in the envelope, continue to use First Class until you hit 4 lbs, then you are required to ship Priority class.

You can ship Priority International with Paypal. First Class has to be done third-party, with a service like Endicia.com or Stamps.com which have a minimal monthly fee.

Here is Canada:

4oz: $2
5oz: $2
6oz: $2.50
7oz: $2.50
8oz: $3
9-12oz: $4
1 lb: $5
For Canada, flat rate becomes economical when you hit around 2 lbs, but First Class to Canada is SLOW. I like to ship priority class and my customers seem to appreciate it.

Customs form – mark your items as “other” and include the price of the goods sold, minus shipping cost. Have a line in your shop that indicates the recipient is responsible for any VAT/Customs fees, which will be charged to your customer depending on the value of the contents (I think Canada starts at $20, it starts at $200 or so for the US).

And last.....

Here's my typical day:

Wake up around 9 am, answer convos and relist items that have sold. Update my inventory. Grab my lunch and any packages that need mailing, and head to work.

On the train, continue answering convos (I get as many as 40 a day on busy days). Contact customers and thank them for their purchase and answer any questions they may have left me during checkout.

At work, I keep Etsy open throughout the day. I answer convos, relist items, contact customers, browse the forums and order supplies online if I need any.

I also actually do my real job :) It's tech support, so a lot of it is monitoring, installing software, etc. When it's busy, I simply do less work on Etsy.

On my break, I might go to Office Depot, the stationary store, the post office, the gym, or do a little shopping for fun.

Near the end of my shift at work, I will go through the shipping addresses in Paypal and get those all sorted out.

On the train home, I usually write my thank-you-notes.

After work, I've started running again, so I will run for 30 mins to an hour. After that, I will wrap some soap or maybe make a couple pounds, and do my shipping. I will run to the post office and drop everything off at around 11 pm; it's only 3 miles round trip.

On the weekends, I spend Saturday morning making soap, Sat. afternoon/evening out with hubby, and Sunday I wrap soap and ship it.

I usually take Monday, Thurs and Fri off from shipping, and I will create or clean on those days.

At the end of the month, I print my receipts, settle my books in quicken, and plan the budget for the coming month.

I have also started a concerted effort spending some time with education – reading industry trends, learning new techniques (I have started learning cold process, for example), and researching suppliers and supplies to continue to improve my product.



click on the photos to see more of her shoppe!