Etsy for Everyone

Crafting for a living?

Due to me receiving unemployment money right now, all my shops are closed... not allowed to make much money, and I could get into trouble - especially if I want to do this for a living later, with help from our unemployment agency.

So what do I do right now to pass the time?

I mainly think about whether or not I want to do this fulltime. I start my business plan. I calculate materials. I read up on taxes and insurance. I try and calculate how many pieces I need to sell direct, how many wholesale, and how many I therefore need to make a week, a month, a year.

When not busy with that, I sew... My way of practicing, getting better at the machine, a digitizing for my embroidery unit. If you are ever curious, stop by tinyHAMBURG.com for more details and photos.

I have no clue what the outcome will be, but if I am honest with myself, I would love to do this for a living. If I can find the discipline. If I can make this work. If if if...

Expanding your product line

When I look at my shops, I see fused glass and sock critters. Yes, I have also done SockPods (iPod covers), nursery art, glass art. But let's be honest here, it is all a higher price point. I think the cheapest would be my SockPods (at $18) and my magnets.

During that fair last weekend, I noticed one thing - I need to offer lower price points. Impulse buys, something people can take without having to think about it. Especially for the sock critters, since those are "occasion" products - you need to have a reason to buy them, as a gift, communion, birthday.

So what's next?

Next fair, I will also have buttons, greeting cards, and DIY kits. The greeting cards should be easy enough - blank cards, photos of my Etsy images, spray glue. Buttons as well - same images, and I happen to have an unused button machine. Could make those into magnets as well, considering that I also have glue and, well, magnets.

DIY kits will be the biggest challenge. How to package? What to include, how to get the instructions done correctly, how much content needs to be prepared? That will be a project for next month, when I actually have the time.

Right now, I am swamped with dayjob (my last week before vacation and then unemployment, though), wholesale orders and custom nursery art.

So go take a look at your products. Do you have impulse buy items? Where do your prices start? Are there logical extensions of your current products?

Don't believe the paradigm

par·a·digm  (pr-dm, -dm) noun

3. A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.

The paradigm on Etsy can be manifold. "Jewelry and Art are impossible to break into." "Don't expect sales before your second month or later." "There is a recession going on, people will stop selling high-priced stuff."

There is not one set of rules that applies to every shop. There isn't.

Why am I saying that? Because I just sold 3 critters at once to one person - and there are cheaper plush makers out there. And I only started listing jewelry one day ago, and sold the first two pieces the next morning. And yes, there is cheaper fused glass jewelry out there.

So don't buy the negativity - everyone can make it on Etsy.

Dawanda article

As some of you know, I started on Dawanda in 2007 - and left last year. Some of my reasons and my take on Dawanda can be found here.

Funny enough, the TAZ, one of our main (leftish) newspapers just published a critical article on Dawanda.

For the ones not speaking German, here's the translation:

Online marketplace for handmade things
Mass-produced products annoy Dawanda users

The online shop for handmade products, “dawanda.de”, is growing rapidly. Already users are criticizing that it is becoming too commercial.

BERLIN taz | Since Dawanda, the online marketplace for handmade products, has grown so much in the last two years, more and more suppliers of mass-produced items can be found there as well. The original idea, offering a platform for creative people, was therefore being weakened, users are complaining. “There are more and more mass-produced items being offered. That destroys the Dawanda though”, Mandy Christoph, who sells handmade sewn items under the name of "kleidzeit", told sonntaz.

“Stine”, who is actually called Christina Kebel and sews handbags next to her day job as a documentalist, is also frustrated. Dawanda was only reacting occasionally when suspicious suppliers were reported. “Sure, they are making good money off them.” Critical voices in the forums were again and again either ignored or even deleted.

The Dawanda principle is easy: Sellers list their handmade one-of-a-kind items online – clothing, jewelry, interior design pieces or food items like honey or mustard – describe their products, add photos, and set a price. Dawanda receives 5% of the sales price. Since January, listing fees up to 30 cent a product are also being charged.

Claudia Helming started Dawanda at the end of 2006 with her former colleague Michael Pütz. She studied Roman languages and is a tourism expert, he is computer scientist. Both are Internet pioneers. Before, they had been working for online companies for many years, but were then looking to begin their own start-up company. No matter what kind of company. With arts and crafts and handmade stuff, they had no prior experience. “We are completely talent-free when it comes to handmade thinks”, says Helming. The idea for Dawanda is stolen. The prototype for it was the American etsy.com.

Dawanda grew quickly. Today, there are 20 employees working for Dawanda. The company is doing well. Actual revenue numbers are impossible to get out of the management. “Just this much: We are profitable”, says Helming. One week ago, Dawanda moved into a new office building in Berlin-Mitte. It is double the size as the old office.

Dawanda has some competition, though. vondir.de has 2.500 members and 28.000 products. The number of items on offer has doubled since February this year. Sellers don’t have to pay anything, but can become premium members for 2,50 Euro a month. kunstvonuns.de has 5.000 products for sale. The site livemaster.de offers 6.500 one-of-a-kind items.

Internationally leading is etsy.com with 2 million members and an annual revenue of 90 million dollars.

Losing my job - what next?

Now it hit me as well... I just lost my job last week. More precisely, they won't renew my contract. Which is a bummer, since one month ago I was still promised a new contract, but hey...

I am basically on vacation now, will be back on the 10th of May, and then be done with them on the 22nd - and officially unemployed on July 1st. Two more weeks... and then what?

Yes, I have applied to one other job, which I think I would like - PR at an animal shelter. All other jobs... not so much. After being off sick for a whole year, then working from home for a year, I am just not compatible with overtime and stressful positions in industries I hate.

Am I thinking of starting on my own? Hell, yes.

I need my brother's input on this; see if I am completely delusional.

I have a near-perfect set-up here. I live on the ground floor in my own (tiny) apartment, in a good part of town with numerous artisans around me. So converting the 10m2 entrance to a separate studio/ shop is easy enough to do. And I really don't need much space - one long desk on one side, for my sewing machine, tiny kiln, and computer. And simple shelves on the other side to store the ready-made products.

I have all the supplies, just need a sewing machine refresher, because sewing everything by hand (the way I do now) would be out of the question.

What would I sell? Sock critters for sure, small nursery art pieces, most likely switch to regular plush toys as well (thinking organic here). Plus glass fused jewelry, and art with fused glass.

Material costs won't kill me, I have all the equipment, I already own the apartment, and I would get state help for 9 months, and additional 6 months on a small scale.

I know I can also make money as a freelancer, for my current company and possibly small companies and artisans. Web design, blog design, business cards, translations...

So what's holding me back? Plain fear. What if? What if I can't get enough sales venues to carry my stuff? Because Etsy alone won't do. What if I go broke, bonkers, or both?

So here I am, 5 a.m. in Germany, and I can't sleep because I have so much stuff in my head.

CPSIA and me...

Gone for half a year, suddenly CPSIA pops up. So I am busy reading up on it... and gosh, does it make our Etsy life more difficult!

I am all for toy safety, always have been. No clue what lead is supposed to do in children's articles, and never understood how so many huge companies could have such epic fails that caused them to recall products.

So I started reading up on CPSIA and what it means for my critters. Will I have to mark them as art toys from now on?

Luckily, I am pretty safe. Well, almost.

As long as I use fabric, I am fine. And believe me, I have always watched what materials I was using. My stuffing is not the regular craft kind, but actually made from high-quality bedding. Therefore non-inflammable, safe, and all that stuff. And yes, definitely lead-free.

As for socks... yes, I could get cheaper socks from China. But I have always trusted the "green" labels used in Germany, indicating that the product has been tested for chemicals. So those are fine.

Other than that, I only use felt and yarn, fine again according to the CPSIA list.

So all that is left - is get rid of buttons and beads, at least until I can get tested supplies.

Could I be absolutely bloody wrong about how those rules are applied? I hope not... but really, what else is there to do?

Customs in Germany... some insight

After having some customs hassle with stuff I purchased, it was fun to watch a TV documentary about the main customs office in Frankfurt last week.

Background
The dollar is really low right now. Plus, things are generally cheaper in the States. So for Europeans, it is really tempting to do loads of shopping online in the US right now. The thing is, you need to pay taxes on those things, at least after a certain value. It is 19% VAT in any case, plus customs fees depending on the item - I think most are 12%.

So when you buy in the States, and the package is more than app. 25$, you need to add another 31% to the price, because that is what customs will charge - if the intercept the package, at least.

Frankfurt
The main customs office is in Frankfurt; even if you live right across the border from a neighboring town in another country, the mail will be processed in Frankfurt first, then forwarded. That I already knew, but I was surprised at the extent of their activities.

Contraband
It seems that forging Nigerian passports is huge, at least the number of passports intercepted in Frankfurt was impressive. And those were mostly not destined for Germany at all, but other European countries - yet they were checked in Frankfurt, so I assume they are handling inter-European mail as well.

Steroids seem to be a lucrative market as well; anabolic shots were hidden in jars of paint and other "regular looking" packages. Or how about fake watches? Loads of those around...

Of course they also found drugs, for example hidden in a fully functional deo roll-on... they had to saw that one open.

X-Ray
It looked as if most packages were x-rayed in Frankfurt, with most hidden compartments showing up there already. Since seeing that, I always wonder what my purchases must look like in their scanners... like Soap's delicious soaps and tiny samples.

Undervalued
A major problem seemed to be that people state an item's value as lower on the outside, which should hopefully reduce the customs fees and taxes you have to pay. Only... customs uses Google. Like a genuine Guess jacket with fur (disgusting) that was valued at 50$ on the outside.

I actually witnessed customs' disbelief locally, when they sent a business man away who wanted to pick up some technical gizmo here in Hamburg. He was supposed to bring proof of the low price; when he was gone, they started gossipping about how much the item actually cost and pulling up eBay and Google to prove it.

The gap in their argument was actually that they required him to bring printed out emails if he had nothing else... now the thing is, I could forge those in 10 minutes.

My own trouble
Well, two packages were intercepted. Which hadn't happened in a while. One was 4 pillow covers from Joom, which they actually opened in Frankfurt. Now I don't know if they didn't believe the receipt that was included inside, or just chose to ignore it - I had to bring another receipt.

My soaps, I had to show them item by item what was in the sample bag... it looked as if they almost expected drugs, with the soap smell only meant to cover that.

But they were nice... kind of. They waived customs and taxes on the soaps, though I knew I was above the limit by 2$. And customs on the pillows was 20$, which is what I expected. And I didn't mind, because it was still a "steal" for what I got. :)

How to avoid trouble with customs
Honestly, I am not sure. Officially, pasting an envelope to the outside which has the receipt in it (and is marked as such) should do the trick. But then again, they opened the package with a receipt inside, and still I had to show up for that package.

Most importantly, do not lie about the value. Do not mark is as a gift. Even if it is marked as gift, customs can ask the receiving party for proof of value. If you include a receipt, that will only make things worse.

It is not your duty as a seller to involve in illegal activities for the sake of the customer. It is not your duty to lie on official documents. They are responsible for any customs and taxes in their own country.

And let's be honest - I have hardly ever had to pay customs. Most packages arrive without a price tag, so I really do not mind paying for the ones where I do have to pay taxes. I do mind the extra hassle it takes to go down there, but I currently have an experiment whereby the receipt is on the outside- and I am curious to see if that package arrives here or not.

_____________________________

Update

I did some more research. First of all, the current limit without customs fees is 22€ or 32$. Since shipping is also taxed, that means most of my purchases hit that limit.

But! December 1st this year will see the end to all my troubles... the limit is lifted to 150€ or 220$. Problem solved, I am never above that.

Here are the most common customs fees as well:

Textiles: 12%
Leather: 4%
Gold & silver jewelry: 2,5%
Costume jewelry: 4%
Prints & art: free
Cosmetics: 0-6,5%

Change in Copyright Law

There's a proposed change in the copyright laws, which will basically take away most of our rights. Yes, even mine, though the law is being proposed in the States and I am in Germany.

Basically, if a company can prove that they "tried" to find whoever created something, and failed, it is considered an orphaned work and they can take it off you, no copyright applies.

Yeah, it's easy to find out who I am when browsing on Etsy - but how about all of the pictures that are already stolen and placed on other websites? Add a different text, and how can anyone find out who is responsible for the original photo? Art? Same story.

To avoid that, you need to actively copyright everything you do. Can you afford to copyright each and every sketch, text, image? I know I can't.

Here's the whole story - go on, contact your representative and complain. This would be hell for all of us artists!

My definition of good customer support

Obviously, my new job is ideal for getting me started on the topic of great customer support and service... since I actually spend much of my time interacting with customers from the Netherlands and Switzerland.

And I used to work for Amazon.com, where great customer support was key - that was some years ago, but I would guess it still applies. Here's my list:

Be honest
If you screw up, say so. Tell small white lies only if you are certain it won't hurt your future customer relation. Even better, do not tell them at all.

Exceed expectations
Nice wrapping, and handwritten note and small trinkets (like magnets) go a long way when sending out a present. On Etsy, it even seems expected by now.
In addition, it is great when a customer has a voucher and saves money. It is even greater if that customer forgets to add the voucher, yet you return part of the money because you inform him of a current sale that is going on... imagine his delight! That works in many ways - be pro-active.

The sale isn't over yet
Just receiving the money and sending out the package doesn't end the sale - get in touch afterwards to see if everything was okay, or say thanks for a nice feedback.

Negative feedback is worth more than positive
You might be hurt for a second, but you know what - any customer who gets in touch letting you know what could have been improved is worth more than 100 customers telling you everything was great. First of all, most unsatisfied customers never get in touch - they just never buy again, without you knowing why. Treasure negative feedback and do everything you can to make that customer happy after all.

Be lenient
If in doubt, the customer is right. I rather refund money or re-send a package once too often than question if that customer might be lying to me. Believe in the general goodness of people, and act accordingly.

Returning customers are worth loads
Once someone buys from you, try to build on that relationship. Send out newsletters (only after receiving the okay), keep in touch - I got some of my greatest orders from returning customers. It is also cheaper to keep returning customers than attract new ones.

Keep your word
If you say you are going to do something, do it - I think it is what my current real-job customers complain about the most... "Someone promised to return my call, and they didn't." Just hoping that the problem will go away by itself doesn't work.

Smile when you dial
Well, I hope this works also with "smile when you send a convo". I know that my voice sounds differently when I smile while talking to a customer - I am sure this works as well when sending messages.

Think ahead
Often, you can avoid further questions and misunderstandings if you think ahead. When confirming a sale, include the address where you are going to send it to. Try to answer as many questions as possible, even if those haven't been asked yet -. it will save you time down the line.

Copyright revisited

I figured it was time for another copyright post. Please bear in mind that I am not a lawyer, so nothing in here is legally binding - and this is really only meant for a quick overview.

Copyright is a pretty straight-forward global concept. Almost all countries have signed the same treaty, only the United States have made one amendment - more about this in a sec.

Automatic copyright
Some things are automatically copyrighted, so you don't have to do anything. Your photos on Etsy, original artwork, articles, blog posts and text... Those cannot be copied without your consent.

Applying for copyright
If you are talking about an original idea or product, applying for a copyright is the way to go. The idea or product needs to be original enough to qualify, which puts many of us crafters in a bind. I couldn't copyright my sock monkeys, but I might be able to copyright sock monkeys that use a certain kind of colored velcro on the hands and a black tail, for example.

Taggy is the latest example where copyright laws are questionable, but understandable. When you walk into a store and see colorful baby blankets with different-colored ribbon hoops around the edges, you know those are Taggies. Which is why that distinctive feature is copyrighted. And which is why so many sellers on Etsy are grumbling - it's not as if the idea is original.

I have no clue if their copyright would hold in court, by the way, but there you have it.

Fair Use
This is something that only the US have insisted on, as far as I know. It means that you can use copyrighted materials in parody and related projects. If you cut up a Barbie and glue it to a canvas to make a point about Barbie's sexism and female perception, you are probably safe. If you pretty up Barbie and glue her to a canvas with a dreamy landscape because it looks pretty, that would not fall under Fair Use.

First-Sale Doctrine
This one was actually meant for books and software, but definitely applies to us, especially supplies sellers. When you buy a book or software, you are allowed to re-sell it afterwards. Especially the software companies were not happy with that one.

It also means that you are allowed to sell off your untampered-with, copyrighted supplies. Still have a Hello Kitty bead? As long as you don't make it into a bracelet, you can sell it. Same applies to Disney fabric - jut don't make a bag out of it.

Additional resources
Like I said, this was only a quick post to get you familiar with some details of copyright law. See Wikipedia for more info:
Copyright
First-Sale Doctrine
Fair Use