How do you get the word "out", how do you drive more people to your shop?
So far, I have not done any paid advertising. I blog, upload pics to flickr, and I've just recently been trying to keep up with twitter, facebook, tumblr, etc. Social networking is exhausting! But It's always so nice when other bloggers mention the shop on their sites, and I've found this sort of word-of-mouth advertising to be invaluable. I haven't really done much in the way of "search engine optimization" and things like that, but I know I should. I still have a lot of learning to do in that department. The new website has done pretty well so far without much help. I'd say we get about 80% of our orders on the main site, and 20% on Etsy - but the dollar amount per order averages easily 2 to 3 times more than an etsy order. Definitely way more traffic on the main website. It's amazing how people find their way over there, since I don't really advertise.
There are a few press mentions for Bake It Pretty coming up in some pretty notable magazines that I'm excited about! I've never solicited magazines or sent our press kits (yet.) They contacted me requesting samples of certain products for photo shoots or articles they were working on. I assume they found the shop through google searching and general web browsing. I haven't focused on advertising much at all, since we are just barely keeping up with the orders as it is. I want to grow as steadily and gradually as possible, (I am the tortoise...)
It's easy to underestimate the impact of a small blurb in a major publication. Sudden and overwhelming popularity can really destroy a business - I've heard stories and I can definitely see how it could happen. Baby steps...
With what the business makes, How do you keep track and separate your "business money" to your "personal spending money"?
I really like Paypal. We use the Pro Merchant Account to process all of the credit card payments on our websites and also their click & ship program to calculate postage and print shipping labels. I've researched all the other other options, and Paypal just really works great for us right now and is very reasonably priced. I know some folks dislike paypal and think it is unprofessional, and that a "real" business would have their own merchant account. That may be true, but private merchant accounts are very expensive and can be kinda complicated. Paypal is a major, well known company, I feel very safe using them. I've processed thousands of payments without a single, notable problem. When I first started out on Etsy, paypal was so perfect for us since the funds you receive are available immediately if you use their (free) paypal debit card. We use the debit card for pretty much everything, including the business expenses and our personal money and daily bills. (I do transfer money about every week into a savings acct. for tax payments and such.) Paypal makes it really easy to download all of your monthly info into excel spreadsheets so you can quickly see exactly where your money is going. I assumed at first that we would have two accounts, one for business and one for personal, but in the end it was just a hassle splitting the money between two places and we found it much simpler to keep it all together. It's not a perfect system, but it works for us. I really hesitate to talk about money-stuff at all. It's not my specialty, to say the least. You probably don't want advice from me on this subject.
*Oh, I do want to mention: it cost $30 a month (on top of the per-transaction percentage fees) for the paypal merchant account we use. But since we use their debit card for everything, the 1% cash back deal they have going more than pays for the $30 bucks, so that's kinda cool. Also the virtual terminal is included, and that lets you process credit cards at craft shows, over the phone, etc. We don't use that feature often these days, but it's really nice to have.
Do you do your own taxes?
I am fortunate enough to have a very nerdy and amazing father who graciously helps us with our taxes. If I didn't have him, I would absolutely hire an accountant. It's just too much for me to handle. Even though my Dad does this sort of thing for living and is very good at it, it definitely doesn't seem too complicated and I'm sure it's within the means of most of you folks out there. I'm pretty dyslexic and bad at math in general so I know better than to even try.
Mike and I were both very nervous about the whole tax situation, thinking it would just crush our profits and leave us with zero money at the end of the day. I wish we had just got the facts from the beginning. The taxes are nowhere near as bad I as I imaged they'd be, (and we run things pretty squeaky-clean.) Since I'm on the subject, I will mention that we do not have a retirement plan for the business as yet. We do purchase private health insurance through Aetna. It's about $300 a month for all three of us and it's pretty crappy coverage, but it's exactly the same cost and benefits as the insurance we had through Mike's previous employer, so it's hard to complain.
I'm getting to the point where I'm getting kinda busy running my shop and I think I'd like to "hire" my sister to help, maybe with website stuff or mailing, do you have any suggestions or ideas how to make it work, how should I pay her, monthly, hourly.... stuff like that?
This is a great question since I also want to hire my sister, too! Krissy is helping out with the shop this summer, but she's headed back to school in the fall so it's only temporary (for now, anyway.) We've really just started talking about how this will work, money and time wise, so I don't have any advice yet. I'll have to report back later on this. So far, we both agree we should have a Bake It Pretty uniforms, and I'm voting that we dress like Juliette Binoche in Chocolat.
Here's a tip: If you ever go to a trade show, take business cards with you like any other intelligent person would. That way, when you meet a major celebrity from the Food Network and they ask for your card so they can check out your site, you won't look like a total imbecile. Yeah. For real.
