100 Post Anniversary!

I can't believe I've already written 100 posts for this blog. To celebrate here are the best of the first 100.

✎ Photographing Your Work Part I
✎ Photographing Your Work Part II
✎ Creative Packaging Ideas - The Basics
✎ Google Analytics for your Business
✎ Why is SEO Important for my Shop?
✎ Etsy Hacks Review
✎ Quick Tip #10 - More Etsy Hacks
✎ Packaging Large, Fragile, and Other Difficult Products
✎ Ad Basics I: Creating Effective Online Ads
✎ Skepticism and Business
✎ I Create a Shipping Center
✎ From Muse to Model (Guest Post by Jen Kiaba)
✎ Two Very Easy To Make Displays

Quick Tip #13 - Etsy Bill

Some of you may already know this but somehow I missed this until now. You can download a .csv files of your Etsy fees by month. It's a little hidden so this is how you find it.

1. Go to "Your Etsy" and click the "Etsy Bill" link.
2. From there click on "View Full List" (under the payment button next to "Monthly Statements). 
3. That link will lead you to a list of your monthly statements. 
4. Click the month you want to get the .csv for and down at the bottom of the page under the itemized list of fees is a link to download the .csv that you can then use for your record keeping.
   

Weekly Inspiration

Getting into the Halloween mood.

a haunting we will go, originally uploaded by She's Batty.

Submit your photos for consideration as a Weekly Inspiration by adding them to the Flickr Group.

Tracking How I'm Doing

Sorry for the lack of a Monday post, I was in the middle of getting a brand new blog going called the Culinary Cuttlefish which is my food blog. Don't worry it shouldn't affect this blog from now on, I plan to post to it on different days of the week (probably Tuesdays).

A couple weeks ago I posted a link roundup on using .csv files and inporting them into spreadsheets. Today I'm going to show you how I'm using spreadsheets to track how Noadi's Art is faring.

First a little about how I'm keeping track of these spreadsheets. In the screenshot you can see the folder where I have all the Etsy spreadsheets. I downloaded the .csv file for each month, renamed them with the month and year, and saved them in Open Office spreadsheet format which is the software I'm using. I also have folders for Paypal and Google Checkout files as well.

Using the data from all these spreadsheets I've compiled a simple spreadsheet that tracks my months sales for 2009 (I'll start a new one for 2010 when it rolls around). This spreadsheet lists by month the number of sales and their value for Etsy, eCrater, and Other venues (art shows, commissions, etc), and the total number and value of all sales for the month and year.

Using this spreadsheet I could make a couple charts to visualize how Noadi's Art is doing. Yes, these are my real sales figures, they aren't astronomically high by any means but I'm very happy the steady improvement I've had over the year. 

So now you see how I've organized and compiled a lot of my sales data, do you have any tips or tricks that you use?

Weekly Inspiration

Owl notecards, originally uploaded by gooseberrymoon.

Submit your photos for consideration as a Weekly Inspiration by adding them to the Flickr Group.

Planning for the Future

I debated about whether to post this here or on my personal blog but decided that while it's not 100% related to running a business that it might be of interest to my readers here.

In case you didn't know this, I'm 27 years old and right now I still live with my parents because Noadi's Art is my main source of income. My parents have been incredibly supportive of me and helping me get the business going. A big part of that has been letting me live rent free in exchange for doing all the cooking, taking care of some of the pets, and keeping an eye on my disabled uncle when they aren't home. My goal of course is to be independent and in my own place.

Like a lot of people I spent much of my early 20s unfocused and not sure what I was going to do with my life, thankfully I didn't get into credit card debt but I do have student loans still. Right now my business is doing better than I expected it to be at this point. So I'm getting my ducks in a row financially to be ready to get my own place in the next few months. I'll probably be able to afford the move in the next month or two but I'm probably not going to actually move until after Christmas (just too busy a time of year personally and for the business)

Since this is a big deal financially for me I'm going to share what I'm doing over the next few months. Hopefully as a fun example of what you can do running a little home based craft business and how to plan for big changes in your life.

What I'm doing right now:
I have a savings account currently with about $350 in it specifically for first and last months rent plus any deposit I need to make. My checking account has enough for all my bills and spending for several months so I'll be putting most of my money in savings for now. My goal is $1500 since I'm lucky enough to live in an area where rent is fairly low, especially when you're only looking for a small 1 bedroom place. I want that money in place before I even start looking for an apartment. I'm also doubling my student loan payments to get them paid off faster. Whatever is left over in my savings account after I pay what I need to for the apartment is going to stay there and become the basis for an emergency fund. I have a separate Noadi's Art Savings account (this I think is important, all businesses should have a separate savings account to only be used for the business).

Part of my pulling things together is learning more about personal finance and planning ahead. I've started subscribing to a number of money related blogs and added some books to my amazon wishlist. I'll probably be reviewing those books here.

• Simple Dollar - Frugal living and personal finance
• Get Rich Slowly
• Frugal for Life - Spending wisely, wasting less

Video Pick - A kinder, gentler philosophy of success

Nice perspective on society's view of success and failure and why we should move past that. Just a little philosophical today.