Tag / Finances

by Nancy at HisThumbprint

Labor Day

This weekend is Labor Day weekend and I’ve mostly been taking it easy. How about you? I had lunch today with my kids and then went swimming at my brother’s house. Lots of fun! Tomorrow it’s back to work.

Aside from taking it easy, I’ve been working on my next little endeavor. I’m going to start making t-shirts. Some of them will be for charity. The first one I have on my shop is for the JDRF One Walk. 50% of the proceeds will go to JDRF. My great-nephew has Type 1 and they do this walk every year. I’m doing the shirts for them this year! I’m so excited about it, plus, I had been considering getting into making t-shirts to sell as well. We’ll see how it goes!

My sister, and I are trying to come up with something to put on a shirt to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Association. Our mother had early onset Alzheimer’s and passed away when I was 21. Obviously, that’s a cause close to our hearts. Another one on my list is the Adult Congenital Heart Association.

Anyway, the heat press is on order, the space is ready for it. I’ll place the order for the shirts and vinyl as soon as they place their orders on Etsy. This is the ‘small business’ lesson for this post. Always get money up front. Even if it’s family that you’re doing the work for. Not to be mean, of course, but when you’re in business for yourself, you can’t take a risk by putting out money ahead of time. When I get to the point where I have money in the bank from the business, then I’ll keep some inventory of shirts and vinyl on hand. I’m not there yet.

Well, this is a short post, I know, but it’s been a busy weekend, for sure! I’ll be back in the swing of things tomorrow and hopefully posting in the next day or so!

Have a great week! I hope it’s a short week for you, too!

~Nancy20160607_143753656_iOS

 

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by Nancy at HisThumbprint

Organizing the craft room

Hi there! I’ve had a little time this week to get my craft area set up a little more. Organize it, I should say. It’s not there yet but it’s much better. Yesterday I bought a white 5 shelf bookcase with 4 cubbies in the bottom. That took me about 2 hours to put together. No big mistakes and no cuss words, so I’d say that went well!

I moved toys from a ‘toybox’ (storage bin) to a cabinet all their own; put the items I have finished and listed on Etsy up on the top shelf of the new bookcase; found new homes for some tools and various other things as well. I still have ‘blanks’ to put away. Good times!

I also designed the shirt for G to have his picture taken in each year. It has Class of 2029 (oy vey) on the front, and his name and room for handprints for each year on the back. I need to pick up heat transfer vinyl for that tomorrow. I was at the craft store today and it didn’t cross my mind. Until I was almost home. Isn’t that always the way?

So, organizing. I love to organize things.I have to say that the disarray in my dining / toy / craft area has been a bee in my bonnet for a while! I’m feeling much better about it. Like I said, it’s not there yet, but one step at a time. I’m trying to keep my teeny, but alive and slowly growing, business organized, too. And it is growing. I’ve had a LOT more views on here and especially on my Etsy site lately. I’m thrilled about that! It’s not stagnant, so that means it’s growing! Yay! I signed up for the free trial on crafybase.com to see how that goes. It’s basically an inventory and financials tracking system for craft businesses. I’ll let you know how that works out. As I have mentined in the past, I schedule my pins for Pinterest through Tailwind and that has helped me so much! I can sit here and watch TV and find pins I like or whatever and schedule them and not have to think about them again. I love it! I need to start scheduling Facebook as well. Honestly, I have no excuse there. I can schedule as I write! It’s right there! Oh well. I always plan to write 2 or 3 blogs ahead as well, but I’m not to that yet either! I’ll get there, too!

I guess I still have some work to do! To that end, I’m going to go take pictures of my new listings! I hope to have them online tonight!

Thanks for stopping by! Don’t forget to follow, pin, like, etc! I’ll be looking for you! Oh! And sign up for my newsletter! I’ll send you a coupon for 10% off anything in my shop and the newsletter will have lots of valuable blog and Etsy tips!

Catch you later!

~Nancy20160703_233934203_iOS

by Nancy at HisThumbprint

Yes,You Have to Pay Taxes on Your Etsy Shop

Thinking about opening an Etsy shop along with your blog? Or even separate from that, for that matter. Well, don’t think you’ll get away from the government wanting their share! Etsy is a small business and as such, it provides income. Income=income taxes!

I know taxes evoke fear in the hearts of the strongest of men (and women) but it doesn’t have to be a scary thing.The first thing you need to do is to be sure you keep good records. The most basic way would be an old fashioned ledger. Track what you spend on your materials, as well as how much you make per item. An Excel Spreadsheet would do the same thing, just higher tech. From there you could try any number of financial apps or websites. Since I’m just starting my shop, I’ve been looking into this. I came across a site that looks interesting and I plan to check into it more. It’s Craftybase. Worth checking into. No, that’s not an affiliate link. It’s just a suggestion. No money being made right there!

The following is just information that I’ve learned. I don’t guarantee it. I’m not a financial professional in any way. The main thing I’ve seen in my research is just about everyone suggests you find an accountant to handle your taxes. This is one place you don’t want to cut corners, especially if your shop is making some serious money.

The Nitty Gritty

First off there are Federal Income Taxes. You know about those! Your Etsy income is considered ‘self-employment income’ and therefor you will need to file a Schedule C: Profit or Loss From Business. You may also be subject to self-employment tax and required to file a Schedule SE Self Employment Tax. Don’t let all that scare you. The IRS website is very user friendly. Just as your employer pays your taxes throughout the year, you will also need to do this. Check out Estimated Taxes on the IRS website for more information and help with keeping your small business tax-legal with the fed. Also, there is great advice in the seller handbook on Etsy. That’s been a great help to me so far. State income tax and the rules and requirements vary by state so check your state department of taxation for your specific area.

You’ll also need to deal with sales tax, of course. Generally, you need to collect sales tax from buyers who live in the state where you have a presence. For example, I live in Ohio. I will need to collect sales tax from any buyers who live in Ohio. For more information on this, you could check out Sales Tax Institute. Also, another good place to find sales tax info specific to Etsy is the Etsy sellers handbook. I can’t say enough about that. There’s a lot of information there.

I didn’t delve into a lot here but I hope I helped you out some! Remember, I’m not a financial professional so I don’t want to steer you wrong! None of the links on here are sponsored or affiliate links. I received no payment for any of them.

I would love to hear from you! I’m planning to talk about disclosures on your blog as my next topic. Please give suggestions on what else you’d like me to cover!

The next few days will be spent crafting new items for my shop as well as a baseball game on Saturday! Yay summer! I’ll be back on Sunday! Happy weekend everyone!

~ Nancy

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