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Sustainable Wages

Lesson 17 from: Bookkeeping for Etsy Sellers

Lauren Venell

Sustainable Wages

Lesson 17 from: Bookkeeping for Etsy Sellers

Lauren Venell

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Lesson Info

17. Sustainable Wages

Next Lesson: Pricing

Lesson Info

Sustainable Wages

How do you calculate your sustainable wage? So we mentioned that freelance rate calculator, but I wanted to give everybody who does not have access to that a little formula that you can use, go ahead and screen shot that if you want, um, figuring out your sustainable wage is your business expenses, plus your living expenses like we discussed divided by the number of hours you spend making. So in that example I gave earlier, we had a thousand dollars a month in business expenses plus four thousand dollars a month in personal expenses divided by roughly eighty eight hours per month, making on that comes out to fifty six dollars in eighty one cents per hour. Um, I put in eighty eight hours per month because that's, roughly half the week spent actually making things that's really pretty good if you have your own business amanda's nodding her head she's, like europe is sure is, um if you are managing to spend really like half your time or more actually making products for your business that...

's huge on dh very rare, I might add, uh, typically you're spending at least half the time unjust running the business on listing things on etsy on packing and shipping things on ordering supplies are going out and picking up materials. You're doing your marketing and your social media you're answering customer service e mails you're trying to land new wholesale accounts all of that other stuff typically takes up at least half if not more of your business so um because you're only making money off of the products that you create you can on ly consider the number of hours that you are creating value when you do this calculation s o I've also put in on the end there in green a sort of a little side thing times one point three and this is for the u s viewers on lee if you want to take your taxes into account um you would multiply this by one point three that would add thirty percent to your costs ah because you will have to pay as a self employed person in the united states fifteen percent in self employment taxes that is your social security and your medicare and then probably at least another fifteen percent in income taxes so taking thirty percent and adding it there will also take your taxes into consideration in the u s I don't know the tax rates are anywhere else so that's why I put it in green and sort of off to the side um and I don't believe that I included the one point three in my calculation down here I think that's without the one point three set seem like it makes sense that seems about right.

Class Materials

bonus material

Product Profit Calculator
Simple Ledger for Creatives
Crafters Sample Chart of Accounts
Etsy® Bookkeeping Resources
Sample Etsy® Shop Policies

bonus material

The Etsy® Sales Chain - A Comparison.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

Ssparrowinflight
 

This is a meaty course that has you at a run from the moment it opens. If you are like me and you have been wanting to start a handmade business using Etsy, this will be a great course for you! What I like best about this course is the information that is given is not from a sterile corporate perspective. She has been down in the handmade trenches from the very beginning of Etsy so she has seen all the changes. Lauren also shares the realities of business and shows you how to calculate the actual costs that go into your products. She gives you the knowledge and resources to know how to set up your book keeping as it relates to Etsy. The only negative about the course is that there is literally not enough time to cover EVERYTHING that you might run into for your personal situation concerning Etsy, but she does give you enough information and resources through her Extras that gets you in the right direction. I would sincerely recommend this class!

a Creativelive Student
 

This was so helpful! I have been wondering about so many things the last few months since I opened my shop on Etsy and have found some information, but often it is encrypted in such technical terms that it feels so unclear. I felt like Lauren answered so many of my questions (as well as questions I didn't know that I had) with such clear, easy-to-understand ways! I can't recommend this course enough! Thank you Lauren for making complex processes of bookkeeping seem reasonable and doable. Thank you for sharing experiences to back-up the information that you shared. This was wonderful!

a Creativelive Student
 

This course has a lot of helpful information, but I do caution that there isn't really enough time to get it all down if you are watching the livestream. Also, quite a bit of time is spent talking about VAT rules which are out of date, and much easier to deal with now.

Student Work

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