I had a request to share the “how to” when it comes to starting your own Etsy shop, and I’d absolutely love to share my experience with this in hopes of helping someone else take that leap to start their own.

[Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. I wish it was…Etsy hit me up.]

First off Etsy makes it so easy for creators to open their own shop and sell their own products. If you’ve ever created a social media profile or anything simple like that you are beyond capable of starting your own Etsy shop.

Obviously, you first need to figure out what you’re going to sell.

I went into it knowing I wanted to sell some FemmeHead shirts and totes.

I did some research trying to find the best platform to actually “sell” those things and I settled on Etsy.

Years ago I had a little shop where I would sell wood bath trays and candle holders, so I was already familiar with it.

So, you’ve got what you want to sell, next you need to decide on a price.

This is totally up to you. There is always a number that comes to mind for me and that’s usually what I go with.

You can look at what other people are selling similar things for, or just choose completely on your own.

Is this something you’re going to make ahead of time (like, I make a batch of shirts and totes before putting them up) or is it something you’re going to make as people order it?

Regardless you’re going to want a few examples for photos and such.

Saying that you’re going to want to get your system down of how you’re going to create your products and you’re going to want to take some product photos for your shop.

At some point, you’re going to want to actually create a shop on Etsy. If you’ve ever created your own Facebook, Instagram or any of that you’ll be able to do this step.

I’m not going to walk you through this step because the site makes it really easy, and Google is your best friend for anything you’re unsure of.

Basically, you just need to set up your bank account, shipping and a few things like that. And the site will tell you what you still need to do.

So once you have that set up it’s time to list your products.

If you haven’t taken those product photos, now is the time. Head to your Shop Manager tab and under that click on Listings. Once there on the top, right side there is a Add Listing button, click on that.

Now, this is where you’ll put in what you’re selling. If you have multiples of the same product you can just use one listing, like I did when I had FemmeHead tote bags up for sale.

As for my shirts, I made an individual listing for each because they are thrifted so I wanted everyone to be able to see that specific shirt and the details on that shirt so they could buy the right one for them.

First, you’ll be asked to add a photo, and you can add as many as you feel best show your product. While that uploads I like to scroll down and start filling out the other information. And it tells you what’s what, and why you need it. For example, I internally label each one of my shirts, and then put that in the SKU number section on the "add listing" form. Then when someone buys it I can see oh, they bought shirt number 34 and pull that exact shirt from my stock instead of accidentally mailing the wrong shirt.

One thing I really like about Etsy is how easy they make it to ship your product once it’s sold. So be sure to fill out the shipping info at the bottom of each item listing.

You can calculate costs, and save those as a preset option for future listings. Taking the time to do this will save you loads of time, so I recommend doing it. From there all you’ll need is the weight of the item and well as the packaged size. So, you’ll need to know what you’re shipping your products in.

You can get as fancy or stay as simple as you want. I got a pack of pain manilla envelopes that I can send stuff in. And they’re pretty darn light so that saves on shipping costs.

Depending on how many listings you want to put up I always save each one as a draft so I can post them all at once.

Once you post them all, and people start buying your products you’ll get an email each time that happens, you can have conversations with your buyers if they have questions, and you can print shipping labels and mail all your goodies out.

All in all it's pretty darn simple, and you should definitely do it if you've been playing around with the idea of it.

Has anyone else started their own shop on Etsy, what's your experince been?