I have a 6 figure Etsy business – my 5 step process means I now work just 4 hours a week, it’s easy, anyone can copy
A WOMAN who makes £16, 000 a month from Etsy has shared her secret to success.
Etsy is an e-commerce site where small businesses can sell handmade or vintage products such as jewellery and homeware.
Dylan Jahraus, earns a six figure salary from only working four hours a week on her Etsy side hustle, and shared her top tips via her podcast Etsy Seller Success.
She explained that she has been selling on Etsy for seven years, and warned that is is not a “get rich quick scheme” and it took her five years to make £1 million from the site.
However she assured listeners that your income can become passive if you follow the right strategies.
Dylan said that she has managed to get her business into the “extreme marathon phase”, which she said means she could “take a vacation and not think about it”.
She explained that the only thing she now has to do for her business is print shipping labels and package one specific item.
Deciding on products
Dylan’s first tip to success is to decide on a product that will be easy to train someone else to make, so that when you start earning big, you can employ other people to do this for you.
She said that she decided to sell craft supplies as part of her business, as this just involves “picking and packing”.
“This is super easy to outsource and train someone on”, she said.
She also sells handmade flower arrangements.
Outsourcing simple tasks
Her next tip is to think about the cheapest “dollar per hour” tasks involved in your business (for example, packaging orders or updating your social media) and outsourcing these tasks first.
Dylan said that she hired someone to work a few hours a week, packaging orders for her when here husband was deployed and she’d just had a baby, as she wasn’t able to keep up with demand, and said that the person she hired became “very efficient” and needed hardly any direction.
Outsource time consuming tasks
The Etsy seller’s third tip is to outsource the things you “don’t like to do” or the things that take the most time.
She said: “This might be bookkeeping, it might be a product type that you don’t like making, it might be creating listings, if you feel that this takes you a lot of time”.
Dylan explained that you should teach the person you hired to do the packaging how to master these skills one step at a time.
She said that you should then teach your assistant to make all of the different products that you sell on your site.
After Dylan’s assistant had mastered all of these skills, Dylan said that all she had to do was deal with the highest risk orders and difficult customers.
Hire a full time staff member
When the assistant has mastered everything, hire them full time and hand over the final bits of the business.
Dylan said: “Stay accessible to your employees at this time, but also let them make some mistakes”.
Do I need to pay tax on my side hustle income?
MANY people feeling strapped for cash are boosting their bank balance with a side hustle.
The good news is, there are plenty of simple ways to earn some additional income – but you need to know the rules.
When you’re employed the company you work for takes the tax from your earnings and pays HMRC so you don’t have to.
But anyone earning extra cash, for example from selling things online or dog walking, may have to do it themselves.
Stephen Moor, head of employment at law firm Ashfords, said: “Caution should be taken if you’re earning an additional income, as this is likely to be taxable.
“The side hustle could be treated as taxable trading income, which can include providing services or selling products.”
You can make a gross income of up to £1,000 a year tax-free via the trading allowance, but over this and you’ll usually need to pay tax.
Stephen added: “You need to register for a self-assessment at HMRC to ensure you are paying the correct amount of tax.
“The applicable tax bands and the amount of tax you need to pay will depend on your income.”
If you fail to file a tax return you could end up with a surprise bill from HMRC later on asking you to pay the tax you owe – plus extra fees on top.
Hand over customer service
The final thing that Dylan gave up was the customer service side to her business, which she at first gave to her husband, and then passed on to her employee.
She said: “I now have one full time employee who works five days a week on my Etsy shop.
“She’s a mum and a military spouse so it’s amazing to be able to offer that to someone else when they’re looking for a flexible job.”
Dylan explained that whilst her employee works on her business, she now spends her days working with a team of 25 employees on her other, seven figure business, which helps people to boost their own sales on Etsy.
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