Decadent Designs, LLC

Over the past 2 weeks, I have received multiple emails asking for advice and wondering where I purchase all of my goodies. Granted, I am not going to share all of my secrets, I will give my best advice. So here it is ladies:1. Invest in your printer - My business started in February and I am on my 3rd and hopefully, final printer. I started out with a HP2600n. What a piece of junk! My husband and I decided on this printer because it was on clearance, we got a discount because it was a floor model and it looked "big" and "commercial." When I got it home, I realized that it didn't print paper thicker than 32lb and did not print abnormal sizes unless you hit the "OK" button. And of course, no invites are normal size. So for an order of 150 invites, I would have to sit in my office and hit the "OK" button 450 times which would take approximately 2 hours. Rediculous! In the meantime, while trying to work with the HP, it would not print addresses on envelopes because they were too thick. As a result, I purchased an inkjet in order to print addresses as well as for any "emergencies" with my other printer.

So finally, after 3-4 months of bitching to my husband, I emailed Mew Paper Arts, a fellow Etsian, and I received the best advice. She said that your printer was the heart of your business and that it was an investment. So I tripled my printer budget and purchased my fabulous Xerox Phaser 8560. It is a solid ink printer so there are no ink cartridges and no toner. In 2008, from February to September, I spent $1376 on toner. What a joke! It has been 3 months since I have purchased the Phaser and I have yet to buy ink. And, I can print on 120lb paper....and they sell the ink at Costco so I can get cash back on the Costco card and on the American Express. LOVE IT!

When it comes to your printer, you have to research. You need to research your cost of ink, how many pages you get per ink cartridge, service policies, etc. Otherwise, your life will be miserable:) My husband will vouch for me.

2. Etsy and other seller fees - this isn't really advice, but it is one my goals for 2009. For 11 months, I gave Etsy $1016, Paypal $1197 and Ebay $511 for a grand total of $2724. I do believe that there is a cost to doing business but I also believe that you need to minimize costs as much as possible. I used to process all transactions through Etsy and Ebay in order to gain feedback, show that I was a viable seller and I loved to click on the sold page and see a long list of "RESERVED" listings. In October, I decided to stop. I now process all transactions through Paypal only except for the sale of samples. By doing so, I am hoping to decrease my Etsy and Ebay fees both to around $20 per month. This will decrease my selling fees to $480 or 82%. Oh, what I could do with $2244 in my pocket!