Halloween Costume: Black Cat

For an outfit, use any black clothes you have. A black dress works. You can also use black pants or a black shirt with a black top. Use any black accessories you have such as earrings or bracelets. You can buy a tail and cat ears to complete the accessories.
For your nails, use black nail polish to look like claws. For eye makeup, you can use black eyeliner or face paint to fill in your nose black. You can add a bit of white eye shadow to the tip of your nose to add dimension. Add whiskers with black eyeliner or face paint. A dark color lipstick works well for the lips. For eye shadow, do a smokey eye look with gray and black eye shadow. Winged eyeliner also works well.

This look also works well for other cat or animal costumes. For example, if you want to be a leopard, you can switch the black dress for a leopard print dress and add leopard ears and a tail.

1. Asymmetric Chiffon Spliced Black Dress, MayKool, $39.99
2.Black Cat Dress Up Set, Claire's, $9.50
3. Colorful Eyeshadow in Black Lace, Sephora, $12
4. OPI Nail Lacquer in Black Onyx, Macy's, $9.50

How to Promote Your Business for Halloween

 

How can you promote your business or Etsy shop for Halloween? Here are a couple ideas;

• If you use a logo, find ways to make it Halloween theme. For example, you can add a pumpkin to your logo or add a witch hat to a logo character. 
• Offer some products ir items in your shop that are Halloween themed. For example, I have offered Halloween cards in the past in my Etsy shop. Orange and black colors work good for colors. Halloween is a good time to sell any type of costumes such as fashion costumes, masks, accessories or pet costumes. Treats or trick or treat bags are also good to sel. 
• Consider having a sale for Halloween. Offer a discount code for buyers to get a percentage off or free shipping. 
• Have a giveaway for Halloween. You can host a giveaway on your blog or social media.
• Change your social media graphics to fit a Halloween theme. Make some posts related to Halloween and repost/reblog/pin Halloween items.
• The winter holiday season is just around the corner so consider starting to offer Christmas and winter holiday themed items when Halloween ends.

What are your best business tips for Halloween?

How to Meal Prep + Free Meal Plan Printable

 

Do you meal prep? Meal prep is a method of preparing meals on bulk ahead of time. 

Plan Ahead

Keep a meal plan so you can plan ahead. You can find free meal plan printable at the bottom of this post. Also keep a grocery list for when you go shopping. Use apps like Yummly to help you find recipes in advance. I like that Yummly allows you to find recipes on different blogs and add ingredients to a shopping list the makes it easy to grocery shop. 

 

Prepare in Batches 

When you cook, try making your meals all at once in batches. You can chose a day of the week to make your meals for that week, such as Sunday. If you make a meal, make it on bulk so you can split it up throughout the week. For example, many soups and bean dishes are good to make in bulk in advance. Cut up vegetables and other items in advance. For example, carrots can be chopped up and saved to snack on. 

Store Food

You can store meals in tubberware, such as 20 piece sets you can find. Check how long certain foods last for and if you can freeze certain meals. Some foods will store better than others.

I sometimes try to meal prep if I am on a busy schedule. I like preparing my meals in advance to save time. It also a good way to know exactly what you are eating and eat healthy.

Click here to download a free meal plan just for blog readers. I would also appreciate if you share on social media. To use, print out for each day you want to meal plan and fill in recipe ideas or recipes for each day. 

 

Do you meal prep? 

How to Price Your Handmade Products

 

If you want to sell items on Etsy, it's important to have a good product pricing strategy. You want to make sure you cover all your costs. You also want a consistent pricing formula throughout your items. People are usually willing to pay more for handmade items so don't be afraid to price a little higher than you think you should. 

Use this selling price formula as a guide for pricing your handmade work. See what price you come up with for each type of item you sell.

 

Materials 

The most important thing you want to cover in pricing is the materials you use to make your item. If your item price costs less than the materials you used to make it, you are losing money. 

Save all your receipts for Etsy related shopping trips and materials. Keep these in a folder or some other way to keep them organized like through the online service Shoeboxed  You will also use your receipts, especially ones for smaller and non material expenses, to calculate expenses. 

When you calculate your materials price, you should consider how much material you use for each item. I like measuring items like fabric or decorative paper in square inches. You can use the method of measurement that works for you. For example, find out how many square inches are in the full size of a product you bought. Then find how many square inches of a material you use in your item and use it to calculate the approximate price of the material you used. If you buy a roll of decorative paper that has 100 square inches and costs $4, a measurement of 25 square inches of decorative paper you use in a product would cost about $1. 

You only want to include the main materials you use in a product. Don't include smaller materials like thread or glue in your materials price. These go in to the expenses price. 

Expenses

What are expenses? Expenses are those hidden materials and costs. Hidden materials are things such as glue, measuring tape, scissors, thread and needle and other materials you use multiple times to make your products. 

Your packaging supplies and any materials you use to ship things are also expenses. Think of mailing envelopes, packages, bubble wrap, tissue paper and computer paper and ink to print out shipping labels. 

Materials you use multiple times and other things you pay for in your business can count as expenses. Your laptop and studio space are considered expenses. For bigger items, you should calculate the monthly price of them by thinking of how many months the expense will last and dividing it in to the total cost of the item. For example, if a $1200 laptop lasts for 12 months, the monthly cost is $100. 

Think about online expenses. Did you purchase web hosting or a domain? Do you pay for any Etsy related applications or services or computer software? This counts as an expense.

As you can see, the cost of expenses can add up. Every time you think of an expense, jot it down. 

So how do you figure out your "expenses" cost in the pricing formula? Add up all the expenses you thought of. How many items do you think you will sell in a month? Divide that number in to the total expenses costs. If you don't like the price you came up with, try altering what expenses you think you should include in your cost and play with the number of items you think you will sell in a month. 

Labor 

How do you find a fair labor to give yourself? Start by looking at the minimum wage in your state. If you don't want your price to be too expensive, start with the minimum wage. 

However, you should take in to consideration what is actually a fair price to pay yourself. Research what artists are paid per hour. Think about the skills you do. Do they require a lot of work? Is your talent unique? Do you do a skill not a lot of other people know how to do? Take all these things in to consideration.

To find your labor cost per item, time yourself or estimate how long it takes to make each item. For example, it may take you to 1 1/2 hours to make an item. Don't count drying or waiting times in to your timing. 

Now just multiple the hourly wage you gave yourself by the number of hours you worked. If you pay yourself $10/hour and it takes you 1 1/2 hours to make an item, your labor cost would be $15. 

Profit

Last, but not least is profit. Profit is how much you want to make per item. You can make this whatever you feel the item is worth. You want your hard work to pay off. You may tweak the profit depending on what your final price is. 

Wholesale Price

Add up everything in the formula sofar. This is your wholesale price. Where do you use your wholesale price? If you sell items in bulk or wholesale (such as to shops that want to sell your item), you should use this price. List your wholesale price on your line sheet if you have one. If you don't sell items in bulk or wholesale, your can just keep the price in mind if you have to use it later. 

Retail Price

Retail is twice your wholesale price. Retail is the price most customers will see. Use your retail price for your Etsy items. If you have a discount or sale on an item, just calculate the percentage off for the retail price. You can list your retail price as MSRP or manufacturer's suggested retail price, or list price, on your line sheet. 

I like using this formula to calculate my prices for each type of item I sell. Try plugging in the formula again for a different type of product. You may find using an exact formula works for your item or you may prefer to use the formula as a guide and come up with your own price. Other things you should consider are market trends and competition for similar items. You don't want a price that is completely different from other similar products being sold. Do what works for you and your business.

Want more tips on how to run an Etsy shop? Check out my new eBook, Needle and Thread. This eBook is all about running a creative handmade business on Etsy including pricing tips and how to grow your business. 

What pricing tips do you have? Let me know in the comments.