Etsy MBA: Turning Artists into Entrepreneurs

There are over 15 million Etsy DIY’ers in over 150 countries and about 690,000 new members join every month. Etsy is currently valued at $600 million with 263 employees and sales increased by 71% from 2010 to 2011. There are 875,000 shops, with 13,000,000 items, and 2,900,000 sold each month.

Etsy’s rate of growth is nearly identical to eBay’s, and the site is the most “pinned” on Pinterest. After releasing the app in 2011, and having 1 million downloads, visits to the website increased by 60%.

To open a shop on Etsy costs nothing and each item listing costs only 20 cents.  After you sell an item, Etsy, takes 3.5% of your profit. Handmade craft shops have reportedly made $25K per year, Jewelers $100K per year, and some painters have sold over 550 pieces in a year.

The demographic of Etsy consists of:

   33% males

   67% females

   69% with no children

   48% who make less than 60K per year

   50% ages 18-34

In order to do well on Etsy, you must be different, take good pictures, write detailed descriptions, and think how people search. If you do this you can turn your hobby into a business.