I am so friggin’ excited! My book is finally out in the world! Book? What book? What are you on about? Let me tell you all about it.

For a long time, I’ve had a vague notion of writing a book. I wanted to have something I could leave behind in the world, however morbid that might sound! However, it didn’t really become anything more than an idea until I went on a webinar in October last year all about writing a book for your business. The seed was now firmly planted! Two weeks after that webinar one of my friends posted that they were writing a book and we decided to be accountability partner’s for each other. That was it! That sealed the deal and now I had someone that was going to moan at me if it didn’t get done!

I finished the first draft just before Christmas. It was roughly 18,000 words but something didn’t feel right with it. I didn’t feel like I had any more words left in me but equally, it didn’t seem to flow right. So I took the very brave decision to go back to the drawing board and plan it all out again. Many Post-it notes were used. New chapters were added, and others were moved around. 3 months later and the next version of the book was written. Then it was time to send it out to proofreaders. More rewrites ensued and another 2 months later and the book was officially written. The next month was spent designing the cover, creating images for inside the book, ordering proof copies to check spacings etc. Now here we are, in June 2023 with my book officially launched and available to purchase via my website or Amazon, YEY!!

So what does it actually cover I hear you ask? The first section is aimed at your business in general and covers:

• Business set up – getting started with your business, when to register with HMRC, what insurance you might need etc
• Bookkeeping Glossary – a list of the commonly used bookkeeping terms explained so that you no longer have a confused look on your face when someone asks you how much you spent on your COGS last year (who is asking you this question other than your bookkeeper/accountant!?)
• Bookkeeping basics – how to show your sales and purchases in your accounts, what paperwork you need to keep etc.
• Common mistakes – a list of frequent mistakes I’ve seen people make with their bookkeeping and how to fix them
• End of year tasks – what you might need to do after your financial year ends
• Official paperwork – an overview of what needs to go into a self-assessment tax return and a corporation tax return and financial statements for a limited company
• Reports – how to create and use a Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement
• Growing the business – how to know if it’s the right time to grow, what you need to consider and going VAT registered
• Working with a bookkeeper – the difference between an accountant and a bookkeeper, and what happens when you work with a bookkeeper

In the second section, I dive into Etsy-specific finances:

• Finance section – a walk around the finance section of your Etsy shop as of March 2023 (gosh I wish I could take you on a literal walk around it!)
• Finance Reports – what they show and what it all means
• Fees Demystified – a list of all the fees and explanations of what they are all for
• Cost of the fees – how to work out what the current cost of the fees are based on how much you’re selling your item for (plus a link to a free calculator)
• Showing the sales/fees in your accounts – what figures you should be using and what figures you shouldn’t be using
• Going VAT registered on Etsy – how to tell Etsy you’re VAT registered and what happens after
• Using software – how to save yourself the headache and send your sales and fees automatically to your bookkeeping software
• Etsy guide – an overview of a guide I created to show you exactly how to put your Etsy sales onto Xero
• Etsy Tips – a list of tips I’ve picked up on over the years to help with your Etsy store

I’m so excited for the launch of this book! I know that Etsy sellers struggle with their finances and I know that this book will answer an awful lot of questions for them. So if you are an Etsy seller or if you know someone who is, please get this book! You can get it either directly from me here: The Etsy Sellers Guide to Bookkeeping

Or you can purchase it from Amazon here: Paperback version

If you prefer the ebook version that is available here: Kindle version