How Sasha Hutchison Makes $11k/Month with Etsy Printables & Coaching

Sasha Hutchison excelled at her corporate accounting job until she was let go one day. So what did she do? She took her financial expertise elsewhere: to Etsy.

Sasha turned her attention towards printables and has built her store up over time to become a top 1% seller on the platform. Today she's making $11k per month and diversifies her earnings by teaching others how to succeed on Etsy.

Keep reading to find out:

• Why she created her Etsy store and website
• How much time she dedicates to her store
• How much passive income she made from it last year
• The different ways she diversifies her income
• Exactly what her income statement looks like
• The unique marketing strategies she uses
• How important SEO is for her
• How she grows her traffic on Etsy
• What resources and tools she recommends
• The biggest challenge she's faced
• Her proudest accomplishment
• The main mistake she's made
• Her advice for other entrepreneurs

Meet Sasha

My name is Sasha. I live in Kansas, am a mother of two, and a wife of one. After I was laid off from my corporate accounting job in 2020, I pivoted to being a full-time entrepreneur selling printables. I have a master’s degree in accounting and over ten years in that field.

Why She Created Your Frugal Friend

I started Your Frugal Friend because I wanted to run a side hustle that held no inventory to help pay down my student loans. While searching on Pinterest for rotating meal plans, I discovered the world of printables. I thought, “I could do something like this!” and I hit the ground running.

I started my Etsy shop in August of 2019 and my blog that December. During the first few months, I spent about 15 hours a week developing products and putting them into my shop after work as an accounting manager.

In 2020, I spent around 5-10 hours a week growing my shop. In 2021 I was completely hands-off my printables shop while my family traveled the US in an RV for the year. I still managed to earn $23k passively that year with zero effort.

At the beginning of 2022, I decided to refocus my efforts on my shop and start offering courses, commercial-use templates, 1-on-1 coaching, and freelance services. I have already cleared 100k this year in revenue working part-time (as of 10/18/2022).

My earnings since I started have been as follows:

• 2019: $1,033.71
• 2020: $18,894.74
• 2021: 23,833.58
• 2022 YTD: $23,779.49

How Much Money Sasha's Making

Here is my actual income statement for FY2022 to date. 

I keep my own books and do my reporting on a cash basis. And I have an LLC for my business.

My revenue breakdown is as follows:

• Etsy (Etsy sales of printables and other digital products)
• Thrivecart income (sales of my courses, commercial use templates, and 1-on-1 coaching)
• Affiliate income (income I make promoting products/courses I feel could help my business owner customers make more money, I market to this audience through email)
• Etsy coaching GCV (I was hired by a company that sells to the printables community to help their audience through coaching)
• Freelance (I freelance for other content creators by helping them with content creation, management of their team, Etsy shop auditing, and blog writing, though I don't offer these services openly as people approach me and ask me to assist their company)

My expenses breakdown is as follows:

• Subscriptions (ConvertKit email, Canva, Leadpages, Siteground, Keysearch, eRank subscriptions)
• Office equipment/computer (paper, printer ink, etc.)
• Commercial license design elements (clip art)
• Blogging fees (paying for WordPress theme)
• Graphic design outsourcing (I get help sometimes creating my Etsy listing images. I create products faster than I can list them)
• Marketing expenses (ad spend though, as you can see, I don’t spend much on ads overall for my business)
• Transaction fees (PayPal and Stripe CC processing fees)
• Affiliate commissions (by far my biggest expense, my affiliates help me to sell and promote my products and courses)

Overall my net profit margin before taxes is 71% which is great. At the end of the day, I’m taking home $11k per month.

Her Main Marketing Strategy

Affiliates are my main strategy. I recruit affiliates for my products by reaching out to people in my niche through their websites. I guess it would be like “cold calling” if I was to assign a name to it. 

From there, it has become word of mouth. I currently have 95 affiliates. I offer 20-50% commission for every product they sell: 20% for cheap bump offers, 40% for courses, and 50% for my commercial use templates.

Another thing I do is cold-email people who are speaking at summits in my niche. I tell them that I am a top 1% seller on Etsy and give them info on the course or product I want them to help me promote. I also pay 40%+ commission on my courses which is rare, so people jump at the chance to promote me.

SEO is extremely important. I do a lot of keyword research and pair it with market research. Research is important, so I always do it before creating something to know that I can make money on that product and that there is demand for it.

The Importance of SEO for Sasha Hutchison

For my business, I use a combination of Etsy for market research and other tools, such as eRank and Alura, to get high-value keywords.

I also have a blog, but blogging overall is my least profitable endeavor.

Her Email List

I have 2,000 people on my list. I use ConvertKit because I like its interface.

Content Creation

My content creation process is to do keyword and market research before I create anything to assess demand. I publish new content to my Etsy shop a few times a month. I publish new courses twice a year and sell a new commercial use template every other month.

Keyword Research

I use eRank to do my keyword research, as well as Pinterest. I like to list products right before their season starts. Almost every product sold has a season for it.

Achieving Current Revenue Levels

It took me 10 months to get to where I am today. I didn’t focus 100% on being a full-time entrepreneur until this year, as I had to take care of my kids full-time last year due to the pandemic. Before that, I could only treat this business as a side hustle due to having full-time employment in corporate America.

Growing Traffic on Etsy

To get traffic on Etsy, you must create irresistible products for your ideal customer.

You only have 2-3 seconds to capture someone’s attention on Etsy, so it is important to create something that someone wants to click.

Sasha Hutchison's Favorite Resource

The one course I can recommend to help people start a successful printables course quickly and easily is the one by Gold City Ventures.

Her Top 3 Tools

My must-have tools are:

- eRank, which helps me find money-making keywords for my Etsy shop.
- Canva is a free software platform that anyone can use to create amazing printables.
- Calendly helps me to organize my coaching calls by having a simple and easy-to-use interface.

Sasha’s Biggest Challenge

The biggest challenge I have faced as a business owner is being a company of one. It’s hard to scale quickly as one person. I have had people approach me to partner with them, but it would have helped them and not myself to grow. 

I actually did just hire a friend of mine to help me create Etsy listing images. It has been a great investment. More products listed in my Etsy shop means more potential to make money.

Her Most Important Accomplishment

I have been able to replace my full-time income as an accounting manager with certs and tons of education by selling printables, and courses related to printables, in less than a year, working one-quarter of the time.

What She Wishes She Knew When She Started 

I wish I had learned to make products that are in demand and not just something I felt everyone should want. 

Sasha Hutchison’s Main Mistake

My biggest mistake is that you can’t copyright an idea or process, so be careful who you discuss upcoming projects with. They may just monetize your conversation for their gain and your loss.

Her Advice for Other Entrepreneurs

I would tell them to start a business in the digital products space. You don’t have to be a graphic designer or have special talents. I don’t, and it has worked out great for me. If I can do this, anyone can!