I am the proud owner of a new Etsy shop. Setting up has been an interesting process, and one where I've learned a lot the hard way, so I thought I'd save you the trouble, and provide a few tips the easy way.

• Make sure when you sign up, you pick a user name that you want to be your shop name. Once you've signed up, you can't change it.


• Don't worry about the little things just yet. Just focus on getting enough stock to sell. Everything else will come together.


• Etsy says that you need to sign up with a credit card, but a debit card works just fine.


• Don't list everything until you're ready for the world to see your wares. You pay for everything you list, so if you list half your items, and then don't launch for another month, your stuff will look old.


• Make sure you read the Etsy blog, The Storque. They do a great job of thinking about the little details. There's always great advice on there from Etsyers who are doing it. They're all really inspiring so make sure you check it out.


• Get a banner sorted. Having an eye-catching banner will make your shop look much more professional.

The most important thing? Don't rush. You've worked hard to get enough stock together to launch a shop. The worst thing now would be to ruin it by putting up badly listed items and shoddy images. You want people to really like your shop. Think about how excited you were when you first started. There's nothing more exciting than crafting something and it being good enough for someone else to buy. But if you're not letting people see how good it is, they're not going to want to spend their money. And that just means that all of your hard work will go to waste.

Take a look at the other Etsy shops. You can see how much work goes into them. If your store doesn't look like that, it's just not there yet. In my case, it took two months longer than I expected. Be patient. It'll happen.