About Me 0124: Making Money on Line

Stitch Labs, provider of an inventory management service for small retailers, has integrated its service with online craft marketplace Etsy.

You might not think that the people who make crocheted pot holders and carved wooden iPhone docks have inventory management issues, but a significant number of people who sell on Etsy actually make hundreds if not thousands of items a year, selling them not only through Etsy but also in craft fairs, through wholesale channels and consignment shops.

“It’s unbelievable how much carbon paper floats around,” said Stitch co-founder and “thinker upper” Brandon Levey, referring to the carbon-copy slips still used for credit card transactions at craft fairs and trade shows.

With a bunch of old technologies and a variety of different sales channels, keeping track of the inventory gets to be a pain. If someone places an order for a forest green knitted hemp tea cozy through Etsy, how do you know if you have enough additional tea cozies to re-list the item on the site?

Stitch’s solution is a slick, web-based “cloud” app that can tell you how much you’ve sold, which channels are working best, how much money you’re making and whether you need to start knitting to replenish your stock (see screenshot above). It can also email invoices to customers and automatically create packing slips. Now, with the Etsy integration, it logs sales directly from Etsy — and can automatically repost the listing if you have items left in stock.

The interface gives small business owners a dashboard similar to the sophisticated enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems used by big companies.

It’s aimed at people who have significant but not gigantic operations, with 1-4 people and under $500,000 in annual revenues. For example, one Stitch customer, Girls Can Tell, currently has 152 separate product listings on Etsy, representing about 20 percent of the company’s total sales.

“We’re the first thing you log into in the morning and the last thing you look at at night,” Levey said.

Levey, knows the problem intimately. He used to run a small clothing line, Naked Cotton, on the side (his day job at the time was at Sandia National Laboratory, helping ensure the security of the nation’s nuclear stockpile). As his business grew, his garage filled up with cardboard boxes loaded with T-shirts in various sizes. Invariably, there’d be too many of the sizes that people didn’t want (like smalls) because he wasn’t good at predicting demand, and it was hard to know how many of each size were lurking in the garage.

Later, Levey made bendable paper iPhone stands under the brand name iBend, ultimately selling more than 100,000 for $3-6 apiece.

“We did really well on the mommy blogs,” Levey said.

After attempting to use Google Spreadsheets to track inventory (“that became obsolete in two minutes”), Levey and business partner Jake Gasaway started building what would become Stitch.

Stitch Labs, based in San Francisco, has 3 employees and about 120 customers. It has raised a “friends and family” round of funding, and has just started looking for institutional funding.

The CNN Washington Bureau’s morning speed read of the top stories making news from around the country and the world. Click on the headlines for more.

WASHINGTON/POLITICAL

For the latest political news: http://www.CNNPolitics.com

CNN: Obama reveals new refinance rules at start of Western trip

President Barack Obama traveled to Las Vegas on Monday to launch a Western trip that mixes campaigning with presidential business - and an appearance on "The Tonight Show."

CNN: Obama makes war policy an election strength

It is a tradition of presidential politics in recent decades that Democrats get accused of being soft and inexperienced on military and foreign policy issues, and Barack Obama was no different in 2008. However, a string of foreign policy successes […] have made Obama seemingly invulnerable to the quadrennial Republican attack line.

CNN: Perry to propose 20% 'optional' flat-tax

Texas Gov. Rick Perry will propose giving Americans a choice between their current income tax rate or a 20% flat-tax rate when he announces part of his plan for the economy Tuesday in South Carolina.

CNN: Lawmaker: Treasury, not recipients, on hook in disaster aid dust-up

The U.S. Department of Treasury may have to absorb some of the cost of disaster aid erroneously paid to a family in Arkansas, as a U.S. senator threatens to continue blocking five nominations for high-level Treasury positions.

NATIONAL

For the latest national news:http://www.CNN.com

CNNMoney: Refinancing plan won't help housing market

The program is being touted as a way to help stabilize the housing market and stimulate the economy. But without addressing distressed homeowners and helping to clear the foreclosure glut, the effects will likely be limited, experts said.

Washington Post: Possible study of anthrax vaccine’s effectiveness in children stirs debate

The Obama administration is wrestling with the thorny question of whether scientists should inject healthy children with the anthrax vaccine to see whether the shots would safely protect them against a bioterrorism attack.

St. Petersburg Times: Florida judge blocks drug testing of welfare applicants

A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked Florida's controversial law requiring welfare applicants be drug tested in order to receive benefits. … Gov. Rick Scott, who signed the measure into law on May 31, touted it as a way to ensure taxpayer money isn't "wasted" on those who use drugs.

New York Daily News: NBA lockout continues, league will cancel at least two more weeks, source says, announcement Tuesday

The NBA will be cancelling at least two more weeks of its season, according to a person familiar with the league's plans. The source told the Daily News that the announcement will be made by the league on Tuesday.

INTERNATIONAL

For the latest international news:http://edition.cnn.com

CNN: Official: Gadhafi likely to be buried Tuesday

As questions linger about his death and those of dozens of others, ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is likely to be buried Tuesday - five days after he was killed in Sirte, and shortly after his body was displayed at a Misrata meat market - a Libyan official said.

CNN: U.S. pulls envoy from Syria over safety concerns

The United States has temporarily pulled its ambassador out of Syria as a "result of credible threats against his personal safety," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday, accusing Syria of "incitement" against Ambassador Robert Ford.

New York Times: U.S. Agencies Infiltrating Drug Cartels Across Mexico

American law enforcement agencies have significantly built up networks of Mexican informants that have allowed them to secretly infiltrate some of that country’s most powerful and dangerous criminal organizations, according to security officials on both sides of the border.

CNN: Panetta talks tough about China, North Korea

In an op-ed published in Japan's largest daily newspaper, Panetta wrote, "China is rapidly modernizing its military, but with a troubling lack of transparency." He went on to criticize China's dealings with some of its neighbors, focusing on China's "increasingly assertive activity in the East and South China Seas."

BUSINESS

For the latest business news:http://www.CNNMoney.com

CNNMoney: Netflix loses 800,000 subscribers

For Netflix, the hits keep on coming - the bad kind. The latest thwack: Netflix lost 800,000 U.S. subscribers in the quarter that just ended, which was littered with PR nightmares including a price hike and the Qwikster debacle.

Wall Street Journal: UBS Profit Slumps

UBS AG Tuesday reported a 39% decline in third-quarter net profit as trading and deal activity came to a near-standstill in some parts of the world because clients were reluctant to make new investments amid uncertainty from the European debt crisis.

CNNMoney: Stocks get merger, earnings boost

Caterpillar led the Dow's gains, after the equipment manufacturer reported record revenue for the third quarter and issued a strong outlook. Caterpillar said the eurozone debt problems and slowing U.S. economic growth are "concerning," but they are not signaling "the onset of recession."

In Case You Missed It…

Keeping Them Honest, Mitt Romney retreats from his health care bill, as news surfaces that illegal immigrants benefit.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2011/10/24/kth-romneycare-helped-illegals.cnn