Check out this Fashion-Incubator article, “How ebay can kill you” for some very good reasons why you should consider drafting a sales contract TODAY.

Google Checkout, the search engine giant’s alternative to Paypal, is offering free payment processing until the end of 2007.

Etsy doesn’t have a way to easily close up shop to take a vacation, but this doesn’t mean that your vacation has to be spent worrying about annoyed customers or searching for internet cafes to check your email.

Here are some great networking sites for women in business:

Having a business phone number is a good idea if for no other reason than it inspires trust. Customers expect legitimate businesses to have a phone number. You shouldn’t use your home or your cell for this purpose, however, unless you can get a distinct ringtone for business calls.

I suggest signing up for a business voicemail account. Even if it is rarely used, it will make your whole operation - from your website to your business cards, look a lot more professional. Here are a few options:

• http://www.privatephone.com/ PrivatePhone is NetZero Voice service that assigns to you a telephone number. Calls to your PrivatePhone number will be answered by voicemail, and you can then retrieve your messages either online  or from a regular telephone
• http://www.evoice.com When someone calls your number and leaves a message, it’s delivered straight to your email inbox. Listen to your messages with most popular media players.
• http://www.skype.com/ - telephone number with voicemail service for $38/year.

Save yourself some time by taking care of shipping tasks online instead of in person.

Got a customer who paid by check/money order? Print out a shipping label for them with Paypal using the super-secret shipping link.

You can report missing USPS mail online here.

Heather of blissbyheather, maker of fabulous purses and math extraordinaire, calculated how much we pay in Etsy and Paypal fees when we sell items of a certain value. Check it out:

 $1 product = $0.46
$5 product = $4.21
$10 product = $8.89
$50 product = $46.37

Kind of scary when it’s layed out like that! You can find the discussion on the Etsy forums here.