Starting a side business

Your side business gets a website, email at its own name and its first payment. Every receipt is kept for tax time.

The business can have its own team from day one, apart from your other work. Or it can start in Personal.

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Pine & Pen Bindery’s website in the editor: the home page’s hero about hand-bound notebooks, its pages, the sections to add and the page’s colours.

This combination of six Magpie areas fits a side business.

Websites
Websites builds the business's site, at its own domain.
Mail
Mail gives the business email addresses at its own domain, such as hello@.
Store
Store sells your products online, if the business sells things.
Invoicing
Invoicing bills your first clients, if the business sells your time.
Contacts
Contacts keeps each customer and what they bought from you.
Expenses
Expenses keeps every receipt, ready for tax time.

Your business has a website at its own domain, built from sections.

Websites is Magpie's site editor. You build each page from sections, such as a hero, three items and a callout. A section can list the products in your shop.

Mobile shows each page at phone width before you publish. Your own domain is connected from its settings, and Magpie can host its DNS.

Website editor in Websites

Customers write to the business's own address, not your personal one.

Mail gives the business mailboxes at its own domain, such as hello@ and orders@. An alias sends another address to the same inbox.

A catch-all takes mail sent to any other address at the domain. You read and answer it all in Magpie, beside your work.

Domains and mailboxes in Mail

The pineandpen.test domain in Mail: its mailboxes, addresses and catch-all, the nameservers it uses, and the website and shop at the same domain.

Your first products sell online, paid by card into your own account.

Store is your online shop. Each product has its photos, price and stock, and can come in sizes or colours. Buyers pay by card, and the money goes to your own Stripe account.

Shipping, local pickup and discount codes are set up once. Magpie adds no fee to your sales.

Checkout in Store

Pine & Pen Bindery’s Store products: a green linen notebook in two sizes, a dot-grid journal and letterpress cards, each with its picture, whether it is live, its stock and its price.

Your first clients get a proper invoice, and pay it by card.

Invoicing bills a client with your business details and tax rates on each invoice. The invoice email lets them pay by card.

You see what is paid, unpaid and overdue. A partly paid invoice shows what is left.

Create invoices in Invoicing

A Pine & Pen Bindery invoice to Harbourview Inn for a custom order: 40 guest books with the inn’s name on the cover, with HST.

Each customer has a contact, with what they bought and when you last spoke.

Contacts keeps a page for each customer. Their invoices and notes appear in its history, newest first.

A follow-up sets the day to get back to them, such as after a first order. The follow-ups list shows what is due.

Contact records in Contacts

Pine & Pen Bindery’s first customers in Contacts, each with when they were last in touch and the next follow-up.

Every receipt is kept, so tax time takes an evening.

Expenses records what the business spends, with a category and the receipt. Receipt Inbox takes the photo now and the details later.

Accounting adds your sales, invoices and expenses to the books. Its profit and loss shows how the year went.

Expenses and receipts in Expenses

Pine & Pen Bindery’s expenses: book cloth, paper, thread and the market table fee, each with its category and whether the receipt is kept.

Six more areas cover the books, enquiries, posts, links, dates and plans.

Accounting
Accounting keeps the books, with profit and loss and a sales tax report.
Forms
Forms takes enquiries and orders for things you make to order.
Social Media
Social Media schedules your posts, with Instagram posted from a reminder.
Link-In-Bio List
Link-In-Bio List puts your shop, site and profiles on one page.
Calendar
Calendar holds markets, deadlines and the evenings you work on the business.
Notes
Notes keeps your ideas, prices and plans, written in Markdown.

A side business goes from a weekend idea to a first sale in the books.

Each step starts from what the last one made.

  1. The site

    You build the website and connect your domain.

  2. The address

    Mail gives you hello@ at the same domain.

  3. The shop

    Your first products go live in the shop, with a section on the site.

  4. The first sale

    A customer pays by card, and becomes a contact.

  5. The receipts

    The cost of materials goes in Expenses, with a photo of the receipt.

  6. The books

    The sale and the expense reach the books, and profit and loss shows the month.

Setting up takes five steps.

  1. Build your website

    You make a website and add your sections. Help: Build and publish a website.

  2. Connect your domain

    You connect the domain you own, for the site and for Mail. Help: Connect your own domain to Mail.

  3. Open your shop

    You name your shop, add your products and publish it. Help: Set up and publish a Store.

  4. Connect Stripe

    You connect your Stripe account, so customers can pay by card. Help: Connect Stripe to receive money.

  5. Keep your receipts

    You add your expense categories and the first receipts. Help: Track expenses and receipts.

Plans

You can start on the free plan, with 1 website and 5 invoices a month. Mail at your own domain needs Pro in Personal, or the Team plan for a team.

Magpie adds no fee to your shop's sales or invoice payments. Stripe's processing fee is taken from each card payment. Prices are on the Pricing page.

Prices are on the Pricing page

Pages for where a side business might go next.

Questions people starting a side business ask

Can I keep the business apart from my own email?

Yes. Mail gives the business its own mailboxes at its domain, such as hello@. You read them in Magpie, apart from your personal address.

Can I use a domain I already own?

Yes. You add records at your current provider, or let Magpie host its DNS. The same domain serves your website and Mail.

Do I need Stripe to take payments?

Yes. Card payments go through your own Stripe account, which you connect once. The money goes to you, and Magpie adds no fee.

Can I sell things and services at the same time?

Yes. Store sells your products, and Invoicing bills clients for your time. Both can reach the same Stripe account and the same books.

Can I photograph receipts as I go?

Yes. On a phone, the file chooser offers the camera. Receipt Inbox keeps the photo until you add the details. JPG, PNG, WebP and PDF receipts are kept.

Can I see whether the business makes money?

Yes. Accounting's profit and loss shows income and expenses for any dates. It can compare them with an earlier period. Your sales and invoices are added to the books on their own.

Can the business become a team later?

Yes. You make a team for the business and invite the people who join you. Notes, Documents and some other work can move from Personal into the team.

What does Magpie take from my sales?

Magpie adds no fee to your shop's sales or invoice payments. Stripe's processing fee is taken from each card payment. The rest goes to your own Stripe account.

Start your side business this weekend.

Create a Magpie account and build your first page.

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