The Painted Porch

Your first 15 minutes — from "I just signed up" to "I have a live shop"

A plain walkthrough of the nine-step onboarding flow, what each step does, and why.

Your first 15 minutes

When you sign up for The Painted Porch, we walk you through nine short screens. Most vendors finish in 10–15 minutes — longer if you want to upload products right away, shorter if you skip that for later. Every step saves as you go, so if you have to close your laptop and finish on your phone, it picks up exactly where you left off.

The nine steps

  1. Create your account. Just an email — we send you a magic link, no password to remember.
  2. Tell us about your shop. Name, tagline, category, and three adjectives for your brand voice. We use this to draft product descriptions later in your voice, not a generic robot voice.
  3. Pick a plan. Free Porch, The Shop, or The Anchor. You can upgrade anytime.
  4. Turn on fulfillment. Pick any combination of Shipping, Vendor Porch pickup, Porch Pro Network, and Vendor Delivery. On the Free tier you only get Shipping — the others are paid-tier features.
  5. Connect your Stripe account. If you already have Stripe, sign in. If you don't, we'll pre-fill the setup form with everything we already know about your shop. You own the account; money goes straight to your balance.
  6. Start your free trial. Paid tiers get 14 days free. No credit card is charged during the trial.
  7. Add a few products. Use our AI Product Wizard (drop in 3–6 photos, we write the listing) or import a CSV. Or skip and come back later.
  8. Your address on the internet. Every shop gets a free yourshop.myporch.shop. Paid tiers can add a custom domain like handmadebyjane.com.
  9. Publish. We flip the switch, send you a welcome email, and drop you into your dashboard.

Frequently asked

"Do I have to finish it all in one sitting?" No. Everything saves after each step. Come back anytime.

"What if I pick the wrong tier?" Upgrade or downgrade from Settings → Billing. Founding rate holders keep $297/mo even after the cohort closes.

"Can I set up Stripe later?" Yes. The wizard lets you skip and come back from Settings. You just can't accept payments until it's connected.

"I don't have product photos yet." Skip step 7. You can launch with zero products — your shop will show a "Coming soon" page and you add products when you're ready.

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