June 2012 .:. Biz Goals

I announced to a group of friends a month or so ago that I was going to spend the next wee while putting energy into my etsy shop and really working at making it work, instead of just complaining that it didn’t feel like it was working, and doing nothing about it.

Part of what was holding me back was all the things I knew I’d need to learn about: SEO, ROI, Relevancy, Analytics, Keywords and stats. Ugh. But since I said it out loud to a group of people who will keep me accountable, in I dove, and yes, the water was cold, but it’s warmed up a bit since I took the plunge. I bought a book, I signed up for an on-line seminar, and I started talking to people.

My sales have inched up a teeny bit, not in an earth-shattering way, but I’m still working the knowledge I’ve gained, and what HAS happened is that with the help I sought out, I got a lot of my products to the first page of etsy searches, so I’m getting viewed, like 50X more than I was, and getting favorited more too. The popular wisdom is that the sales will follow, and so this month I will continue to work the plan I’ve come up with, and see what happens.

Before I started doing this, the big question-issue-concern that I’d been avoiding was: what if what I make is not of enough interest to buyers on Etsy? And now, I’ve taken a few steps back, donned my “scientific assessment” cap, and I’m ready to look at whether what I make is working overall, and if so, great, but if not, how can I made adjustments and re-think, re-imagine and re-look at what I’m creating, and what I want to create. I’m not talking about creating to fill a demand, but creating that will fulfill me, and make me excited and energised, and sell. The mysterious formula for that I’ve discovered for that? Keep trying things till something works.

So here was MAY

1. Research and contact some retail spaces for jewelery sales. Bay Area, and more. – Done the research, and am working on the contacting part.
2. Contact the potential licensors I identified in March. Try to get all contacts out by end of April.
3. Get packages off to the 2 companies that are interested in my design work before 15 April. – Done, and waiting for responses.
4. Etsy shop marketing – Done and still doing!
5. About Liz on website
6. Press releases and announcements
7. Drawing, sketching, doodling. – this has been so much fun!
8. Practice NOT comparing my progress to other people’s. Practice being on my own timeline, knowing that I will get where I’m going on time. - this has been an on-going practice, and I have to say it’s tougher than I thought, even knowing how tough it would be.

and June will be much of the same.

JUNE

1. Contact the potential licensors I identified in March. Try to get all contacts out by end of June.
2. “About Liz” on website
3. Finish contacting potential retail outlets and keep researching more.
4. Etsy shop research and planning to get more sales going.
5. Press releases and announcements for jewelery
6. Walk everyday for at least 30 minutes in the morning. Breathe the air, listen to the birds, and feel my feet touch the ground.

Let’s make June divine, and celebrate the joy in our work and our lives.

________________________

IF you are new to The Meetup or would like to play along, here’s the scoop:

• Post a list of your business related goals for the current month on the 1st of each month on your blog. {If the 1st falls on a weekend, post on the following Monday.}
• Come back over here and leave a link to your goals blog post in the comments of my current month’s goals.
• And then {and this is the most important part, since we are a community} visit all the links in the comments, stop in and say hello, have a conversation, meet and greet and etc.

October 2011 .:. Biz Goals

After doing extensive research and polling influential marketers (i.e. sending mock-ups to good friends for feedback) I have a card for my jewelry pieces. Artful Jewelry Constructions is what I'm calling my pieces, I came up with it while thinking about something completely else, so often the way things happen, and I'm really happy with it… and so, here's my card!

And so September was:

1. Finish out the 2 remaining design projects over the next month and a half. – almost done!
2. Make room for lots of jewelery design. – making room everyday
3. Design 3 covers for journal series I want to produce on my own. – OOO need to move this to Oct.
4. Start flower painting series for licensing. 12 images. Seasonal. Pen & Ink and Paint. – October
5. Allow myself to re-schedule something when I am on a roll with something else. Remember to remember that going where the fire is and re-scheduleing (if possible) is where my best work is going to come from. Oh this has been my motto for the month.
6. With whatever free time is left, make things that make me happy, and don't think past that. Love this one, keeping it for Oct.
7. Take out The Money Book again, and do a thorough read, and thorough note taking/plan for the "new" year/financial assessment – Add to October
8. Get some Long walks in this month. Many short ones, need some really long ones, we're moving this to Oct too!

And October will be:

1. Jewelry
2. Journal Covers X3
3. Get Holiday cards into Etsy shop
4. Flower painting series
5. Start making contact with potential licensors – at least 3 contact this month.
6. The Money Book
7. Incorporate #5, #6 and #8 from September back into October.

OK, I think I'm ready! The first "winter" storm is on it's way in from somewhere across the Pacific, and it's gray and gloomy and verging on chilly here, perfect weather to be inside and DOing. Hope you all have an amazing October.

It's the 4th quarter of 2011, and there's no time like the present, so let's do this!

April 2011 .:. Biz Goals

First of April, April Fools Day. Does anyone else ever get curious about the origins of some of these "holidays"?  Wikipedia is not always totally reliable, but it's a quick source of information, and so, April Fools Day:

The earliest recorded association between April 1 and foolishness can be found in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1392). In the Middle Ages, New Year's Day was celebrated on the 25th of March in most European towns. In some areas of France, New Year's was a week-long holiday ending on the 1st of April. So it is possible that April Fools originated because those who celebrated on the 1st of January made fun of those who celebrated on other dates. The use of the 1st of January as New Year's Day was common in France by the mid-sixteenth century, and this date was adopted officially in 1564 by the Edict of Roussillon.

OK, end of the research, and on to the goals:

March went a little something like this:

1. Finish up design for at least 2 more product categories, and submit. – done! New shop at Society Six! I need to upload more art, but there are 2 pieces available as iPhone covers, and more coming for laptop skins!
   
2. Work more on re-branding and asking for testimonials/words from peers. – asking really does work, and I need to do more!
3. Be BOLDER in presenting showing and talking about my work – this is a life lesson for me. – baby steps, working on the bold, shoulders back, chin up!
   
4. Create AND finish 2 new paintings or illustrations, and I mean FINISH! - ignored my own directive, BUT got a few pieces started.
5. Make some time to dig in the garden a bit, pull some weeds and make a plan for planting.- started!
6. When feeling down or frustrated or impatient (or any other related feelings) spend a moment to count all my blessings. Mmm-hmmm, always a good list item

And then there is April.

1. Come up with work for one more product category, and that will complete the list of 4 new products. And then it's on to marketing…
2. Approach the finding a mentor thing a little differently. I am going to get really really specific with myself about what I would like a mentor help with, and put it out there again.
3. Work on portfolio for fabric designs, so I will have something to show when I arrive here in May.
4. Write some announcements and info pieces on my work to send to blogs for stories, and get them out by mid April. 
5. Hire a WordPress coder to finish the site. THIS is my second lesson in how to work smarter. 
6. Put design portfolio together and target places that I'd like to design work for.
7. Paint, that's all I'm saying, no quantity directives, no finish dates, just paint.
8. Walk. Every. Day. Rain or shine. Get your butt (and feet) up on the hill and Walk.

OK, GO April. Hope you all have a great month!

________________________

IF you are new to The Meetup or would like to play along, here's the scoop:

• Post a list of your business related goals for the current month on the 1st of each month on your blog. {If the 1st falls on a weekend, post on the following Monday.}
• Come back over here and leave a link to your goals blog post in the comments of my current month's goals.
• And then {and this is the most important part, since we are a community} visit all the links in the comments, stop in and say hello, have a conversation, meet and greet and etc.
• You can also "meet" the Meet Up peeps, go here and visit the links.

My Word for the Year .:. 2010

My word for 2010 came to me in early December while I was watching  Julie and Julia.  It's a movie that I had wanted to see, but it completely captured me in a way I was not expecting. Anyone who truly knows me knows that I am not a cook, the making of food is about filling an empty belly, nothing more. The fewer dishes and pans used, the better, less time spent cleaning up. So, the cooking was not the thing that got me, it was the story of a woman (Julia) who finds her gift, and in the best and most powerful sense of the phrase: Goes for it. 

I have now spent almost a month trying to push this word aside and come up with another one. Part of me wanted a word that was more cozy, more comfy, less of a challenge, and easier to hold in my two hands. 

I've now come to realise that when a word wants you, it will not sit around and watch while you wish for it to wander away – kind of a like a really good friend who always tells you the truth. No matter what. It follows me around, like a balloon sticking to my static-y winter hair, or a pesky younger sibling always wanting to play, or maybe a dog who jumps up and runs to the door, every time I take a step.

My word for 2010 is… Passion. 

I think that I have tried hard to find another word because there is something about choosing this particular word that will see me through the year that feels a little like ripping off a band aid… no actually a better image might be the first strip pulled whilst experiencing a bikini wax. YOW, okay, definitely felt that. And I wonder, on a more deeply felt level, will I be able to live up to my word?

It is another layer pulled off in the process of my own growth, my own journey to wherever it is I am going, and my own experience of experiencing my world. Truthfully, it feels a little unwieldy and large, and when it sits in my lap, it's all elbows and heavy thighs. But here is what I wrote after watching that movie twice:

… it made this idea of passion for something in my own life come even more fully alive for me. Passion for one's life, passion for my own life, and i knew this was my word for 2010. Instilling passion, feeling passion – in all facets of my life – bringing passion to all the little and medium and large things I think and do. Spending time with the things that I am passionate about, and defining: what are the things that fill my dark spots with light, what are the things that make me smile and say Yes, what fills me up from the inside out…

And so I enter 2010, wearing my heart a little bit higher on my sleeve, and here comes Passion.

September .:. Monthly Biz Goals