August 2012 .:. Biz Goals

July was a lovely mix of work and play, solitude and company. We went away for a few days and while we were away we visited friends, went on some adventures, and we got to go to a premiere of a documentary that I had donated Kickstarter money to, which was so synchronistic-ly amazing, it still makes me smile. The film is called I’m Fine, Thanks, and you can read about it here.

As to goals, it didn’t go quite as planned but I got some other things done I didn’t know I was going to be doing.

JULY

1. About Liz section of the website, and also a deeper diving into why I’m making jewelery. – nada
2. Retail outlets. – nothing
3. Paint – a small bit of painting happened
4. Have some holiday time – this Definitely happened
5. Walk on the beach at least 5X – once
6. Dream – did a lot of this one
7. ADDED: Created 24 cards and 6 posters for my potential licensing deal. Fingers crossed and we’ll see is what’s happening on that now.
8. ADDED: Started creating more fabric patterns and some products to be revealed in the next few months.
9. ADDED: Started working on 3 new {fun} design projects that appeared out of the blue – to my great joy.

AUGUST

1. #1, #2, #3 from July List
2. Work on patterns and colour palettes
3. Get product ready for Squam Vendor night in September.

Going to keep it as simple as possible this month and get the things done that I’ve been lagging on, and get ready for a couple of deadlines. I hope your Augusts are all full of summer.

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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.

July 2012 .:. Biz Goals

June was full and fuller. Busy in the studio. Busy on the computer. Busy doing research and making plans. All in all a good month, and now we’re on to July.

I realised in the midst of attempting to cross all things off my list for June that there was more thought and more work that needed to go into the”About Liz” section of the website. In fact there was (and is) a lot more thought that needed and needs to happen.

I have become totally wrapped up in creating the jewelery I am making. The art pendants I’ve been doing for a little while, and in addition the creation of my initial pendants (see above), with an alphabet and flower patterns of my own creation. But I realised in the process it’s about more than creating beautiful things for people to wear around their necks and wrists, there is a deeper meaning to the work for me, and that’s what I need to tease out. Comb out words and thoughts from the beads and the colour and the gold and the silver and look at them, and then write about them. So that’s my biggest goal for July.

So here was JUNE

1. Contact the potential licensers I identified in March. Try to get all contacts out by end of June. – one potential license in the works!
2. “About Liz” on website – still working on this one
3. Finish contacting potential retail outlets and keep researching more. – Research happened but no contacts yet.
4. Etsy shop research and planning to get more sales going. – Research and planning and lot of new ideas
5. Press releases and announcements for jewelery – move to July
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. – Most days this happened, a few days it didn’t and on the days it didn’t my day was lacking.

JULY

1. About Liz section of the website, and also a deeper diving into why I’m making jewelery.
2. Retail outlets.
3. Paint
4. Have some holiday time
5. Walk on the beach at least 5X
6. Dream

Welcome in July, and all its summer-y loveliness. Hope you all have a wonderful 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.

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.

May 2012 .:. Biz Goals

I have just a few biz goal progress things to show for April, first being, I moved the blog! SO now just about everything is finished. This is the first post I’m doing on the new website blog, and it’s definitely a work in progress, kind of a welcome to my show and why don’t you hang around while I finish hanging it… could you hold a ladder please : ) and like that.

I did a lot of prep work for more promotion, had a lot of visitors in April and went away visiting myself. Lots of friends, some wonderfully perfect moments and gatherings of ideas, and experiences, and even got to spend several hours one day, just talking and doodling and making things with some friends. Spontaneity rules, don’t you think?

APRIL Goals

1. Contact the potential licensors I identified in March. Try to get all contacts out by end of April.- May
2. Get packages off to the 2 companies that are interested in my design work before 15 April. - May
3. Put more time and effort into marketing my Etsy shop and trying different ideas/methods. This item needs consistent focus all month. Limit diversions and distractions and disappointments. - I put way more TIME into the shop, but not so sure I did much by way of marketing, to be continued.
4. Finish the About Liz sections of website by end of April. - for May
5. Move the blog to WP by end of April and have a cohesive site. DONE!
6. Continue marketing research and interviews with people I know. Read more. Listen more. Try more. - Tremendously helpful, to be continued!
7. Write {and re-write} announcements and press releases about my current work: jewelery, cards art. Target 10-15 blogs and SEND them out! Stall. Stall Stall.
8. Spend some time each day just drawing. Re-visit the pencil, or the pen and a piece of paper. Think about shadow, think about perspective, go back to the basics! MORE of this please!
9. Practice {everyday} some of the self-care techniques that I learned at the Steady Burn Retreat with Jen Lee and her band of merry-wise women that was held at Teahouse Studio last weekend. I am rearranging my time, and my focus, in so many ways that are helping me to find more creative space.
10. Paint. Create. Revel. Celebrate. Focus. Collaborate. Rest. Repeat.

MAY!

1. Research and contact some retail spaces for jewelery sales. Bay Area, and more.
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.
4. Etsy shop marketing
5. About Liz on website
6. Press releases and announcements
7. Drawing, sketching, doodling.
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.

Hope you all continue into this Spring with a skip in your step and hope in your heart!

________________________

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.

April 2012 .:. Biz Goals

So here’s the first quarter of 2012, finished. Yeow that’s crazy, but anyway here we are at April.

Got a fair amount of the heavy lifting things done in the first 3 months, or at least started and now onward to April.

JAN-MAR 2012 Goals

1. Identify and contact 2-3 potential licensors over the next 3 months – Moved to June
2. Get packages off to the 2 companies that are interested in my design work- Didn’t happen
3. Re-work and FINISH artist statement for website and for portfolio – DONE, you can see it here!
4. Pattern design – create 2-3 series – have thought about this one, and actually haven’t done Anything, I feel like I have a lot of other boats in the water, and need to work on them first.- Decided to put this one on hold, too many other things going right now. It’ll come back around.
5. Start flower painting series for licensing. 12 images. Seasonal. Pen & Ink and Paint. This ended up feeling too calculated a way to start, so I’ve been painting and will evaluate any potential series that I could add to in the next few months
6. Put a list together of 10-12 people I know and ask them about what methods they have used to market their work. Move to April-June
7. Write announcements and press releases about my current work. Target 10-15 blogs and SEND them out! Sent out 3. No responses. Will focus more on this April-June.
8. Work more on branding and ask for testimonials/words from peers. – started putting them up here. These are design specific, need to get the art/jewelry ones up elsewhere.
9. Re-evaluate ALL of these things as the days and week pass, and listen to my own voice and re-evaluate their importance/priority I am re-evaluating a few things on this list. Patterns: I need to follow through with my Etsy shop and my jewelery and a few other things before I throw out another thing. Too much. Painting Series: the idea is OK, but it’s too forced. At least right now. I AM painting. I need to paint what is speaking to me, and not set it up trying to pre-suppose what a licensor wants, and paint to that. Nope. not goign towork that way.
10. Add to this list with any new ideas/possibilities
11. Create for FUN and JOY.

APRIL Goals

1. Contact the potential licensors I identified in March. Try to get all contacts out by end of April.
2. Get packages off to the 2 companies that are interested in my design work before 15 April.
3. Put more time and effort into marketing my Etsy shop and trying different ideas/methods. This item needs consistent focus all month. Limit diversions and distractions and disappointments.
4. Finish the About Liz sections of website by end of April.
5. Move the blog to WP by end of April and have a cohesive site.
6. Continue marketing research and interviews with people I know. Read more. Listen more. Try more.
7. Write {and re-write} announcements and press releases about my current work: jewelery, cards art. Target 10-15 blogs and SEND them out!
8. Spend some time each day just drawing. Re-visit the pencil, or the pen and a piece of paper. Think about shadow, think about perspective, go back to the basics!
9. Practice {everyday} some of the self-care techniques that I learned at the Steady Burn Retreat with Jen Lee and her band of merry-wise women that was held at Teahouse Studio last weekend. I am rearranging my time, and my focus, in so many ways that are helping me to find more creative space.
10. Paint. Create. Revel. Celebrate. Focus. Collaborate. Rest. Repeat.

April is here, and we are so not fooling around. Let’s embrace the month of April in a wave of creativity and abundance!

________________________

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.