What are your goals for your handmade/creative biz in 2020??
You may think that’s a silly question, but with year end quickly approaching it seems to be one that is being talked about – A LOT – in many of the Facebook groups that I belong to.
Some popular goals for handmade/creative businesses that I’ve seen include:
Starting a blog
- Create an Etsy shop
- Writing/releasing “X” number of patterns per week or month
- Making “X” number of finished items per day/week/month
- Being more consistent with posting on social media
- Getting more traffic to their website (Etsy Store, Ravelry shop, etc.)
- Growing their email list
- Have “X” amount of income for the year
Goal setting for your handmade/creative biz is tough.
I’m seeing a lot of people making long lists of things that they want or feel they must do.
The problem with a long list of goals is that:
- they leave you feeling overwhelmed
- not knowing where to even start – because everything feels like a priority
- leaves you feeling exhausted before you even start
Success doesn’t happen overnight.
When it comes to goal setting and having a handmade or creative business (or ANY type of business for that matter) you need to realize that success doesn’t happen overnight! It takes a lot of work and sometimes a lot of time before you can achieve your goals.
You need to be realistic with your goals and the amount of time it’s going to take to become a successful handmade or creative business owner.
The handmade marketplace is full of amazing finished items and brilliant designers who have been around for a long time. Competition is strong and it’s going to take a lot of time and effort on your part to make it up through the ranks from unknown newbie to successful and established.
Know your competition.
One of the biggest things that handmade business owners run into is competition.
Competition from the hobbyist and the Walmart prices mentality is going to have a big impact on your business, financial success and your own self-esteem.
Be aware of this going in and do your homework.
Ready to set some goals for your handmade/creative biz for 2020?
Here’s a simple method for setting goals for your handmade or creative business for 2020 and getting yourself organized.
- Grab yourself a piece of paper, pull up an Excel Spreadsheet or Google Sheets, or even open a Word document
- Make a list of EVERYTHING you want to accomplish in 2020, in no particular order and print it out, study it
- Realistically determine how many hours a week you realistically have to work on your biz (many of us are juggling young children or other jobs)
- Go back to your list and start grouping the things that go together – this will help you figure out the “main” goal or task and the things that you need to do to make that happen. Once you’ve reworked that list, print it out, study it. Maybe even walk away from it for a couple of hours or a day.
- Now, go back and prioritize the “groups” in that list – coming up with no more than 12 top priorities (one for each month).
- Looking at those 12 top priorities – prioritize those as well – as to what needs to happen first, second, etc.
- Pick 4 areas of your business (for example – Blog (starting & maintaining), Traffic (getting traffic to your site=social media), List building (email & newsletters) and Money (making & tracking)
- Now grab yourself a planner (or design your own in Excel/Google Sheets) I’m offering a free 12 month planner in the Facebook group
- For each month choose 1 of your top 12 priorities and focus on that for the month in addition to doing one thing in each of the 4 main areas of your biz.
Pretty soon you’ll have a workable plan or roadmap for your business goals for the year.
Just remember, this is only a plan or a roadmap and you should review it every week to make sure you stay on track. But keep in mind – things often take longer than you anticipate and that is ok.
If you don’t have a list of goals, you’ll find that you’ll fall into that procrastination + excuses = lack of productivity trap that I talked about a couple of weeks ago.
Each of us (and our businesses) are unique and we all have different and unexpected things going on in our lives.
So, tell me……what are YOUR goals for your handmade/creative biz in 2020?