In the Studio with Katie: Revisiting 2011 Goals

As all good business owners should do periodically, we are reviewing our 2011 goals.  Our goals were steep, but a periodic review will keep us on task and hopefully will allow us to build a better, stronger business, clientele, and fan base.

THIS YEAR I WILL:

•                Keep better sales logs & expenditures so I'm not "cramming" before tax time. - We're doing REALLY good here.  So far, no cramming for next year.

•                Rename my store, facebook, twitter, & blog! - DONE!

•                Get fresh and new ideas -- ie: be more creative! - This is a constant process...

•                Make it to Etsy's Front Page. - Still working on this one...

•                Curate 1 treasury a week. - I've only done 6 this year...not doing so well here.

•                Reach 100 followers on my blog. - WE DID IT! YIPPY!

•                Reach 200 followers on FaceBook. - Still promoting and trying to build our fan base.

•                Sell 100 items from my Etsy store (current standing: 48). - On our way .

•                List 3 items a day in my store for better exposure. - NOT doing well here.  I list about 6 NEW items a week...but I do not list/relist 3 items per day.

IN ORDER TO SELL 100 ITEMS I WILL DO THE FOLLOWING:

•                List EARLIER than the coming holiday (ie: list Christmas at end of September instead of December). - So far, so good.

•                List a MINIMUM of one NEW item a day (not counting renewed items). - Oh yeah - right on track with this one.

•                New blog posts 5-6 days a week (varied posts: personal, studio, promoting others, new item blogs, tutorials, etc). - We're writing 1 post (sometimes more) per day!  We love our blog and we hope that our readers do too!

•                Write and post 1 tutorial (with text and pictures) a month for my blog. - Sadly, not going so well here.  There was no tutorial for Jan and none for Feb. either.  We'll keep working at it.

•                Do a minimum of 6 shows this year (I did 5 last year). - Only 1 show scheduled for this year, in December.  Working on finding more as we speak!

•                Do one BIG sale a month (currently I have little sales every week). - Going well, next big sale the beginning of March!

•                Be able to offer MORE free shipping on my items. - Working on this, but it's tough because all of our items are heavy and need boxed. Our new rule of thumb has been if it's over $25, we try to ship it free.