Goals and Wishes Moleskin Journal from Bubby and Bean on Etsy

In preparation for my shop opening and initial business growth, I set about setting some goals for the month of March. Even though I'm fairly new to proper goal-setting, I've always been a list-maker, so I thought this would be pretty easy stuff. But now, as I'm reviewing my goals (and my list-making habit) I'm thinking I need a refresher in this category.

My lists have usually been full of randon to-do items that were rattling around in my head - the only way to get them out of my head was to write them out. For example, any number of lists of mine include:

• buy eggs
• exercise
• prepare for friends coming for dinner
• make shopping list for dinner
• think of ideas for back garden
• paint office

So, as you can see, there are a number of random thoughts in my head that I need to get out. It's not a really good list - there are things on there I can't check off easily - such as exercise, which is an ongoing command, not simply "exercise today"; or think of ideas for back garden, since I always get inspiration for gardens, I'll always have new ideas, so when would I cross that one off?; or paint office - it would be better as its own list with subheadings for all the little tasks involved that would move that bigger item forward (ie, take out furniture, fills nail holes in walls, sand and clean walls, paint trim, etc...).

So, when I made myself a list of goals for March for the business, I used my haphazard list knowledge to do it. Needless to say, there were some pretty lofty goals on that list, along with some really easy quick-checker-offers. I didn't realize how crazy my list was until now. It's getting to be the end of the month, the shop is up and running, and I wanted to review the goals I had obtained and figure out which I would have to revise before putting them on a list for next month.

In order to help you in your own goal setting, I'm going to expose myself here, and list my March goals for you. Please don't laugh too hard, my suffering can be used to help you too :)

• products: (20 tea towels, 8 aprons, 20 pillows, 80 coasters, 16 placemats, 16 napkins, 4 tablerunners)
• product descriptions and tags for all of the above
• 5 sales by the end of the month
• connect personally with 2 people who inspire me
• create outline for one new product or service (such as tutorials or worksheets)
• learn to use video so I can post video blog posts
• rewrite about page
• take new photo for about page
• create New Around Here? page
• get shop up an running
• reward myself for reaching goals!

OK, so which goals did I actually achieve?

• I did make 20 tea towels (3 of which have already sold, thank you very much!!), but only 3 aprons, 3 pillows, 8 coasters, and 0 placemats, napkins, and tablerunners. Seriously, 80 coasters? What was I thinking!
• I did write all the product descriptions and tags for everything I posted, but not for "all of the above" - so I'm not even sure if this goal is met or not.
• I've had 3 sales so far, so I only need 2 more by Thursday to meet this goal!!
• I did connect personally with 2 people who inspire me - April from Blacksburg Belle, and Stephanie from Unfinished Sewing Projects. I'm now part of April's ARTrepreneur membership site which helps creative entrepreneurs build successful businesses, and I'm working on a tutorial for Stephanie's great site. I'm also doing some advertising on two other sites which I'll announce in April.
• I haven't yet created an outline for a new service. As I'm working on Stephanie's tutorial, however, I'm getting an inkling of an idea - does this count? I'm not sure.
• I did not yet learn how to use video. My husband showed me very quickly one night, but I didn't take notes and now I have to get instructions all over again.
• I did write the about page, and I did take a new photo for that page!
• I did get the shop up and running!
• I did celebrate!!!!

Ok... not too bad. So, what have I learned here? If I'm working on other things such as relationship-building or a lot of writing (posts and product descriptions), my productivity for making actual items for the shop goes down. Now that the shop is up, I will have more time to make things to go into it. Speaking of productivity, I need to take the amount of time that each item takes to make, and multiply it by how many I want to make and see if this number is actually realistic. I also learned that it's more efficient to only learn things once, not twice. If I had properly sat down with my husband, and really focused on learning how to use the video camera and recording software, had taken notes, and really listened, it would take me less time to learn and implement than it does to learn it twice. And finally, I need to set myself up for more success. There are a couple of things on the list that I'm not even sure if I can check them off or not! It would be better to write the items in a way that is a definite Yes or No.

Are you a good goal-setter or list-maker? Let me know about a recent experience. Perhaps we can have a end-of-the-month celebration together of all things we did accomplish.