Hey cool--did you guys see this? Jena from over at Modish, and Modish Biz Tips has organized a new activity--a monthly goal meetup. You can read her post here--the general idea being that perhaps our goals have a better chance of being met when they are bounced off the sounding board of other like-minded creative business owners. Here's how to play:
* post a list of your business related goals for April on your own blog
* then come back here and leave a link to that post, along with your name please, in the comments to let us know you're participating!
Jena suggests starting with 5 detailed goals for the month of April. I'll give it a go.
*1: Learn and understand the new Quickbooks program for Mac that I just bought. After a tumultuous first year doing business taxes, and a heft accountant's bill, I realize that organization, and efficient record keeping are imperative for successful business. I bought the program on Tuesday 3/31. I would like to have my information inputted and ready for use by end of the month. This may involve a course or a book. This WILL involve many desperate google searches for advice/tips/instructions!
*2: Initiate a "client-referral" program. My business has the potential to really thrive on word of mouth advertising and past client recommendations. I've toyed with this idea for a while and think maybe now's the time to give it a go. How about a sort of rewards/give-back program to past clients who refer a friend to me? Maybe someone's sister is getting married, or best friend is having a baby-shower. Wachovia does it--refer a friend and you both get $25. So I'd like to iron out the details of something like this and see how it would work. Do you think it's a worthwhile endeavor, or something that might just fall flat?
*3: Blog more. For a long time I thought that no one besides my mom was reading my blog. But when I figured out that there was a "stats" section, I realized that's not true at all! Well, having said that, I feel that I owe the loyal readers some more regular updates and some interesting topics. I'd like to blog at least 5 times a week for the month of April and see if I can keep up that pace.
*4: Outline clear and concise shop/business policies that are universal to both Etsy and my personal website. This should have been done ages ago. I do have information posted, but some of my policies have changed and haven't been clearly updated. This is a must.
*5: And finally--though this might belong in position 1--stay positive. My business, pardon my lack of humility, is thriving at the moment and every day I can't BELIEVE how full of blessings my life is. I need to remain optimistic, express gratitude and project positive energy in order to keep the good things flowing in my direction. This sounds so obvious, and so easy--but when we are surrounded by doom and gloom it's not hard to get sucked into that. I don't want to be a part of that, so a genuinely positive outlook will be my prime goal for the month of April!
Hey Alissa. Great goals! We get a lot of our clients through word of mouth as well, so we recently put a client referral program in place. It's only been a couple of months, so no one has taken advantage of it yet, but we're optimistic!
Posted by: Jessica | April 04, 2009 at 09:24 AM
Yay! Glad to have you join! Yeah, gotta get that Quickbooks going- it has saved me so many headaches! You'll love it once you get past the initial setup. And staying positive is a great goal! Good luck with them all! I look forward to seeing what you're up to come May! :)
-jena
Posted by: Miss Modish | April 07, 2009 at 10:31 PM
aaaaaaannnnndddd ... contact sllllleeeeeeestack....annnnnnddddd don't use a canoola!!!
Posted by: KARIN SAMPOGNA | April 08, 2009 at 11:04 PM