Operating a business is all about goals. Most often these goals center around reaching a certain point of success within a certain time frame. Such as, make 100 sales within the year, or make 2 sales a day.
Or they are profit-oriented, as in: make $20 or more in sales a day. Goals centered around amount of sales made, or amount of money made from sales are all well and good, but they can be frustrating and unaccountable for the business owner.
The reason being is that these kinds of goals are really out of the realm of control for the seller.
If I attend a craft fair, with a goal of $300 in sales, I may achieve my goal I may not. The amount of sales I get is really out of my control due to all of the factors pertaining to whether or not the fair has a good turn out in attendance, the season of the year, the weather (if an outdoor fair), the location, etc. It’s a similar situation with online sales. You can be doing everything possible to get sales, everything you are supposed to, but it may just be a slow time of year.
I propose that you take your sales goals, and transform them into goals that you can actually control and take accountability for. For example, think of the things that need to be done in order to start getting those sales. Make those things your goals instead of profit numbers.
FOR EXAMPLE:
- Instead of the goal of getting 100 new Facebook fans (you can’t control whether or not people will like your page), make the goal to post regular updates to your page everyday.
- Instead of the goal of getting 2 sales a day (you cannot control whether or not people buy from you), make the goal to add 2 or more new items to your shop a week.
- Instead of the goal to make $300 at a craft fair (uncontrollable conditions may allow this to happen or they may not), make the goal to bring $900 or more worth of merchandise and set up an appealing display.
See how this works? If your goals aren’t reached, you have only yourself to blame and hold accountable. Goals are great for keeping on track and staying on top of things, and having goals that you can actually control will keep frustration at bay, and the feeling of accomplishment ever present as long as you work for it.
Tagged: achivements, business, goals, handmade, jewelry, marketing, sales, sales goals, small_business, success, uncontrollable conditions
Thanks for giving us a new perspective. Really smart way to look at it.
Love your twist on setting goals and I for one am going to do it.
Thanks…
Glad I could help, let me know how it goes! :-)
I do have a sales number oriented goal, just because it would be nice to reach it and I’m sure I will anyway since I’m only 25 sales away but I don’t consider it a important goal. My important business goals are to keep up with the accounting (no more of this 4 month old stack of unorganized paperwork), have more engaging Facebook/Twitter posts, more diverse blog (I’m slacking on that one) and to list more consistently in my shop. THOSE goals, like you said in your post are indeed more important and you can control them. You’re also the only one responsible for not fulfilling them too ;)
Exactly Heather! Keeping up on my accounting is also one of my goals, those stacks of receipts can pile high quickly if we don’t keep up on them!
It’s the unglamorous side of business, I hate the accounting work! Blech!
Well said Heather, I read this and thought I had written it! I promise myself every time…no more quarterly stack of paperwork and here it is looming again!
Some time ago I learned that goals must have two important attributes. First, a goal must be achievable. That is what you hit on in your post today. Second, your progress toward achieving the goal must be measurable. You also made that point in your post. An excellent post, Megan! Keep up the good work. I don’t comment often but I read many of your posts
Thank you! I appreciate all of my readers!
This is very good advice. I see so many sellers who set goals for things they have no control over like 100 sales by x date. While hoping to reach that milestone is always good, it’s much better to set goals that you can directly control like adding new items or tweaking listings. Thanks for the reminder to set goals that we can attain regardless of outside factors!
I don’t think that selling sales or profit goals are necessarily BAD, they can just end up being frustrating, as they are out of our realm of direct control. Glad I could help and thanks for the comment! :-)
Thanks so much for sharing! Great perspective and advice!
Thanks for posting this. I opened my Etsy shop two months ago and have been really discouraged by the slow start. I’m going to rethink my goals and keep going. Thanks for the encouragement!
Glad I can help, thanks for the comment Amy!
I like this! It puts the responsibility where it belongs, on me and what I can control!! Thanks, Megan.
Excellent reminder to focus on what we can control. It’s so easy to get down on ourselves when those sales numbers are lagging, when in fact there are many, many things we can do to move forward, despite slow periods.
Thanks, Megan. I needed that reminder.
Monique
http://www.SoweluStudio.Etsy.com
You’re welcome Monique, glad I could help!
When I did my business studies course, I learnt to set goals using the SMART principle:
S – specific
M – measurable
A – achievable
R – realistic
T – time-wise
This method really helped me setting my own goals
That is an awesome acronym to keep in mind! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the uplift and self-esteem Megan. After reading your blog, I’ve focused myself in a different direction based on sale’s and definitely rethinking my goal’s. Thanks Megan!
Glad I could help Maggie, thanks for reading! ♥
I found that really interesting! Thank you :)
This is exactly the post I needed to read! Thank you, great ideas for goal setting.
Lovely advice… and totally doable! Great post!
Reblogged this on Vynuss Vision and commented:
Hey ya’ll!!! I was going through my reading list of blogs and came across this post about setting your goals and making them achievable. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could achieve all our goals? How many times have you set goals and not achieved them, not necessarily by your own fault, but by factors you couldn’t control? Megan’s post over at Megan’s Creative Blog makes so much sense, not only in an online jewelry business, but also in life when you’re setting any goals. Focus on what you can control, not on what is out of your control. Thanks Megan!!
Thank you! And you are right, this method of goal setting can be applied to areas outside of business goals as well. Hope your readers find this post useful! :-)
Megan
You are right on the money. Thanks!!!!!
how right Megan! Goals are surely important but we should always have reachable goals that can give us more and more self-esteem. thanks to you for your interesting suggestions and thanks to Emma for her SMART acronym!
Excellent advice! Thanks for the great post!
Great ideas! I like making yourself accountable instead of blaming the lack of success on the economy!
What a great positive point of view. I love it. You can’t get wrapped up in the $$$$, although important, and make yourself crazy. I’ve found that there always seems to be enough. My goal is more than enough, and I try to live that as I’m doing all of the achievable goals. http://www.1beadweaver.com
Thanks for sharing this :) That’s exactly what I needed.
Such a great perspective. I need to remember this sometimes. “I’m going to sell x” is no good. “I’m going to be prepared to sell x with cute displays and enough goods is perfect! Thank you for writing this.
Thanks Megan, so timely for this first Monday of the new financial year, what first? get the last 3 months of paperwork done this week, and then never, never let it fall behind again.
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These are really impressive ideas in about blogging.
You have touched some pleasant factors here.
Any way keep up wrinting.
[...] This post originally appeared on Megan’s Creative blog on June 11, 2012. [...]
[…] This post originally appeared on Megan’s Creative blog on June 11, 2012. […]