How to Sell Handmade Cards- Goal Setting

Selling handmade cards - Goal Setting

So you have your product finely tuned and are already going out doing craft events and finding your feet, trying to cram in as much as possible and continue with your full time job.

The question is how to get from this point to working full time on your own business?

Firstly you will need to decide what your goals are and what you aim to achieve.

A five year plan is sometimes a bit scary to even attempt, but is something you should think about.
What are your goals, what do you aim to achieve with these goals
You must have a plan in your mind as to where you want to be in six months, a year or even five years time.

What is your goal ?

Decide your destination, picture in your mind the end result.

Example

You are in full time employment earning a set wage per week of say £300
Your goal is to replace your earnings so you can ultimately give up work and focus full time on your own business

To achieve this you need to have an income from your business each week of at least £450.00, this is because you will need your wages £300.00, plus enough money for stock and overheads.

This is the minimum you can afford to make, you should set you sights higher to cover yourself for the unforeseen, you need to build this up so this money is coming in regularly for a reasonable period before you go ahead and leave your full time job.

A good idea to consider is to save up a float of say two or three months wages while still employed, this would give you a wage buffer while you make the transition between employed and self employed.

I myself simply gave up work and hoped for the best, this is not a good idea if you have dependents, on the plus side you do have to earn money, so you do go at it more aggressively as you have no choice, on the down side, you do put yourself under a lot of pressure, not for the fainthearted.

A simple goal of one of our customers was to attend a small craft fair in the local church to raise money to buy more craft products for her hobby.

She achieved her goal, all be it a very easy and short term one she still had to actively make changes to her everyday routine, without deciding on an end result she would not have been able to attend the craft fair.

A reasonable six month goal could be.

Attend twelve craft events and return a profit of 50 per cent on turnover.

To achieve this you'll need to set many short term goals such as:
Booking the events (always book early and stress you want a good position)
Organising stock,
Designing your table layout,
Advertising the events,
And of course attending the events

Throughout the six months you'll monitor your progress, you may need to raise your prices to achieve the profit margins or lower prices to increase sales, you may need more space for your stall etc.

At the end of the six months you'll need to evaluate your progress, you can then set new goals for the next six months

Or maybe you want to have your product selling in twenty retail outlets,
You'll need to organise agents, terms of trade, stock levels etc.

Goals are down to you to set, what they achieve are actions, a sense of moving things on and satisfaction.

If you don't set goals you will simply flounder from one pointless exercise to another, with the feeling that you are getting nowhere fast!

Next section: Promoting your Cards