A. Nieman Crochet: Goals for 2009

A. Nieman Crochet

Goals for 2009

1. Get Organized: I would like to have all my yarn organized in a way that I know where any color/ type is located. I would like to have all my tools together and all my shipping supplies together. This will entail me going through all my supplies, from fabric and yarn to tools. They will have to be sorted by categories that are easy for me to remember. I will need to do this early in the year before I start on any new projects.
2. Set up a calendar for finishing projects that I have already started. Some of those projects would include: wash clothes and dish rags, purses, and granny square afghans. This calendar will also include the dates I would like to have my seasonal items done, ie Valentine’s Day, Fourth of July, and Halloween.
3. Write a Business Plan: Now this goal will include a lot of research on how to set up a small business. I do not expect to have a business set up by the end of the year. Because of my financial situation setting up this business will take some time and I am fully aware of that. After my research I hope to be able to set a date.
4. Research ideas for marketing my business. I will look into things such as advertising, craft shows, promotional products, and craft parties. Once I have established a plan for these markets, I will establish a schedule for trial of each.
5. Bookkeeping: I will keep up on all bookkeeping for the entire year of 2009. This will give me an idea of how much I spend and make. It will help me price my products more effectively.

This year A. Nieman Crochet will no longer be just a hobby. It will be a venture that I take seriously and into which I put my full effort and dedication. I am extremely excited about 2009 and hope to make this my best year yet!

Time to be Realistic

This year I would like to do things different than the past couple years. Instead of just talking about making goals for the new year I am actually going to write them down.

After being let go from my last job I have done a lot of think about what makes me happy and what does not. I am happy when I am creating, I am happy when I am selling, I am happy when I am organizing. I am not happy when I am bored, I am not happy being someones work horse and I am not happy in a office all day.

Being aware of these things is helping me learn who I am and what I want to do for a living. As I enter the new year I am unemployed. I am searching for someways to pay the bills. I want to be happy in what I am doing but I do not want to be unemployed forever trying to find that. This is why I have done quite a bit of thinking.

I have come to he conclusion that I would be happiest owning my own business, being my own boss. This is not something that I can do right now. I cannot jump right into this, it will take time for me to get organized and to write a proper business plan.

I think my biggest problem was that I wanted everything right now. I wanted the perfect job, the perfect schedule, the perfect pay. That is not practical, at all. Now I know these things will take time. I know that I have to stick with it and I have to keep confident in what I am doing.

In the next couple of posts I will outline my business goals and my personal goals. I would like to actually make a calendar for the whole year of my sales and promotions so that I can be as organized as possible. The key this year is organization and follow through.

Getting Ready for the New Year

After everything that has happened over the past few days and months I have decided to get serious about my crochet and design business. While I am looking for a new job I am going to be organizing myself in a way that I can pay off my loans and credit cards and start saving money in order to start my own business.

This will take me some time to achieve but with some persistence and a lot of organization I will achieve my goal. In the next week I plan to come up with a list of things that I will need to get done in order to make this vision possible.

I have already started by downloading a free version of Quick Books. I will be using this for all my book keeping now, personal and business. This way I can see everything I am spending and everything I owe. Starting from today I will be as organized as I should be in order to operate a business.

The next step is to do a full inventory of my Etsy Shop. I will be having a sale after Christmas to decrease this inventory and after the sale I will close my shop and have a full count of all items for 2009.

During this process I will have to look for a new job to support myself in the mean time. Quite honestly I am tired of looking for a job and am going to try to find something that may not be the most rewarding, but will pay the bills.

In the next couple days look for more post on my full list of things to complete, my business plan and hopefully my new job!

Happy Holidays Everyone!