3 APR 2015 :: Creating permanent directions

I don't remember all the things I wanted to share when I entered my post for yesterday, but I may remember them as I work on this one. Today I have been busy creating and revising my own forms to keep track of the important goals I have. I am learning what information helps me to improve my efforts and, eventually, my sales and income.

As I work to create a permanent foundation for my shop and other online sales activities, I am discovering information that will help me build a better income.  Hopefully, I will live long enough to enjoy the fruit of my efforts.  :-)


Deciding what to name my ten Etsy shop sections is one of the permanent foundations I am working on.  I have already committed to nine of the ten section titles I am allowed with a single Etsy shop, and need to find the best name for the final one.  I have also toyed with the idea of splitting my efforts into two shops, but decided to wait and see which of my products sell the best.

Below I have listed the titles I have decided to keep ::

• Personal Writings
• Art Original & Prints
• Beads & Jewelry
• Fabrics & Yarns
• Recycled & Upcycled
• Kits & Patterns
• Ornaments & Collectibles
• Food
• Digital Delivery

These titles cover pretty much all of the craft areas I want to be involved in at some level.  My problem is Christmas.  My online (retirement) sales goal was to create the largest part of my yearly income with collections of Christmas ornaments.  I also want to find products for Valentine's Day (Love), 4th of July (America), and Earth Day (recycling).  Almost every day has an event focus of some kind... I don't want to become overwhelmed trying to create sales options for all of them.  I don't know how much I want to focus on Christian holidays and events either.

Other parts of my shop development efforts are creating a variety of products for each of my shop sections, and having those products fit into different price categories from $0-10 to over $1000.  I don't know which ones might sell better than the others, so creating a variety will help my chances of finding the right item with the right price for potential customers.

My goal to create 25 new listings each month is another part of this development effort. One of the forms I was working on today is a way to record the details of my listings in one place.  I can already see where more improvements need to be made with my current listing group.  Once I fix these problems, I can begin to create my new listings.  I have been gathering supplies and making lists of the products I want to make first.  I hope to make a huge dent in the 100 listings I need to have to catch up with my goal by the end of April.

Using my goals notebook, recording my activities, planning my strategies, reading and learning more each day, gathering supplies, making workspaces, and thinking about products to make  --  these all contribute to my long-term income goals, to permanent foundations that will grow as time passes.