Looking Ahead, Long Term Goals

Well, Happy New Year to All! I hope you had a safe, fun evening! Ours involved dim sum, Wii Beatles Rock Band, a small, family fun evening.

New-Year's-Eve-09Yesterday I looked backward a bit, and liked what I saw! I’m amazed at how much I’ve accomplished on the business end of Candied Fabrics this year. One of reasons I’ve accomplished so much is the lists I’ve gotten accustomed to writing for the Modish Biz Tips monthly goal meetup! This group is morphing into something else, as Miss Modish expands her vintage clothing business. It doesn’t quite have a name yet – when it does, you’ll be the first to hear about it! (I’m pretty sure my suggestion “TMFKAMBTM” (The Meetup Formerly Known As Modish Biz Tips Meetup”) ain’t gonna fly!)

I’ve put a lot of thought into where I want to go this year. Rather than blah blah blah about it, I’ve distilled it into a word and 2 “inclinations”.

My Word for 2010

Simplify

My Inclinations for 2010

Create more Art!

Communicate my Art!

Now, how I go about getting these things accomplished, well that’s what this whole year is for! 😉

Long Term Artistic Goals

  1. Work more in 3 dimensions. As I talked about here, as well as my guest post over at Scoutie Girl, I’m loving working in this way.
  2. Explore the shape/idea of house/home.
  3. Continue to work with restricted color palettes.
  4. Improve the pictures I take of my art!

Long Term Business Goals

  1. Double my Stats. My stats today, in order of how I prioritize them are:
    1. I’m at about 10,000 hits/month right now
    2. I’ve got 69 RSS subscribers
    3. 170 folks subscribed to my newsletter
    4. 123 Facebook Fans
    5. 438 Twitter followers
  2. Simplify my business data.
    1. I’ve actually purchased a couple of  spreadsheets from the Accounting SPOT to help with inventory tracking and income/expenses. Holly has a very helpful blog that has provided me with lots of useful tips this year, and as she actually LOVES accounting stuff, I figured I should be using her expertise and stop banging my head against my desk!
  3. Meet or exceed my sales for this year
    1. I sold (I think, see above for why this number is iffy!) 306 scarves this year! I also sold a fair amount of my other types of everyday art. This income has allowed my business to run in the black 3 years in a row, and I’ve been able to buy Christmas gifts with “my definition of” profit!  I need to keep on keeping on here
    2. I really would like to sell more art! I have 2 commissions due in January (wahoo!), I’d like those to continue. To this end I’ve also become part of Art Wall Online, and hope that this venue will bring me online art lovers/needers!

Long Term Blogging Goals

  1. Create a more meaningful blog. I’ll be Blogging my Passion and hope that this does the trick – I’ll bet it does!
  2. Generate income from my blog, without being obnoxious about it. I’m now an affiliate with not one, but two fabulous bloggers who offer great products. I’m using them myself and am already finding that they are helping me simplify:
    1. Scoutie Girl Tara and her e-book 52 Weeks of Blogging your Passion
    2. Holly of the Accounting SPOT.
  3. Consolidate the tutorials I have and make more!
  4. Increase my understanding of HTML and get my site looking even better. This includes:
    1. Making the blog sidebar more cohesive and filled with extra functions like “5 top posts” etc…
    2. Learn how to change fonts in my CSS without “Breaking the Internet”. I’m mighty scared of this one.
    3. Design some sort of page to make ordering a commission bag easier.

Pie in the Sky Goals

  1. Get published in print!
    1. I’ve got one magazine submission 75% done, 2 others are still ideas
    2. I have 2 book ideas as well. Gotta get 1 done first so book publishers will listen to me!

All these goals intertwine & intermingle, and I have a lot to do. But please know that a lot of this is possible because of YOU, my dear blog readers! I thank you for your visits, your support & encouragement, your awesome advice when I ask for it and those little numbers on my stats page that let me know I’m connecting with people out there!

What are your Inclinations for 2010?

11 Responses

  1. Candy–thanks for taking the time to comment on my blog and for pointing me in the direction of this post! Your organizational efforts are pretty mighty–I am in awe! I love this concept of “inclinations!” I’ll look forward to checking in on your journey through 2010.