Wednesday, September 2, 2009

August Goals report and September Goals Plus A Winner!


September got here faster than it should have! One day I'm working on finishing up summer beads and the next day fall is here! Where did August go???

Regardless, September IS here and its time to check on my August goals to see how I did and set some goals for September in good Modish Biz Tips Monthly Goals Challenge form. To do this I need to give some serious thought to what I want to accomplish during the month of September to help my online business grow. If you are trying to "grow" your business, this might be something you want to think about doing! There is a positive vibe to setting goals down in writing and publishing them to all your followers to read and hold you to.

So – for the month of August my goals were:

One – finalize design for this year's special Christmas ornament

Back to the comment I made about writing down and publishing goals… Monday night --- the very LAST day of August --- I made myself sit down at my work table and spend several hours trying different ideas for my special Christmas ornament because I did NOT want to admit to all of you that I had procrastinated yet again! The prototype looks good except for the face. I discovered that Premo beige all by itself does not bake to a pretty skin color so I'll be mixing my own skin tone for the next try. I did get all the kinks worked out so it should progress fairly quickly now that I've got the design part done. I'll post a picture as soon as I get one that I'm happy with.

Two – get better photo area set up so I can get consistently good pictures

Completed!!! Again thanks to Lynda of Diva Designs who sent me a link to an article about setting up an inexpensive lightbox and how to correctly position your lights for best results.
Three – locate a source for earring display cards or design my own

This remains on my started but incomplete. I know what I want but I just haven't gotten it done… imagine that!
Four – get everything I have completed posted to Etsy, Artfire and Picturetrail sites

Another item that will move on to my September list. I did get a lot posted and have gotten a decent response. But there is still so much to do and so little time -- particularly since I'm still working fulltime. As I mentioned in my mid-month report, I've started listing some of my loose polymer clay beads and pendants at JustBeads.com I've even had my first sale there already!
Now for September, my goals are:

(1) To complete the design for my angel ornament and get a few variations made, photographed and on the various websites.
(2) Improve my online selling ability by taking the http://harrisonhollowdesigns.blogspot.com/2009/08/check-out-online-class-multiple-streams.html Multiple Streams of Income course that I mentioned here on my blog early in August. I signed up for it today.
(3) Update my Etsy, Artfire, JustBeads and Picturetrail sites for the holidays – which is actually a continuation of #4 from August.
(4) Get better at posting on Facebook and research more about Twitter and how it will help my business grow.
Now for those of you who have been following allowing and making comments and/or suggestions during the month of August, I promised a drawing for a handcrafted polymer clay pen. And the winner is Mignon at Jewelry By Mignon http://jewelrybymignon.blogspot.com/. Mignon, please send your snail mail address to me at Arlene.harrison(at)gmail.com and I'll get your handmade pen on its way to you! By the way, what's your favorite color?

I'm going to have the same offer for the month of September. Leave a comment or make a suggestion and you'll be entered into a drawing for your own custom made polymer clay pen – along with instructions on how to change out the cartridge when the ink runs out – because I just know you're going to want to use this pen all the time!

2 comments:

Alice Stroppel said...

Can I join you in "where did August go"? Maybe we should start a group. :-) I had so many plans and some are still sitting in my head, on my camera or on my work table. But I'm be back on track.
I love your pumpkin, he's cute!

Leslie @ Bei Mondi said...

Wow, those beads with the flowers are really impressive! Such vivid colors too! Those must take a long time to make.