October Goals Review

Welcome to November! Let the holiday madness begin :)

October was another great month at Memories for Life! I love being able to say that. Since quitting my job in June, I've been nothing but thrilled with my decision! I absolutely love working from home and Etsy has really made that possible!

Feather Earrings

Shop Goals:

Last month I raised my sales goal from 2 sales per day to 3 and I'm thrilled to report that I met my goal! With 92 sales, October was an awesome month! Even better, I had 2 really big orders, so my revenue was even better than expected! (And lets face it, that's what really matters!)

I had my two biggest shows in October as well and both ROCKED! I was very happy with my shows last month!

I had set a goal for shop admirers at 1,000 by year end. But one of my friends pointed out that this goal isn't as important as my sales goal, so I'm not too worried if I meet it. I'm currently at 884 and probably won't meet this by year end. But if my sales are rockin', I'm okay with that :)

Doggy Ornament...Coming Soon!

Blog Goals:

Not much to report here. Still blogging about 6 days per week. I thought about cutting back my blogging to 5 days, but haven't figured out what to cut out. Maybe Tuesdays?

I'm happy with my growing number of readers and commentors...I love comments!

Wine Charms...Coming Soon!

Personal Goals:

As I reported last month, my exercise routine has pretty much been sidelined. I just can't get myself back into a routine I enjoy. On the upside, I have been eating a lot better. I started using a program called Body by Vi and am liking it so far. It's a little boring, but easy to stick with. And at lunch I eat either a Lean Cuisine or Weight Watchers frozen meal. I've also started eating spinach wraps as well. I hate all the sodium that's in the frozen meals, so I'm trying to cut back on those as well. I'm down a couple pounds, but nothing major. I'm just happy I'm learning to eat a little healthier and hoping to make lasting changes.

Hair Clips...Coming Soon!

 My creativity is kickin' and I've been making lots of new little things to add to the shop! Now I just need to make time to photograph and list all of them!

How was your October? Are you ready for the holiday madness?

Out for a Stroll

I've been very proud of myself this week. As I stated in my goals post on Tuesday, I planned to take up exercising again. Now that I'm not working two full-time jobs, exercise is a priority again...my jeans and shorts say so!

And so does Harley :) He was SO excited we got to go for a walk Monday evening! We hadn't even left the driveway and he was already pulling me along!

We even had an unexpected visitor on our trip! Deer are common in this area, but this guy sure scared me! Harley could smell him and went right to the edge of the ditch. I hurried and got a picture before he got away :)

I spend so much time inside that it was sure nice to get out! I can't believe how tall the crops are already getting...seems like yesterday everyone was still planting!

What better way to cool off after a long walk than by taking a dip in the pool :)

This is one happy puppy :)

And I'm happy to say that I jogged both Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. (And hopefully as you're reading this, I'm out jogging today too!) I'm starting slow and warming my body back up. My legs are a little sore and those hills are a killer, but I'm determined to jog my 3 mile jaunt again this summer :)

March Goals Review

March was by far my best month so far this year! It far exceeded the goals I had set for my business!!! Some days I am in complete awe of how well my shop is doing!

I am still focusing more and more on wedding items and they have all been so well received! Two of my newest items are my Wood Wedding Invitations and Wine Bottle Candle Table Numbers. They got a lot of attention at my show last weekend as well!

Blog Goals:

March was a good blogging month. I posted 26 times which exceeds my goal. I am also doing well on my followers. I am currently at 261, so I may still reach my goal of 325 by the end of the year.

Shop Goals:

I far exceeded my goal of 1 sale a day and had 47 sales in March! This number still blows my mind! And I am steadily reaching my goal of 750 admirers by the end of the year. In March I had 21 new shop favorites. At this rate, I will easily meet my goal!

Other Business Goals:

I started a new advertisement on The Knot and will hopefully have good things to report on this! I think my wedding items will be great for this type of advertising. I'll have to do a post on this with more info on the experience.

I am quickly learning that inventory software is only as good as you make it! I have a hard time remembering to update it! I need to make this more of a routine like my sales, cost and profit logs I keep each month.

Personal Goals:

Things didn't go so well for me in the personal goals area last month! First I had a sinus infection, then my uncle died and then I had a huge order of coasters I had to get engraved! So my jogging suffered...a lot! I need to learn not to let excuses like these get in my way!

On a more positive note, our personal finances are still doing well. If we keep everything on track til the end of the year, my goal of quitting my job will easily become reality :)

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How did your March go? Do you have goals set for each month or for the end of the year? I'd love to hear how you're doing :)

February Goals Review

February was another great month in the world of Memories for Life!

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One of the things I am most proud of is that I've been creating and adding lots of new designs to my shop!

I blogged about my Wall Words in February and finally got my first set listed on Etsy. These have been very well received and I'm so excited to see a new product do well :)

I'm also focusing more and more in wedding items. Weddings are a big market and I have SO much to offer in this category! Look for many new things in the wedding department :)

Here's how the month turned out:

Blog Goals:

I am far exceeding my goal of blogging 3-5 times per week. In February I blogged 27 times...only missing 2 days the whole month!

As for followers, I want to reach 325 by the end of the year. That is an average of 6-7 followers per month...and I only have 5 new followers for all of 2012. Falling short here...but lots of time to make that up :)

Shop Goals:

For this typically being the "slow time" on Etsy, I can't believe my shop is staying so busy! I really contribute this to all the new ideas I've been coming up with and the variety my shop has to offer :)

My goal is to average a sale a day in 2012. In February I had 28 sales...only one short of my goal! How exciting!

And my goal is to have 750 shop hearts by the end of 2012. That is about 11-12 new hearts per month. In February, I had 17 new shop hearts...another great accomplishment!

Other Business Goals:

Nothing new to share in the advertising area. Still working on that one!

I purchased some inventory software that I'm hoping will help me stay more organized. I'll be blogging about that soon to give my review...so far so good :)

And I did send some samples of fundraiser options to the local Booster Club. They really liked the samples, but they don't have a specific idea in mind for them yet. I may go ahead and send fliers to other schools and see what happens.

Personal Goals:

I'm still doing great with my jogging. I didn't jog 5 days every week like I wanted to, to Feb. was a busy month! I have increased my mph on the treadmill and am only .2 mph away from my goal. Now I need to start adding longer jogs at the same mph to reach my goal. I'm so ready to get outside and jog!

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I am also really happy about our personal finances! I paid off one loan and only have one payment left on another! In order to quit my full-time job, our personal finances need to be in order. This just gets me one step closer to my goal...no make that my DREAM! And the online bill pay is working really well too!

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How is 2012 shaping up for you? Leave me a comment and let me know :)

January Goals Review

In the past I haven't done a monthly review of my goals. I've done mid-year reviews, but with some pretty big goals (like quitting my job!) I've been keeping a pretty close eye on my goals this year!

Blog Goals

I'm doing great in the blogging area. My goal was 3-5 times per week and in January I blogged 30 times! I'd say that's pretty good :) I'm still quite a ways from my goal of 325 followers, but that's okay...I've still got plenty of time to work on that.

Shop Goals

I am really amazed at how I'm doing on my shop goals! My goal is to have 366 sales in 2012. That is an average of one sale per day. I thought I'd be making up my average in Oct-Dec when sales really pick up. Boy was I surprised when I got 30 sales in January! I hope this keeps up all year!!! And I had 24 new shop hearts. My goal is 750 shop hearts by the end of the year, which averages 11-12 per month...so I'm doing awesome in this area as well!

Other Business Goals

I'm still working on advertising ideas. It's hard to know where to start with these things! But I did get a wedding ad up on The Handmade Wedding Blog and have already revamped it once. I would still like to advertise on The Knot as well. And I have ads at RandomCreative and FabricFascination as well.

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I will be sending some sample items with a friend to the local booster club meeting next weekend to see if they would like to use any of them for fundraising ideas. After I see how this first round goes, I can see what I need to change to present my ideas to other clubs and organizations as well. I think this could really open some doors locally!

Personal Goals

I'm doing great with my jogging and am very proud of myself for sticking with it. My biggest hurdle is always my motivation and will power. I've put it in my head that jogging is not a choice anymore...it is part of my daily routine. I've been jogging 5 days a week and have slowly been upping my mph on the treadmill to get myself ready to jog outside at the speed and distance I used to jog at.

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I also got all of our recurring bills set up online. I've made a few payments and I love the system our bank uses. Very easy and user friendly!

I have also been keeping track of all my local sales so far this year as well. I want to know exactly how my business is doing on a month by month (if not week by week!) basis.

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Check back next month to see if I'm still on track! How are you doing with your goals so far?

Let's Get Personal

Every year I talk about my Etsy Shop and Blog goals, but I don't ever really talk about my personal goals. I guess many years I really don't have personal goals...my business is my personal time :) But this year I have a few more goals that I'd like to accomplish. And as I've said before, I feel that telling people your goals makes them set in stone and helps me to accomplish them! So here they are...

• Start Jogging Again! I know this sounds like an idle new year's resolution, but I am serious about getting healthier. For about 3 or 4 years, I jogged on a regular basis (3-5 days per week). When I went back to work after my layoff (2 years ago!) I had a hard time exercising again. I've tried a couple of times, but never could be myself back into a routine. I'm starting to see the effects of this and I'm not liking the results! It's time to make a change in my life! I started last week and I jogged 3 times on my treadmill. My goal is to get myself ready for Spring when I can jog 3-4 miles outside and enjoy the beautiful outdoors :)
• Enroll in Online Bill Pay. I've had a couple incidents will bills not getting mailed correctly. Once the mailman delivered my outgoing mail (bills!) to the neighbor. And the other day I was in a hurry paying bills and ripped off the top part of our mortgage statement instead of the bottom. I didn't pay attention to the address in the envelope window and mailed the payment...back to myself! *headdesk* After telling my mom about my "blonde moment" she asked why I don't pay bills online. I can accept credit card payments with my smart phone, but I still write checks, she asked. Okay...good point :) So my goal is to get all of our bills online and get a good system down for getting them paid and in the checkbook balance!
• Keep Track of ALL Sales in 2012! Okay, this is sort of a business goal, but it is for a personal reason :) In the past, I haven't been good about keeping records of all of my local sales. If I delivered an item to work and they handed me cash, often times I didn't have change, so I didn't worry about sales tax. (shhhh...don't tell the IRS!) Those sales can add up, and I don't have record of them. After finishing my taxes for 2011, I realized that I may be able to really make this business work as my full-time job! So in 2012, I want to know exactly what my business is capable of. I want every cent recorded and I want to know that if I'm going to quit my job, that I can really do this. So as I said, a business and a personal goal here.

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It feels good to get these down in writing and out in the world!