Goal Setting

My mission for SmokyMountainFibers has always been very simple:

Use high quality materials.
Make beautiful things.
Ship tomorrow.
If you make a mistake, admit it, apologize and fix it for free.
That should keep me from making too many.

But I have been lately thinking about my fiber business and how I can make the business end better while keeping the creative part fun. I want to be sure that I am happy and connected with the fiber community, while building my business in an increasingly uncertain time. I also want to do other things - garden, hike, dance - oh, and there is the day job! Here are my thoughts...

Selling my work - I set sales goals on Etsy by month and by year. For example, in 2009 I hope to sell 1000 items. That means I have to sell about 85 (actually 83.33) things per month. In my private world, I’ve rounded that up to 100 items per month to stay ahead of schedule. That is highly doable, as the warmer months are slower and things really kick up in the fall. And since I ended 2008 with just about 1000 items sold, it’s easy to keep track.

Selling at the B&M accounts is a bit trickier because they sell different things - mostly hats and handspun yarns. But because the 2 shops can sell all the hats I can make, I just have to decide what & how much I want to make. The yarns are easy - Make what I want, deliver as much as I want, knit up the rest!

Colorways – I’d like to round out the color selection in the Etsy shop to be sure that I always have a full complement around the spectrum. I tend to have reds , blues and greens, but can frequently run low on minor colors and there are colors that I can’t seem to photograph well, so they don’t get posted. I either spin them up or sell them locally.

Sock yarns – Although these are NOT my strength on Etsy, they have a steady turnover at both B&M shops. Work on semi-solids. Think up a catchy name for same. This is Rosewood as knitted by Mickie.

Etsy FAST –Get involved in the team again. Join in the challenges, stay active on FiberFriday

Ravelry - SMF group – Start it - Easy! Maintain it - a bit harder! What if nobody joins? Yikes!

Patterns – Shall I give one away? Free patterns posted to blog? Posted on Ravelry as a free download? Hmm…

Website: SmokyMountainFibers.com – This is the year!