2010 Begins...

With a look back, of course.  Overall, 2009 was a great year with SMF holding steady, expanding some and staying fun.  My spinning has improved, I am spinning interesting yarns from dyed and natural roving and from a few lovely fleeces that I have purchased. I installed a solar water heater, had a great garden, have stayed mostly healthy and quite happy.  Work has remained challenging but satisfying.  

But I thought I'd look at last years goals and see how I did...

Selling my work - I set sales goals on Etsy by month and by year. For example, in 2009 I hope to sell 1000 items.  Well, I sold 650 items.  Whether it was the economy or lack of promotion on my part, I fell a bit short, but still increased sales over the previous year, so that's okay.

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.  Reasonably successful as I have paid attention to keeping colors in stock all the time.  I've developed repeatable colorways for the 'Andromeda Shades,' a line based on the planets and stars. I've also added hand dyed mohair and wool locks to the shop.

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.  'Subtle Shades' is my name for the semi-solids.  They still sell much better in the yarn shops that Etsy and I think that's okay.
 
Etsy FAST –Get involved in the team again. Join in the challenges, stay active on FiberFriday.  While staying active on Fiber Friday, I've switched my activity to the Phat Fiber group, submitting samples to the box on alternate months.  Did it increase sales?  Not sure, but it has definitely increased exposure (based on Google Analytics), so that's good.  At this year's SAFF, people recognized me as SmokyMountainFibers, which was very cool!

Ravelry - SMF group – Start it - Easy! Maintain it - a bit harder! What if nobody joins? Yikes!  Just got around to it!  I have a Facebook presence and a couple of fans, but it is tricky maintaining it.  I have posted a couple of patterns to Ravelry and that's fun and easy, just takes time!

Patterns – Shall I give one away? Free patterns posted to blog? Posted on Ravelry as a free download? Hmm…I now have 4 patterns on Etsy, another freebie posted to the blog with plans to create another freebie and expanding the size range on the existing patterns.

Website: SmokyMountainFibers.com – This is the year!  Well, I own the name and server space, but have not built it yet.  Add this to next year's plan.

Next year's plan?  Stay tuned...