Creating Success from the Inside Out: The Hidden Benefit To Planning

As a project manager of multiple projects at any given time, I need to be organized.  So, I have a system in place that works well for me.  This system allows me to keep track of everything that needs to be done in a way that it's not all floating around in my head driving me crazy.

However, flip to my jewelry business and my organization and planning would be shameful to any project manager, including myself.  Since I'm generally wearing my creative cap when doing business tasks, I tend to let my passions and imaginations take me away into the clouds.  Until recently, I had a system for tracking all the things I want to try, sites I want to explore, designs I want to create but no long term plan for doing any of it.  Whenever I had time to sit down at my bench and work on my business, I would right then try to figure out what I was going to do - Make items? Photograph pieces? Add items to Etsy? Reach out to a blog?  Try that new technique?  Eeek! I would get overwhelmed and not make good use of my time.  

That's why I wanted to share with you my new planning technique that has given me my freedom back, pulled me out of overwhelm, given me a sense of real purpose, and basically changed my life!  This technique is not novel, but just something I hadn't followed through with before.  If you lack planning and organization in your creative business, then I hope this technique will help you, too.

1. The first thing I did was sit down and figure out my goals for the year for my business, made fun and enjoyable by using Leonie Dawson's 2014 Create Your Amazing Year in Life & Business Workbooks and Calendars. I really got clear on what I want to achieve this year and put dates by which I want to complete each one.  

2014 Create Your Amazing Year in Life & Business Workbooks

2. I looked at each goal and wrote down step by step on a piece of lined paper what it would take to complete it, even if it was a simple project with only 2 or 3 steps.

3. I decided set days each week that I would dedicate to my business.  Before, I willy-nilly worked on my business whenever I felt like it.  Now that I was going to plan for REALS, I needed to make some concrete and consistent commitments to myself.

4. I took Leonie's monthly calendar printouts (you could use any monthly calendar, iCal, Google Calendar, etc.) and input each individual task from step 2 into the calendar and played around with it until it felt realistic and worked with the overall completion dates I was aiming for.  At this point, I crossed some goals off my list because I realized it was just not realistic for me to accomplish everything in the time I have to spend.

Here are some quick tips for this planning stage:

* Think about how long, realistically, each task will take as you place it in your schedule

* Don't put too many tasks into any given day - you will get frustrated if you can't get it all done

* Think about which days you will have more time to spend and schedule the more difficult tasks for those days

* Yes, you have to schedule some tasks that are not fun at all to accomplish - try to pepper those in with a task that is SUPER fun

* Leave some days with little or no planned tasks to allow you some flexibility in case other tasks take longer than expected (and also to provide room for those spur of the moment ideas you just have to explore)

* Input your intended vacations into your planner - if you don't know when you are going to take time off, at least leave some placeholders throughout the year and you can adjust later

5. Lastly, I bought myself a cute planner at Barnes & Noble that I love and I input all the planning information from the monthly printouts into this planner.  This allowed me to take that extra adjustment step needed to get to a comfortable plan.  

Harmony Chakra Bracelet by Anjali Creations on Etsy

Honestly, now that I have my plan for the year, my mind is so much calmer.  Instead of constantly thinking about what I want/need to do next, I just look at my planner to see what's coming up and I just have to focus on that.  I know what days I'm working on my business and on those days I sit down and get those tasks done.  I don't have to worry about the next project that I have planned to start in March because it's all planned out and will be waiting for me when the time comes.

Have your own planning techniques?  Do tell in the comments below!

Creating Success from the Inside Out - 5 Money Traps to Avoid When Pricing Your Work

I was inspired this week to talk about setting prices for our work after participating in a webinar about money blocks, given by the Lucky Bitch, Denise Duffield-Thomas.  It got me to thinking about what money traps we artists on Etsy may fall into as a result of our own money blocks.

1. Setting your prices at wholesale level in a retail environment

I have gone through several iterations of pricing formulas and read lots of articles to figure out the best way to price my work.  The conclusion I reached was that I need to price my products so that I can sell wholesale, establish pricing consistency no matter where a customer might find my product, and still make a profit.  If I sell a pair of earrings for $40.00 on Etsy, then wholesale buyers will need to buy those earrings from me for 50% of that price, at most, so that they can sell those earrings in their shop for $40.00 and still make a profit.  This also means that I need to price my products so that when I sell my earrings to a wholesale buyer for $20.00 I am still making a profit.  If you are thinking to yourself, “I don’t sell wholesale, so I can set my retail prices lower”, I ask you to reconsider this as you read the rest of this post.  I believe this thinking is potentially damaging to your wellbeing as an artist.

2.       Not paying yourself for labor

If you’re like me, you love every minute of creating your handmade items, so it doesn’t often feel like work.  However, there are two points to consider here.  The first is if you want to scale your business up and potentially hire a person to help you in the future, then you need to build labor rates into your product prices.  If you don’t charge yourself for labor now and then you find yourself hiring someone later (whether it’s a person to help you bead, sew, knit, balance your account, or ship product), you will have to recalculate all of your prices at that point, which could affect an established customer base.  More importantly, your time has value.  Your skill has value.  You should get paid for that time and that skill.  And I don’t mean $3.00 an hour!

Lucky Cat Sculpture by amberhlynn on Etsy

3.       Assuming that YOU are your customer

I fall into this trap all the time!  As artists, we may not have an income level that matches that of our customer.  It certainly depends on your market, but it’s important to avoid pricing your items according to what YOU can afford.  You may have an item that, when you calculate the price, you think, “Oh, no one will buy that at this price!” If you are assigning an appropriate value to your items then the customers who love what you offer and see the value in the product will be happy and willing buyers.  If you sell the item for less than what it is worth, then you are in danger of devaluing yourself as an artist. 

Another aspect to this trap is that we spend so much time with our products that sometimes we can grow too close to them to assign an appropriate value.  Familiarity can cheapen the value of the item, in our own eyes.  Try to look objectively at your work.  Put each item on a pedestal and adore it!  That customer who has been hunting for just the right thing will adore it, too, when they find it in your shop.  And they will pay money for it.

4.       Looking at what your competitors are charging and pricing your items accordingly

I believe that setting your prices according to your competition is detrimental to your wellbeing as an artist and a business owner.  When I browse products on Etsy, I’m amazed at how cheaply some sellers price their products.  It can be hard to offer an item for sale that is sometimes double what other sellers are offering for a similar product.  Don’t let other people’s money blocks dictate the cost of your items.   Come up with the formula that feels good to you, that helps you meet your business goals, and that reflects what you are worth as an artist.  You will be more at peace with yourself and happy doing the work because you know you are getting paid fairly for it. 

5.       Feeling guilty about asking for the true value of your work

I love lifestyle business guru Leonie Dawson who explains that there is a balance to the Universe in the exchange of goods and services for money and that when one person gets more value than the person on the other side of the transaction, it’s not healthy for either party.  That’s not to say that you can’t offer sales or promotions.  When you offer a promotion, you aren’t just selling your items more cheaply.  You are doing it for a reason; perhaps to create more buzz for your shop; to get more customers to sign up for your newsletter or blog; or for other non-monetary reasons that still have value to you as a business owner.

Do any of these money traps resonate with you?  How have you overcome them?  Are there other money traps we, as artists, should consider?