Friday 29 July 2011

About that plan...

So... the masterplan.

Last time I talked about targets, since then I have been doing more thinking... a business plan written out neatly on a sheet will not work for me. So instead a lot of my planning is going to end up on this blog. It's no good if I write a beautiful plan and then stick it in a file and never look at it again, my plan needs to be ever evolving and changing as I find my feet... after all it is my plan... it's not like anyone else needs to look at it.

So the targets I set for myself were:
100 designs on Inkmeup on Folksy by mid September
50 designs on feltmeup on Folksy by End of September
50 Feltanomicon designs by End of September

Now I have targets, I need to think about how I will achieve these targets and what that will look like and how long in real terms this will take.

100 designs on Inkmeup Folksy
Currently I am at around 40 or so listings on folksy, now 100 may seem like a jump but I do have 125 items on etsy and in my Inkmeup file cabinet I have multiples of those prints. So this is possibly the most achievable of my tasks as the stock is already there, I simply need to go thru draw by draw, take and Inventory and list the prints.Along with this I am also aiming for at least 1 new Inkmeup design/product a month and as each design generally spawns 3-4 different products this will help towards the target. I have an insane amount of ideas so I am going to put aside some time each week to brainstorm and write them down, so I shall start keeping sketchbooks again. I also Have some new product ideas... but they are in development and super top secret so far!

50 designs on Feltmeup Folksy
This one requires a little more thought for me, first I need to establish what my 50 best selling designs are on Etsy, then I need to make them. The folksy felt total is around 20 at the moment... I know a lot of sellers will list the same item in multiple places and then if they sell it they make it on demand, this approach won't work for me as I prefer to have the item in stock so I can post immediately, it helps keep my work load manageable... and reduces my stress level.
To achieve this I am now making at least 2 of each bird when I make them (except new designs) this should increase my productivity (in theory). I am actively thinking about what I need to make rather than just waking up and thinking "I feel like making owls today" mostly cos I always feel like making owls!

50 designs on Feltanomicon on Etsy
This one is the hardest, I love feltanomicon, it's my playground... there is some mad stuff in my head and a love of the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre fuels it quite a lot, I have some great ideas (I think they are great!) and need to start running feltanomicon more like a business and less like a playground... sure I still need somewhere to go wild but I plan on giving a whole day to feltanomicon each week to build up my stock. So really one of my targets is to play more!

In addition to my original plan/targets I have set myself the task of contacting 1 gallery or shop or magazine a week. This means trawling thru my inboxes on folksy, etsy and my email to find all those people who contacted me with trade enquiries in the past... there were a lot an because of my job I said no but now I have the time and the motivation to say yes. I am compiling a wholesale price list too... because you need to have one!

It's still very big and scary but I'm getting there... in the past month I have had a super experience with 2 galleries, which has been extremely encouraging. I'm hoping soon it all becomes less scary!!!

So... here's to planning the plan and working on the plan and achieving the plan!

Friday 15 July 2011

I Have a Cunning Plan....


...of the utmost simplicity.

I am bad at planning... I struggle to think beyond the end of the week, sometimes even beyond of the end of the day.

Since I quit my job my old boss is under the assumption that I will be back for Christmas, this week I made the decision that I wasn't going back to work. I realised that I can't keep living with one foot in one world and one foot in another... I realised that with working for myself it has to be all or nothing at all. (At least in my case)

So plan 1 is to fully commit to being self employed and stop faffing about!

Plan 2 is to get a plan, yeah I know... I don't plan, so this is gonna be hard for me. I am researching business plans but none of the ones I have found really seem to connect to me and the it occurred to me that there is not going to be a nice little pre planned plan with lots of boxes to fill in for me... sure it would be easier but none of the business plans take in to account the things that are important to me.

So I have to write my own template... this will take some time. I took a nice big sheet of paper and began to plan a plan... it read

1. Get a plan
2. Set some targets
3. work butt off to realise targets!

Sure it's gonna get more complicated then that but I have a start, which is more than I had last week!

So really, these targets, what are they gonna be? They need to be realistic (unlike my wii fit goal to have the body of a super model by August!), the need to be achievable and above all they need to be something I am happy with. By the End of August I am aiming for 100 items in my Inkmeup shop on folksy and 50 in my Feltmeup shop on Folksy.

Folksy's the thing and I want to make it work for me... so far I have been treating the shops there as having a presence on Folksy and not as a real selling tool but I need to make Folksy work for me otherwise all those relistings and the like are just throwing money down the drain, ok so it's only 20p a listing but those 20p's add up! S0 the next couple of months are about growing my Folksy business.

My other goal is with The Feltanomicon... that silly little shop I like to think of as my playground. It needs attention... so it's getting it, I plan to have 100 items in there by September... and especially to get the Christmas feltanomicon designs sorted so I don't miss out.

This is all quite big and scary but it needs to be done... and that plan needs to be put down somewhere in black and white! Time to get to work and write that business plan!