What's your goals?

[Aya Rosen]

I noticed that a lot of people in the etsy forum makes monthly and yearly goals for their store.

How about you? do you make goals? does it help to keep you focused and push yourself harder? how do you set them? in your mind? in a blog?

Did you make your last goal? what's going to be your next?

I've tried it on New years and so far I'm doing well - I set 4 goals for the month - 15 sales, learn to ship through usps.com, be in a treasury, talk my sister into joining etsy.

So far, 2 achieved, I'm 4 sales from making the goal and no news on the sister front...

Maybe I need to set higher ones for next month!

[Hilary Johnson]

My goal is an easy one ... just make one sale!!

I'm new to Etsy and there's a bit of a learning curve. It's not one of those "if you list it people will buy" sort of deals. But I'm glad I found my way here and hopefully will learn enough fast enough to set, aim and achieve some substantial goals!

[Eddy]

Hillary,
I hear you. I think there must be 50% jewelry on etsy.
I'm just looking for my first jewelry sale.
Looked at your shop.
Your work is superb!!! The only tip I've learned so far is, network, network, network
good luck
Eddy

[Aya Rosen]

Hilary - It's such a frustrating time, those days or weeks or months before making the first sale... But when it finally happens, it's really the best feeling in the world, not only the someone wanted something you made, but that someone wanted it over everything else in Etsy!

Just don't give up! I'm sure it's going to happened. what worked for me was trying to list a new item each and every day for a month. It was very hard at first, to see the list growing from 10 items to 12 then to 15 and so on, but after about 2 weeks of doing that and promoting out of etsy, I made my first sale and it was great! I think that after you make the first it becomes easier - somehow knowing that it can happened gave me the energy to go on with it.

Good luck!

[alkemystic]

Great topic, I did make my goal for last week, it was a blessing, and I am making my goals one week at a time. By the end of febuary i hope to make a living on Etsy by linking my clients here. It takes a lot of work promoting and finding new clients everyday.

[Aya Rosen]

The thing is this - I think it's very easy to give yourself goals that are depended on other people - like making a sale, there's very little if anything can do about that, so really it's not so much a goal but an aspiration or a wish. I'm trying to find a way to phrase my goals as stuff that is in my control - like finding another promotion website aside of this one and flickr and start using it, or list something everyday, or push up prices a bit, stuff like that.

The thing is that the ultimate measuring tool of Etsy success is sales and that - I can't do much about...

Michele - I love your bags, they are so cool. I'm sure you'll make your first sale soon, just keep on listing often!

[Hilary Johnson]

Good point! I blogged about this. And I set a new goal:

I will write up a time budget.

I'll let y'all know when I've completed that goal. Then I'll need to set a goal to stick to my time budget!

I'm spending so much time on the marketing side because of all the new things I'm learning through this process called Etsy. Even if I do not sell a single piece, I've learned a tremendous amount and that helps me to grow as a person. Because I'm not a spring chick anymore, personal growth is very important to me!

When you've crossed the 1/2 Century mark, time takes on a whole new value to you. I find myself getting lost in the marketing aspect. I need to get control of time.

Thanks for this, louchlab!

[bottlehead]

My goal for February will be to begin planning for my first art fair. I am really looking forward to this one! :)

[manamoon]

Have never done a show myself, would love to know how it turns out and your feelings about the experience.

[cutifruity]

I have made the decision to list something in my shops, I have two cutifruity and bushbabiesdesigns, one in each every other day and visit the forums every day. I am a member of EtsyBaby Team and they help one another a lot.
I made it another aim to get at least one Treasury per week under each of my names.
I have a funny feeling that being based in Australia is not helping my sales, but I am going to plod along for 6 weeks to see if I need to change my strategies.

[laughtoomuch]

I only have one goal...make another sale . Seems like a trend. lol.

Pretty simple but not really lol.

[Jan Thompson]

Goals, They have always been hard for me. I have five month left until I can retire. Making it to that goal is the biggie for me right now. For now Etsy is a means to try and share what I do so I can make more.....LOL My short term goals are to post something new or at least renew something every day on Etsy. I'm just starting to try the networking so I guess that could be a goal, to try to post something on a networking site at least once a week. Once a day is just too often for me with work and creating. There just aren't enough hours in the day are there.
As for sales, it is wonderful when it happens. I haven't sold many items. I'm hoping the networking will help to not only promot myself but Etsy as well. I'm always surprised at how few people actually know about Etsy.

We all have that goal in common, to promot Etsy.

[Sol]

My goals are

production: 5hrs a day
research: 5 hours a week
marketing and promo: 3 hrs a day
classes/instruction (taken): 6 hrs a week

I would be really happy if I could have at least 2 sales a month on Etsy, but so far it has not been that. I do stay optimistic and keep doing my work.