With the new year comes new year’s resolutions. Setting goals at the beginning of the year helps the go-getter and procrastinator alike stay focused all year long. Goals set this time of year are often abandoned because they’re not SMART goals. SMART is an acronym that lays out five rules for goal setting – follow them and you’ll be surprised how many things you can achieve.
- S – Specific. Choose one area to focus on at a time.
Common goal: “I will work on my SEO.”
SMART goal: “I will rewrite descriptions in my Etsy shop to improve my SEO.” - M – Measurable. Use Etsy’s shop stats, hook up to Google Analytics, get on CraftCult. Keep track of data to help you measure success in the short and long term.
Common goal: “I will have more sales.”
SMART goal: “I will increase the sales in my Etsy shop by 25% this year.” 
A – Attainable. If you are only able to create a few items a month, it’s unlikely you’ll reach 1000 sales this year. Set small goals that will help you feel accomplished; with each little feat, you’ll be one step closer to that big goal.- R – Relevant. Make sure that you’re setting the right goals. What has made other shops successful isn’t necessarily relevant to your shop. Without a large social media following, time spent pounding the pavement on these sites could be taking away from other important tasks.
- T – Timely. Set a date. Set a deadline. Stick to it.
Common goal: “I will add more items to my shop.”
SMART goal: “I will add 10 items each month to my shop” or “I will have 3 pages of items in my shop by this time next year.”
Go ahead and leave your goals in the comments. I’d love to hear what everyone’s goals are for 2013!
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I know it is way past the New Year so I am a bit behind but here are my goals:
Set up business account and register trade name by Jan 31, 2013
Begin selling items in store(s) locally by Feb 1, 2013
Create About Page for Etsy shop by March 1, 2013
Create two brand new product lines for Etsy shop by July, 2013
100 items listed in Etsy shop by Dec. 1, 2013
Post at least 100 new articles on my website by Dec. 31, 2013
Last but not least – Stay sane.
All that got sorted no problems with it all apart from mashing my head!! Now I have lots of cut fabric so time to get stitching. Want to put 2 new styles on the site next week so will check back in with my progress.
Hi there. I have lots of goals but the only one I can deal with right now is tax returns. I just can’t stop worrying about it. So I have spent this evening working on questions and am going to ring the relevant depts with them tomorrow and get my answers – dependant on the co-operation of the 2 babies of course!!! I can’t move on til I get this done. Our slogan for tax is ‘Tax doesn’t have to be taxing’. Well maybe not if you are an accountant! But for me it’s giving me a headache! Will check back in with an update as soon as I have one! Good luck everyone! Helen at Olganna.