Now, I haven't participated in setting New Year's Resolutions for quite some time. In my experience they are often vague ideas that usually don't have a plan for implementation and never amount to much. This isn't just a 'New Year' problem for me though, I am pretty bad about setting up new goals throughout the year that don't get implemented. I plan them all out but have a hard time following through and need some accountability. Obviously I am failing at my goal of staying off the computer in the mornings (I started writing this around 9:30 am). But I am succeeding at blogging more often! So today is a bit of a win-lose situation.
About a week or so ago, my mother was giving me some advice on selling my projects in different avenues. She encouraged me to consider getting a booth at a local art festival or at the Nashville Flea Market that is held one weekend a month. I told her that if she would sit with me at a booth next year, then I would 'make pretty things to sell'. I meant it as a bit of a joke, and it was one of those vague ideas mentioned above that sounds nice but has no real plan. However, this morning when I was reading through the list of blog topic ideas that I linked in my last post, I found this:
61. A list of steps you’ll need to cover before you move (or publish a book, or start a blog, or open a restaurant).
Well then.
I have a desire to be able to sell more of my work, and Mom did have a pretty awesome idea. It will need a lot of work and dedication, and setting some smaller goals would be a great place to start. Since I am attempting to find activities to work on in the mornings that will hopefully keep me off the computer, I can work on reaching my smaller goals during that time period. Now that I have a time set up for working, I should be more likely to succeed. I will still need accountability however, which is where you guys come in. I will be telling my mom about this post and this is my written permission to her: Please help me stay on track. You shouldn't need to nag (because I am determined to work on this), but I will need someone to talk to about my progress and remind me of my goal when I start to lose focus. So here goes:
Steps for getting a booth
- Work on projects to sell during my designated time of 8 am - 12 pm on MWF. (A side note to this step is to start waking up by 8 am on these days. It is fall break this week, so I've been off my sleep schedule but this shouldn't be a problem to implement starting Monday.)
- Baby items, hat & scarf sets, and some more artistic items should be included in my projects to provide a variety of price range and increase chances that people will stop.
- Make an Excel worksheet to keep inventory.
- Price items.
- Decide on set prices for each item
- Make labels for the table or for each item as necessary.
- Decide where.
- My current ideas are: the Nashville flea market in October or November, a Christmas show in Murfreesboro, or an art festival in Nashville/Murfreesboro.
- Once I decide where, I need to pick a booth location of the ones available.
- Set aside money for booth and applicable taxes. Nashville Flea Market rules
- Fill out vendor application. Nashville FM
- ?
I'm not sure what else I will need to do, so this list will have to be altered as we go. My first goal is to start working on items to sell, so that's what I will go do now. :)
