A new year and time for resolutions, right? Well, apparently, 80% of us failed to keep our resolutions before this month even started.
I'm no exception to that statistic. Unless the resolution is to eat more chocolate, I'd fail too, so that's why my list of resolutions looks like this:
Instead, January is a month to pause and reflect, to consider what I learned in the previous year. Has a particular color grown more popular? Less? Are elephants the new sloth? Is paisley back in style yet?!?!
I also spend time reflecting on new product ideas, almost entirely based upon customer feedback and suggestions. For example, the travel jewelry rolls came about from talking with in-person customers at some local art markets. The reversible coffee cozy was inspired by the friend who introduced me to iced coffee.
Last year, I also:
- Launched this website.
- Created two new products.
- Updated the design for another product.
- Upgraded my product photography equipment.
- Invested heavily in new fabric options, doubling the number of fabric collections I use.
- Reorganized the space used to house existing product inventory.
Most of the above took place in the last three months of 2019 which made it a dizzying time for me as well. January remained much the same while I took in an unusually high number of custom requests and worked to regrow inventory stock. Now, February is here and it's time to set some goals and explain how I'll accomplish them.
1. Redesign the home page. This one is already in progress. I've been experimenting with the look and feel for over a week now and hope to have something ready within the next month.
2. Add more navigation. This has already started. More links and more ways to filter and search are coming.
3. Launch two new products. I've spent a couple evenings working on one of them and am still trying to decide what the other will be. A horrible picture of my pattern design is below:
4. Improve photography. This one makes my list every year. Product photography is a skill that doesn't come naturally to me.
5. Learn more about SEO. I think this one will be like product photography and will be on the list year after year. The rules will always be changing and it's my job to keep up with it.
6. Enjoy myself!! It's repetitive to say but I love what I do. My work day starts at 5:30 AM (no, that isn't an exaggeration) while my family is sleeping. Every morning, without fail, I'm ready to go with a mental to-do list in my head. It's fun!
Later this year, it'll be time to check-in and review progress on this list. We'll see how I'm doing then...