2013 is finally here and I have big plans for my cross stitch business this year. As much as I love designing and stitching, it really must start paying some serious bills so here’s what I’m doing:
Advertising – I spent far too much money in all the wrong places last year and a quick survey of my customers in December showed that over 80% of them found me via Google and not via all the shiny printed adverts I’d paid for. So this year I’m going back to basics and making sure my website and images are great and setting myself a challenge of paying for no advertising at all! I sell worldwide and I doubt whether my latest customer in Mexico found me through the Birmingham News in the UK…
Designs – one of the problems of working for myself is that I find it hard to get motivated with new designs, especially if the existing ones are already selling OK. My customers are asking for more though so I am planning to release at least one new personalized name sampler kit each month in a new theme – just picking the themes is going to be difficult now.
Organization – I used to be a great organizer – and then I had children! All of my organizational skills seem to have been sucked into making sure they get to school on time, eat on time, do their homework on time and get to bed on time. So when it comes to my business, I have really neglected it as it’s had to fit in around them. However, this year will be the first year that both of my children will be at school full time so now I have no excuses and plan to get myself organized!
I’m sure there are more things that I could and will change and look at during 2013 but these are my Big 3! I find it easier to focus on a few points than crushing myself under the weight of what I should have been doing all these years. I’ll keep you posted on how I get on…
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