Last year in January I used the new year to set some goals for myself. Now that the year has ended, it is time to look back. I failed over half of my goals, and I was ok with that, in fact I was ok with failing even all of my goals, because they were lofty goals, and I knew they were lofty goals! Without further ado this was my goal list.
Sell a total of 1000 items over my POD sites I did do this, I haven’t checked the exact math, but on one site I sold 700 items, and I sold 200 yards of fabric or so on spoonflower. Those right there are almost the goal.
Be the featured designer on the RageOn front page I did do this, but now it seems to be something RO doesn’t do anymore, as they have made a lot of changes, and it has really hurt the site. (this could be a whole rant, but I’ll refrain basically I’m really not a fan of the site right now, and I hope they can improve things, but if not maybe its time for me to move on)
On Spoonflower have all my top ten designs at over 100 faves I failed this, at the end of the year I think I had 5 designs with 100 or more faves possibly 4
Start offering some faith based designs on Redbubble (at a 1% commission rate/the lowest i can set it if its above 1%) failed, I didn’t do this, I don’t know why
Get at least 2 more repeat re seller customers on Spoonflower Failed (I think)
Sell a piece of furniture on Society6 Failed
Place in the top 25 in a Spoonflower contest Failed
reach 1000 followers on Instagram Failed
create 2 more crafter/quilter collections on spoonflower I might have done this
Start making my designs available, on a second fabric design site. Failed
Get a surface pro, to up my art game Yes I did this.
My failure rate was 7/11, but lets get into some of those failures, and why I’m ok with them. On Spoonflower have all my top ten designs at over 100 faves. As I mentioned I had 4 or 5 designs with 100 faves. Generally to get 100 faves, your design had to be in a contest (or you have to be an amazing designer) in my case all my top 10 are contest designs. Last year I tried to get better about not doing a contest I wasn’t particularly interested in, and would instead work on designs I could be excited about. I feel that this strategy paid off for me. All this said in the new year I have 7 designs with 100+ faves, and the remaining 3 have 90+ so regardless I’m fairly close to my old goal now.
Get at least 2 more repeat re seller customers on Spoonflower This is something I really don’t have much control over, and while I might not have picked up more repeat customers, I might have. many users check out as guests, and unless people share their projects I have no idea what is being done with my fabric. That said last year I also had some amazing artists take interest in my work, and while they might not be buying fabric, having artists I admire liking my art is an amazing feeling, and my interactions/ friendships with them has improved my art game.
Sell a piece of furniture on Society6 Again this is something I had zero control of, and while selling furniture would have been an amazing feather in my cap, I did fairly well on S6 even selling a buttload of wrapping paper in the month of December.
Place in the top 25 in a Spoonflower contest I really didn’t want to overshoot this one by hoping for a top 10 placement, but I was hoping for top 25, I think I might have got a top 50. All this said ranking really has nothing to do with sales, and my top 50 design has sold so many more times than my top 10 design ever has. Also now that the new year has begun, I have had a 25th placing design, and my current design in the challenge now looks like it will be in the top 25, if not the top 10!!!
reach 1000 followers on Instagram I had 600 some, but here in January I’m 25 people from 1000 followers.
Start making my designs available, on a second fabric design site. I didn’t do this, but again now in the new year I have started offering my designs on MYFABRICDESIGNS and have so far had 2 sales of a yard or more of fabric. This site doesn’t look to have near the traffic of spoonflower, but it allows customers to scale a design to their specs which is something I really wish Spoonflower would offer.
So overall, I’m actually pretty happy with all my failures, and in the new year, have actually turned a few of those right around.
So what should I do in the new year?
My new years goals are looking a bit different this year, these goals are more for me, and I feel all obtainable. Which puts them in stark contrast with last years goals.
Pins I want to make some pins, or rather have some pins made for me. I keep seeing enamel pins being advertised and drooling over them. I have been antsy to get some of my very own, and after a trip to Disney where I and the kids pin traded, it really sealed my commitment to needing to get my own pins made.
I have a few designs that I would like to give the pin treatment, but as I will be needing to sell these myself on facebook or Instagram, and most of my followers are crafters, I think I will make the more prudent choice of starting by offering a few crafting oriented designs.
Proof 1 or 2 times a month. Everytime I proof I add 42 new designs to my spoonflower store. So I will be adding 504-1008 new designs to my spoonflower store. In the last 3 months of 2019 I think I proofed 5 times or so, and I’ve proofed twice this month as well. So really this is a goal I’m already meeting.
Increase the number of me made designs in my wardrobe I really want to wear more b0rwear designs. I already have quite a few, and I love wearing them. This year I want to make a significant chunk of my wardrobe b0rwear!!
Take a family vacation to focus on creating This is something we have planned. I will be focusing on designing, and learning to sew, my wife will be sewing, and we will be forcing the kids to express their creativity as well.
Learning to sew I just mentioned this above, but yeah I plan on trying to sew a few things for myself. In fairness I already know how to sew, but only really basically, but I’m hoping to sew better, and perhaps make some clothes for myself.
thanks for following along with our adventures
Rob
Some Crafters 