Planning for success is necessary to reach your goals and keep you accountable.  Feel like you're behind because you didn't do this on January 1st or earlier?  No worries – whether you start in January or December, it is all good.  Planning the year helps you be successful and organized in your work at home life.  I will show you the process I use that ensures my success as well as a balanced work at home life.  I hope you give it a try and have a great year!

 

Step One – Reflection

The first step in planning is to reflect on the last year and use that information to plan this year.   Reflection is critical to planning because you don't know where you're going if you don't know where you came from.  After all, there are wins and struggles every year and the last year is no exception.  ** Don't forget to celebrate the wins of last year! **

Before we continue, I want you to know that it would be helpful to download your 2022 Annual Planner.  It will help you plan your year with all of the pages you need to reflect, brainstorm, set goals and plan.  You can get the Planning Guide here:  2022 Annual Planning Guide.

To reflect, ask yourself:  What areas did I excel in?  What areas did I struggle in?  What do I want to keep doing?  What do I want to stop doing or change to be more successful?

If 2020 has taught us anything, it is that some years don't turn out the way we expected.  Who knew that early in the year that we would be searching for face masks, toilet paper and hand sanitizer like a shopper ninja?  Or that our vacations would be temporarily, and then permanently, postponed for the year.  Or that we would be spending the holidays outdoors wearing masks and asking, “What did you say?” more times than I care to count.   I think we can all relate as 2020 took an unexpected turn with the pandemic resulting in job changes (either a loss of job or working at home), changes to where and how we shopped and ate and even when and how children attended school.

With my better half now working from home, our lifestyles changed a bit (he said it was his best year ever) and I had to adapt to having someone with me 24/7.  Apart from having children, this was one of the biggest changes I have ever had.  I'm not going to lie – I like my “me time” and my “quiet time”.  Having someone talk to me first thing in the morning asking what I planned for the day is just, well, weird and awkward.  After all, he knows very little about blogging and less about what I did all day while he was at his 9-5.  I had to adapt and it has actually been nice sharing the ups and downs of the day with someone so I now consider this a win for us.

The one thing we definitely didn't expect was for our Etsy shop to be busier than ever with a 65% increase in sales as more people were looking around their homes looking for decor items or to begin or update their collection or find an item to finish their latest DIY project.  We had to adjust by spending even more time finding and listing new products, which was challenging when you consider we couldn't visit thrift stores, attend auctions or garage sales.  We had to find our vintage products on-line and/or locally sourced.  It was a challenge, but again we adapted and made the most of it.

With all that being said, we are planning for 2021 using our best and worst case scenarios so we can adapt as necessary.  What do they say – Adapt or Die?  Adapting is critical to success.

 

Step Two – Brainstorm

After you have reflected on last year, it's time to think about what your goals are for this year.  To do that, you will need to spend time brainstorming your ideas for the year.  Use your reflection to think about the next year.

I recommend a minimum of 15 minutes because it will force you to focus on the year.  Please turn off your phone and any other distractions and set a timer.   Write down every idea you have with no filter and no revision.   This is the time where you can put down on paper all of the ideas you don't want to say out loud (I call them my crazy ideas).

After you have completed the brainstorm, you will now brainstorm your goals for 2021 (page 3 of the download).

 

Step Three – Set Goals for the Year

Next, use your brainstorm to think about your goals and how they will lead to a successful year.  What are the goals you want to accomplish this year in your work from home business?  For me, this is our Etsy shop, this blog and a new printables shop that I have been working on in my spare time (you can see why it's not up and running yet – with a 65% increase in sales).

Set no more than 3 goals for next year.  If you set more than 3, there's a good chance you won't reach them because of a lack of focus.   Do you see how each step is critical to getting to the next step?

If you have an Etsy shop, your goals could be an increase in the number of sales (if you have a small number of sales), an increase in cash flow (income – expenses = cash flow), a percentage increase in sales (if you have a large number of sales as we do), or you could base it on the profit you want to make this year (income less expenses).  If you work at home for your career, this might be a promotion or organizing your home office.   Base your goals on what works for you.   After all, this is your work at home life and you know it best and what you need to move to the next level.

If one of your goals is to start a printables business, your tasks might be researching the niche you want to appeal to (planning niche, self care niche, craft niche, etc.), open a shop on Etsy or another online platform, and create 100 products.  These tasks will definitely be the first steps to reaching this goal.  Goals are not fixed – if you do all 3 the first month, you can add more tasks to that goal such as setting up social media accounts for the new shop, starting a blog about printables, etc.

Flexibility and adaptability are the keys to success so don't get stuck on the small stuff.

 

Step Four – Set Quarterly Goals

After you've set your annual goals, you can break them down into quarterly goals.  This is how you begin to split your goals into manageable chunks so you are sure to succeed this year.  Goals are only as good as the tasks you complete to make them happen.

Now, ask yourself – What do I want to focus on in each quarter that will lead me to achieving my overall goal?  For example, let's imagine your overall goals were to have a 10% increase in sales, set up your social media accounts and read 4 books on business.  Should your first goal be the increase in sales?  No, because the other two goals will help with your sales goal so if you focus on these first, they will help with your overall goal to increase your sales.  I would make my first quarter goals to be to set up one social media account and read one book related to your business and then focus on the sales aspect.

QUARTERLY GOAL 1:  Set up 1 social media account – Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, etc.

TASKS to reach Goal 1:

• Research which social media account would be most beneficial to your business
• Set up an account
• Post to that account on a consistent, regular basis

QUARTERLY GOAL 2:  Read 1 business book this quarter

TASKS to reach Goal 2:

• Research to find the best business book for my business niche
• If it's a 400 page book, you will need to read 5 pages a day to finish the book by the end of the quarter.
• Put the information in the book into practice

QUARTERLY GOAL 3:  An increase of 10% in sales.   This should already be in progress if you've accomplished goals 1 and 2.

• • Research ads to increase your exposure on social media
  • Set up an email list
  • Set up monthly sales

TASKS to reach Goal 3:

• Research ad costs and effectiveness
• Find an Email Service Provider (ESP) to use to start an email list
• Analyze your sale results to see how sales were affected by different discounts
• Stock up for the holiday with new and popular products
• Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales

QUARTERLY GOAL 1:  Set up 1 social media account (Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, etc.)

TASKS to reach Goal 1:

• Research which social media account would be most beneficial to your business
• Set up an account
• Post to that account on a consistent, regular basis

After your quarterly goals (you can see this builds on everything you've done before), and the tasks outlined, how will you accomplish the tasks?  This is where monthly goals come into play.

Step Five – Set Monthly Goals

Let's use Quarterly Goal 1 as an example of how to set monthly goals.

MONTHLY GOAL 1:  Do research to determine what social media account is best for your business.

TASKS to reach Goal 1:

• Check out similar (successful) online shops to find out what social media accounts they are using.
• Find resources that compare the sales of your competition (for an Etsy shop owner, you can check out craftcount.com or eRank.com)
• Once you've narrowed down your search, check out that social media platform to see what others are posting
• Set up your account

I plan a week for each of the tasks outlined above.   If they don't take an entire week, then that allows more time for things that do take longer or to add to the tasks with activities that will help accomplish your goals.

It doesn't seem so overwhelming when you break your goals down into step by step tasks.

 

Step Six – Set Weekly Goals

At this point, I use my monthly goals to determine my weekly goals.  What do I need to accomplish each work that will enable me to reach the goals for that month?  As stated above, I break each task down and spend one week on each task.

Monthly Goal 1:   Check out similar (successful) online shops to find out what social media accounts they are using.

Week 1 – Research and make a list of the top 10 similar and successful shops on your selling platform (Etsy, Poshmark, Ruby Lane, etc.)

Week 2 – What online social media accounts do they use?

Week 3 – What is the cost of the social media accounts you want to use?

Week 4 – Identify what content your competitors are posting.

 

Step Seven – Set Weekly Goals

At this point, I use my weejkt goals to determine my daily goals.  Do you see how we are narrowing your tasks down into manageable tasks?  The key to planning is to take it one step at a time.

What do I need to accomplish each day that will enable me to reach the goals for that week?  As stated above, I break each task down and spend one day on each task.

Weekly Goal 1:  Research and make a list of the top 10 similar and successful shops on your selling platform (Etsy, Poshmark, Ruby Lane, etc.)

Week 1 – What resources will I use to compare similar, successful shops?  Check out these sites if you have an Etsy shop:  CraftCount (free to use),  eRank,  Marmalead.   Use the free trials on sites to do your research (you will only have 7-30 days before your free trial expires so use this time wisely).

Week 2 – Research successful shops using the appropriate resource (Craftcount.com, eRank, Marmalead, etc.),

Week 3 – Continue to research successful shops using the appropriate resource.

Week 4 – Identify the products and  content your competitors are posting.

Step Eight – Set Daily Goals

I use my weekly goals to determine what I need to do each day to reach the weekly goal.  How much you do each day depends on how much time you have to spend on your shop.  Is this your full time business or you have a full time job and this is your extra income or are you just starting out and have only a small amount of time to spend on your business?  Keep in mind that I also make sure that I do my daily tasks (communicate with customers, renew listings, add new listings, pack up sales, bookkeeping, etc.) because that's what keeps things running day to day.

Check out this blog post, the Etsy Daily Do list, where I outline what I do every day to be productive and keep our Etsy shop running profitably, smoothly and efficiently.

Spending time at the beginning of your journey will result in less time wasted later.  Remember, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”  I think this step determines the success of your journey, so please don't skip this very important first step.

I hope this helps you to plan out your organized, successful and lovely work at home life.

Happy Planning!