In the first post, I wrote about how wrong one of my goals from a year ago turned out to be, and how thinking about that got me started coming up with new goals.

In the second post, I wrote about my thinking process, and some tips for other people struggling with coming up with good, realistic goals for themselves.

Now I’m going to share some of my new goals, and begin outlining how I will work toward these goals.

First, a theme for where I want my business to go: I want to make creative, interesting work, write about it, and teach other people about techniques, creative projects, and related topics. I want to incorporate other creative pursuits, in addition to jewelry making, that I’m interested in and that fit well with my current lifestyle: for instance, mixed media art, craft projects for kids, and photography.

The writing is fairly straightforward – I have a fantastic web host, Lunarpages, that makes it really easy to set up wordpress blogs, so I’m setting up several to keep my different topics somewhat separate. The hard part, for me, is that I need to make attractive banners and other graphics for the blogs, but the writing is (mostly) something I enjoy doing. I will continue writing about jewelry (mine and other peoples’) here, as well as adding tutorials and other informative articles related to jewelry and the business of making jewelry. Other topics, such as kid craft projects, will be moved to new locations.

I will be moving my business to a different physical location (which doesn’t affect anything visible online, but does affect how I function behind the scenes), and using my name as my business name (instead of Michon, my middle name). Michon will still be what I call my jewelry line, but my business will be me — because it will encompass more of the things I do, in addition to the jewelry.

Check out my writing progress so far at my MommyCraft blog, and the beginnings of my photography endeavors on my photo blog. If you are interested in keeping up with everything I’m doing, I’m working on a website that will link to all my current projects.

As for my etsy shop, it is open and will stay open, but my focus will be shifting away from production jewelry and back to what I (used to) do best – one of a kind art jewelry. Rather than make jewelry based on what I think my business model should be, I’m going to make jewelry that I want to make, and hope that the right person, the person who loves a piece and has to have it, will find it. Yes, my sales might suffer at first, but I actually think that if I’m making the things I love to make, it will show and eventually I will be selling (and making) more jewelry, and I’ll be much happier about getting to be in the handmade jewelry business.

Finally, and this particular goal is still a bit vague, I want to teach people jewelry making skills. That might take the form of written and video tutorials, articles in magazines, in person workshops, or all three. The in person teaching isn’t going to happen in 2010 – I need to be home with my babies as much as I can right now – but in the meantime, I can work on some more tutorials and articles. In fact, I have an article being published very soon in an online zine….will post a link when it is live.

To sum up, this year, I am following my heart – and hoping that it takes me in a prosperous new direction for my business. If I could describe my goals in one phrase, it is that I want to make creative work that leaves me feeling inspired to keep going (and hopefully inspire other people along the way).

Guess what – it’s been almost exactly a year since I wrote that, and I’m nowhere near being self-employed…unless being on maternity leave from my part time job is somehow the same thing (ha hah).

I had even written out a strategy for how I was going to be earning $2000/month profit from my jewelry business. It doesn’t even sound like that much work, on paper – if I was selling a few pendants and a few less expensive pairs of earrings every day, which is certainly an amount I would have time to produce, if it was my only job, I’d be well on my way. The key, I thought, would be getting sales every day, and keeping my costs down by purchasing everything, from materials to packing supplies, in bulk.

I just did my taxes, and my profit from jewelry sales for the whole year of 2009 wasn’t even $2000. Of course there were expenses that came up during the year I hadn’t thought of, and I didn’t sell a piece every day, and the galleries that used to provide a lot of my sales went out of business, leaving me needing to replace that income through online sales, something that is really hard for me to do.

I think my jewelry sells better when people can see it, touch it, maybe even try it on. My unique pieces, in particular, need to be seen and touched to appreciate the detail and work that goes into them. So I refocused my business on producing jewelry I could sell online, and my online sales were better last year than ever before. (And yes, I could have sought out new galleries and shops to sell at, but I didn’t.)

I learned that I’m not happy producing production work. It’s not exciting the way designing new work is, and it’s not as profitable as my day job. And really….if I’m going to be doing something that feels like work, not passion, for a living, might as well do the job that pays the best, right?

Also, little did I know when I was working out my goals, that I’d have a second child in just a year. Being pregnant and all the fatigue that goes along with it, makes it hard to focus on building a business (and in fact, I probably used it as an excuse not to, since my business wasn’t exactly making me happy the way I hoped it would…)

So: I didn’t meet my goal. I’m disappointed in a way, because I’d love to do what I love for a living full time, however, since I learned that selling jewelry on the internet isn’t exactly what I love doing…it’s okay that I’m not doing it full time.

Do I love making jewelry? Yes, more than just about anything…when it’s one of a kind work and I’m spending most of my time and effort designing it. No, when I’m just cranking out the tenth pair of identical earrings that I’ll get paid maybe $10 for. Especially when I let myself think about how much work goes into selling that $10 pair of earrings. Marketing is not one of my biggest strengths, which is another reason that I think selling my work through a few galleries was working out so well….until the galleries became casualties of the bad economy.

I think it’s a good thing that I didn’t reach my goal. There’s no way I’d be able to keep up that pace – making lots of pieces every day, plus packing, shipping, photographing, etc. – with a new baby in the house, and I’m not sure I’d want to even if I wasn’t sleep deprived and distracted.

But I know that I do want to be more financially independent, that I want to earn income from work that is creatively fulfilling, and that there is a way to make my business work — both in the sense of paying the bills *and* being something I’m passionate about. So I’ve been thinking a LOT about what I love and hate about being a business owner and a creative person, and I hope to have a new business plan soon. Taking time off to think has been wonderful, I feel like my creative batteries are getting recharged, and I have tons of great ideas that I’m excited about, if only I can find the time to try them all out…

There is a lesson buried in all my babbling here. If any of you reading are also entrepreneurs, or want to be, make sure that the business you are trying to do is something you are passionate about, and that financial success in that business would be worth all the work you have to put in — because otherwise, you’ll find yourself burned out and rethinking everything instead of basking in the glory of being a self employed creative person!

Edited to add: I’m working on another article about my process of re-crafting my business, with tips for creative people, so check back soon to read it if you enjoyed this one.

Mixed media and paper craft tutorials:
Make an inspiration book from a paper bag
(and from the same blog, make paper bag leaves and paper bag art journals, and follow the link to learn how to do a 4-hole bookbinding technique.)
Via @craftzine on twitter, a tutorial for making paper out of drying lint.
Video tutorial on making decorated resists with matte medium and Ranger’s Distress Ink

General creativity:
A great blog about creativity, business, goals, and more, by the author of a book I now must go check out, The Creative Entrepreneur.

Yay! iHanna is blogging again – last time I looked at her site, she was taking a break.

Blogging & business:
This article is about blogging for creative people who want to make a living with their art (don’t we all?)
Here’s a video from Craftypod about how to evaluate whether or not to pursue an opportunity that doesn’t pay.

Drop a link to your go-to craft biz site in the comments! I’ll be updating this post with links periodically.

Barbara from Capital City Crafts reminded me about Home Jewelry Business Success Tips – a great site I used to read regularly but had kind of forgotten about. Definitely worth looking at if you run a small jewelry business.

Here’s a new one I read about on etsy, http://handmademarketer.com. The site owner has a pretty successful etsy shop.

Indie Biz Chicks is specifically targeted at female small business owners – there are some free resources there as well as products you can buy such as press release templates.

Linked from the handmademarketer was this blog, A Fine Tooth Comb, with tips for running a handmade business.

15 Minute Craft Website tips sounds good to me – I’d love to accomplish something in 15 minutes for my business!

How could I forget Timothy Adams and all of his crafty business advice? Tim started out as a successful etsy seller and now is also fairly successful in the business of helping small businesses.

The Paper N Stitch blog has a great section on crafty business, including a 3-part series recently on product photography.

Feb. 17, 2010 – just discovered meylah.com, a site devoted to creative businesses. I haven’t looked around much yet, but it looks like a good one so far.

Feb. 23, 2010 – a few great articles for creative businesspeople:
Goal Setting for Creatives, Part 1 (it’s a 4-part series, read all of them!)
Artist Blogging 101

April 15, 2010 – Megan Auman created a site called Craft MBA that looks like a great resource. I recognize her name as a jewelry maker who sells on etsy (I think)…

May 5, 2010 – Scoutie Girl has fantastic articles about being an entrepreneur. Check out her e-book about the “kick the door down” project while you’re there – it’s free.

While not advice sites, social sites can be very useful to the art or craft entrepreneur for networking and promoting.

I’m on twitter, and in addition to promoting my own work there, I’ve gotten to know a lot of other craft business owners, and found some fantastic resources for business owners.

Social bookmarking sites are a great place to submit links. Stumbleupon and Delicious are two that I use. They both have firefox add-ons that make it really easy to submit a link – I click the little thumbs up to stumble something, and the tag button to bookmark on delicious. You can follow/friend people on these sites too, and discover what they are bookmarking – another great way to find resources and get to know other small business owners.

A third social option are wishlist/social shopping sites. I use wishpot, which is a site that lets you create lists of items you want or that you recommend.

Etsyhacks has a bunch of tools you can use in your etsy shop. My favorite is the one for the forums, so you can skip to the last page you read in a thread.

Craftcult has the super-addictive view counter – check how many new views your shop has, in real time.

Craftopolis has a clock showing how much time is left til treasuries open, as well as a tool that finds if you are featured in any current treasuries – I check once a day to make sure I don’t miss any treasuries I’m in.

A few tips:

Bookmark this link, which takes you to a bunch of craft business articles on Paper N Stitch – then read the articles about marketing and use those ideas!

Work on your photos – if you have a digital camera, all it costs is time – keep taking photos, and update your shop(s) using the best of the bunch.

White Pearl Ring

List, list, list – nobody can buy your stuff to give their friends and family unless you have it up for sale somewhere! I’m currently in the process of listing some jewelry I made a while back that (sadly) came back after a couple galleries went out of business. It’s not doing me any good sitting in a box, so I’m getting it out there online, where hopefully someone will see it, fall in love, and buy it!

Advertise – I use project wonderful. With the money that comes in via people advertising on my blog, I advertise on other sites, so I think of it as “free” even though I technically pay for the ads I place. I’m going to advertise as much as I can in November and the first week or two of December!

I already have a workbook with my accounting stuff – I import my bank data & my paypal data so I can figure out what I owe at tax time – but this new workbook is all about business development. I can jot down ideas for blog posts, cut and paste the URL for a great website, and check my progress on annual goals – and everything is right where it goes, so I can easily find it when I need it. In the past, a lot of this stuff has gotten lost/buried in my notebooks.

Hoping my new system works! I’m not giving up on journals for “thinking on paper” but my spreadsheet database will, ideally, keep me from forgetting all the great ideas I think of.

Leaving relevant, friendly comments on blogs is a good way to meet people (bloggers) without being pushy, if you are a little shy. Although I’m not particularly shy most of the time, when it comes to promoting myself, I don’t want to feel like I’m imposing or bothering anyone. So why not just be friendly and give some comment love? If you need a quick promotional idea for your own blog, give it a shot! Bloggers love to get the non-spam kind of comments, and you might make a new friend or get a little traffic back to your own blog, website, or online shop.

It can’t hurt, and it only takes a minute to leave someone a comment. Just make sure it’s about what they wrote about, not about you!

Piddix is the blog of the successful etsy seller with the same name. She sells primarily digital collage sheets in her etsy shop (how fun – she goes around finding cool imagery, scanning it, and creating collections of related images for use in things like scrabble tile pendants, mixed media art, etc) and has managed to quit her day job and support herself through her etsy shop. The insight on her blog about her experiences, as well as tips for increasing sales, are definitely worth reading.

Modish BizTips is one I may have mentioned before, but I haven’t read it recently – gotta add this one to my bookmarks so that whenever I have a few minutes, I can go read some tips. Lots of content from successful indie business owners. This blog is an offshoot of the very popular blog, Modish – so it was destined to be a success and a great resource. I love learning from people who are so good at what they do. Me? I’m great at making certain types of jewelry. Marketing it is a whole different ballgame, and there is a lot to be learned from the indie bloggers who are “household names” in the indie business community.