2021 Goal Setting for your Handmade Business

My 2020

My word of the year at the start of this year was ‘Thrive’.  Little did I know back when life was normal, on the 1st of January 2020, that my word of the year would evolve into ‘Survive’.  

It has been quite a year, hasn’t it!?  Covid 19 has caused massive disruption and has impacted almost every aspect of our lives and businesses.  Perhaps you haven’t achieved or done things that you had planned or hoped to achieved this year in your business.  That’s ok.  I think we have to be kind to ourselves - life threw a lot at us and its ok if you did what you needed to financially, mentally and physically to survive. It’s ok not to have achieved everything we set out to achieve.  This was a year of staying home, survival and perhaps pivoting your business to adapt.  

And I know that as we come to the end of the craziest of years, so many people now have a slightly different perspective about what they want in their life and business, and what actually matters most in life to them. 

So as we look at 2021, whilst there still might be some disruption at the beginning of the year, I encourage you to spend some time reflecting on your business and the life you want.  And set some material goals for 2021.  Because you almost certainly did make progress this year.  It just might not be in the way you had planned.

All geared up for an epic year…

For my part, 2020 was a year of highs and lows.  At the start of 2020, I was all set to go all in on my handmade jewellery business off the back of my relaunched website, pursue getting into galleries and stores and launch several new collections.  I also planned to launch my photography business.   And I was well on my way to do both!

Then March hit.  

For my part, my family went into isolation a week prior to lockdown.  Two weeks prior to lockdown I  travelled into Hatton Garden by bus and train. A week later (a week prior to the start of lockdown),  I started to feel unwell and started to display what are now recognised as Covid symptoms - extreme fatigue, a severe, never-ending  headache and loss of appetite / sense of smell.  On the day lockdown was announced, after few days of feeling slightly better I took a turn for the worst and felt horribly unwell - like seriously unwell.   All over the news people were saying that people either got better after 7 days or could take a turn for the worst and potentially be hospitalised.

As I watched Boris make his lockdown announcement on 23rd March, and knowing I was feeling more and more unwell I wrote farewell letters to my boys just in case.  

Thankfully my boys never had to see those letters and I recovered fully at home about a week later.  

I don’t know if I had Covid 19 or if I just had some other bad virus.  As I was never hospitalised I was never tested.  An antibody test some 5 months later came back negative.  But the antibodies don’t seem to last for long so who knows!?

The best laid plans…

Once I recovered I was thrown into the joy of homeschooling my two boys and having my husband working from home.  ALL. THE. TIME.  I haven’t spent this much time with my husband since we first met one another 16 years ago working out of town at Radbroke Hall in Cheshire.  We worked together and eventually lived together.  But we haven’t spent this much time together since our wedding day.  

And let me tell you, It was tough. And I struggled.  I struggled with having my independence curtailed.  I struggled not seeing my friends and my family.  I struggled with homeschooling and I struggled with not having 5 minutes all to myself each day.  

And then the impacts on my business started.   Silver prices went through the roof, my key suppliers closed, the assay office closed…  And eventually the world stood still.  The planes stopped.  The roads were empty.  And we only went out for an hour a day.

So my jewellery business went into effective hiatus, I went back to designing and making things for fun with silver and gemstones I had in my stockpile.  And I focussed what time I had left after homeschooling on my remote photography business.  This was an idea I had had for over a year prior.  Just a little seedling of an idea and passion project that during lockdown I was able to give wings.

I did what I needed to to survive. 

Then at the start of September, just as the kids went back to school and everything opened up again, I broke my left shoulder following a bad fall.  And I haven’t been able to make jewellery since.  

So when I look at my goals for 2020 I didn’t even achieve half of what I wanted to.  I wasn’t able to launch that new collection, or get my pieces into boutiques and shops because they were all closed. But I am ok with that.  Because 2020 gave me the opportunity to do two things:

1. Spend more time with my boys (and at age 9 and 11 I am unlikely to have them want to hang out with their old mum for much longer!)

2. Pursue a passion project set my soul on fire

And I launched my photography business.  I wasn’t sure if I could do it.  I didn’t know if anyone would want to hire me.  I didn’t know if I was good enough.  I just wanted to help people to thrive in their own businesses and give them images for their website and social media that showed their beautiful handmade products at their best.  

And I learned.  I made mistakes.  I made some tweaks and changes.  And I learned some more.  More about myself and what I am capable of.  What matters most to me.  And most importantly what I want out of life. 

So as I start my annual business review and goal setting for 2021, for the first time ever I am doing it with more awareness of these things that ever before. 

So why set goals for your business?

So why, may you ask, if my goals got thrown out of the window, why would I contemplate setting goals for 2021?  Why don’t I just go with the flow?

With a background in project and programme management, goals are what get me out of bed in the morning.  They give structure to my effort, focus and activity both in the short term and long term.  Plus I need an end destination!   If we don’t set an end destination and an end goal, even though there might be detours along the way, how do you know where you are headed? Now that’s not to say as opportunities come up I don’t adapt and change those goals… But it means I only say yes to opportunities that align with what matters to me most.

So how do I do I review my business and set my annual goals?

Firstly I look at ALL areas of my life as a whole.  This is because I 100% work to live, not live to work.  And I cannot make meaningful and authentic decisions and goals about my business without looking at all areas of my life.  

On a scale of 1-10, I rate where I feel I am against the following 8 key areas:  

1. Career & Business

2. Family & Friends

3. Romance & Relationships

4. Learning & Personal Development

5. Income & Finance

6. Recreation & Hobbies

7. Spiritual

8. Health & Fitness

This helps me analyse what areas of my life I need to focus on.  

I then spend time journalling where I want to be in relations to these key areas.

I also journal against the following prompts:

1. My top 5 achievements this year

2. My top 5 areas that didn’t work so well this year

3. How I feel about this

4. Activities I want to CONTINUE doing

5. Activities I want to STOP doing

6. Activities I want to START doing

By doing this level of reflection BEFORE setting my goals, it not only gives me an indication of what I need to keep doing, stop doing and start doing in the coming year.  It really helps drive my goals in a way that will work with my life, what I want and what is important to me.

I then use all this fabulous information this to set my goals for the next year.  

So what kind of goals do I typically set for me and my business?

It is easy to get focussed on the financial goals for your business, but you want a range of different goals depending on where you want to focus your energy. I typically have:

1. A financial goal - this typically focusses around the income I want to achieve monthly and annually.

2. A marketing goal - this typically focuses on followers, engagement and/ or the size of my email list.

3. A project based goal. This is usually based on where I want to take my business long-term and at generating future income.

4. A knowledge or skills related goal. This is all about my personal development and usually relates to training and skills development through courses and self-development

5. At least one life related goal. This is focussed on building the life that I want without working 24/7 and is typically inward focussed and all about me.

How I measure my success against my goals?

My goals are always realistic and measurable, either I can put a figure to them or I can very clearly say because of a number of clear factors that I did or didn’t achieve them.   

I can’t help measuring my goals this way.  As a programme manager in a previous life, the success of my projects always had to be measurable.  I had to stand up at the end of each project and demonstrate to the board or the CEO in a measurable way how the project had been successful and what benefits we have created financially.  

I am sharing my process in the hope that it will be helpful to you as you start to look ahead to 2021. 

If we don’t set an end destination and an end goal, even though there might be detours along the way, how do you know where you are headed?

I typically sit down and spend a couple of hours between Christmas and New Year reviewing my business and my life as a whole and then setting my goals. Will you be doing the same?

So I truly hope that at some point at the end of this year or the start of next, you set aside some time to review your business and set some juicy goals for 2021.  Because who knows what you can achieve in just 12 months!  The sky is the limit!

Goal Setting Template

I have developed a robust process for goal setting for me and my business over the years! So I started creating some templates that I could use year after year. Click on the link below for download my goal setting sheet for you to capture your business goals, why you want to achieve this goal, and your reward for achieving it.

I have also created a 17 page Goal Setting eWorkbook to walk you through the exact goal setting process I use annually (and quarterly!) in my own business to use with my mentoring Clients.

And I am giving it away FREE to my email subscribers! So if you want to set meaningful goals for your business this year all you have to do to snag this tried and tested goal setting process is join my VIP community!

And if you want some help and support with your goal setting and planning for 2021, I am currently offering a limited number of mentoring sessions via Zoom using this workbook to help you set your goals and create your 2021 plan! A 1 hour 1:1 zoom session (including the digital workbook) is £95 and you get the call recording, use the workbook to set your 2021 goals for your business and create a plan to help you get there. You will also get 2 weeks of email support following the session to help you refine and finalise your 2021 plan. To find out more and to book click here.