2020 Goals
This week I did a deep dive into my goals and numbers in 2019 to set goals for 2020. I usually do this every year, but this year I was inspired to share it by Yardia’s year in review posts. I also get tons of questions about details in my business, so I hope this will be helpful to someone who’s getting started or just curious.
2020 Goals
Goal One: Spend three mornings a week creating artwork in the studio.
Even though I work as an artist full-time, I spent a lot of my working time in 2019 learning how to own and run a business.
I spent some time thinking about whether I wanted to set a quota of completing X amount of works of art or not, but I kept feeling tense every time I thought about it. I wanted an artistic goal that was more about nurturing the habit and practice of creation rather than its output. And this is a measurable and specific goal, which are two keys to the success of goal setting.
Steps:
Start each session with a 10-minute entry in my visual journal.
Honor studio time as a time for creation and seclusion from daily responsibilities.
Block out studio time in the calendar and end each session with a lunch break & walking my dog, Willy.
Block out time in the calendar for an at-home artist residency in 2020. This means clearing all day-to-day commitments for a workweek to solely focus on creating art.
Wondering why my steps are so structured? Being your own boss and business of one means you can easily get sidetracked for any number of reasons and I work best with at least a little structure!
Goal Two: Setup new accounting & inventory tracking systems.
2019 was a fantastic year for expanding my knowledge of accounting and financial planning. When it came time for the winter season, however, I realized how my lack of proper inventory tracking in previous years limited my decision making as I prepared for shows. I over-ordered some items because I had no picture of how they’d performed in the past. Over-ordering inventory impacts the overall cash flow I have for my business and can make finances feel unnecessarily tight in a preventable situation.
Steps:
Research accounting and inventory options based on features and cost.
Decide and set-up. (This will take more work than it sounds like, hehe)
Update Square app with inventory to track sales more accurately at in-person events.
Maintain current bookkeeping schedule. (I did great at this in 2019)
Goal Three: Pay myself and work to keep Cat Snapp Studio profitable!
I decided to keep this goal in 2020 because I’m still learning a lot about business finance and think changing it would be premature. I did, however, make adjustments to how I’ll reach my goal based on what I learned and achieved in 2019.
It’s the most nitty-gritty of my goals because it involves scrutinizing every aspect of my business and artistic practice, so I won’t go into all the details here. I will share some steps:
Use Profit First methodology to increase pay by at least 4% over 2020
Keep and cut in-person events based on 2018/2019 experience
Apply to a few new shows that are in line with the voice and goals of my practice
Cut low-performing products to make room for new ones (Look out for another Mystery Pack sale in 2020!)
Use materials already in the studio to create new artwork. My studio supplies are pretty much stocked, so this is an easy way to keep expenses in check.
Develop a teaching curriculum that is reusable and can be adjusted to different age groups. Lesson planning takes up a ton of time for new classes, so as I continue to build classes and workshops, I want lesson plans to be reusable to reduce prep time.
Thanks so much for tagging along with me on this journey! If you missed an earlier post, check them all out below.
This is part 3 of a three-part series. Check out all the posts below:
Part 3: 2020 Goals (You are here.)
And an extra you might like if you liked this post: Resources that helped my handmade business