If you have a friend who would enjoy this newsletter, please feel free to forward it to them.

If someone has forwarded this newsletter to you, you can subscribe here so you won't miss any of the tips in each issue.

For even more tips on building your home craft business, check out the Inspiri Art and Craft website.

In this month's issue of Inspiri Art and Craft Business Newsletter:

New at Inspiri Art and Craft

Feature Article

Set Goals to Build Your Craft Business

Goal setting is an important aspect of craft business management. Once you have decided that you are going to launch your craft business, or once you are immersed in running your craft business, thinking though a list of goal setting tips might not be the first thing on your mind.

If you're like me, you'll be tempted to dive right into the most interesting or time sensitive project each day without taking the time to think through your long and short term goals for your craft business. Effective goal setting helps you to work more efficiently, meet deadlines and avoid being sidetracked from your priorities. Failing to set goals is the "ready, fire, aim" approach to business management.

So, if you're convinced you need to set some goals for your craft business, you might as well learn how to set effective goals. The SMART goals method is my favorite way to ensure I've set a practical goal for myself.

SMART stands for

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely

Let's examine the SMART technique using the following goal as an example:
Within the next three days I will call five potential hostesses to promote my home craft parties.

Specific

You are more likely to follow through on a specific goal than a general goal because it is clearly defined. Specific goal setting helps you to focus clearly on exactly what you want to accomplish and how you will do it.

Just saying I will promote my home craft parties is not a specific goal. There are plenty of ways to promote your craft business. This general goal gives no direction. It doesn't tell you anything about what to do to achieve the goal.

The original example goal is very specific. It describes a specific strategy for promoting your craft parties (calling potential hostesses). This goal lets you know exactly what you need to do to accomplish your goal.

Measurable

If a goal is measurable, then you will know exactly when you have accomplished that goal. Establishing specific criteria for reaching a goal allows you to determine how close you are to reaching that goal and be motivated by your own progress.

A goal that states, I will call some potential hostesses to promote my home craft parties, is not measurable. How many potential hostesses do you need to call? How do you know when you've achieved the goal?

The original example is measurable. You know you've achieved your goal once you've called five people about hosting a craft party.

Attainable

Smart goals are within your control. If you set goals that are outside of your control you are just setting yourself up for failure.

Some people might set the following goal: I will schedule and run four home craft parties in the next six weeks. At first glance that goal might sound pretty good, but that goal is not definitely attainable by you. You don't have reasonable control over whether you schedule and run four parties in six weeks. You may do a great job of convincing people to host craft parties for you, but you still do not have complete control over how many people will agree to host a party for you within a specific time frame.

The example goal, on the other hand, is attainable because you have control over whether it happens or not. You do not have to rely on the whims or good will of others to ensure that you call five potential hostesses, and you can reasonably expect that calling potential hostesses will lead to the outcome you want – having several home craft parties in the next few weeks.

Realistic

Effective goal setting requires you to take into account the things that you are reasonably willing and able to do to achieve your goals.

I will call twenty potential hostesses in the nest three days. Is that goal realistic? Maybe, it depends on who you are. If you have a big network of contacts and you are not terrified of business networking, that might be a perfectly realistic goal.

If you're like most people and the idea of business networking strikes fear in your heart, then calling twenty potential hostesses may be completely unrealistic for you. If you know that calling five hostesses to market your home parties is the most you can manage, then five should be your goal. Push your limits a little bit, but don't set yourself up for failure.

Timely

Smart goals have deadlines. Deadlines help you to determine how much time you have left to achieve a goal and prevent you from procrastinating.

Your goal might be I will call five potential hostesses.

If you are procrastinator, you'll immediately see the problem in that goal. When will you make those phone calls? There's no deadline pushing you to finish the task.

On the other hand, the example goal provides a deadline. You know you have three days to make the phone calls, and that deadline will help you to avoid the trap of procrastination.

Goal setting helps to keep you on track with your home craft business. As a business owner, goal setting is solely your responsibility. You don't have a manager watching over you to ensure you've established and met your targets. With a little bit of practice, SMART goals can help you to stay focused on the short and long term outcomes that you want to achieve with your home craft business. Setting SMART goals is on effective way to stay motivated and keep your craft business on course. You can find more motivation tips at the Inspiri Art and Craft website.

Online Craft Business Resource

Keeping ahead of emerging fashion trends can be a challenge. If you make a pile of skull and cross bone earrings or t-shirts only to find the pirate trend has completely run its course, you'll be stuck with a lot of inventory (or if, like me, you're a huge fan of Halloween, you'll just find a fun new use for your inventory in October).

Either way, having a good sense of emerging fashion trends can help you to plan and create marketable inventory. That's where Fashion Trend Setter can become a good resource.

Fashion Trend Setter is a fashion forecasting and trend reporting e-zine. If your products are very trend conscious, this site can give you some insight into emerging trends.

Thanks for reading the Inspiri Art and Craft Business Newsletter.