Personal Goals – In Life and Direct Sales

When I was a kid, I was a big reader. I read everything. My grandmother, Missy, would buy me books (Nancy Drew, Babysitters Club), and I would be done with them by the end of the day. Book-a-saurus Rex.

Then I went to college.

Since there was so much required reading, I didn’t have time for personal reading. Or I felt guilty reading for “fun” when I was supposed to be “working” (i.e., reading college textbooks).

Liz finally reading for fun...

After undergrad, I started graduate school and most of my “outside reading” was related to my content area (psychology). I wouldn’t really call it reading for “fun.” I finished my MA and found time for hobbies again and started reading more, but still I was usually reading non-fiction.

Then I started my PhD program. After that reading anything that wasn’t a textbook or journal article (or textbook for a class I was teaching) was laughable. I do that all DAY, why would I want to read for FUN?! And then there were kids…and reading for fun really just wasn’t feasible for me.

So why do I tell you this? For two reasons. This year, in January of 2015, I was on Goodreads and saw that they were doing a reading challenge. It basically asked you how many books you wanted to read in 2015 and would track it for you (and remind you, “Hey, you’re behind yo”). I thought, “Well, I could definitely do one per month if I read at night after the boys went to bed.” So that would be 12. But instead of just putting my goal at 12, I put my goal at 15. While this may not seem like that much of a difference, for someone who went from reading nothing every day for “free reading” to reading more than a book a month would be a stretch. Creating a goal that was outside of my comfort zone pushed me to go outside of my comfort zone. I knew 12 would be easy, so I made it a little above easy. I also wanted to do this because I remembered how much I enjoyed reading – I could get lost in a good book, and I wanted to be able to do that again. I needed a hobby that would increase my happiness.

How does this apply to you? This should be you in your business.

• Think about your goal for the next year. Remind yourself why this is your goal.
• Add some to it.
• Break it down month by month, week by week, heck, day by day if you have to!
• Write it down.
• Make yourself accountable (but Goodreads won’t email you to stay on track).

My goal for the next year is to hit a lifetime milestone of $30,000 in sales with my jewelry business. I am currently at $21k. I would like to do this before my 2-year anniversary (May 1) but that would mean I would have 4 months to do that, and honestly I think that would be setting myself up for failure because I know the months that are between then and now are not high sales months. So my goal is to do it before my 40^th birthday, which is November 14^th.

That means I have 10 months to do $9,000 in sales – that’s $900 per month in sales. Let’s go for $1,000 per month since we receive $50 in credits for every $500. I could even break that down further into $250 per week in each month.

Since a goal without a plan is a wish, my next step is to sit down and figure out exactly how I’m going to do that. Three parties per month (with approximately $300 in sales each) minimum plus one vendor event (to expand my network) plus consistent online selling. There’s my plan, but now how to implement – find vendor events, find hostesses, you get the deal. Set up my calendar to figure out when my available dates are. Look for (and book) local vendor events that I could attend. Figure out when important dates for possible fundraisers are and commit to donating a percentage of my commission to a related cause. Over-schedule parties around holidays (Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day) to make up for months that may not possibly do as well (i.e., SUMMER).

Now that I have a plan, I need someone to be accountable to besides myself. My team leader, Leslie, is a good friend and can give me the “B please” talk when I need to hear it, so my next step is to talk to her about my goal, show her my plan, and help her help me be accountable. If she wants, I’ll even poke her about her own personal goals as well.

And the writing it down part?

Just did it.

You read it.

$30k by November 14^th, 2016 baby.

Breaking down goals like this may seem like a lot of work, but you know what? The work is “front loaded” meaning it happens a lot at the beginning but once you implement it, you check in on it to make sure it’s working (and adjust the work, not the goal if it’s not). I’d love to add an “and that’s it” to that but…making $9k in sales in 11 months for someone who usually sells $500 or less per month isn’t a “and that’s it.”

But I’m doing it.

Watch me go.

So what’s your goal? Shout yourself out in the comments. I want to hear your business and/or personal goal. Read more (how much more)? Lose weight (how much)? Make sales? Grow your team? Save for a house? Whatchu got?

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