I have always been passionate about handcrafted jewellery and have made jewellery on and off since I was 13 with a break during a relationship that sucked my creativity. I started Tin Tiara selling candles and jewellery simply out of necessity after I separated from my husband. I was not feeling creative, would sit there with my beady things in front of me and despise everything I made, it was because I wasn’t happy with myself. I was not even sure I knew what I was doing.
12 months later I am now creating again and making gemstone jewellery for people to incorporate into their everyday lives is my goal. I want to share the knowledge and benefits with the world, one person at a time. Since making the change to a more personal journey, I am far happier. I personally use crystals and gemstones to enhance everyday life and I am more, and more, enjoying what I do and can actually stay focussed. Can I even call it work? I’m not sure.
Over the last year, I have been generally growing my business with little effort and getting slow results, recently I started introducing more of my own creations and less manufactured. I am going to share with you some tips I have learnt through this journey, and some of the scheduling I have had to do to make myself more productive. You can use and modify this information to enhance almost any aspect of your personal or business growth.
Tips to Get Organized for Business & Personal Growth
- Only read what you need. Reading blogs all day is great for educating yourself, it doesn’t matter what you know if you don’t make the time in your day to use it. I wasted A LOT of time doing this, and now I save whole webpage to read later, when the information is more relevant to my goals.
- Grow slowly, walk before you run. Particularly if you are changing direction in your business, do it gradually and only change if you feel passionately enough to do it, if you are an established business you may be losing one group of customers to gain another. However, you also know you already have the skillset to make it happen. If you are a new business, take it easy, make every decision well thought out but don’t let this lead to procrastination.
- Avoid burnout by scheduling your time. Taking your products down a new path or expanding your services can be draining, schedule your time to make the most of it. It doesn’t need to be rigid, let’s face it, don’t we want to work for ourselves to give ourselves flexibility? Write a list of what needs to be done for the day/week. Decide how much time you want to spend on each one and stick to it. My day is currently scheduled in small blocks covering a bit of everything each day however you may find a weekly schedule works better for you, I am trialling this at the moment. One day for advertising, one day for blogging, one day for creating, one day for inventory. Obviously, things like shipping orders, emails, and responding to social media need to be done every day, but they don’t need to take all day.
- Set clear goals for growth. Any growth requires ideas and planning, set clear goals and they might seem crazy now but in a few months’ time when you review them, they may not be.
- Write it down. That million-dollar idea or design, no matter how far-fetched, write it down in your notebook.
- Keep a notebook. That brings me to your notebook, that scrap of ridiculous ramblings, make sure you have one; it’s great for blog ideas, new designs, etc. Even if you can’t make them happen now look back through your notebook once a month, or if you’re stuck for an idea. What seemed crazy two months ago might work now. I use the notes feature on my iPhone, even to write this post. You can send via email to yourself and then copy and paste to a word document.
- Don’t over analyse your growth or statistics. Analysing your growth is something you do regularly I am sure. I got caught up looking at my stats, DAILY, can you believe it, how much valuable time did I spend looking at the stats for 3 blogs, an etsy shop, a handmade.com shop and my own website? What did I learn from daily stats? A big fat nothing, I am a new business my daily numbers are just depressing. Depending on your size check them no more than weekly, monthly if you can. You’ll get a better overall insight as to what is working over a longer period.
I hope this list helps give you some clarity; it is a collection of my experiences. I’d love to know do you have any tips you can add from your own experience? Thanks for your time, its valuable.
Meet Joy Alford | Tin Tiara
I have my hands full with a brood of children and a few business ventures, Joyful Book Art and Tin Tiara. I love handmade jewellery, folded books, and new age spirituality.
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