Setting Your Sights on Success
02. May, 2011 
19 Comments
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Emerson Success Vinyl Wall Lettering Words
Setting Your Sights on Success
It’s been two weeks since my last post, and I know everyone has been wondering, “Where is Mama Melly?” I’ve never enjoyed disappointing anyone, especially myself, so here I am indeed! I love writing, even more than I love talking, and that is saying a lot right there! But it’s hard for me to write when I’m not inspired, and it’s not that I haven’t been inspired exactly. I just am so excited to be getting my satellite internet installed on Monday that struggling with this slow connection has just been too much for me to bear these last two weeks. I really can’t even afford the satellite, but I can’t really afford not to, ya know? Which brings me around to talking about making success happen for your business.
I know I’m not going to surprise anyone here when I say that having the ability to maximize your internet presence in every way possible is essential to your business. If y’all knew how slow my internet connection is, you would be amazed at how much I have been able to get accomplished. But I am determined. My mind is made up. Failure is not an option. I have spent way too many hours taking photos to back down now. So now that I’ve established that failure is not an option, I’ve got to set my sights on my success and what I need to do to accomplish said success.
The only time success comes before work is in the dictionary, and in The Merriam Webster Dictionary success is defined as a “favorable or desired outcome.” Unfortunately, there is no formula for success, not even in baking. You can follow the recipe exactly, but if your oven is not working properly or your baking soda is flat, you will not succeed.
You may have a mission statement for your business, but have you solidified a success statement for your business? What is your definition of success? What is your “favorable or desired outcome”? In the beginning of my Etsy business in November, I felt successful when I sold my first cord cover. In February and March, my bar of success was raised. I averaged a cord cover a day between my Etsy shop and my personal website. April, not so good. But I’m sure several business owners felt a bit of a pinch with everything that nature (our oven) and the economy (flat baking soda) threw at us in April. I’m looking for May to be more on track.
At my last outside-of-the-home workplace, if someone brought my boss a problem, he had three little words that he always responded with: make it happen! Of course, he was rarely any help at actually “making it happen”, so I was able to witness some awesome creativity from the sales team when it came to “make it happen”, lol. You want to talk about getting creative: have a sales team where at least one person is a drug addict and one more has a gambling addiction and put them on a “commission only” pay scale. And, no, I wasn’t a salesperson. J But I digress….
I’m stepping outside of my financially frugal comfort zone, and I am going to make some things happen this month. Actually, I started in March when I began my blog, which is essential to marketing your shop. (Not my blog, per se, but starting your very own blog.) But my blog isn’t about my shop. It’s really not even about shops at all. It’s about the people behind the shop. Some of them are just getting started, while some of them have achieved what more than a few of us would deem “success”. I don’t get paid to do this. I enjoy it! It is an outlet for me to do several things that I love at once: help others, browse shops, and write! It is also building a portfolio that I can take to other websites and say, “This is what I’ve done, and I would love to do some writing for your website.” Then hopefully I can follow that convo up with, “And, why, yes, I do have a Paypal account set up, so you can make those deposits with just a click of the button. Thanks for asking.”
And it worked! Starting in May, I will be writing for a non-Etsy related website and getting paid! In May, I will have the internet connection necessary for this task and hopefully others like it. But I really need to go back a little further to February. Having no blogging experience whatsoever, Tim here at handmadeology.com graciously allowed me to submit some articles. And y’all actually liked them. Thanks! I absolutely glow when I get a comment, a like, or a tweet. Each one is one more drop in the success bucket. I can do this! I AM doing this!
Beyond the sublime photography and witty descriptions and perfect product pricing is YOU! If you weren’t a creative genius, you wouldn’t even be on Etsy. Focus that gift on “making it happen” for yourself. I can do so much more than make cord covers, but I love cord covers. I’m just crazy like that! However, my passion for life far exceeds my passion for camouflaging your electrical cords. I’m not limiting my definition of success to how much I sale in my Etsy shop.
Be inspired, friends, as so many of you have helped to inspire me. I may not have over 32,000 sales like Anderson Soap, but everyone’s got an electrical cord they need covered. Plus, I’m not ready to fill that many orders everyday. Sewing one cord cover a day is just the right amount of balance for me at this time in my life. It’s all the success my laundry will allow!
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Congratulations Melly, on your new assignment. I’m sure you’ll do a great job! I also look forward to being featured in your own blog as an up and coming handmade artist.
Jacqueline, you are always so positive and helpful! Both of which are pillars in our handmade community. Thanks for being you!
Thanks for this wonderful inspiration!!!
Thank you for taking the time to comment and follow my blog. Both mean so much to me!
I think it’s the accumulation of the accomplishment of these small goals that are the building blocks of success! I too had a very slow internet connection when I started out and felt that very same excitement when getting satellite internet. Thanks for this inspiration for contintuing to look forward!!
“Get up, stand up. Don’t give up the fight!”–love Bob Marley. But No Woman, No Cry is my fave, hands down.
I’m getting up, standing up, and I’m NOT giving up the fight. And it is a fight!
Congratulations on the new work assignment!
I loved your inspiring words, that if I was no a creative genius, I would not be on etsy!
Hah…thanks for that! I am so raring to go now!
Bedtime wishes and thank you for the inspiring thoughts!
Whoops, typo errors there… I meant best wishes!
I’m always up late and need to be getting lots of “bed wishes” sent my way! Okay, I’m ready to receive, lol.
Thanks for the words of inspiration! Also love your wit and look forward to reading more from you.
Thank you, Denise! Blogging is so good for me because it allows me to edit what I say. Sometimes I’m even a little too much for myself, lol. But I’m learning and growing daily, ever-changing but yet the same. Just better.
Wittling down my bad spots and building up my good ones! Thanks for the sharing the journey.
Too many cmoplimetns too little space, thanks!
The day after I wrote this a wedding planner called me and placed a large order for my velcro cord covers, which not only closed my gap, but it helped me to achieve my highest grossing month so far. And it set a new bar on my success chart! She had to have them within a few days, so I was a sewing fool! Drink coffee, sew cord cover, drink coffee, sew cord cover, go to the bathroom, drink coffee, go to the bathroom again, sew cord cover, lol. Repeat until they’re all done and drive like a mad woman to the post office for overnighting. lol
You are an inspiration to me!! My internet access isn’t even slow and I still have a hard time. I work a full time job outside home and then there is the home, another full time job, oh, and did I mention, a twelve year old? I also have a 21 year old in college. This leaves little time for the things I want to do but I am just trying my best to fit them in. I just loved when you said about being a creative genius or you wouldn’t be on Etsy! I have thought many times to give up but now….I think I will keep going! Thank you!!
I am so glad that I can inspire you! You seem like you might have a thing or two you could add about inspiring others! I used to work a full-time job, and I couldn’t even keep up with making frozen pizza every night when I got home, lol. I laugh now because I used to tell my husband if I was ever a stay-at-home mom that the house would be spotless. Haha, I also said I would never give my baby a pacifier. That lasted about two weeks. (He’s 9 now, and thankfully weaned himself off the pacifier by 6 months.)
Our community is so important to keep us going. Thanks for being a part of our community!
Selling one cord cover a day. That is success! Getting to do what you love, love, love, that is a rich reward indeed!
I’ll remember this when sales are not what I want them to be and I will;
“Make it happen!”
As of yesterday, I have sold 17 cord covers to 10 different customers. I hope that success bar isn’t too heavy, because it just keeps raising! And I am looking forward to your feature coming up soon!
Always upbeat and setting the world on fire. Another great read. Congrats. peace, elizabeth
Always upbeat, full of vim and vigor. Great read. Congrats, you’ll be great. peace, elizabeth