Rachael's Handmade Designs

Hi All, I have taken a few momments to evaluate my shop today. This is something that I like to do mid-month. It helps to keep me on track and identify what my goals are and how to go about them. The following questions I actually type up, print out and spend about a half an hour during my day thinking about. I file the finished "Monday Mid-Month Meeting Minutes" in my sales binder. What can you do now to finish your month strong? What are your goals and objectives for the coming month? Start with the end in mind - work backwards and break your goal into attainable steps. What will you do? Discern skills and tools necessary to obtain your goals. Mehtods for tracking your progress. Have a support partner - who can you talk to and bounce ideas off of re: small business and your goals? Establish a 30/60/90 day game plan. Also, YTD (Year-To-Date Sales) can be helpful. If you track your sales with the date and amount of dollars, this can help you with what to exp...

Hi All, To every successful business structure there is a pattern: an inside gal and and outside gal. That is, there is someone who handles the books and money aspect of things, and someone who creates as well as goes and actively seeks customers, business opportunities, and generally schmoozes with possible future customers, thereby creating the driving outside force of sales.  Often times, as a small business owner, we find ourselves having to juggle these two hats, and most of the time having to stack them on top of each other. Inside Gal First things first, organization is KEY ! Set up a seperate folder system or drive on you computer specifically for your business. Procure Microsoft Office Excel; and a tabbed and labeled binder. The Binder In this binder you should keep the following: 1.  Any formation documents for your company - if you are large enough to have formed your business with the state, you will have these. Even if you are just a D/B/A, you sh...