#64 Practical Planning with Creative Vision with Patricia van den Akker
It’s time to start planning for your 2017 business year!
I know what you’re thinking…
For weeks we’ve been telling you that you’ve got to be focusing on your Holiday sales season.
And now we’re ripping the rug out from under you and changing gears before we even get to November!
Yep…and no.
You all know this, but owning a business means focusing on a few top priorities at once, always.
And so on today’s episode my guest and I are going to help you start planning for your jewelry biz in 2017 While you’re still in the throes of holiday.
My guest today is Patricia van den Akker, Director of The Design Trust, the online business school for designers & makers, based in London.
She is known for being able to connect the dots between the different parts in a creative business, asking the difficult questions some prefer to avoid, and inspiring creatives to take action.
Today we are talking you through the process of practical planning with creative vision.
I know it’s a busy time of year, but don’t put off listening to this episode!
The time to succeed in 2017 in right now.
Click here to download the show notes
Why Planning is Important for a Creative Business
As creatives, the process of creating a yearly plan for your business is just as important as having the plan itself. Here’s why- if you’ve started to take control of what you want in your life and in your business, the chances of you actually achieving that life increases exponentially.
If you don’t know what you want to accomplish with your business in 2017, you’ll find yourself burnt out, bored or overwhelmed within the first quarter. Give yourself something to work towards by creating a plan now.
What to Consider When Planning Your Year
Before we get much closer to 2017, I challenge you to sit down and map out what you Want your business to be in 2017. Do you want to work full-time or part-time. Will you measure your success in revenue goals or in new accounts?
Defining what success in business looks like to You is the foundation of your plan for the coming year. You’ve also got to get your calendar planned out now because both store buyers and marketing manager works months ahead of holidays and hot sales season, so you’ve got to be prepared!
Patricia’s 40/40/10/10 Rule
Patricia’s standard for how you plan to spend time in your business in 2017 is this: spend about 40 percent of your time making and producing the creative products you sell, 40 percent on marketing, 10 percent of your time on professional development and about 10 percent on administration.
She’s seen this balance used by her students time and again to create successful, sustainable jewelry businesses. I can’t wait for you to hear her talk more about it on the episode!
Okay, before I go today, Patricia has created a really cool tool for 2017 that you have to hear about!
It’s called the Dream Plan Do Planner.
The planner is split up into 12 months of topics based on Patricia’s 15 years of experience working with creative businesses. Each month will walk you through a focus to help you grow your biz throughout the year.
At the beginning of the year the book will have you set financial and marketing goals and every month you will check out how far have you’ve gotten with your goals: how many contacts you made that month, how many events you’re working on, and how you’re doing on social media.
It’s a really cool resource and I totally encourage you to check it out by clicking here!
And if you do decide to invest in the planner, come back and let me know in the comments so that I know who’s doing it with us in 2017.
xo, Tracy
Links:
Episode Sponsor: Nina Designs
The Design Trust
Book: The Dip by Seth Godin
Dream Plan Do Planner
