Ha! Look at this! Only one week since my last post and here I am again! I call that progress. Go me!
Well, speaking of progress, I am currently thinking about my New Year's resolutions. Typically, these fly right on out the window for me once 12:01 a.m. hits on January 2nd, but this year, I've got a reasonable list mixed with both personal improvements as well as projects to accomplish. It is through this delicate balance that yours truly will be an almost-perfect person by December 31st. (Note that I did not specify a year...)
How am I going to achieve this level of perfection, you ask? Well, I shan't keep you waiting--here (in no particular order, just like most other things that come out of my brain) is part of my list of projects/improvements:
~Project: Make my life easier in 2010 by keeping excellent business records in 2009. I obviously keep records of everything...they just aren't exactly organized, so I'm now going through and re-creating my business finances for the past year. It is not pretty, no. It is not fun, no. Heck, it's not remotely enjoyable and may ultimately lead to me being obese from overeating due to stress...BUT, I will prevail and do better next year. To my credit, I am pretty savvy when it comes to analyzing, sorting, etc., so it is going smoother than I originally thought it would...but it's still ugly.
Now, a project would not be complete without steps ultimately leading to its accomplishment. So (mainly to help myself out here by having it written out), here is how I plan to accomplish this overall goal:
1) Use QuickBooks beginning right now. I have already done my inventory (handcounted almost 2,000 individual items) and know what needs to go into QB. Now, it's just a matter of uploading it all and then utilizing the invoicing features through QB as the year progresses.
2) Keeping a spreadsheet that tracks all money owed to me by other vendors who purchase inventory from me. I often forget what is owed until I start looking through my emails.
3) On Sunday nights, I shall sit down and balance my checkbook, make sure I've updated QB with the week's sales and inventory changes, etc. No more of just filing the statements as they come without looking them over. (Horrible, I know.)
~Project: Re-vamp my website and entire company structure. Yes, it sounds a bit odd, but it must be done. I have some great ideas and have been dragging my feet all year to get them done. Not this year. I know what those ideas are (and trust me, they're great--but obviously I'm not going to post my business ideas online as I've already been burned a bit too many times even with fellow vendors that I trusted) and I will accomplish them. One in particular could not have better timing, given the economy. Odd that the economy crashing could ultimately help me with an area that will increase my sales. Anyway, to accomplish this goal I shall:
1) Offload as much of current inventory as possible to other vendors, etc.
2) Finish new product selection by end of January; have product descriptions and photos completed by end of February. Upload all of it to the site by mid-March at the very latest. You wouldn't think it would take this long to do this, but unless you've updated a site of your own you won't get it if I explained it. Again, trust me--it's a beast. It takes approximately 30-45 mins per item to get it all in the system and uploaded. Considering I have over 100 different products and plan to continue offering the diverse items, switching it out is a considerable amount of time--and keep in mind that I still have to work FT to put the food on the table.
3) Depending upon tax return, but hopefully by end of March, I will have a new logo and site created for the wholesale division of my company. Currently, it all operates under one name and there are plenty of issues that come along with that. In order to better market my products, I need to have a separate company name and logo. More on that some other day.
~Personal Goal: Cut my eating out and unhealthy food consumption drastically...but in baby steps so I'm not totally bitter. How?:
1) Take lunch to work no less than three times per week.
2) Make dinner at home on the weeknights no less than three times per week.
3) Allow for eating out one meal on the weekends.
4) Purchase Chips Ahoy and ice cream no more than once every two months.
~Personal Goal/Project: Get my life organized...especially my home. For me, my home reflects my life; you can easily judge how I'm dealing with life just by looking in my bedroom, for instance. Currently, you'd think I belonged in a state mental institution. What my bedroom condition says to me is that I live too chaotically, have very little organization, live with too much excess, and don't take the time to have a place for everything--let alone everything in its place. Accomplish through:
1) Creating files for 2009 filings (this will also help with Project #1) so that the situation is not made worse moving forward.
2) Sorting daily mail into three piles--needs immediate attention, review by end of week and make a decision, and junk/needs to be shredded. On Sundays, while balancing my checkbook, I will review my "make a decision" box and get it emptied for the next week. For the "needs immediate attention" pile, I will not go to bed that night until I have made some progress with it.
3) Doing my laundry and then cleaning out my closet by the end of January. Then, moving forward, the clothes will either go on a hanger or in the hamper, rather than piling them about. The same goes with shoes--they go back on their respective shelf. Laundry shall be done weekly instead of monthly or bi-monthly and the clean laundry will go to its correct place instead of sitting in the clean laundry basket just to wrinkle and then get re-dryed to de-wrinkle, etc.
4) By the end of January, completely clean out under bed and on desk so that all paperwork is sorted, boxed, or shredded.
~Personal Goal: Give myself some personal time to clear the mind and to allow myself just to be...no phone, no IM, no facebook, no email, no TV in the background...nothing. Just me. (And maybe Matza, as she deserves more Matza time too.) Doing so by:
1) Nightly giving myself five minutes (hey--it's a start) after I get everything ready for the next day (and right after taking care of my "needs immediate attention" stragglers) to just relax. I'd say a project would be to read more books, but this past year has proven that a) I don't have time and b) when I do find time, I fall asleep within two pages of any reading--no matter how interesting the subject. I'll ponder looking into giving myself two hours or so on Sundays to read, go to the park, write letters (yes--by hand), etc.--it may be good to do this right after balancing my checkbook. However, at this point, I'm going to be doing well just to accomplish half of these goals. What I'd really like to do is devote at least one solid hour with no interruptions each night just to work on Second Coats' items. As it stands, I put a few minutes here and there, then overload on the weekends (though I've been a major slacker lately there), and then panic the whole week that things didn't get finished.
2) Reading scriptures or the Daily Guideposts message each night (during my five minutes, perhaps) so that I stay more spiritually grounded.
OK, at this point you're probably thinking "why do I care?!" and that's fine--just keep that to yourself. Listing this all out was more for me than you anyway... :) Regardless, I have a few other goals and I hope that come December 31st (elusive year again), I will have achieved at least half of my goals. Aim low, achieve more often, I say. (OK, plus I want to be realistic here...I do know myself, afterall.)
I know many people don't like setting resolutions, but I don't see why that is. To the naysayers: A common excuse is that you only fail at your goal and then feel bad about it each time--but why should you feel bad? At least you took the time to look for ways to improve. I firmly believe that subconsciously we each work towards our inner-most desires through our daily actions--recognized or not. So, if it's something you truly desire to change, I think it'll work itself out eventually anyway. In the meantime, why not keep on keepin' on with a better vision for yourself in mind?
And with that, my friends, I shall close. Adieu.
