Midway through 2024, I made a list of goals for my small business. Here they are, and an update on whether I met them:
- 100 lifetime sales: I opened up my online store in April of 2023, and had made 39 sales during 2023. It felt like a really good goal to set to get ~60 orders in 2024. I was absolutely blown away by you all and ended up getting over 100 orders in 2024 alone, which means I'm at a bit over 140 lifetime orders. I was never, ever expecting this to happen because although I believe in my work, sales and marketing is really hard. It's something I signed up for when I started a business, but I have to say that I strongly prefer the creative part of this over sales!
- Break even: metalsmithing is really, really expensive. In my first year, I ended the year with a huge loss due to the amount of money that goes into tools, silver, and stones. I know this is expected for a business, but dang it's not fun to see! So I set a goal of breaking even this year, which I did! Honestly, just barely though. I invested more in my learning through a class this year, and also spent money on tools and stocking up on supplies, which again -aren't cheap! Nevertheless, I'm really proud of meeting this goal.
- 2,000 followers on Instagram: I know that follower count isn't everything, but it felt like a good goal to make at the time. I poured a ton of time into Instagram and marketing this year, including posting almost every single day from May through December. When I made this goal, I was at about 1,500 followers, and at the end of 2024 I was a bit over 1,900. Many of those new followers came from one viral reel that I posted. I didn't hit this goal, but I'm proud of the time and effort that I put into it.
- Vend at three or more markets: This may not sound like a lot, but I work a full-time job outside of metalsmithing, and markets take up a ton of time! It's not just the ~6 hours that the market is open, but also the hours and hours spent prepping the week of. I always have to make sure my inventory is updated, I have all my materials and supplies, I have enough jewelry to bring with me to the market, the list goes on. I'm proud to say that I participated in five markets this year! Unfortunately, not all of them were successes (I didn't make a single sale at one of them and at another I didn't make back my booth fee), but it's all a learning experience and I'm glad to have done them. My favorite market was the Germantown Kitchen Garden holiday market. Everyone was so incredibly kind and respectful, and asked me all about my work. I love talking with folks about how I make things and the ethics of my business, so this was fun!
- Sell in a store ?: I literally wrote this goal with a question mark after it because it felt a bit unattainable. At the time, I had reached out to a few stores and either had been kindly declined or hadn't heard back. However, when I saw a store that I really respect post an application form for their monthly visiting artist series, I jumped at the chance to apply. I'm excited to say that I'll be the visiting artist at Moon and Arrow in Philadelphia during the month of February!
- Write one blog post a month: I started my blog in February of 2024, and each month going forward I wrote at least one post! This one has been fun for me and I have shared mostly business, but also a bit of personal life on here. It's fun to have a platform to share things and talk about my experiences in a longer format, instead of the quick quick social media reels.
- Cross post three times a week on Pinterest and TikTok: I started out strong on this one, but eventually realized that Pinterest is absolutely not my target market. I was posting all of the time and very consistently on Pinterest, and only have had about 10 website clicks this year from there. At that point, I realized that it's not worth the time or effort, and pivoted to not really posting there at all. I have kept up with TikTok, and I've met some really wonderful people there! I also recently joined Threads.
All in all, I reached five of my seven goals, and I'm really freakin proud of what I've accomplished in 2024! I have some things that I'm really excited about in store for Solar Wilds in 2025, and I can't wait to share more about them with you.