Happy 2024! It’s the start of a brand new year and this clean slate is always a great time to set new goals to propel ourselves forward.
As with each year prior, I’ve put some thought into how I can continue moving my business forward based on my learned lessons from 2023. So, without further preamble, let’s get into my 2024 business resolutions and goals for Fifth Essence Jewelry.
2023 business resolutions revisited
In 2023 I had three primary goals to move my business forward. Before I jump into a recap of those goals and my assessment of how I performed, I want to acknowledge that 2023 was not a good year for my business.
Optimize my Actions – somewhat completed.
As I already mentioned, I took a major step away from some of the behind-the-scenes parts of my jewelry business in 2023. For this reason, I embodied this resolution. Instead of sticking with my grueling event schedule, I stuck to markets that were closer to home and that I had a history of participating with. The amount of content I wrote decreased dramatically, and a lot of it got post-date published. And my social media was bare minimum this last year.
So what did I learn? To continue to analyze the markets that I choose and make sure they’re worth my time. I’m going to remove future July dates from my calendar because historical data shows that much like August, sales drop off. It also means that some of the smaller events that I want to participate in will also need to be cut. Instead, focusing on slightly larger events with better name draws will make my time worthwhile. It also points towards having a much stronger marketing strategy (more on that in a minute.
Design Jewelry for Two weddings – maybe complete?
I designed the most beautiful wedding jewelry for myself and my bridesmaids, and I also designed a memory bracelet for someone else. But beyond that, it was very quiet on the wedding jewelry front.
I still love creating custom wedding jewelry, and I’ve been advertising it more at my markets and talking about it with others, so I’m hoping to continue designing more and more moving forward.
12 Metalsmith Designs – quite the miss
In 2023 I completed six metalsmith designs. Two were custom orders for friends. While I’m proud of the items I finished, it was about half of what I hoped to make this year. As always, I hope to incorporate more metalsmithing into my jewelry designs in 2024 and already have ideas about where I’d like to create these. Now if I could only get the time to complete them.
2024 business resolutions for Fifth Essence Jewelry
In the last several years I’ve picked a wide variety of resolutions for my business. I’ve picked up to five different areas that I want to focus on for my business. This year, I’m taking a different approach. I’m focusing on two larger areas that have several parts to each piece.
Create a strong, cohesive marketing schedule
As a past marketer, I know how important this is. And every year, I attempt to do this. No more.
2024 is the year I put pen to paper and build out a schedule that I can follow for my business. This will align the work I’m doing with my newsletter (if you haven’t yet, feel free to sign up here), social media, and even the content that I put on this blog. As someone who loves data, checklists, charts, and graphs, I have the information I need to do this, I just need to strategically sit down and get it done.
One of the things I hope to accomplish this year is a complete gift-giving guide for my followers. Each year I meet folks at my markets looking for the perfect gifts for those they love. So, I’ll be putting this all in one place, and publishing it in advance of the holidays.
Lastly, I hope to have even more images of my handmade jewelry and incorporate that more. In my blogs, in my newsletters, and on social media (especially Instagram).
Make more jewelry
Last year amid the insanity of life instead of focusing on larger collections I did several smaller collections. And that seemed to work well for my creativity, giving me the flexibility to move freely as the inspiration took me. This year I’m planning to do the same. In fact, I’m planning to revisit a few inspirations I’ve found from collections past as well as playing with a few ideas I’ve had in my head for quite some time.
I’ve had a goal around creating metalsmith designs in years past. I’m still hoping to design and include these as it makes sense, but I don’t have a certain number in my mind. Instead, I’d love to have a few designs sprinkled with other inspirations I have for the year ahead.
I also plan to take an inventory of my designs and rework those that need to be repurposed. Every few years I do this, giving attention to designs that haven’t sold and reworking them. I’d like to refresh some of this inventory and while I may like the way these items look, if they have been around too long it’s time to rework them or remove them completely.
I’m optimistic for 2024 and my jewelry business as a whole. Here’s to the upcoming year ahead filled with possibilities!
PS, revisit all my past blogs highlighting my business resolutions from years past. Check out my goals from 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.