The 2 Most Important Things Necessary to Grow a Jewelry Business

Standing at the edge of mesa on First Mesa. Facing your fear is essential to growth!

Looking back on 2015, I'm sure you have some items to reflect on... things you would have done better, words you would have said, or challenges you would have taken on. Well to tell you the truth, we all experience that. Reflection is healthy and if used constructively can provide you the insight necessary to get you on track. Many articles, podcasts, and tv news talk about the new year as the time for resolutions. The important things that we envision for ourselves and would like to change. We see how we can make things better. You fill in the blank...

My Life would be better if I ____________________.

In addition, once you fill in your blank statement. You now have to identify a date, you would like to achieve your goal. You create all the little steps to get you to that goal and you tell someone about what your doing for some accountability. So why is it that almost 60% of us will have given up on our goals after the first month of the year? 

I believe this is due to WILLPOWER... You see we all have a certain degree of willpower inside us that gets us through those challenging times. Some of us will give up quickly and some of us will persist all the way through depending on the strength of our willpower. It is that little voice inside you that says... "Come On You Can Do It! Just Push A Little Harder!" Willpower is like a muscle. If I tell you to lift 50lbs over your head and you struggle. I see that we need to start you at 30lbs and work our way up to 50lbs. As you strengthen your muscle with exercise, you will soon have the strength needed to lift 50 lbs over your head. Willpower is the same way, it is something that needs to be strengthened by exercise. It grows stronger everyday with every small success you accomplish. So if you are currently working on something, stop and ask yourself "what words go through my head, when things get tough?" 

2 Most Important Things to Grow a Jewelry Business

Rain Cloud Studs. I want to devote more time to quality and presentation.

1. Goal! Well it may sound simple... but you have to know where you are going or where you want to be to have the type of success you would like to enjoy. For years, I approached the business as a hobby, but then I began to manifest a larger dream. What if Gourd Jewels could be a big brand someday! How many sales would I be having in a Month? How would I handle all those sales? These items are what I began to contemplate and envision. In the beginning, I had no idea where I wanted to go. I just know that I enjoyed making things for other people and my creativity was where I shined. So guess what I did before the year ended. I wrote down all the things that I wanted for 2016 and I am now in the process of shaping those wants into goals. (Blogging is one of my goals).

2. Plan/Strategy! Okay so you know where you want to go... Great! Now how are you going to get there. This is the part where you lay out in detail a designated time where you will put the time and energy towards your goal. Martin Luther King Jr. once said... "I Have A Dream" Well because he laid out this beautiful dream and vision for the future, he needed a strategic way to get there and make it reality. That is where the plan came in. As I shape my goals for 2016, I am looking at my time available throughout the day and designating certain periods to focus solely on my goals. This same time next year, I want to be  bragging about how I have a well oiled machine jewelry business that is now ready to expand and grow. This year is about getting things in order and systematized. 

Podcast host John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur On Fire has done over 1000 interviews with the most successful entrepreneurs in the world. Guess what it was that these entrepreneurs all had in common? They all created GOALS and SET PLANS TO ACCOMPLISH THEM. Another important concept is your WHY!!! Asking yourself, WHY you want your goal. Trust me, if your goal is someone else's goal, you will find yourself struggling to stick with it. So make sure it is something you truly want!

As I have run and operated GourdJewels since 2013, I noticed that I have had to constantly challenge my willpower. There are times when the easy thing to do is give up.