September Goal Setting

September - also known as "The Month When I Eat Nothing But Tomatoes" - is upon us, and it's time to get back into my old habit of monthly goal setting. I notice that the beauty of self-employment is also the beast: the lack of any structure to the days hurts my productivity. (My lack of discipline is an ongoing theme, I know, I know, but I think I am not alone in that & hope my attempts to address the issue will either a)help someone else or b) crowd-source the problem: generate ideas from all of you as to how you deal.)

So, Goal One: I need to create some structure, around the nugget that I have: Monday and Tuesday evenings, I teach classes. And I know I need to complete a firing cycle every two weeks. So, let's say Wednesday is firing day, whether bisque or glaze. That means Thursday is cooling, Friday unloading, and either waxing, or grinding, pricing, and packing. Other tasks fall into place: if I know I must bisque on Wednesday, it follows that I must make enough stuff to fill the kiln before, say, Monday, in order that it be sufficiently dry. Let's see if this helps: Baby steps.

On my other note - sales - I have Goal Two: I need to gain a wholesale and a consignment account in September, and obviously, make enough inventory to satisfy all accounts. I have a list of places to approach, and appointments with two prospects. Selling, I find, is exactly like pulling handles or trimming feet or glazing. Remember how you didn't like pulling handles, back when? And now you do, because you got better at it. (At least I observe many student whose experience follow this trajectory.) Everything is more fun after the steep end of learning curve flattens out.

I think those two fairly large goals are enough to be getting on with for September. Now I'm off to make some salsa: the tomatoes are gaining on me.