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Implementing Your Goals

Annual goals

In honor of this past week’s AQR Academy session, we’re covering how to implement your goals.

Step 1: Create Yearly Goals

Start by defining five big goals. Some examples include increasing sales by a certain percentage, gaining new online qualified leads, upgrading technology, etc.

Although defining these goals might not be easy, they should be simple. By that we mean if you can’t write down your goals on a napkin, you have too many to feasibly accomplish.

Step 2: Define Quarterly Benchmarks

The next step is to create an action plan. Start by breaking down these goals into metrics. At the end of each quarter, what sort of growth would you like to see as progress to accomplishing your end result?

Step 3: Weekly and Daily Tasks

Now comes the mundane part. After setting quarterly metrics, break down what needs to happen each week, then each day, to get to these metrics. A good goal to have is 15 tasks a week, or 3 tasks a day.

How does this help? By setting aside the time to define what forward movement looks like, you can get right into the difficult work knowing that it’s moving you towards your yearly goal.

Be Flexible and Stay Motivated

This structure is a great place to start, but don’t be too hard on yourself. Flexibility is a good thing and some weeks certain tasks are going to slide—and that’s ok!

Keep in mind what sorts of activities help to keep you on track. Whether that be daily exercise or silent time to yourself, those goals are just as important to schedule into your days and weeks.

Inspiration for this week’s blog comes from “Implement Your Goals” by Beth Montpas published in the April 2022 issue of American Quilt Retailer.


If you’re looking for more information to guide you in owning a retail business, subscribe to American Quilt Retailer today. Already a subscriber? No worries—join our Facebook group for insights and dialogue from industry specialists like you. And don’t forget, you can always purchase single issues if you prefer that instead.

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Quilt Market Aftermath

Aftermath

Now that quilt market is over, how do you actually follow through with all those good ideas and big plans?

The aftermath from quilt market, all those samples, being behind at work, and figuring out how to stay inspired, is a problem we all face.

Once you catch up on sleep, organize your life, and start prioritizing and tackling your to-do list, you’ll still have to turn those big ideas into actions. Here are some tips on how to stay inspired so those non-time-sensitive tasks don’t fall by the wayside.

Staying inspired

Since inspiration is a big level idea, the ways to stay inspired are big level too. A good way to keep the motivation after quilt market alive is through your vision. What do you envision your business becoming? How do you envision getting there?

Another way to not fall in to the same rut is finding what motivates you. If that’s money, then that’s okay! Find something concrete to help measure your progress so you can see your ideas to fruition.

Stay healthy

Oddly enough, when reading what keeps other people inspired, the topic of health came up more than once. This makes sense though! If you prioritize a healthy diet and exercise, not only will you feel better, but the endorphines released during your workout last well beyond the 30 minutes of your routine.

Life often seems like a never ending to-do list. But when that to-do list has purpose behind it, it doesn’t seem as daunting. Living a balanced life while trying to accomplish our goals sometimes feels like an extreme sport, but as we entrepreneurs know, the reward is so worth it.


If you’re looking for more information to guide you in owning a retail business, subscribe to American Quilt Retailer today. Already a subscriber? No worries—join our Facebook group for insights and dialogue from industry specialists like you.