Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Goals for 2014

I've wrapped up my 2013 goals and have been looking forward to getting some new goals in place for 2014.


Building Passive Income
I could write an entire post about the thoughts that I've been having the past few months about my freelance writing career. I'm not writing that post. The short of it is that if I'm going to keep doing this type of work, I have to be making more passive income. Building passive earnings has been an ongoing process for the past three years, but I want to take it to a new level this year. I'm hesitant to put a projected number of my earnings for this year, but I do have a long-term passive income goal. We'll see how much process I can make with it this year.
  • HubPages. HubPages has been my primary source of passive income thus far, and I don't expect that to change any time soon. As I've scaled my freelance client base, I've let my regular HubPages writing and promotion routine slip. I'm bringing it back and doing everything that I can to maintain it and significantly increase my earnings there. All year.
  • Jewelry patterns. I have a handful of PDF patterns available on Etsy. I haven't written a new pattern in about two years and have done very little to promote my existing patterns during that time. I'd like to get at least two new patterns out this year, list all of my patterns on at least one other site, and do more to promote them.
  • Other outlets? I don't want to put all of my passive income earnings potential in one basket, but I don't want to stretch myself too thin either. I've contemplated publishing on Teachers Pay Teachers for quite a while. I have a solid ten year's worth of lesson plans that I wrote while in school and teaching. I constantly research education topics and lesson plan ideas for passive income and client articles. I would like to do more with all of that material. I've also thought about publishing an ebook or even a full book, which would almost definitely be about education or crafting. I'm not sure that I'm ready to take that on this year, but it's sitting in the back of my mind.
Maintaining Personal / Home Goals and Client Writing
  • Personal / home. This past year I set goals for cleaning at home and working out. I don't want to let those new routines slip just because it's a new year and I don't have official goals for these areas of my life anymore. I'm pretty happy with the levels that I reached for cleaning and working out and want to keep them going this year.
  • Client writing. I haven't had to hunt for new client work since the summer of 2013, which has been amazing. Of course I may lose a client at any time and be searching again because that's the nature of this type of work, but I've found a pretty comfortable level and am not looking to scale it significantly any time soon.
Maintaining my Etsy Jewelry Shop
After I ran my 2013 craft fair numbers for my sales tax filing this month, I went back and looked at my 2012 craft fair earnings and also looked at my 2012 and 2013 Etsy earnings. My 2012 and 2013 numbers for both shows and online sales were almost the same. I think that anyone who runs an Etsy shop has this hope that someday sales will just explode, and it will turn into a huge business. The truth is that this happens for very few people. Most people who scale Etsy to full-time work put in so much effort to make that happen. The bottom line is that I don't actually want to be making jewelry full-time. If I can maintain these numbers for 2014, that's fine.

Challenging Myself Artistically
Challenging myself artistically applies to both jewelry making and photography. I want to maintain my best selling jewelry lines, but I also want to keep trying new ideas. I want to keep getting out and taking pictures every week. I want to keep learning more about both taking and editing pictures and put it into practice. I want to learn as much as I can about my camera body and lenses and not rely on auto modes as frequently as I do now.

What are your goals for 2014?
I've read so many great goal posts the past couple weeks. If you've written one, please feel free to leave a link in the comments!

New article:
How to Increase Passive Writing Income Earnings: Tips and Advice

11 comments:

  1. I'm really excited to hear about how your passive income goes. I need to work on something like that, too. I have Project Wonderful ads, and they do okay, but I'd like to add more. Amazon recently opened its affiliate program back up to Illinois residents (after some online tax hoo-ha they didn't want to deal with) so that's an option, too. Good luck! :-)

    Here's my 2014 goals post from yesterday: http://littlenostalgia.blogspot.com/2014/01/2014-goals.html

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  2. Challenging goals, but I have confidence you will meet them. Have you considered doing an e-book on photography?

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  3. Sounds like you have a plan in place for the new year. I wish you much success on reaching your goals. I look forward to hearing about all your future projects.
    Valerie
    Everyday Inspired

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  4. I've also thought about Teachers Pay Teachers, but I just haven't found the time or adequate motivation yet. I agree that an e-book on photography seems like a great match for your photography and teaching skills! Good luck with all your goals and finding the time to do everything!

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  5. I actually need to sit down and work on goals for this year. I haven't done it yet! Thanks for sharing yours and giving me some motivation. =0)

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  6. I hope all your goals and dreams are come true! Happy New Twenty-Fourteen's! Your plan is very admirable and totally achievable!
    Many Blessing, Lana

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  7. Good luck with all your 2014 goals Rose! I need to sit down and work mine out but most have to do with job stuff that is hard to make a goal about but I'll try. I do want to do more photography this year and have already started working on that!

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  8. Great list of goals Rose. I'm in the same boat about wanting to branch out, but not spread myself too thin. I'd like to have my own website, but I'm afraid I may not be able to handle both at this time. That's great about maintaining your home routine and jewelry sales. I hope 2014 is an awesome year!

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  9. These are all ambitious goals, Rose, but I'm sure you're capable of achieving them, as you showed last year. Not easy balancing it all, though, is it?

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  10. Rose, your post inspired me to make my own set of goals and revive my blog. See you Sunday!
    http://livelovemaria.blogspot.com/2014/01/goals-for-2014.html

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  11. I have no doubt you will achieve your goals.
    Balance is my goal this year.

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