Setting Goals For A Successful Furniture Refinishing Business
At this time every year, I sit down to evaluate my business. Yes, even if you “flip furniture” as a hobby or side hustle, if you are selling your refinished furniture consider it a business! And you will benefit tremendously from setting some goals for furniture refinishing. In this post I will go over my process for goal setting every year and how I stay accountable – becuase what good is a goal if you don’t have a good way to achieve it?
Reflect on where you are now
Before launching into a brand new set of goals, it’s important to take stock of where you’re at. If you’ve never set business goals, think back to the past several months, or even a year. What are you proud of? What challenges did you face? What did these things teach you? If you’ve written down goals in the past, take a look at those and see how you feel about them.
Types of goals
When thinking about goals, keep in mind there are several types of goals to consider. Money/business goals, creative goals, and personal goals. Depending on the type of business you have or want to have, these will look different and carry different levels of importance to you. And they can change from year to year as your life and business change.
Money or business goals are exactly what they sound like, a goal to reach a certain milestone in your business. This could be as simple as making a certain amount per month (or year). They can also be an expansion of your business in some way, such as opening a storefront, offering nationwide shipping to customers, or opening an Etsy shop.
Creative goals are those which will nurture the creative side of your refinishing business. I know I got into furniture refinishing because it was a great creative outlet for me. Keeping things fun and fresh prevents burnout and helps me stay motivated throughout the year. Examples of these can be trying a new technique, using one new color every month, or refinishing a type of furniture that you’ve never worked on before. They are an opportunity to expand your skills and push you out of your comfort zone a bit!
Personal goals are those that impact you and your family life. Maybe you want to be available to get your kids off the bus every day, or you have another job to work around. Working for yourself gives you alot of freedom – be sure you think about how you can use that freedom to create a business that fits into your personal life!
Dream big: long-term goals
This is a fun place to start! What is your vision for your business? Where do you see yourself in 1 year, 5 years? Having this vision will help you stay focused on more specific goals that “move the needle” to that place. Maybe you’ve been at this for a while and you’re happy where you’re at. Your long-term goal could be to just keep on going and focus on what you need to stay relevant.
Get focused: SMART goals
While it’s great to have some overarching business goals, it’s important to focus in on the specifics. This is where SMART goals come in. SMART is an acronym for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. This framework makes it easier to approach your goals in a systematic way. Let’s look a little closer at all of these components and see some examples in the furniture refinishing world!
Specific
Make your goals specific – what exactly are you looking to achieve? Instead of “I want to make more money refinishing furniture” try “I want to increase my gross profit by 25% in the next 6 months.”
Another example: instead of “I want to expand my refinishing techniques” try “I will make a list of 8 refinishing techniques I haven’t done and every 3 months I will choose to try at least one of them.”
Measurable
Make your goals measurable. You need to be able to look back and objectively know whether you’ve achieved your goal. Ask yourself how much and how often. If you want to increase profits by 25%, you need to have a system in place to measure your profits. Furthermore, breaking it down by month will help you track whether you are on target to meet your goal.
Achievable
This is important! You need to be realistic about what you can achieve. Especially if you are a team of one! If you set your goals too high you will feel discouraged when you don’t hit them. Or even if you do manage to hit them, it’s not a sustainable system and you’re totally burnt out. Take a good realistic look at the time you have and how long it actually takes you to do things. You can’t spend every waking free moment refinishing furniture!
And keep in mind, it’s super motivating to hit or even surpass a goal you’ve set! What if, instead of learning those 4 new painting techniques, you actually did all 8 of them? That would feel pretty good! But those 8 projects wouldn’t feel as good if your goal was to come up with 12 techniques and do one every month.
Relevant
This is where tying back to your long-term business goals is so important. Your SMART goals should have outcomes that move the needle in the direction you want to go. Understand how a goal fits into the bigger picture. If, for example, you are on Instagram but aren’t getting paid to create content there, a goal tied to increasing your followers may not be a relevant goal.
Time-based
Set deadlines! Goals without a time component will just get kicked down the road. This is the best way to avoid procrastination. You can break larger goals up and have periodic check-ins to ensure you are on track. Be sure to put those dates into a calendar so you are reminded of what needs to be done and when.
Have a system to track and review
If you’ve created goals that can be measured, you need to measure them. Don’t just set it and forget it! Use tools like spreadsheets, accounting software, and/or project management software to help you. Check in on your goals at least quarterly (I like to at least look at them at the beginning of each month) just to see where you stand. And don’t be afraid to tweak them as the year progresses – things may not play out exactly the way you thought they would, and that’s okay!
Summary
One of the great things about owning a business is that you get to decide how to spend your time! And setting goals helps you ensure you’re spending on the right things. Having SMART goals can help you avoid “shiny object syndrome.” Just because you see other refinishers doing x, y, or z doesn’t mean you need to do that thing too. We find inspiration everywhere. It may be the latest and greatest way to move your business forward, or it may be a big timesuck. Remember that it will look different for everyone and only you can decide what works for you!