Setting TpT Business Goals in 2017

Most of us are are organized in our teaching lives. Everything has a place in our classrooms. We have a place where papers are turned in, crayons are stored, backpacks are placed, lunch money is collected. We follow a system! But do you follow a system in your Teachers Pay Teachers business? Do you even look at your adventure on Teachers Pay Teachers as a “real” business or a “hobby”? I must admit, I am so guilty of this myself. As a mother of two kids, a 10 year old and an almost official teenager, I stay so busy. I am running the roads nonstop. I constantly joke that my car should have a taxi sign on the side of it for all the driving around I do! But this year I really want to make some changes at how I look at my TpT business and how I focus on it, even if time is not on my side.

To answer your question, yes, I do consider my own store a business. I file it with my taxes and I keep up with my receipts (although they are thrown in a drawer). However when it comes to being “TRULY” organized with my TpT, I am not! You might not know this about me, when you see my products. My products look very organized. This is because it has taken me months to complete just one product (literally MONTHS). But I am constantly asking myself could I have saved myself time if I was more organized? Over my break, I have really been thinking about this. Maybe time is not the only thing holding me back. Maybe, just maybe, it is my organization with my store too!

I am a very organized person. My classroom is organized. My home is very organized. So, why is this part of my life not organized? I know I am not the only one out there! I don’t have the actual answer to this, but I have decided to make this a goal for 2017. I am going to focus on keeping track with my TpT and social media much better. Not only am I going to keep track of it, I am going to do some comparing and see if by me keeping track if it helps improve my sales and numbers (I have a funny suspicion it will). Currently my Tailwind sits unscheduled, my Facebook does not have any posts schedule, and this poor blog of mine – well, I will just stop there!

Let me show you a preview of how I use to sort my ideas down – a notebook with random jots here and there not making any sense whatsoever! Here is the worst part, I also design digital papers and I keep up RGB numbers for color codes. I will write random RGB codes down, but will not have a system for what number goes with what set. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I have had to go back and spend countless hours trying to figure out custom RGB codes because I didn’t keep this more organized.

Setting Teacher Pay Teacher Business Goals in 2017

You gotta’ love the random sticky note thrown in there!!

Like most of you, I can’t afford a VA (virtual assistant) at this time. So, guess what? I am my virtual assistant. I am going to set aside one day and the end of each month and schedule all my stuff for the following month ahead of time. Also, I purchased a binder with dividers (trying a new system), and I am going to keep all my ideas and TpT business related stuff in one spot. As far as keeping up with my STATS, I created a chart to keep up with my followers and sales from month to month! I also created a Current Project guide to help me try and keep my ideas in ONE SPOT! I wanted to share these organizers with you. You can download them for free here!