Why Set Millinery Business Goals?

Goal setting is a hugely important part of running any business. If you don’t have millinery business goals, with a strategy and a plan, you can’t track, or celebrate, your progress. Plus, you can’t plan financially or have any direction. And without direction, we are conditioned to procrastinate, work on the wrong things and generally waste a lot of time not moving forward.

Goals focus the mind to ensure you work on what needs to be worked on, not on what you want to work on. They give purpose and drive and, once completed, a sense of achievement and pride.

Before you can start thinking about your millinery business goals, you need to work out what you want from your business. Once you’ve done that, you are ready to set goals.

Getting started

Some questions that you need to ask yourself to be able to set millinery business goals are…

• How much money do I need to earn from this business?
• How much time can I put into making this happen?
• What does my business need to do for me?
• What does the ideal work day look like?
• When people talk about my business, what do I want them to say?

Start with these questions and it will become much clearer how to move forward in your business. Plucking random goals out of nowhere, without thinking about what you really want, will lead to an unrealistic plan that doesn’t make you happy, clients that don’t share the same values as you and a lifestyle that isn’t the one that you’ve dreamed of.

Don’t be afraid to dig down and really answer these questions honestly. It will save a lot of heartache later on if you address and know what you really want from your millinery business.

Say you are working really hard to get 30 orders for Royal Ascot. In doing that, however, you are spending too much time in consultations with clients and not enough time creating, you are working late into the night and your family is being neglected and, worst of all, you are getting stressed out and it is affecting your mental health. Are those 30 orders worth the damage to your family life and your health? I’m not saying what is wrong or right. The answer will be very personal for each individual. The important point is, you need to evaluate your millinery business goals fully and understand the implications of achieving these goals.

Taking it further

Now think about what will inspire you. What makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning?

Then think about how, by growing your business, you will create new tasks that you don’t really enjoy doing. How will this impact on your time and how will it make you feel?

Thirdly, you need to think about what service you are providing to your clients and why you are doing this. What difference are you making to their lives?

Here are some more questions to help you get some clear answers…

• Who are you wanting to serve and what problem are you solving for them?
• Do you want to make mums feel amazing on their child’s wedding day? Or do you want to be known for outrageous designs for race days?
• Do you want to inspire confidence in people? Or help people in times of need?
• Are your ethics important to you? Is sustainability important to you?

With all of this information, you can begin to actively work towards fulfilling your needs, as well as those of your clients. Don’t forget, though, when setting any millinery business goal you should always ask yourself one important question – “WHY?“. This will ensure that your goals really work for you and your clients.

Working through all of these questions will give you a basis for your vision and your mission statements, which are great tools to have. Checking back on them when times get tough will keep you on the right path and stop you from making drastic decisions without proper thought.

Even if you do take the time to think all of this through, not every moment will be perfect and I can guarantee that there will be highs and lows at all stages of business. But if you know what you are trying to achieve and, more importantly, why you are trying to achieve it, you can make much better decisions and real progress on getting the business and life that you desire.

How to set your millinery business goals

Start off with the bigger picture. Based on all of your answers to the questions above, determine what you want personally and professionally in:

• 10 years
• 3 years
• 1 year

As your 1-year goals are going to be the most current and, therefore, will need action relatively soon, you can look at breaking them down with an action plan and strategy.

Look at the year, some goals may only be possible to achieve in certain seasons and others may take the whole year (e.g. a turnover target). Fit your millinery business goals into a yearly plan to make sure that start working on each one early enough.

For instance, if you want to get press in long-lead publications, you need to send out imagery and connect with relevant journalists at least 3 months ahead of publication. To do this, your hat collection needs to be finished and photographed way before then. It could easily take a couple of months to make your collection, so, realistically, you will need a 6-9 month window to achieve the goal of receiving press in long-lead publications.

Set Tasks

Once you have a timescale to achieve each goal set out on a year calendar, the individual goals can be further split into monthly or weekly tasks. This will keep you moving forward. It isn’t saying, “This week I want to achieve xxx.” Instead, it is about breaking down each goal into small tasks that you can work on slowly and steadily until that goal is complete. It’s not about saying, “I’m going to redo all the copy on my website now,” but rather, “Today I’m going to write my About Page, tomorrow I’m going to write my Services Page, etc.” In this way, you will eventually get the full content ready to upload to your website.

When you give yourself a broad task like rewriting all the copy on your website, it can feel insurmountable. This is the kind of task you will probably put off and put off. Instead, your weekly and daily goal setting should be about breaking down bigger tasks and working out how you can achieve them in a more appealing way with less procrastination.

If you don’t enjoy a certain task, put it down to do first thing in the week or early in the day. Then, when it’s done, celebrate by moving onto a more favourable job.

In conclusion, I’ve listed some of my top tips for setting millinery business goals…

Top Tips for Goal Setting

• As we approach one goal, it is human nature to want to move right onto the next thing. Instead, write each goal down and don’t forget to stop, look back, reflect and celebrate hitting those milestones.
• Be honest and realistic as to what you really want from your business, not what you think you should want.
• Goal posts move. Goals can change and evolve so you don’t need to stick to a 5-year goal plan if what you want out of your millinery business changes. Just revise it and then work to the new plan instead.
• Break down your goals into single tasks. Each task will get you one step closer to achieving your goals and the process won’t feel so overwhelming.
• Strive for progress not perfection! The quest for perfectionism can paralyse your ability to move forward, so make sure you prioritise moving forward over perfection.

Happy goal setting! If you need extra help, my custom-made Milliners’ Planner journal has a whole in-depth section laid out on setting out and planning your millinery business goals.

Beverley x

About the Author

Beverley Edmondson is a British milliner and business mentor. She works directly with milliners and creatives mentoring them to help them reach their business dreams.

See Beverley’s full bio HERE.