Pivot to Profit Week 2 Day 4: Organizing a Production Schedule

Well helloooooo there! Yesterday’s challenge topic was a doozie, so the fact that you are here reading this tells me that you are in it to win it with your handmade business.

I’ll just be over here celebrating your success!

Seriously, though, I am the first to admit that the “back end”, or what I call “business-y stuff” of being a business owner is not the fun part....especially when you are in a business where you get to make cool stuff. 

That being said, though, if you want to run this like a business (part time, full time, or otherwise), this is the kind of stuff that just has to get done.

Today, we are going to get back into the fun side of organizing with something that is going to be your best friend in these coming months: setting up a production schedule.

That sounds pretty serious, right?

It’s not as intimidating as it sounds.

If you are anything like me, then your MOST productive times (as far as making your art) are in the days and hours right before a show. Yeah yeah, you had weeks and months to prepare, but nothing makes you more productive than the last minute.

It’s a fact.

Here’s the problem, though: it just never really goes all that smoothly. There is always something you ran out of, or didn’t get to finish, or wanted to make but couldn’t…

Now that we are focusing on having a bustling online sales season this fall, it’s going to be EXTRA important that you not only have new products coming out regularly, but that you are prepared to get them prepped and ready to show up online.

That means you have to allow time to:

• Order/receive raw materials
• Make the products
• Get the products photographed
• Get the photographs edited for web
• Get the product descriptions written
• Get the product listings up
• Promote to your audience

Then rinse and repeat. 

Now if your product line allows you to remake and only have to photograph once (I’m looking at you with envy…), this part is a *little* bit easier. 

For those of us with one of a kind products (OOAK), I usually see a fall-off between “make the products” and “get the products photographed”. We are SO used to making our things just in time to get them out into our show booth and (hopefully!) sell to a happy customer at a show.

Well...that’s changing for 2020. Starting now, you are going to set yourself up with a nice little plan for making that is going to allow you time to be intentional about how you create your work and run your business. 

Today’s Task:

I would like you to draft out a production schedule for your fall and holiday season. This doesn’t have to be set in stone quite yet: the point here is to get you thinking about what’s coming down the pike and how you can best prepare. When you get something shaped up, let us know in the group what yours looks like!

In your challenge workbook, there are some pages that will help you work backwards into a production schedule that will allow you the flexibility to be VERY prepared for the promotion/sales season. This might be one of the most valuable exercises you do this year: once you can get yourself on a good schedule, you will see your productivity SOAR!