My 2020 business goals
Last month I wrote a mammoth post all about my planning for the year and how I aim to achieve my goals by breaking them down into manageable chunks. It detailed the whole reason for my business and why I do what I do. The hope is to use this purpose as a driving force to reach my goals and keep momentum up in the future. I recommend reading that post if you want a deeper dive into the meaning behind the goals below.
So now I’ve written about my why, here’s my how – these are my business goals for 2020. Some of my goals ultimately link into personal things which are part of my big life goal, meaning it can be hard to distinguish, but the how to get there is linked through my work.
My main annual business goal is simply to set the groundwork for the future. My big overarching vision is to be an illustrator, signed by an agency and having the flexibility of working on wonderful big projects for commercial clients, as well as the time and financial freedom to work on my own ideas, such as writing and illustrating children’s books.
As one giant goal, it feels pretty scary and the how to post from January explains how I’m making it manageable. The points below list these in detail, so you can see the exact steps I’m planning on taking in order to achieve this goal in future years.
It’s important to say here that this is a long-term goal. It would be a very lofty dream to expect myself to have ticked it off in a year’s time. It requires a lot of practice, work, experimentation, self-development and time to get there, so I’m being realistic.
My main plan for 2020 is simply to work on my portfolio and establish my illustration style. I want a body of work that I’m proud of; paintings that feel very ‘me’, a style that I’m happy with and can see working and developing as I go through my career.
Some of the goals below will be broken down further, and though not listed in the chart, they’ll be the monthly and weekly tasks that will help me hit my yearly goal.
I’ve created a free template for the Goal worksheet above, so you can print it out and fill in with your own goal! You can download it here: Blank Goal Planning Worksheet
I’ve set it up at A4 size but it can be scaled up if you’d like it as big as possible for your wall!)
I’ve broken everything down into chunks and filled my 2020 wall planner with tasks that will make me achieve the above. My current quarterly goals are:
Q1: Have experimented and played with my style, creating lots of drawings and paintings
Q2: Redesign and update my website and socials with new work and define my online presence as an illustrator
Q3: Use the defined style to create 10 pieces of work I am proud of (I’ll be creating a lot more than this, but I want at least ten final paintings for my illustration portfolio)
Q4: Assemble my full portfolio of work, with sample pieces that will work with editorial and children’s book illustration. Update website with this new work.
As I said in the planning post, these are likely to change and I’m more than happy if they do – I want them to be flexible and to work with me and my schedule. If something doesn’t feel right as I come up to the next month or quarter, I’ll change things up. The above is just an outline to keep me focused and a little less overwhelmed! The same goes with the monthly tasks and weekly to dos. It would be impossible and a little silly to have this planned a year in advance because life just doesn’t work that way. These will be filled out as I go, using the quarterly goals as the framework.
Of course, it’s all good written down on paper, but the main task to focus on now is actually doing the work! I need to set out the time to achieve what I want, give myself a few hours a week to paint, practice and experiment and time to plan, write and schedule social posts. I’m planning on doing this by time blocking, and I guess only time will tell if this planning will work for me and help me achieve my goals.
Firstly, I need to have a look at the time I have currently and see where I have free space. I’ll keep a lot of time aside to balance social relationships – allocating all the free time to my freelance work won’t be sustainable and I’ll either burn out or not get started at all. I know that my schedule will change soon as I settle into the new house and have even more free time and less of a commute.
With everything going on, I have less time at the moment as I’d like to, and while I can (and could have) scheduled my time better, I’m cutting myself some slack for January. The month absolutely flew by and a lot of it has been taken up with planning.
When life settles down and allows for more working time, I’ll just update my schedule. Maybe I’ll be able to add in more tasks and bring goals from the next quarter forward, if all the extra time allows me to get through them quicker.
With all of this, I recognise that I need to be careful as sometimes I find my grand plans and ideas stay as just that, and life carries on without any actual action.
For now, I have a set amount of time each week and I’ve written my weekly to do lists so they are manageable in the time I have. I don’t want to feel stressed or overwhelmed by filling up my schedule with work that I physically don’t have time for. I still want my business and work to be fun and enjoyable. That is my purpose, after all.
And that’s that! Those are my business goals for 2020. If you have any questions, let me know and I can share either here or on Instagram. Don’t forget to download your free goal planner if any of the above struck a chord to get on it with your planning!
Some images mine, some sourced from pexels.com