The key to making any indie business flourish is to have 4 Awesome Ps: Product, Presentation, Passion and a Plan. Without any of these you’ll find yourself stuck upside a wall and wondering why on earth your super cool crafted owl/octopus/fox screenprinted t-shirts aren’t selling. And since we’re still in the midst of celebrating the New Year – there’s no better time than the present to thing about P number 4: Plan.

I’ve been giving considerable thought to my New Year’s resolutions for Pierogi Picnic. Last year I came up with one specific goal and a flurry of hopes that I had considered early on. Some of those included scoring a wholesale account, building the PP website, getting more press, and hitting 300 sales on Etsy. While I have yet to get that account I was hoping for – I did make my other dreams come true. So now it’s time for me to ponder what is going to make 2011 stand out for my small biz. Will it be more craft fair participation, higher sales volumes, new creative endeavors, or getting into brick and mortars.

Before I sit down to pen these things out I have a list of questions that help guide my thought process: Continue reading →