Laryssa Wirstiuk 0:00
Ready to break free from algorithms, vanity PR, and money-sucking ads? My name’s Laryssa Wirstiuk, and I’ve learned in 7 years of jewelry marketing that content is the crown jewel. My agency Joy Joya takes a holistic approach, leading with laser-focused storytelling, impactful content creation, and strategic content distribution. This method has worked for the solopreneur as well as the multi-million-dollar company, and now I’m sharing these systems and tactics with you. Here’s to standing out in the Sea of Sparkle.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 0:33
Welcome to Episode #268. Today, I want to encourage you to begin setting goals for 2024, if you haven’t already started. This episode is designed to remind you that goal-setting in business should encompass more than just revenue targets. It’s about adopting a holistic approach to growth, focusing on various aspects of your business to ensure long-term sustainability. Many business owners tend to set a financial goal and stop there, without a clear plan to achieve it or breaking it down into manageable steps. This approach can lead to frustration and disappointment. Success in business isn’t solely measured by financial gains; it’s also about building a sustainable, well-rounded organization. By overlooking goals unrelated to revenue, business owners might miss out on key opportunities for growth and fulfillment. We’ll be looking at this topic through the lens of Hilary Finck Jewelry, who we’ve been spotlighting as a jewelry brand case study. For those joining our podcast series for the first time this season, I’d suggest starting with Episode #252. Doing so will introduce you to Hilary and allow you to follow this narrative from its inception. Before our conversation with Hilary, I’ll delve into the importance of setting business goals that aren’t solely focused on revenue. We’ll explore various examples of such non-revenue-related goals and provide guidance on how to select the right areas to focus on for your 2024 objectives. This will help you understand how a broader range of goals can contribute to the overall success and sustainability of your business.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 2:32
But before we get to the solid gold, I’d like to take a moment to remind you that this podcast has both audio and video – so you can either listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch on YouTube by searching “Joy Joya”. You can support the podcast for free by taking the time not only to subscribe but also to leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. If you leave a review, I might read it on a future episode – please let me know what you think about this episode or about any other major takeaways you’ve had recently.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 3:02
Alright, let’s get into today’s episode My sparklers. I want to encourage you, as I said, to start setting those 2024 goals for your jewelry business, but also thinking beyond just putting like a revenue goal and calling it a day. Because that is not ultimately going to help you celebrate all the wins, and stay motivated about your business and build a sustainable organization.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 3:27
So why is it so important to have those business goals that aren’t just tied to revenue? Let’s start there. When you have the non revenue related goals, and you’re focusing on those alongside the sales, then you’re thinking more about the long term success of your business rather than really just those short term financial gains. It’s also really possible if you’re solely focused on revenue, and that is the only thing you’re tracking and the only thing you’re striving to achieve. It’s possible for your business to grow too quickly without all of the other foundational things in place. So growth is actually not always the best goal for all businesses at all times. I think we’re just so hyper focused on that because it’s a more tangible, impressive thing. But it’s not always the thing to focus on. Goals that aren’t tied to revenue can include enhancing customer satisfaction, building a positive brand reputation, fostering a strong skilled team or workforce. And these aspects are also so vital for maintaining that loyal customer base and motivated team, which as I mentioned, those are essential for the enduring success of any business you Can’t just only think about the money. Non revenue goals also will help you encourage innovation and adaptability. And that will enable your business to stay relevant and competitive in a rapidly changing and really competitive market. So when you have efforts like focusing on things like sustainability, community engagement, those also demonstrate that you care about your community that you care about, like the greater scope of the industry. And those things can also improve your image, your brand, and appeal even more strongly to your customer base. And those non revenue related goals can if you have a team, or you’re thinking about hiring in 2024, or even further in the future, they can create a positive and inclusive workplace culture. And that will lead to your employees being happy your employees staying with you, again, those things are all just as important, if not, in some ways, more important than just the revenue goals.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 6:14
Alright, so what are some examples of these non revenue related goals that I’m talking about? Let’s start by talking about work life balance, this goes out to all of the solopreneurs out there, because I meet a lot of you, I talk to a lot of you on a daily basis. And I know that work life balance can be a huge struggle, it’s something that is always evolving, something you always have to assess and make adjustments to as your business changes. So that’s a huge aspect of your business that you can set goals around, that are not necessarily revenue related, but will pay off big time, to your mental health and your ability to continue growing the revenue. So set clear boundaries, for your work hours, that will help you prevent burnout. So maybe you shut off your work emails after certain time, where you don’t respond to work emails, unless it’s between certain hours, make sure you’re taking regular breaks. So if you’re the type of person that just like super gets in the zone, and you work until you’re beyond exhausted, then set a timer to make sure you’re getting up walking around having a sip of water, having a snack. And if you do have an employee, a team, a whole workforce, build that into your culture, that your employees should also take time for their mental and emotional health so that they can be better, more enthusiastic, more productive employees in your business. And again, whether you’re a solopreneur, or a bigger business, cultivate that company culture that values and respects personal time and commitments outside of work, and encourage your employees to also build that work life balance.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 8:16
Now, hiring again, I know a lot of you listening to this podcast, you are solopreneurs out there, maybe you are not in a place where you think you could hire or that it would benefit you. But I would argue that more solopreneurs would benefit than not from hiring, and they are probably in a better place to hire in some capacity than they even realize, and that they are doing way more work than they should be. That is hindering them from achieving their revenue goals because they’re working in the business rather than on the business. So even if you think you’re very far away from hiring, I want you in 2024 to at least put the thought in your head and plant the seed of that possibility. So that it exists in your mind, and that it is there for you to pursue when it’s the right time. So have a strategic hiring plan, figure out like even let’s imagine if you did hire what would be the first roles that you would hire out for what would help you the most so that you could step away from working in the business to actually being the revenue generator, the person who is doing the business development, the more higher level stuff, if you are already hiring, then how can you create more diversity or inclusivity in your hiring process, so that you’re really bringing on team members that have not just like demographic diversity, but are really bringing their best strengths to the team and making sure the team is varied and dynamic, and that you’re all working together with your best skills and talents, create comprehensive training programs for those new hires. Even if you haven’t hired, you’re not ready to hire, I would say, just start standardizing your own processes like right out the processes of things that you do every day, get it out of your head, don’t put yourself in the jail of being the only person who can do all the things because that is not sustainable. So start finding out ways to document what you do, so that eventually other people can do those things. Maybe it is time to get a virtual assistant or someone like really part time at least to take those more like repetitive tasks off your plate. And think about also your company values and culture, and how you can translate that to the hiring process. So that when it is time to bring on an employee, or it’s time to bring on more employees, you can ensure those people are fully aligned with what your business represents and the culture that you really want to be creating.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 11:25
So let’s drill down now into marketing goals that are not necessarily just like the revenue goals. So thinking about the categories of social media, brand awareness, website, traffic, email marketing. And you can hold these goals simultaneously. So you don’t just have to pick one. And that’s your goal for the year, you can kind of take a mix of these things. And be tracking your progress simultaneously. I mean, most businesses do that. So with social media, maybe you want to increase your followers by a certain percentage, maybe you want to boost your engagement, establish more consistency in your posting schedule. Maybe you want to do more collaborations, for brand awareness. Maybe you just want to like iron out your brand story, or be more consistent with it, or try to refine it so that at better resonates with your target audience. For website traffic, maybe you want to achieve a specific increase in monthly visitors to your website, maybe you want to increase the time people spend on your site and engage with your site. Maybe you want to improve your SEO rankings for key terms related to your jewelry brand. Maybe you want to implement an effective and consistent content marketing strategy. Then for email, maybe you want to grow your email subscriber list by like a certain percentage, maybe you want to increase email engagement, so boosting those open and click through rates. Maybe you want to segment your email list for more targeted marketing, marketing, maybe you just want to be more consistent in sending emails. And then other marketing related goals that I think are really great. enhance customer experience by being more personalized in your services or offers. Maybe this is the year you implement a successful referral program so that you can leverage word of mouth. Maybe you want to develop a loyalty program to encourage repeat business. Maybe it’s time to really focus on gathering those customer reviews or testimonials. Think about reducing your marketing expenses. Think about hiring a marketing team member or a consultant.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 13:56
Okay, so you have a lot of ideas now. So how can you in your business select the right areas to focus on for your 2024 objectives? I mean, where do I even start? There’s so many variables and so many things to think about individually, there’s no like blanket advice that I could give you. setting your goals is so much more than just listing out what you want to achieve without doing any of like the pre work or the reflection or the research. It really starts with a comprehensive evaluation. And so you want to think about things like what is the growth stage of your business? Who is your target audience? What are your current strengths and weaknesses? What are the potential threats in the marketplace like your competitors, economic conditions, etc. But also what are the opportunities where could you go where could you flourish and excel and you also need to anticipate future market trends and shifts in customer behavior. So this involves assessing and envisioning what you ultimately want to accomplish. And from there, you can refine and specify your goals. Your business will likely have diverse goals spanning various areas, like I mentioned before, so you could have some goals related to marketing, some goals related to business development, some to work life balance, maybe to production and product development, and more. And this specific combination of these goals will be unique to your business. And then for goals that aren’t directly tied to revenue, which goals will help you make more revenue, which goals will help you boost customer experience or build brand awareness, whatever you want to achieve. So think about the goals that will really make the most biggest impact on all areas of the business when you achieve them. It’s also so crucial to balance short term and long term goals. So have goals that are immediately achievable, but then also include those that are more ambitious and challenging. And I would say both types are really vital for your business’s growth. While you’re focusing on short term objectives, always consider how these align with and and then contribute to your long term vision. So ask yourself, how can your more immediate goals pave the way for where you see your business in the next five to 10 years? Also, does one of your goals may be seem easier to knock out than the others? Does one of them seem like they would be more fun and enjoyable to do than the others, then do those first. Give yourself some quick wins, so that you can feel more encouraged to tackle those really hard things.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 17:09
And in our upcoming conversation with Hilary, we’ll be talking about her reflections on the past year, and explore her goals for 2020 for which she is still in the process of formulating.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 17:23
Hey, Hilary, thanks for joining us today.

Hilary Finck 17:26
Hi, Laryssa. Great to see you.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 17:28
Great to see you also. So this episode is coming out mid December, early to mid December, and we’re recording in mid November. And I mentioned to Hilary that the questions I’m asking her she might not have like full clarity on them. Even though it seems like when this comes out later in the year that may be there would be more time. So we’re doing some preliminary talk about, like reflecting on the year and what she’s hoping to achieve in the new year. So we may even have like a follow up on this later. Yeah, so Hilary looking back on this year 2023. What were some of like, what you think were the standout marketing strategies or campaigns that really seemed to resonate with your audience and work well for your business?

Hilary Finck 18:16
In terms of like, newsletter campaigns or collections and things like that? In May I put out an all opals collection. And it did really, really well. I would say that that collection was the best collections ever done. My clients love opals. I love opals. And I was lucky to find a lot of really great awful couples in Tucson that I saved for that collection. They’ll be looking again in Tucson for some really striking, amazing, unique couples. I’m super excited. And then I’ve realized I put out like a blues and greens collection in. I think it was October, I think I can’t remember. And that also did really well. And I did that because I kind of had a feeling that my clients really liked blue and green gemstones, which I also really love blue and green gemstones so that those two collections did really, really well. And then I mean, I would say in terms of marketing, other marketing strategies, I mean, Instagram still continues to be kind of a driver and it gained a lot of traction this year. It still continues to just kind of be a great marketing tool for my business.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 19:37
Yeah, Instagram, and a lot of other brands aren’t like lucky in this way. But it seems to result in a lot of brand awareness for you because when you have a post to like go viral, or be more popular like that draws a lot of new followers to your profile.

Hilary Finck 19:52
Yeah, I don’t know how many followers I had at the beginning of the year but it’s grown a lot super

Laryssa Wirstiuk 20:00
thankful were there any things this year that maybe you thought were promising, but didn’t go as planned? Not necessarily negatively, but just like didn’t work out like you had like you thought they would?

Hilary Finck 20:12
Yeah. So I didn’t really plan out my summer very well. And so that was a big lesson learned. Kind of forgetting that summer slows down a little bit with direct sales. And I should have, I don’t know what I should have done. That’s for United figure out next year, what we’re gonna do with my summer, but this summer, I had an idea to put out an all quartz collection in July. I love quartz stones, I think they’re so cool. There’s all sorts of amazing things that you know, grow or live inside of them, you know, eons from eons ago. And it ended up being a very expensive quartz collection. And I put it out in July, which is just kind of like, who’s buying? I don’t know who’s buying really expensive. Jewelry in July, no one, they’re going on vacation. So it wasn’t a total dud. But it just, I was like, oh, you know, that was not the greatest idea. And then again, in terms of color palette, you know, I think what I’ve learned is that my clientele just really love the cooler tone stones, the blues and the greens over warmer stones, with like browns and oranges and things like that, which I love. I love both. But I also do love a warm, like a warm palette, so doesn’t mean I’m going to stop making jewelry and those with those gemstones.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 21:39
That’s such a good point you made about the price points, merchandising price points, like at certain times of year, I think we often think of like, like you said, color palettes, like, at certain times a year or like festive holiday themes, or like I don’t know what events people are going to at certain times of year. But yeah, in the summer, I don’t know how much people are really shopping for jewelry, maybe like wedding stuff for like engagements or something, but people are going on vacation. So that’s a really good insight to be able to take from that.

Hilary Finck 22:11
Yeah, I mean, I think next year, summer needs to be planned more with like, bright pops of color, and fun. Just, you know, kind of not serious jewelry, like the quartz collection was pretty serious. No one’s getting serious in July. So yeah, just something that’s a little more fun and with more pop of color, I think would be a better idea.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 22:34
And it was also interesting how you’ve noticed, like the color palettes that your customers gravitate to, like the blues and the greens. It makes me wonder though, is that like a forever thing? Or is that some kind of 2023 like vibe that everyone’s having? Because you never know?

Hilary Finck 22:51
Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, you know, tourmaline, turquoise, opals. They’re such stunning stones. And I love working with them too. So it’s hard to say.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 23:05
Maybe everyone just needs a calming mood with the blues. I think that’s the general feeling. Yeah, for sure. So moving into the new year, I know we’re still like hashing this out. This is like November. So when we’re recording this, what are like some primary goals that you think you have for the coming year are there like milestones that you want to achieve?

Hilary Finck 23:27
Well, every year, my sales goal is to increase sales by 20% year over year. So that’s just something I’m always looking to do. And then, you know, I never really do much in terms of like, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day graduation, those types of holidays and events. So I think it would be wise to especially graduation, I don’t know, I kind of feel like that’s one that I’ve kind of missed out on. And so just kind of prioritizing some of those other holidays. And then as we talked about, you know, I really need to have a better summer strategy. So, because yeah, summer was just slow this year. And part of it was because I was also traveling a bit and my brain was just kind of like pulled in a bunch of different directions and I wasn’t able to really plan in advance. So that has to change for next year. And then I really would like some more wholesale accounts next year. So I’m hoping you know, at some point I can get, I don’t know three or four new really good accounts. Because I I love my direct business and it’s it’s so important to me, it’s the biggest part of my business but I really love working with stores and I also know that their clients, it’s always fun for their clients to see a new jewelry designer And that helps bring in. In the end, it helps bring in direct sales too.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 25:04
Totally, it helps with brand awareness. Also, just to like diversify your business a little bit like you don’t want to be too reliant on any one channel.

Hilary Finck 25:14
Oh, totally, I feel like I do get a little stuck sometimes relying on direct so much. And it becomes a little exhausting honestly, to come up with new collections all the time, the making the jewelry, and then you know, then it’s the photographing the uploading to the website, like all that, behind the scenes work that comes with direct, um, kind of like, who and I do have a lot of good wholesale accounts, but I’d be nice to have a few more that can help kind of supplement that so that I can just be like, Okay, here’s the jewelry, ship it off. Yes, you only get, you know, half, whatever, but just be like, I don’t have to take any pictures and upload them to my website and come up with product descriptions like, that just sounds lovely to me.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 26:00
Yeah, that’s such a great point, it’s important to think about the time investment that you put into doing the direct, not even just like the money part of it. So that’s important to consider. How about like refreshes or changes for the new year has anything been on your mind?

Hilary Finck 26:17
I’d really like to get away from fabricating with 14 karat gold. I’d like to just start using 18 karat or higher. I mean, for some of my hand hammered pieces that don’t really take on much heat, I think 14 carats. Fine and I love the way 14 karat looks. I really like kind of the warm rosy aspect to it, but fabricating 14 karat gold, I’m not sure. You know, my clients, I’m sure don’t understand. I’m sure other jewelers do. It is not friendly. I can get it to work. But you know, soldering it is. With multiple seams and multiple solder joints. It’s a it’s it’s difficult. It gets dirty really fast. It doesn’t like to like hard solder. It’s like, it’s very difficult. So anyway, um, whenever I’m using 18 karat, I’m like, Oh my gosh, that was so much easier. You know. So honestly, just from like that perspective, I want to start using more 18 karat plus, I think it looks nicer when a piece has multiple solder seams in 18 care over 14 care, because it really does tend to get way more rosy when it’s as it’s been heated more it was. So it’s an aesthetic choice as well. So, um, I really like to just kind of move away from 14 character fabrication. And then I really need to do better with like, customer tracking for next year, right, like a CRM type of tool. Actually, you know, I get a lot of DMS and I feel like I don’t follow up on leads. Enough. So I think that is something that I need to do better about next year as well.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 28:01
Yeah, I mean, it’s so common, how can you do and be like all the things in your business, but at the same time, I think we mentioned this in our meeting, like you could be leaving money on the table, because not because they’re they think you’re like ignoring them, but they have so much stuff going on, they’re not necessarily thinking or remembering whatever piece they inquired about, and then you being able to just remind them, like, Hey, I’m here, I can help you. Are you still interested like that could even get you like 1000 more dollars a month or something like that? You know?

Hilary Finck 28:36
Absolutely. It’s customer service touches that I think are so important. And I got to do a better way of tracking my conversations on Instagram and my DMs because I have, you know, I have a lot of conversations with clients, with other jewelers, with my friends with stores with gem dealers. So I have this like wide range of different people I’m chatting with every day. It’s very exhausting. And I’m just not tracking it. Like I was trying to use the little flag tool on Instagram, but those don’t track past 30 days. And so that I feel like wait a second, where did all those flags go? You know, and so that’s, that doesn’t work. So I gotta figure that out.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 29:20
It’s impossible to keep that all straight in your head. At least I cannot.

Hilary Finck 29:25
Yeah, as I get older, those memory skills are definitely declining.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 29:33
Are there any new like tactics or marketing channels you’re excited to experiment with? And like what support kind of would it take for you to get to that point?

Hilary Finck 29:43
I think maybe some direct mailing could be cool. Just some like very well designs, letters, postcards, things like that to some of my best collectors or maybe to clients that are new, you know, like they’ve placed one order, maybe I’ve had like some really good conversations with them on Instagram, they placed an order. And so kind of like nourishing those newer clients as well. So I like the idea of doing something special for them, that isn’t another email. And then I should probably do a little something new on Instagram. I mean, I haven’t really changed my tactics at all it’s working. So it works for me, because I don’t really have the mental capacity to think of new things to do. But I mean, it would also be super nice to have like a social media manager, someone that just was coming up with a lot of those campaigns and ideas and posts for me, like I think of companies like Briar clubs, they’re here in San Francisco, they’ve got the best Instagram, like, they’re always really great videos, the owner, like videos of the owner are all over the place. And you know, she’s really seems really fun and interesting, and it’s just such a very, like, personable comfortable brand. And so I just don’t have, I just don’t have time to do anything else than what I’ve been doing.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 31:20
So, yeah. Yeah, that is always the challenge, finding the time to do everything. Yeah, maybe, you know, maybe there’s like one small tweak, like just something new, we can try. We can kind of talk about that more, because who knows, you know, and Instagrams changing all the time, too. So even something that’s kinda like on cruise control. Now, you know, who knows how that might work later?

Hilary Finck 31:45
And speaking of Later? You just said the word later. I, I did I planned some posts on later, you know, for the first like, few months of us working together, and then it just falls off. I just, it’s like, I just don’t prioritize that planning of it. So I don’t know, maybe I just need to just accept it. You know, just be like Hillary doesn’t use later and just move on. And never try it again.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 32:15
I mean, that’s okay, too. That’s totally fine. I’m, I’m good with someone like not using a tool. But yeah, I think it’s important to try and like, yeah, you’ve tried it. And you know, we’ll just figure out the best way to do some of this stuff. And sometimes like banging your head against the wall to make yourself use something that’s like best practice is not productive, because it’s just taking time away from you. Yeah, yeah. Well, thank you, Hillary. I’m looking forward to kind of like revisiting this stuff again, and seeing how it takes shape and how we enter into the new year.

Hilary Finck 32:54
Yeah, me too. Thank you so much. Laryssa.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 32:56
What did you think about the interview? Are you excited to follow Hilary on this journey? I highly encourage you to check out Hilary’s website hilaryfinck.com and follow her on Instagram @hilaryfinckjewelry. Link in the show notes as well. Let me know in a podcast review or YouTube comment what you think about this new journey. Okay, let’s get into THE GOLD MINE.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 33:19
Welcome to another edition of THE GOLD MINE – a segment where I get personal and share insights on entrepreneurship, mindset, success, growth, and all things business. THE GOLD MINE allows me to share topics and insights close to my heart. Reflecting on the past year, I’ve realized that business success isn’t solely about revenue. Sure, financial goals are crucial, but they aren’t the whole story. Remember, even multi-million dollar jewelry companies can struggle in other areas despite impressive bank balances. Money isn’t everything. 2023 was a challenging year for jewelry businesses. Consumer spending dipped, with many saving for bigger financial goals instead of indulging in luxury items. Even if people did treat themselves, their purchases were often smaller or less frequent. Maybe your business had a great year revenue-wise, but that’s not the only measure of success. It’s essential to consider non-financial goals. In the past, I fixated on revenue, letting it dictate my mood and self-esteem. However, a mentor taught me to appreciate other aspects of business, like: High customer satisfaction and positive feedback. Team growth and development, including hiring, training, and promoting. Adopting new technologies or processes to boost efficiency and product quality. Gaining industry recognition or awards. Forming beneficial partnerships and collaborations. Even smaller steps, like consistent email marketing or maintaining a regular Instagram posting schedule, are significant. Consistency in marketing is key, especially when factors like the economy or consumer behavior are beyond our control. Focus on what you can control and strategically pursue your goals. While meeting revenue targets is satisfying, it’s important to celebrate all your achievements in 2023. I’d love to hear about your wins this year. What are some accomplishments you’re proud of? Drop me a line in an Instagram DM, leave a review on the podcast, or comment on YouTube. Let’s chat about it!

Laryssa Wirstiuk 38:14
Did you have any questions about today’s episode? You can always email me Laryssa at laryssa@joyjoya.com. If you loved this podcast, please share it with a friend who’d appreciate it. And don’t forget to subscribe as well as leave a review on Apple Podcasts. If you’re completely new to digital marketing, then you’ll want to purchase and read a copy of my book JEWELRY MARKETING JOY. Visit joyjoya.com/book for more information.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai