Great Advice from Bulk Apothecary

I purchase goodies from Bulk Apothecary regularly, like blank lip balms to personalize and bath bombs. If you’d like to visit them to purchase items for your own business, I’d be honored if you use my referral link to sign up and shop. I received an email this week from them that I’d love to share with their permission.

The text read:

Every so often I like to take some of the things that helped Bulk grow and see if they can help our customers as well. Recently we purchased another facility and we are in the process of going through an exhaustive build out and design of what will eventually become our new distribution facility for our website. This is a very exciting time for us because it lays the foundation for a lot of future growth. This also helps pave the way for some exciting new initiatives, product launches, process changes, etc. that I think our customers will love. Although exciting, it does come with a fair share of challenges that forced me to start thinking about ways to keep things in perspective and organized. I recently laid out a process for planning my tasks and staying focused, and it has helped tremendously the past few weeks. I thought I’d share it with our customers.

1. Pick a time and day to plan.

You’ve spent a lifetime forming your habits, some good and some bad. Simply saying you’re going to start planning more won’t work unless you detail out the process until you get in a good habit of it. One thing to keep in mind is the importance of consistency. Make sure you stick to your planning time each week, even if you only have one or two things to add to your list.

2. Decide where you will do your planning.

If you’re like me and have young kids, home can be a difficult place to sit down and focus. Work can be just as challenging if you have employees constantly needing your assistance. Pick a place that works for you. Maybe it’s at the local Starbucks or a seat at the park. Keep it consistent.

3. Brainstorm.

During each planning session, pick those goals and tasks that will benefit your business most. Every entrepreneur has those things they would like to do but may not move the needle as much as another task that you may not want to tackle. This time is for reflection and be honest with yourself. If you don’t plan out tasks that are more challenging they will inevitably get put on the backburner even thought they could be the best thing for your company. How do we hit our sales goals, how often do we launch new products, what trade shows are we going to commit to, etc. These are all things that should be considered during the brainstorming session.

4. Set measurable goals.

Regardless of your goals, MAKE SURE THEY’RE MEASURABLE. This is where most people get hung up. Simply setting a goal “to launch more products this year” won’t get you the results you want. Instead set a goal “to launch 12 new products this year.” By setting a realistic measurable goal, you will set yourself up for the best chance of success.

5. Set deadlines.

If you have a goal “to launch 12 new products this year,” don’t wait till the end of the year to launch all 12. Instead set a deadline for the launch of each. Maybe set a deadline to launch one new product on the first of every months so that you have roughly 30 days to meet your deadline.

6. Challenge yourself.

Start by scheduling what you know you can accomplish. Each week start to push yourself more and more until you are reaching your full potential for the week. Almost everyone has added capacity, and setting easy goals and deadlines that’s going to leave you with a bunch of free time isn’t going to get you where you want to be.

7. Evaluate yourself.

Each week when you sit down for your planning session, do a self-evaluation and track it. Did you reach your goals for the week? Do you hit the deadlines you set? Did you have a bunch of spare time? If you didn’t complete your tasks, write down the reason why and keep track of it. If you start to see a common reason why you are consistently not meeting your goals, you can make changes in your daily routine that can help you get back on track. It can also help you identify a need for more aggressive goals.

These tips really helped me with my goals and will hopefully help you as well. We want all of our Bulk customers to be as successful as possible! 🙂