What will your 2017 be?

So here we are. 2017 you have arrived, and you are welcomed with open arms.

Many of us left 2016 in the dust thankful that it was finally over. So many shock moments from surprise electoral winnings to sad losses and attacks on humanity that kept us glued to various social media streams.

For me, 2016 felt like it went by with the bat of an eyelid in comparison to previous years. It could just be that I am getting older and keeping up with the increasing pace of the world makes time seem fleeting. All I know, is each year ends the same:

Many people pack their bags and head to various holiday destinations around the country and even the world. Some stay home and use this time to get their house in order, spend time with family and unwind without all the tourists buzzing about their heads. And then there are the festive worker bees. The ones that keep all the emails answered and send our packages off to our loved ones. The ones that keep the holiday festivities ticking with good food and drinks flowing. And then the ones like Crafters Market that have extended Christmas shopping hours to help ease the mass festive shopping rush. In retail, we deal with everything from the customer bouncing around with a Christmas song in their heart, to the customer who has been shopping for 8 hours, has sore feet and cannot possibly hear one more Christmas song. We never quite know what we gonna get, but we try our utmost to make the experience as swift, cheery and painless as possible.

After that, everything goes back to “normal”. Back to work, back to school and back to reality, as they say. Our reality however, lies in our own hands. Our future, the path we choose and the path we make! Either we sit back and roll with what life brings our way, or we make conscious decisions every day to make our life what it is in our dreams. Our dreams can become a reality if we put in the hard work, let go of fear, and keep striving towards our goals.

For example, we have Crafters trying to reach their dream through our retail engine every day. Crafters Market is, in fact, a big business that helps small businesses grow and have the opportunity to trade in regional and super-regional malls. The reality today, is that people cannot take big risks and drop their current income to chase a dream. So they start small. They rent a shelf in one, a few, or all 13 of our stores and then grow their product line as their business grows. We are there to take care of the rest.

We have the stores, the staff, the business model and the experience! We are open 7 days a week and only close 2 days a year for Christmas & New Year. Happy New Year by the way!

So, as a Crafters Market crafter, you don’t need to stand and take care of a store all day. You don’t have massive rent to pay to the malls at the end of the month, and there is no need to stand at markets over the weekend if you don’t want to. Instead, you can use this time off to continue growing your product line and expanding your business. You can focus on trends, improve your marketing and creating stock, stock, stock!

This is an exciting little opportunity that can, in fact, start as a small side business and turn into your main dream. But, as it goes with all new beginnings, you will be taking a risk. You can’t come in and put 5 products on a shelf and expect to be the next big hit. Neither can you over-extend yourself and not be able to meet your targets. You need to start small, build a good foundation, grow from there and learn along the way.

As with all dreams, we have this great vision in our head. It’s all fluffy and the best idea ever. We let our emotions get carried away. Once we are in the process of reaching our dream, unexpected things come our way. Sometimes we hit road blocks that halt the process and make us feel like giving up or walking away because the road seems too tough now. But if we hang in there, learn from the mistakes we have made along the way and brainstorm solutions and a way forward, we can once again be on the road to success. Success is learning from our mistakes and never giving up.

We cannot however think that staying on the same path or making the same mistakes over and over will yield a different result. As Albert Einstein said “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”.

You are not going to reach your dream in 2017 (that you have already had for the past 3 years) by doing the same thing you did for the past 3 years. You need make a change, you need to work harder and you need to work smarter.

What will your 2017 be? It’s in your hands.

Author: Yolande Niemandt
*If you are interested in finding out how to become a crafter with us, email your product pics to craft2@craftersmarket.co.za